Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Zak and I’m the MD for Prezzybox.com. I launched Prezzybox in 2000 (we’re nearly 10 years old – very exciting!) just as the .com bubble was bursting and I’ve been here ever since! At work I look after the company strategy and marketing. Enjoyment is key for me – both at work and home – so I try to run a nice and relaxed ‘ship’. It’s important to enjoy coming to work.  Polly, our Golden retriever comes to work with us every day for example (it’s no free ride though – she’s in charge of sending out all our newsletters. To be honest she struggles with this – primarily because of the lack of opposable thumbs!).

I love music – playing guitar and singing in a band and in my spare time I contribute to the music website www.gigjunkies.com (which happens to be ran by the missus!).

I’m also a keen Aston Villa fan and I’m sure under the tutelage of Sir MON they will once more relive their former glories of the early 80’s.

What is your day to day role?

I’m the MD at Prezzybox.com. I look after overall strategy and oversee the company marketing.  I therefore spend lots of my day in meetings, ensuring that each department is doing what is required of them and we are moving forwards in a unified direction. Networking – be it with affiliates, networks, suppliers, marketing partners or whoever also makes up a large part of my working day.

Explain a little about job and what you do each day.

Very varied! I can literally be involved in anything from talking to Venture Capitalists through to putting out the recycling all in the same day.

Generally however I ensure that the team is moving forward cohesively in the same direction, which obviously involves a lot of meetings with all the heads of departments and then ensuring that the company strategy is being carried through as expected.  Encompassed in this is company expansion – be it strategic partnerships, the development of a catalogue or moving into the USA, as well as internal development – improving systems etc.

Alongside this I oversee the company marketing. We’ve quite a flat company hierarchy (everyone gets involved), but I’m involved with everything  from SEO to PPC. I’ve got a particular passion for Affiliate Marketing and am involved in that on a daily basis – usually having a natter with Affiliates on MSN to make sure we’re doing everything that is required.

What was your previous job and was it related to affiliate marketing?

I was a brand manager for Victorinox Swiss Army Knives.

Affiliate Marketing??? It was 1999 when I last worked for somebody else – did it exist then?

What do you love about affiliate marketing?

Lots.  I think the model makes PERFECT sense from a merchant perspective. I mean, what could be better than paying for a sale when it is generated rather than a marketing fee up front which has no guarantees.  I also like the fact that Affiliate Marketing is very cutting edge and dynamic – often leading the way  for bigger more established areas of marketing (for example I’m pretty sure we were the first company to introduce video banners).

What do you hate about affiliate marketing and what would you change if you could?

MOANERS! Basically it’s a symbiotic relationship between merchant, network and affiliate. Everybody, no matter how good they are, make mistakes. Therefore it really get’s my goat when I see any one of the 3 groups bemoaning  the other publically before then actually a) know all of the facts (there’s always two sides to every story) and b) without giving the other party a chance to ‘privately’ explain their actions. Grrrrr

What would I change…. Good question.

I think I’d try and encourage more transparency. Every business, be it merchant or affiliate, has a criteria it works to – be it to run a lifestyle business, to make as much profit as possible, to build it up to sell or whatever. Therefore each business has different needs  that it wants to take from the affiliate marketing relationship. So, for me, it would make more sense to communicate these needs with our affiliates. For example, if Merchant A needs to make X% profit margin from an order then it makes more sense to communicate this with affiliates so you all know the parameters to which you are working.

List your top 5 resources that help you with your day to day job?

• Outlook (communication is key!)
• MSN Messenger (ditto)
• Google Analytics (stats are great!)
• Google Optimzer
• Google Keywords Tool

If you were an affiliate how would you help someone in your role?

For me, communication is key. I’d therefore encourage somebody in my role to continually talk to affiliates… Tell them about new products, specific promotions, product advertising etc. Liaise with your affiliates and ensure that you are maximising the relationship to your benefit over your competitors.

In your opinion what is the future of affiliate marketing and how can affiliates take advantage of this?

A lot of “big boys” are now getting involved and throwing a LOT of resource at affiliate marketing as they’ve finally seen the benefits. This is obviously attractive for a merchant because big companies obviously have the ability to drive greater volumes of traffic/sales. However, although this may make things tougher for your archetypal affiliate, it needn’t mean that they can’t compete. Niches are always there to be exploited for example, whilst smaller companies can be much more reactive to market trends whereby bigger companies have numerous levels of hierarchy to go through. The modern day affiliate will therefore have to think and work smarter.

What is on your Ipod?

Ahaaaa. Right then, in no particular order…

• Apollo (my band – blatant plug have a listen at http://www.myspace.com/apollobrummies)
• Oasis
• Kasabian
• Kooks
• Jersey Budd
• The Beas
• The Beatles
• Elvis
• Jimi Hederix
• Eminem
• Power of Dreams
• Rage Against the Machine
• Happy Mondays
• Stone Roses
• Hard Fi
• Zutons
• Jackie Lomax
• Willy Mason
• The Jam
• Sheryl Crow
• Jet
• Kula Shaker
• The La’s
• Lilly Allen
• The Raconteurs
• Reef
• Seasick Steve

How can people get in touch with you?

zak@prezzybox.com for email/MSN. Simples.

Thanks Zak.