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Affiliate Monitor Partnering up – media takes a bite
said the deals the company has reached with the likes of NJ . com and Lee Enterprises “ amplify our position ” rather than being dilutive or competing with Catena ’ s own “ strong organic positions ”.
“ We know with competition , the market shifts . And some of those domain strengths of long-standing media organisations have more impact in markets like New Jersey ,” he added , pointing to NJ . com . “ That was strong for us in this quarter and will continue .”
But he noted that Catena ’ s “ margins will be changed ”. “ They help us bring additional traffic and we have to share that ,” he told the analysts on the call .
VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE
The question as to why the media industry has been quick to take up partnership deals with gaming affiliates – notwithstanding the reservations and potential threats they pose to their own editorial teams – was answered by Reed from Gannett . It adds to profits .
But the question arises as to why they wouldn ’ t go it alone and decide to take all of the pie from selling on consumers or betting operators . “ Maybe they ’ re just lazy ,” said one source .
“ It ’ s a very different world because selling on a performance basis versus selling on rate cards , it ’ s a very different model and it ’ s a leap of faith .
“ However , I think it ’ d be quite interesting to see what happens when these deals start to expire ,” the source added . “ Surely somebody within these media groups is going to sit there and say , ‘ Well , we were getting 40 % of that . We could get 100 %’.”
Robinson says that as media partnerships with gaming affiliates start to bring in more revenue , they will begin featuring in conversations at board level . But it only becomes an issue , he suggests , when what was a growth area of the business stops bringing in the extra revenues and profits at the same rate as before .
“ We live in a capitalistic world where growth is mandatory and as soon as there isn ’ t growth , there needs to be changes affected to bring it back ,” he adds .
LONG-TAIL TRAVAILS
There are likely to be more media partnerships both in the US and the rest of the world although Gillespie at Gambling . com did give a hint that , for his company at least , there might be a slowdown in the pace of deals .
“ We are now very focused on simply delivering for our partners ,” he said . “ There ’ s really no rush to do another one , and internal teams are focused on simply executing on the partnerships that we ’ ve got .”
But as one seasoned observer pointed out , the nature of the affiliate industry problem mitigates against there being a slowdown in deals elsewhere . “ It ’ s classic
“ This trickledown effect will significantly impact lowertier affiliate businesses , forcing them to target longer-tail keywords with less volume ”
BEN ROBINSON , RB CAPITAL
affiliate behaviour ,” they suggested . “ Let ’ s flog it until it ’ s dead .”
For the smaller affiliates , however , life as ever appears to be getting more difficult .
“ As the battle of the media partnerships continues to rage , Hollywood keyword targets will inevitably turn into longertail , high-intent keywords ,” says Robinson . “ This trickle-down effect will significantly impact lower-tier affiliate businesses , forcing them to target longer-tail keywords with less volume .” iGB Affiliate Monitor