Neverblue

YouTube Film Contest

2009-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

When Murray Newlands approached us last week about entering a short film into this YouTube video contest the Neverblue team jumped at the chance! A few of us got together on Friday afternoon and put together this hilarious video showcasing our international side.

Shameless plug: Did you know that Neverblue has tripled our number of international Affiliates driving traffic in the last year? 40% of Neverblue's conversions are now occurring outside of the US!

Credits: Michelle Reid (Production & Editing), Richard Hoar (Filming)

Actors: Chutima Bunyasiriphant, Kyle Goertzen, Henry Skey, Steven Easton, Bryon Short, Roman Andrukh, Heike Edam, Michelle Reid, Conan Morris, and Breanne Storey.

We plan on donating the $100 prize to our local Food Bank, so be sure to tell murray that you want to vote for us in the comments!!

Check out the blooper reel, too! :)))

Neverblue's First Annual Belgium Waffle Extravaganza

2009-11-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

While our American clients were resting up from Thanksgiving or jumping in on some Black Friday mania, we Canadians took a different approach and indulged in some delicious homemade waffles.

A few employees volunteered to fry up a blueberry, chocolate chip and our own version of the Timbit waffles. Yes that’s right, we fried Timbit’s inside our waffles, sugar high anyone? Employees paid $5 for 2 waffles and all money raised will be donated to the local Victoria Food Bank.

The smell of waffles is still lingering throughout the office, leaving many of us wanting more. With some left over mix and toppings we are thinking this is going to have to become a regular Friday tradition.

See all the Photos Here »

Eat Turkey. Think Neverblue.

2009-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Up here on the We(s)t Coast of Canada, us Canucks celebrate Thanksgiving in early October. We hope all our partners and friends in the USA have a fantastic turkey day and we found a few employees to pose for a photo and let us know what they're thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving and here's to a cheerful beginning to the holiday season.

Tanner Oscapella (Sales Assistant) - People who, in any way, shape or form, contribute art to the world

Christan Cavanaugh (Administrative Assistant) – That my car is still in good working condition

Michelle Reid (Int’l Business Development Coordinator) – I am thankful for SO MUCH. To have a job that I like (heck a job period these days). Family, friends, health, happiness and love!

Dawn Robson (Director of HR) – to be able to cycle to work every day.

Henry Skey (Account Executive) – I am thankful for warm socks, when they come out of the dryer.

Thomas McCarten (Account Executive) – For my Crockpot, bread maker and knitting needles. (ed: that's our Tom!)

Eva Boucek (Business Development Assistant) – For wonderful friendships and the upcoming holiday season.

Iman Boussaada (Executive Assistant to the President) – I am thankful for my gorgeous boyfriend and family.

Neverblue Takes on Toy Story

2009-11-25T16:54:00.000-08:00

Neverblue took part in the 17th Annual Festival of Trees in support of the BC Children's Hospital at the beautiful Empress Hotel last week. The event raised over $100,000 last year and the event is looking to be an even bigger success this year. The Neverblue team dressed up as characters from Toy Story: Buzz Lightyear (Rami Ladki, Affiliate Manager), Little Bo Peep (Kiersten Epps, Affiliate Manager), Bo Peep’s Sheep (Michelle Reid, Int'l Business Development Coordinator) and Woody’s girlfriend Jessie (Breanne Storey, Marketing and Communications Specialist).

The tree was a massive hit with all the kids and we are going to donate all the toys to the Children's Hospital in January. If you are in Victoria be sure to drop by the Empress and check out all the beautifully decorated trees, but be sure to vote for ours ;) The event runs now till January 3rd.

Photos Here »

Halloween Bash at Neverblue

2009-11-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Neverblue's staff went all out with a huge assortment of hilarious costumes this year. Needless to say there was candy abound and lots of decorations up around the office - they even hosted a viewing of evil dead! A haunted house event at "Nightmares", a local trick and costume shop, gave most of the staff a pretty good scare and cool 3d glasses. I missed the giant cardboard box robot this year, but as a side note: Steve, dressed as Jean Luc Picard, won the costume competition and promptly shaved the rest of his head. This year's Halloween was a total blast.

Check out the Photos »

Meetup 202: Victoria

2009-10-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, this is a great experiment: put local marketers and Advertisers in a room and see what happens. The second Meetup202 in Victoria was a very intimate, talkative and productive event. The "cozy" location, Union Pacific coffee, is quiet and really encourages some great conversation while still feeling like a noisy mixer. I was blown away by the depth of Victoria's Affiliate Marketing community and the level of experience therein. I'm really looking forward to the growth of this event in the near future. If you're an Affiliate or Advertiser in Victoria, drop by the next event to see what you've been missing!

