PlayPhone embraces the power of affiliate performance marketing.

Affiliate networking was already in the mix as an essential online marketing tool, but Moore took the program to a new level. “We needed to figure out how to get the lion’s share of online traffic to our site,” he recalls. “Mobile entertainment is dominated by a few affiliate networks, and the trend is to pick your horse and ride with it. Based on a relationship that was already strong, we decided to give Advaliant the best offers we’ve got.”

Barely a year later, the decision already has paid off measurably. As PlayPhone runs one successful campaign after another, affiliate marketing has become the primary means by which the company acquires new customers. (Most similar businesses put only a small fraction of their marketing budgets toward affiliate relationships.) In the meantime, PlayPhone’s relationship with Advaliant has evolved into a full-scale strategic partnership that involves executive-level collaboration on many fronts.

PlayPhone’s strategy and experience illustrate a notable trend in online marketing: once considered a waste of precious marketing dollars, modern affiliate marketing has evolved into a tool that many marketers regard as the best way to spend their money.

From ringtones to
mobile games.
When Moore came on the scene in early 2007, PlayPhone was a venture-backed startup in the midst of rapid-fire change. The business got its start distributing prepaid mobile content cards at retail outlets, then quickly established a reputation for providing the widest selection and highest quality of mobile games available anywhere in the world. Today, www.playphone.com is an industry-leading mobile content storefront offering ringtones, videos, wallpapers, games, and more.

The company also has applied its expertise, innovation and technological know-how to build a mobile media platform called Powered by PlayPhone. With the number of worldwide mobile phone subscribers expected to reach approximately 3.3 billion by 2010 according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC), the world’s top entertainment companies and online destinations are looking for ways to populate their own mobile channels. Whether they want to support, market and deliver their own branded mobile content or have PlayPhone serve as an aggregator of premier ringtones, videos, wallpaper and other content, PlayPhone has the experience to meet their needs. It currently manages the mobile storefronts for more than 25 portals, including Sega, ABC Television, Real Networks and Lycos, as well as Wal-Mart and the Cartoon Network.

The Advaliant difference
In an industry that tends to burn through its traffic as fast as possible, PlayPhone says Advaliant offers a refreshing change. For the PlayPhone management team, personal attention and a commitment to quality have defined the experience of working with Advaliant. While most affiliate networks shower new clients with attention for the first couple of months, Advaliant keeps pouring it on long after the novelty has worn off.

The quality of Advaliant’s service has become another critical differentiator for PlayPhone. According to PlayPhone’s Moore, Advaliant chooses its sub-networks wisely, taking a studied, measured approach to the business.

“We look at the long-term potential, rather than a short-term windfall,” says Jivan Manhas, president, Advaliant. “This way we can safeguard our brands and deliver the results that our customers expect.”

Indeed, companies with blue chip brands now understand that Advaliant and PlayPhone go out of their way to police their brands effectively. “It’s part of the call of good affiliate marketing,” Moore explains.

One recent example highlights the strategic nature of the MediaTrust PlayPhone partnership: When PlayPhone encountered some technical integration issues with an Advaliant vendor, Advaliant’s Manhas took action. “He connected us directly with the company so that we could solve the problem together, and that show of trust increased our revenue considerably,” Moore says. In return, Moore has shared details of PlayPhone’s technical road map, something most marketers would hesitate to do. “This foundation of trust has allowed us to share core assets for mutual benefit,” he says.

The results of the partnership speak for themselves: The dramatic increase in the number of new PlayPhone customers per day has exceeded either company’s expectations. On the heels of its successful campaigns, PlayPhone has closed deals with major worldwide brands and begun to expand globally. For all of these reasons, the company is currently one of the fastest-growing startups in California. And ad:tech named PlayPhone and Advaliant the "Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign" in 2007.

As the two companies continue to plan a future together, they are working to build a new Web community based around the mobile handset. In the meantime, the emphasis remains running successful campaigns that deliver value to end-users, while driving maximum returns for advertiser and publisher alike.

“Affiliate marketing is now our primary vehicle for customer acquisition, and Advaliant is our primary partner,” says Moore. “That could not have happened if our relationship were not rock solid.”