Commission Junction

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Commission Junction
Type Subsidiary
Founded Santa Barbara, California (1998)
Headquarters Santa Barbara, California
Key people Kerri Pollard, general manager
Dave Duckwitz, senior vice president, operations
Dave Osman, vice president client development - West
Industry Affiliate marketing
Products Affiliate network
Website CJ.com

Commission Junction is an online advertising company owned by ValueClick. It is specifically in the affiliate marketing industry.

Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network in North America, powering almost 50% of the top 500 web retailers affiliate marketing programs[1][2] and operates worldwide. Along with being the world's largest Affiliate Network, Commission Junction also promotes their Search Marketing services and their media services. Their corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, California. Commission Junction has also offices in the UK, Germany, France and Sweden.

Commission Junction has over 1,500 customers including eBay, Buy.com, Home Depot, Circuit City, Experian and Yahoo!.

Contents

[edit] Brief History

  • Commission Junction was Founded in 1998 and is based in Santa Barbara, California[3]
  • 2001 publishes the performance metrics of all advertisers, publishers, and ads within their Network[4]
  • December 2002, CJ abolishes individual tracking links per product and redesigned their product catalog system[5]
  • The company was acquired for $58 million (in cash and stock) by ValueClick in October 2003[6]
  • CJ's Link Management Initiative (LMI) introduced in June 2006 was reversed 1 month after its introduction due to protests by publishers and advertisers[7][8]

[edit] Be Free, Inc. / Reporting.net

The former competitor Be Free, Inc. is also owned by ValueClick. Be Free was purchased for $128 million (in stock) by ValueClick[9] before Commission Junction. Only after the acquisition of Commission Junction[6] did ValueClick slowly transition affiliate programs away from Be Free's BFAST technology platform. Contracts with current Be Free merchants are not being renewed and no new merchants are accepted as Be Free customers. Once the contract with Be Free expired, merchants had the choice to either migrate to the Commission Junction platform or look elsewhere for an alternative provider.

This process began around January of 2004 and was completed in spring of 2008.

The BFAST platform was closed and no longer available after May 15, 2008, at which time all ad serving and new transaction tracking ceased.

[edit] Commission Junction University - CJU

CJU is an annual affiliate marketing conference, which is organized by Commission Junction. The conference is for publishers and advertisers who use the CJ platform as well as for third party agencies and vendors who provide complimentary tools and services for the affiliate marketing industry.

The conference is being held every year at the end of the summer in Santa Barbara, California, the location of CJ's world head quarter. The first conference was held in 1999. The conference is primarily a networking event, but also includes seminars, educational sessions and panel discussions about topics related to the Commission Junction affiliate network platform or the affiliate marketing industry in general.

[edit] Commission Junction Horizon Awards

Each year since CJU 2002, Horizon Awards are presented to top-performing clients. The Horizon Awards represent Commission Junction's core values of people, innovation, greatness and global vision and recognize the (in Commission Junctions opinion) most innovative and effective advertisers and publishers in the industry.

Horizon Awards categories
  • Horizon Award — People: The award for people is presented to an advertiser and publisher who have shown an enthusiastic commitment to performance marketing, are market leaders, and are dedicated to building a strong community among online marketers.
  • Horizon Award — Greatness: The award for greatness is presented to an advertiser and publisher who have demonstrated exceptional performance over the previous year.
  • Horizon Award — Innovation: The award for innovation is presented to a client in appreciation of its support to Commission Junction and to ongoing performance marketing educational outreach. This award represents the company's commitment to the people in the industry.
  • Horizon Award — Global Vision (debut in 2005): the award for global vision is presented to one client whose action, strategy and initiatives best reflect a commitment to realizing the global potential of affiliate marketing.

CJU Horizon Awards winners per year: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002?

[edit] References

  1. ^ New Network Flavors , May/June 2006 Issue: Page 32, Revenue Magazine
  2. ^ AffStat 2007 1. CJ/BeFree, 2. DirectTrack, 3. ShareASale, 4. Linkshare, 5. LinkConnector and vTarget
  3. ^ Press Release (July 30, 2001), Commission Junction Announces Agreement With Yahoo! Store, Commission Junction, retrieved May 27, 2007
  4. ^ Press Release (October 15, 2001), Commission Junction's Performance Increases Prove Success of its Open Marketplace, Commission Junction, retrieved May 27, 2007
  5. ^ ABestWeb (November/December 2002), CJ.com Datafeed, Thread at ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forums, retrieved May 27, 2007
  6. ^ a b Rebecca Lieb (October 10, 2003), Valueclick Snaps Up Commission Junction, Clickz.com News, retrieved May 27, 2007
  7. ^ Beth Kirsch (August 15, 2006), Commission Junction Slows Down on LMI & Thanks to Jangro for Taking a Stand, ReveNews.com, retrieved May 27, 2007
  8. ^ Worldwide Office Locations of CJ Commission Junction Contact Page at CJ.com
  9. ^ Internet Retailer (March 11, 2002),Valueclick and Be Free to Merge, Internet Retailer, retrieved May 27, 2007

[edit] Major Competitors

[edit] See also

[edit] External links