See All of the Photos

International Exposure at ad:tech London

2009-10-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Heathrow after a staggering 11 hour flight from BC, we got ourselves ready for an exciting first night at our inaugural exhibit at ad:tech London 2009. The show represents a huge milestone for Neverblue: Our first international exhibit! With our stand set up on the exhibit hall floor, we held a private party for publishers to kick off the show. The event took place at Jewel Bar in theRuby Room, right in the heart of London. We couldn’t have asked for a better mix of clients. Our RSVP list was full and the venue had a great vibe! Check out photos from the evening here.

So how was the show?! There’s a sort of electricity in the air when you get something tuned in the first time round. The audience was new and receptive – we met so many new Advertisers and Affiliates that it felt like we were covered in a mountain of new business. We’re getting to be seasoned vets with trade shows; however, ad:tech London threw in a few new twists on the ad:tech formula. Distributed throughout the trade show floor were speaker sessions where the crowds gathered to hear industry talks. Some of the booths simply turned into bars after a set time, I’m sure you’ve all seen the videos of people being interviewed while getting a massage!

We were offered the chance to speak about Affiliate Marketing with our very own Reed Pridy - Director of Compliance and Quality Assurance here at Neverblue. He was joined with members from i-Level and Sky to discuss a topic on a lot of people’s minds, “Is Affiliate Marketing worth It?” The session was packed and the QA session fielded questions from every experience level in AM. The answer to the topic: AM can be one of the best tools in your marketing mix if you manage your campaigns, follow the rules and find the perfect methods of promotion. Of course it’s all stuff Neverblue’s got down to a science ;)

This show was a massive boon to Neverblue’s current international push. London’s a great hub for both UK and European partners (and a great place to party). Those magic words, “Hey, what do you do exactly” just gives you the perfect icebreaker. Learn more about Neverblue’s services and check out the photos from the trade show floor here.

Neverblue at Mixx 2009

2009-09-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

First Impressions

IAB took place in Times Square New York, a rather fitting place to cram agencies, marketers and publishers/content creators. The conference attracted just over 1000 attendees, most coming directly from the industry. The conference also attracted the big 4 search/portal companies: Google, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft, who all gave their take on what was happening in the online world for the most part.

Both days were filled with lots of networking, a talkative crowd that were genuinely interested in the material. Most talks concluded with everyone rushing the stages for copies of presentations or a battery of questions for the presenters. As much as I want to pretend I didn't participate in that... Anyway, Adobe and Google's ideas for creative were fairly surprising and now, for me, fairly anticipated. I got a nice opportunity to visit the exhibit hall and catch up with some of the good folks from Mindspark and a few affiliates.

And who could forget, Mr. Ashton Kutcher walking across the stage while everyone wondered what bizarre world they were in. Turns out he's got a new mediacontentprodagency named Katalyst(HQ) and talked cogently and at length about social media, web content and crowdsourcing. I also left with a vague feeling that powerpoint could really use some work to make it more engaging to marketers, creatives and agencies :).

The Creative Revolution

So where is the interactive industry now? After speaking with a myriad of people at the MIXX Conference and soaking in a lot of the presentations, figures and secret sauce from the talks, I'm not sure if that particular question has been answered. Interactive seems to be in that compression before the explosion. What MIXX09 focused on was divining what it could be - to be more blunt - "More(!)".

We all want more. First, there's the creative/marketing side that wants more ad units, more tracking, more outlets, better inventory, new and exciting ways to promote easily across all screens and make advertising on the Internet and 'net-powered devices - not just the Web. Second, there's the publishing side that wants to collect money for their content despite a harrowing race to the bottom situation where the crowd produces lower fidelity information for free, and often times, faster.

The general feeling was to embrace a two way communication with consumers. Instead of marketing to them, get them involved in your brand, get them to willingly create content for you and watch for critical mass surrounding emerging technologies and know it before it escapes. There was a lot of talk about engineering the viral instead of hoping it will simply go viral as well as playing with models of freemium - offering free content that switches to paid content based on a set interaction limit / device configuration. The chatter about how to balance content and advertising is still just as hot as ever.

