ValueCommerce launches A-1 Affiliate Awards
ValueCommerce Co. Ltd., Japan’s leading Affiliate Network Service Provider, today announced that it has launched its first yearly Affiliate competition. Awards for the A-1 Grand Prix are targeted towards the complete spectrum of affiliate marketers in Japan and feature prizes from 22 sponsors, part of the wide network of e-commerce sites and advertisers who partner with ValueCommerce to generate sales online.
ValueCommerce’s Marketing manager, Shinobu Ohyama, stated that the A-1 Affiliate competition was designed so that affiliates of all levels could participate. “We wanted to create a competition that provided recognition to affiliates of all levels, regardless of size: from beginners to the more experienced websites (known as super affiliates) that typically participate in affiliate competitions,” Ohyama said.
The A-1 Grand Prix, which runs until the end of January 2005, consists of 30 different awards in four main categories – creative, contents, performance and “MyLink” (a ValueCommerce specific affiliate solution). The categories include not only the more traditional click-through rated affiliate performance metrics, such as best web, email and mobile affiliate, but also innovative new groupings like “best Website design”, “best affiliate story” and “entrepreneurial activity”.
While some super affiliates regularly make in excess of 1 Million yen per month with ValueCommerce, most affiliates are individuals trying to supplement their income as affiliate marketing hobbyists. “Affiliate Marketing is for anyone looking to make additional income from their website”, Ohyama said. “Affiliate marketing is as easy as placing advertising on your website to promote another company’s product. If someone clicks on that advertisement and buys the product, you can get a commission on the sale.
Our affiliate network is made up of all types of people: from Housewives and students to website designers and internet marketing professionals. Therefore we wanted to hold a competition that was open enough so that site owners or individuals who are new to the affiliate marketing space could easily get involved and compete.”
The A-1 grand prix runs until the end of January and awards will be presented at a major event conducted by ValueCommerce during Q1 next year.
About ValueCommerce Co Ltd
Founded in 1996 as one of the first hosting and domain resellers in Japan under the name Transpacific, ValueCommerce has always been focused on introducing innovative technologies to the Japanese market. Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, ValueCommerce operates three main business divisions, Affiliate Marketing, A directory Search business (Looksmart Japan) and also provides Hosting Solutions. ValueCommerce operates a sales, marketing and operations office in Tokyo Japan, employing approximately 150 people.
To learn more about ValueCommerce, please visit www.valuecommerce.co.jp (Japanese) or www.valuecommerce.co.jp/en/ (English)
About Affiliate Marketing
ValueCommerce is the pioneer of affiliate marketing in Japan and runs the largest affiliate network in the country, with over 1000 advertisers, 82,000 media partners (affiliates), equating to 48%** reach of the Internet user base in Japan on a weekly basis. During 2003, this network accounted for 77 billion yen in sales in Japan. The ValueCommerce network is Japan’s only manually managed affiliate network, where registered affiliates are classified by media type (web, email or mobile) and networks, then further ranked for quality and content type. The result of this granular classification system is a managed affiliate network where advertisers can select and reward media of different type and quality using the ValueCommerce technology.
** Nielsen Netratings August 2004
About LookSmart Japan
Looksmart first began compiling its Japanese directory in 1998 before setting up operations in Japan in 2000. LookSmart Japan has been operating Japan’s leading fully managed OEM directory with 318,000 listings, categorized under 23,000 categories compiled by professional editors over a collective work period that equates to 25 years in man hours. The directory provides media partners with high quality content as well as search advertising revenues generated from a diverse base of 25,000 commercial listings in the directory.
Some of Looksmart Japan’s current media partners include: Nifty, Fresh Eye, and Excite
To learn more about Looksmart Japan, visit www.Looksmart.co.jp (Japanese)