Return of the Jedi

Written by Brook Schaaf

Luke SignalWalker has returned to his home planet of Attribooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Conv Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Gate. All too well does Luke know that the Internet Empire has begun construction of a new, fully integrated ad platform even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the band of rebels struggling to restore fair attribution to the galaxy.

In the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are unequivocally the good guys and the Sith the bad. The cartoonish element of this is that the Sith acknowledge they are on the Dark Side. In the real world, no ruling power admits as much. For example, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is hardly democratic, republican, or otherwise representative. In contrast, most systems with actually-elected, Western-style governments hold the people to be sovereign. However meaningful a vote is in one of these countries, at least you are free to leave. 

This comparison between the politics of online advertising and the Star Wars trilogy is intended to be playful while communicating a point that is not inapt (or, hopefully, inept): there is a power struggle over the dollars in the online advertising ecosystem. As a Digiday ad tech briefing title read, “The industry is rethinking its foundations as a new world order is established.” As the brief put it, “The ad industry is entering a period of profound transition as artificial intelligence reshapes how media is created, distributed, and monetized — the problem is, it’s not really clear how that’s going to play out.”

Thus, we have high stakes and high uncertainty, wherein affiliate marketing is effectively a rebel force, battling for fair representation, as measured in our share of dollars against our contribution to transactions. A total victory is not plausible in the sense that the channel isn’t going to magically grow bigger than Meta, Alphabet, or Amazon Advertising (collectively, the Empire), nor is a total defeat (the disappearance of affiliate) likely, but there’s an awfully wide range in between.

In our conflict, we have some unusual allies: the smaller walled gardens (TikTok, Pinterest, etc.) and perhaps even open web programmatic advertising, which, as the name suggests, depends on the existence of the open web, an uncertain prospect at this point. Among these players, surprising pairings can form, such as the just-announced partnership between Rakuten and impact.com (nothing I’d be thrilled to see if I still owned an agency). You also have eBay joining Meta’s Facebook Affiliate Beta and YouTube selling its audio via SiriusXM. Profound transitions indeed.

Attention, intent, and action all come from the user, whose choices are limited to available options that must ultimately sustain themselves as viable businesses. In this context, the Empire is illegitimate insofar as it wields excessive control over access and information, in particular attribution information, with which it claims more than its share of dollars. Accordingly, advertisers and publishers are forced to operate largely within its constraints. 

I know that some people think transparency would not help the affiliate channel, but based on everything I’ve seen, the exact opposite is true. Affiliate is generally undercredited, as evidenced by capturing a low single-digit share of ad spend against a low double-digit share of associated transactions. 

With the weapon of transparency at this time of upheaval, we Rebels have an opportunity to bring balance back to the Force. Whatever new order is established, those running it will claim to be the Jedi, or the good guys. Let’s do our part to make sure they actually are. 

May the Fourth be with us!