MediaTrust is on today’s eComXpo PANEL: Progressively Moving Towards A Path Of Standardization, Self Governance And Self Regulation As An industry – Can This Become A Reality? at 3pm EST.

Moderator: Jeff Molander, Co-editor, Paying for Performance and CEO Molander & Assoc. Inc.
Panelists: Rebecca Madigan, Founding Organizer, Performance Marketing Alliance
Brad Waller, VP, Affiliate & Business Development, Epage Classifieds
Peter Bordes, Chief Executive Officer, MediaTrust

We are honored and thrilled to be participating in this panel led by Jeff Molander. The topic is one of great importance to us and for the future of the performance marketing industry. The industry is standing in front of a great opportunity to enter into a significant growth period that is being accelerated by the economic down turn. More and more large brands & agencies are looking to enter the performance marketing space this year. At this years Affiliate Summit West 20+% of the attendees were all new to the industry and  JP Morgan Sees Long-Term Dominance For Performance-based Ads in 2009 and beyond.

The performance marketing segment of the online advertising industry is very large, fragmented and siloed. By coming together as a united community we can create a large global opportunity by work together setting standards and guidelines so that we can grow significantly. It is a very important initiative that will allow us to move away from our “red headed stop child of the industry” legacy and step into a leadership position.

In order for this to happen we all must work together. Affiliates, publishers, marketers, advertisers, merchants, networks, service providers working to set the stage for the future of all our success.

Can we move towards a path of standardization, self governance and regulation as an industry? Can this become a reality?

The panel session will cover all the issues ::

Get up to date on where affiliate marketing stands with industry self-governance. In an industry that is often seen trying to talk its way out of situations it’s behaved itself into, the challenge is obvious: credibility, accountability and standards that lead to growth and respect of the performance-based segment of web marketing.

Our focus will be *less* on the need and more on the *how to* tactics moving forward… what the road map each panelist believes is best.  We’d like to see some disagreement if possible… and dissection of past failures (to avoid in future).

Challenges
* Governmental regulation and taxation  (i.e. all the FTC actions of years past; NY state tax on affiliate sales, etc.)
* Influencing value perceptions of key constituent groups (ie. marketers/advertisers, government regulators) to the extent of creating new behavior (investment in the industry)
* Bad practices — managing them.

Action Items
* The industry needs an association — what is required to set one up?  Is it working so far?
* Professional certification — who, what, how?
* How can the industry develop a system to police and correct bad practices and future legislation?
* Identify steps required to develop standards and provide professional education
* Self governance & ethical behavior

We look forward to everyones participating in the very important panel discussion.