Michele Marzan, 39 years old, graduated in Management Engineering from the “Politecnico di Milano”, has significant professional experiences ranging from web marketing to media and advertising gained in some of the most prestigious companies including: InferentiaDNM, Gruppo FullSix, DMC (Direct Media Center). Before taking on his current position, in 2004 Marzan began working at DMC – a leading agency in Italy for consulting, planning, and executing Marketing and Advertising projects – as Account Manager and Division Manager (Digital Direct Marketing Unit), focusing mainly on client management and their projects, coordinating the unit’s activities and designing particularly innovative online initiatives in the performance-based marketing sector. Previously, in 2003, he was appointed Senior Digital Marketing Consultant at Gruppo FullSix where he had joined in 2000 (then InferentiaDNM) holding increasingly responsible roles. Additionally, from 1995 to 2000, he worked in various divisions of CILME SpA – a leading company in the production and management of eBanking services.
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How does the Italian performance based marketing present itself and what are the prospects?
It is a rapidly growing market even though Italy is somewhat behind compared to the UK, Germany, and France. Almost all companies with an online business are approaching performance based marketing or are already active, although there are many differences compared to traditional online advertising, and not all companies have yet understood the specificities of the tool. However, the prospects are bright: results are already coming in and obviously it is easier to invest when there is positive feedback. The evolution, after all, is fast and already in the coming months we will see companies active with affiliate programs that until last year did not consider the Internet as a strategic medium.
What is the relationship of companies with this market?
There are very different approaches. Some companies, like ING Direct for example, understood the advantages of performance based marketing earlier than others; many others arrived later, “riding the wave” and taking advantage of consolidated best practices, consequently achieving excellent results in a short time. However, many remain who have not yet figured out how to enter the market, who are not structured to do so, or who have internal bureaucratic organizations that are too rigid, which poorly match the fast pace of web marketing.
In any case, the market is moving very quickly: zanox works not only with all the major players that invest in online, but also with some large companies based mainly on offline business and aware of the fact that the Internet medium can no longer be ignored.
Clearly, those who stay out lose a great opportunity.
What is zanox’s vision?
zanox focuses heavily on its base of publishers. The goal is to create a global alliance for the monetization of the Internet, especially thanks to our international affiliates.
Who is your typical client?
In reality, considering zanox’s model, any company that conducts online business has an interest in working with us. Clearly, the “ideal” client is one who uses the Internet as a strategic channel for customer acquisition and qualified profiles (leads), who has an advanced approach and pays particular attention to the usability of their website. In any case, we also work with a short-term perspective, for example on spot campaigns for launching new products or promoting events and contests.
Who are your competitors?
Currently, in the performance-based multichannel online commerce market, there are no competitors with a global presence like zanox, although Valueclick in the USA, Trade Doubler in Europe, and Affilinet in Germany should still be noted.
What does zanox offer more than the competitors present in Italy and why choose you?
Currently, we have a global presence that no competitor can boast. In fact, through zanox, affiliate programs can be opened in all countries of the world where the Internet is present.
Moreover, the division by industry, both nationally and internationally, allows zanox much greater specialization and knowledge of different sectors. Finally, zanox collaborates with all the major international networks and publishers, who can target their traffic to individual nations and allow us to have an extremely broad reach.
What are the innovations in the sector?
The main trend emerging on the web is user generated content and this naturally also affects the affiliation world. Already now zanox allows its affiliates to use self-produced videos as advertising tools instead of simple banners. More innovations will come soon especially from the social network and blog side. From a more “technical” point of view, zanox uses a new tracking technology called GAP, which allows unifying tracking across different platforms and having what is defined as a “single point of tracking”, with a clear management advantage for clients. Generally, innovations often come from publishers, who are always updated and especially creative: zanox tries to provide them with all possible means to perform at their best.
How did the first quarter of 2007 go and what are your future goals?
First of all, it should be specified that we are absolutely satisfied with the results achieved so far and indeed, 2007 is moving at +100% compared to 2006. For 2008, therefore, we anticipate even stronger results, aligned with the company’s constant growth and with possibilities for further consolidation.
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