We Need Your Ideas: A Call for Action to…

I published this post on The Performance Marketing Association Blog earlier this week, but I felt so strongly about it, that I wanted to share it here as well.

An open letter from the Performance Marketing Association: What will it take to get serious about the need for strong representation of the Performance Marketing Industry?

Dear Friends,

Geez, what a year it’s been so far!

Both legislators and regulators have heightened concerns over how advertising and Internet tracking can threaten consumer privacy, and many proposals would cripple tracking and data collection practices at the heart of performance marketing.

But that’s just the half of it.

The Federal Trade Commission is expanding its effort to restrict advertising practices, with the intention of protecting consumers from deceptive claims. The FTC is targeting advertisers, publishers, networks and any entities that may profit from deceptive schemes, intentionally or unintentionally.

It is impossible to predict how this will affect our industry. But, we do know one thing is certain — our industry needs to have a seat at the table with these policy makers or our needs will be overlooked entirely.

Through our efforts with the Affiliate Nexus Tax, the PMA has developed a stellar reputation for advocating on behalf of performance marketing in state and federal legislative arenas, and with state and federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies. However, the PMA needs to build up its financial resources to ensure that our industry is represented and time is not on our side.

We need your help to shape our future.

We’ve got some immediate priorities that require us to grow our membership aggressively, so that we can build upon our public policy successes and expand our industry representation.

Notwithstanding the need for immediate donations to the Performance Marketing Fairness Fund, we are also looking for ideas of how the PMA can do a better job attracting members. Your involvement will fuel our success or our failure.

We have set up a special form so that you may submit your ideas. These ideas will go directly to every member of the 2012-2013 PMA Board of Directors. Our plan is to mine your ideas and devise a plan for immediate action.

We’re excited to get your ideas; in fact, we believe that they will be crucial to our success moving forward. Our Board is creative and committed.

Thank you very much for being part of the Performance Marketing big picture.