What this Means for Neverblue

The creative revolution is definitely happening all around us, but like all media before it, interactive advertising is generally morphing from a global ad campaign to a local, targeted and tiny focus, and this puts Neverblue and affiliate marketing in a good spot for the future. What I realized is that as the granularity of measurable audience details increases in this space, the more it's going to push interactive marketers to be very, very prolific with ad creative and campaign/platform designs. Our publishers are much more specialized to work in exactly this type of entrepreneurial climate. I'll be interested to see what happens when the revolution's dust settles.

Check Out all the Photos, too!

Out of Bounds: Neverblue's Ultimate Affiliate Escape

2009-08-27T11:05:00.001-07:00

After months of intense competition, Neverblue rewarded the network's top 20 affiliates with a luxury trip to the coastal mountains of British Columbia. Out of Bounds, Neverblue's ultimate affiliate escape took place in and around Whistler BC, the future site of the 2010 Olympic Games. Our top partners were flown in from all over the world and whisked up the scenic Sea to Sky highway to an adventure of a lifetime.

The days in Whistler were a time to connect with our partners and treat them to high energy outdoor activities. From zip-lining hundreds of feet across a glacial river to powering down rugged mountainous landscapes on ATVs, this event was all about getting out from behind the computer screen and going way Out of Bounds.

The event proved to be a hit with our Affiliates. This event allowed for some world class networking opportunities and a chance for our top publishers to compare notes in between canon-balling into the hotel pool. Since we included not only the largest affiliates, but also the affiliates with the largest volume increases during the competition, there was always something new to learn and discuss. Fun in the wilderness, more experienced publishers and world class luxury, needless to say, we're looking forward to the next Neverblue Escape!

See a Slideshow of the Event Here »

Thanks to Justin Clark for the great video recap.

The Cowichan Valley Grape Escape 2009

2009-08-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Neverblue participated in a fun and challenging event in support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. This year our team, The Neverblue Spandex Storm, ranked as the second largest corporate sponsor and brought all kinds of spirit and excitement to the party! The team dressed as 80's as we possibly could for most of the day (don't let anyone tell you that denim is breathable going uphill in 1st gear for 20 minutes :) ) and held a fantastic party at our rider village tent.

The event takes place in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island and the course was filled with demanding hills and beautiful scenery between the Island's finest wineries. Many of us put over 100km on our bicycles in one weekend! The event generated nearly $400,000 for the MS society and will help to fund care and research into eventually ending MS. The whole team can't wait to take the challenge again next year!

Photos Here

More information about the event here

New Innovations for Publishers

2009-07-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Neverblue's got a whole bunch of new programs and tools to make life in affiliate marketing a little easier and way more fun! Over the last few months we've added a number of new tools and tweaks to the affiliate interface (just gotta keep making it better) and you may have heard about our affiliate contest, out of bounds, overseen by our newly appointed client experience manager. Still with me? Then read on!

You can now set your own campaign defaults!

Affiliate Tools

Neverblue has launched new global country redirects, an innovative modification of Neverblue's proprietary affiliate interface that allows publishers to make more money from international traffic. "I can now specify the international defaults I want for the advertising campaigns I run. I am seeing a 20% increase in international EPCs since I switched!" stated a leading display publisher. Another new feature of Neverblue's free affiliate network is the self directed pixel manager. This tool enables publishers to place their own and their party tracking pixels in real time, 24/7, without needing to contact their affiliate manager.

Affiliate Experience

A new tactical, managerial role within the organization has been implemented whose sole responsibility is focusing on new ways to ensure that our publishers continue to choose Neverblue as one of the best affiliate networks. Leanne Thibodeau accepted the position of Client Experience Manger in March, 2009. "With the current growth of our affiliate network, I am excited to see a dedicated client experience role finally come to fruition. As a former Affiliate Manager Leanne, has the right blend of passion, experience and talent to move Neverblue forward by ensuring we are investing where affiliates tell us we need to grow" said Kevin Wolski, Director of Client Service.

Additionally, Neverblue is rewarding leading publishers with "Out of Bounds," an all expense paid trip to Whistler, BC Canada for a wild weekend of adventure in the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. You can learn more about the Out of Bounds reward for affiliates at www.neverblueescape.com.
"It's a pretty simple investment strategy; our affiliates are half of the equation that makes Neverblue successful. When Neverblue invests in making things good for publishers, we always see a terrific return" said Hakan Lindskog, President.

New Office Celebration

2009-06-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Neverblue celebrated our new office space in a fun and catered grand opening party. We invited partners from all over the city and family members to come and share a toast to the bigger and MUCH better office space in Downtown Victoria, BC. We moved in late may and have been putting all the finishing touches on the building for this event.

