The following is a Guest blog post by Helen Southgate – Head of Affiliate at dgm, and long-suffering Norwich City fan (they might have taken 6 points off Argyle this season, but they’re still our best hope of staying up this year!) Helen takes a look at the first 10 years of DGM, and I’m one of the few who remember them as UKAffiliates.com who, along with Your Cheque and Magic Button were one of the first UK Affiliate Marketing networks. Unlike YC and MB though, they’re still here ten years later!

Where were you in April 1999?

Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? I expect a lot of people reading this were not even involved in affiliate marketing yet and didn’t even know what it was, myself being on of them! But one man, Adrian Moss, was building the first UK affiliate network which was then named UK Affiliates.

This month is dgm’s 10 year anniversary which also means a 10 year anniversary for affiliate networks in the UK. It is incredible now to look back and see how much the industry has changed in 10 years and also how much dgm has changed.

I expect the name “UK Affiliates” brings back different memories for many people. For myself I started in the industry about 6 ½ years ago and UK Affiliates were seen as the leader of affiliate marketing and certainly a force to be reckoned with.

UK Affiliates became Deal Group Media PLC in January 2000 and subsequently became Deal Group Media UK Limited in January 2007 after the MBO.

So who are dgm now? What have we learnt over the last 10 years? I’m not sure where to start here. It is no secret that dgm has had its difficulties over the years but for a company 10 years old that is not unusual especially within such a dynamic market. I think if you look at the people in the industry that have at one point worked for dgm this says a lot about the type of working environment at dgm. It’s very much sink or swim and you learn very quickly in a fast changing environment with lots of challenges. The people that work at dgm are incredibly passionate about the company and the industry but also very resilient. Some names that have gone on to be key players in affiliate marketing are Duncan Popham (now at Total Search Solutions), Rob Berrisford (now a respected affiliate CK Net), Matt Bailey (now at i-level and chairman of the IAB), Kevin Edwards (now at Affiliate Window), Bruce Clayton (now at Existem Affiliate Management), Jess Luthi (Affiliate Program Advice in the US) … this is to name just a few, (you can give me the fiver later guys!)

The dgm today is very different from 5+ years ago but I think that is reflected in much of the industry as companies have become larger, more professional and affiliate marketing has actually become a lot tougher with more challenges and a wider scope of market to work in. Working in affiliate you need to have a lot of skills and experience from knowing about SEO / PPC, to customer service to being able to generate new ideas for clients. I believe network staff are not given their dues for how hard they work and the value they add as they are the middlemen and we can’t please everyone unfortunately.

The dgm today I would describe as humble, hard working and passionate about the industry we are in. We know we have not got everything right yet but what networks could say that they have? I believe we offer a great service 99% of the time to our affiliates and over the last 6 months we have been listening intently to feedback from affiliates and developing our tools and services to offer a lot more such as the dgmPromotions tool that has recently gone live, dgmCompare, new datafeeds, report enhancements, AccuTrak and more to come very soon. Much of these developments came from listening to our clients and affiliates. Client side our account managers work extremely hard to make sure that we are an extension of their marketing team rather than just an agency that tracks sales. We have some great blue chip clients such as Vodafone, Virgin Games and Wilkinson’s but work hard to make any programme work well regardless of size.

I asked a few people for some anecdotes on dgm that they could remember, there are plenty but one that stuck in most peoples minds which I found amusing was Adrian’s huge Dog, Louis, who used to join the team in the office! We are going to building a website around dgm’s last 10 years so if you have any anecdotes or memories you would like to share please pass them on to me Helen.southgate@dgm-uk.com.

If you agree that dgm have worked their socks off over the last 12 months to offer a better all round service then why not give us a vote for “Affiliate Network of the Year”. I know the team deserves it and I hope that many of you will too, if not, let us know or give us a try and I will personally make sure that we deliver for you.

Here’s to another 10 years ……

Thanks for that great post Helen! I remember meeting Louis a few times – we were convinced he was the real brains behind dgm I seem to recall there was a bird of some description in the office for a while – anyone remember him?

Finally good luck in the Bupa London 10k next month – I’m sure lots of Lammo readers will want to sponsor you a few quid to help you reach your target of £400 for the Alzheimers Society.

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