Filed under: Affiliate Management

2008 Round-Up and Merry Christmas from Existem

2008 was an exciting year for the Existem Team, we organised our 2nd Affiliate Marketing Conference at ExCeL London, held our first Black Tie Award Ceremony hosted by Michael McIntyre at the Park Lane Hotel and announced the launch of a4uexpo Europe in Amsterdam.

I’d like to thank everyone who has made these events possible, from the delegates and speakers to the sponsors and exhibitors, all of whom helped pull off an exceptional event.

We increased attendance figures by 25% in 2008 for a4uexpo and Sold Out tickets well before our awards ceremony in June, which demonstrates how interest in the sector is growing.

Internally we’ve seen a few changes Tom Freeman left the company to pursue his own dreams, and we welcomed Nick Jones as our Senior Developer who has done a sterling job over the last 11 months.

We’ve also welcomed both Darian Moody who is also getting his teeth into our new affiliate projects and Ingrid Anusic who joined us recently to help with the expansion of our a4uexpo Conferences and look at strategies for new ventures.

As a business we’ve taken steps to get everything together from Accounts to Structure.   The events business now sits under Existem Events Ltd as a separate entity which leaves Existem Ltd to now concentrate fully on developing new consumer websites where we can utilise the CPA model.

Mark and Bruce at Existem Affiliate Management have also had an outstanding year, with huge wins and a client base which now consists of over 40 companies.  The team have also expanded with Hannah joining in October.

Existem has also invested in a number of external start-ups and websites including Invitation Digital and eatout.co.uk.

In October I somehow managed to get my profile interview in NMA, something normally reserved for CEO’s of Myspace and the like, so very chuffed, I’ve also attended and spoken at various events in the UK and Europe.

Next year, we all know is going to be more challenging and we are well placed.  We’ve already decided to move into new offices at the Art Deco building here at the Paintworks in Bristol, which will double the office space and provide room for the business to grow.

As for our affiliate projects we’ve taken a side step this year with our events really taking priority however we’ve recently soft launched Price Cuts a new site which we will be heavily marketing in the new year and we now have the structure in place to ensure expedient development and marketing of this and future projects, and redevelopment of others including our cashback site Free Fivers which now boasts more than 230,000 members.

So before I ramble on any further, a final Thank You to everyone at affiliates4u.com, the moderators, members and our clients who have made 2008 such a enjoyable year.

On a personal note I’d like to also thank all the staff at Existem for doing such a great job over the last 12 months we’ve really pulled together as a team to pull off some excellent projects.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year everyone and we’ll see you all in 2009!