Guests were arriving quickly at 5:30 and the place was hopping by about 6 when Hakan took the stage with a great speech and a reflection on our growth. From there, the crowd mingled and went on some small office tours around the remodeled second floor of the old A&B sound building. The sun was shining brightly and the entire office was bathed in light from the large windows.

The exquisite catering from cook's day off, upbeat music and a well supplied open bar kept up lively conversations among employees, clients and family members. We even had blue themed champagne to match our venerable company colors! People were fascinated by the open concept floorplan of the place, surprised that the CEO sits right out on the sales floor and chuckled when they saw the games room near the kitchen. The party continued until about 8PM with laughs, chatter and excitement. What a great way to warm up the new office.

See All Photos

Poker Tourney

2009-06-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, a group of Neverblue employees met at the old office for a poker fundraiser in benefit of the MS Society. It was drinks, pizza, good hands and laughs as luck chose its winners from each table. We raised a hefty donation for our cause and The lucky winners from each table were all treated to a paid day off. Our efforts for MS will continue into mid summer for the Cowichan Valley Grape Escape, a 70+ km bike tour to raise awareness for multiple sclerosis. Stay Tuned!

Check Out the Photos »

Scavenger Hunt!

2009-05-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Neverblue employees packed up their desks and got ready for the move. Once everything was securely packed and ready for the new office, we set out to explore the new area for the best priced food, activity and drinks within a 4 block radius of the new office. It was a roaring success.

Michael and Mitali set out a challenging course for us - many tasks involving interacting with perfect strangers. It was the initial strategy that was key to winning, though - we had 2 hours to hit as many locations as possible to gain points for the team. High value targets ranged from getting a travel cost estimate to counting the number of steps on the legislature building.

All the teams got pretty close on scores - we're a fearless bunch. The sun was shining and everybody was in high spirits! After forming human pyramids in front of the new office and hunting down tourists to take pictures of taking pictures of us, we ended up at the Bard and Banker pub to tally the results.

The first team to arrive at the Bard and Banker was the Super Affiliates (Jason G, Kiersten, Clayton, and Chris) unfortunately though their score was not the first place score. The Drinky Crows, ( Michelle, Tom M, Kelly, and Hardie) set a large bench mark with a score of 147, but it was not to last. Each team that followed them received increasingly higher scores. In the end it was the Neon Ninjas ( Breanne, Matt, Samantha, Katrena, and Elisa) that finish at the top with a score of 178!

What a great way to say goodbye to the old office! If you missed our move in photos, check the blog post below for photos of the new space! The winners of the scavenger hunt won a lunch paid by Neverblue at a restaurant of their choice from the many takeout menus that they collected.

The New Office

2009-05-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Neverblue's growth knows pretty much no bounds. We outgrew our old office and bid it a goodbye celebration on Friday (more on that soon!). We packed up and headed 3 blocks west to our much anticipated new space! What can I say - it's all that. We've really matured as an organization and our nice consistent new space really compliments our new look and feel. Without further ado, onto the photos.

The east wing and common area. All kinds of fancy Knoll furniture.

Bright and spacious conference rooms.

The East wing. We're on an open floorplan with three way "pods" for workgroups.

Nice wide walkways and brightly lit areas - The whole place seems upbeat and cheerful.

A nice laid back kitchen. The source of our caffeine and food. Coffee by Level ground trading, a local fair trade coffee company.

A well equipped games room for taking a load off.

There's a lot more to see here, so keep tuned to the blog for more photos as the final touches are put on the new space and everyone gets settled in.

Remember, there's a lot more on Flickr.

From the Ad:tech Sales Floor

2009-04-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ad:tech's an exciting place to meet all kind of new prospects. Webmaster Radio dropped by the booth to speak with Jason Gill and Breanne Story amid all the crowds of people moving through. Topics ranged from our leading affiliate interface to an exciting discussion on mobile advertising and the search for a quality lead generation niche in the mobile space.

Listen in Here

Adtech Wrap Up - Neverblue Cocktail Event

2009-04-24T14:50:00.001-07:00

Neverblue partied deep into the night at the Bourbon & Branch. It was a really sweet place, you actually needed a secret passcode to enter the door, a la 1920's prohibition. We used the password Out of bounds in honor of our affiliate competition. Once guests entered, they were transported back in time to a well equipped speakeasy.

Network Manager, Jason Gill, kept the party bumping with rounds of tequila and various liquor concoctions. Throughout the evening, we mingled and drank with 100 of our closest partners. The historically themed venue also had no air conditioner, so things started to heat up! Thanks to all of our partners and clients who were able to attend, and we look forward to seeing you at the next event.

More Photos Here

Power to Play!

2009-04-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Island Tech Park's Power to Play competition took place last weekend and the results are in: Neverblue ranked #6 in the competition. This athletic event included roughly 4 hours running, crawling, sliding, jumping, pushing and challenging themselves and their teammates through stations of mud, water, bush, and other natural obstacles in a way that the Victoria business community has never seen before. Power To Play has set a charitable goal to raise $25, 000 for The Power To Be Wilderness School, an innovative outdoor education program that assists vulnerable youth in the Victoria area.

Race Standings Here

Business of the Year 2009!

2009-04-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Neverblue employees filled the crystal ballroom at the Fairmont Empress with cheers as Reed Pridy took to the stage to accept the 2009 Business of the Year Award from the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. Darcy Westfall, our IT Operations Manager, was a finalist for employee of the year and was honored on stage by local TV news star, Hudson Mack. It was a great evening and we thank the Chamber for all of its efforts to help business strive in Victoria.

Neverblue and Bidz.com go Global Together!

2009-04-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Neverblue has signed an exclusive agreement with the leading online jewelry retailer, Bidz.com. The agreement makes Neverblue the exclusive agency for Bidz.com and Buyz.com worldwide display advertising as well as the exclusive Performance Marketing Network for Bidz.com in France, Germany and the UK. This announcement is following news of Neverblue’s expansion into Western Europe.

Historically, the relationship between the two companies has been strong thanks to innovative custom creatives, consistently growing display and search volumes, high quality traffic and profitable results. "We have a great partnership with Bidz.com" stated Thomas McCarten, Neverblue's Account Executive. "Bidz.com provides the best online jewelry experience in the world, and we focus on profitable marketing campaigns for them. Together, we have capitalized on the economic downturn and the increased availability of quality media to profitably deliver more than 7 billion impressions for Bidz.com in the last few months".

This demonstrates that CPA marketing is a strong marketing avenue even in tough economic times. Neverblue and Bidz.com plan to enter the European market with a positive mindset and some fantastic goals. This is a relationship you definitely will want to keep an eye on!

New Pixel Manager

2009-03-30T16:09:00.001-07:00

Neverblue has centralized all of it's pixel management into one easy to use tool. You can now place image and Google pixels globally and per campaign with ease! The new system allows a full complement of overrides and options to help affiliates run offers more efficiently. If you're not accustomed to setting up tracking codes and pixels, there's a full help file here.

New features of this system include:

Ability for the affiliate to place their own campaign specific pixels (the previous pixel tool only allowed affiliates to place global pixels)

Multiple campaign pixels can be placed on a given campaign if desired

Ability to view and toggle internally placed pixels by Neverblue AMs

Affiliates can add image or Google pixels (there's even error checking to ensure pixels are properly formatted when placed)

Affiliates, please try out the new interface by logging into your Neverblue affiliate account now and give it a test.

Not a Neverblue affiliate yet? Sign Up here!

10% off Tracking 202 Pro from Neverblue

2009-03-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Prosper202 team has fine tuned their pro interface to help PPC affiliates make more money from their campaigns without a lot of technical know how. We're totally stoked to see Prosper and Tracking202 getting adopted by some of the top search publishers and we're tightly integrated with the new pro system.

So take this time to check out the Tracking202 Pro software, and if you sign up, take the promotional code neverblue with you for an instant 10% discount.

On a side note, Neverblue is also sponsoring a contest with the Tracking202 folks. Have a look at their contest here to win some awesome prizes while you're at it.

Volley Volley!

2009-03-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Team, (left to right) Ryan Sahlstrom, Maya Miguel, Dave Ruperto, Kristina Long, Placed 2nd out of 12 teams while rockin' Neverblue t-shirts on Saturday, March 21, 2009. The event took place at the brand new Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence and was part of the
South Island Volleyball Association's reverse 4s volleyball tournament.

2009-03-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patty's day! We're lifting a green pint to all our partners. Thanks for a great March!

They Sent Us a Video!

2009-02-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

Video Here!

Neverblue was awarded the Business of the Year award for 2008 by the Business Examiner. A local Television station, A Channel, sent us this clip of the award being accepted by our very own Hakan Lindskog and Dawn Robson.