Affilinet’s UK managing director, Helen Southgate, has been named chairperson of the IAB UK’s Performance Marketing Council (PMC).
The IAB called Southgate a “prominent figure” in the PMC since its launch with the aim of promoting industry standards and transparency; Southgate held the same position six years’ ago under its former embodiment as the Affiliate Marketing Council.
According to the announcement, she’ll be supported in the role by Awin’s global client strategy director, Kevin Edwards, Optimise’s chief operating officer, Nathan Salter, and RetailMeNot’s director of retail and brand solutions, James Boden.
The affilinet MD’s appointment follows her own call for leadership within the PMC, where she cited legislation issues – such as the Cookie Directive, GDPR and CMA review of price comparison sites – as contributing to a larger “unpredictable social and economic environment” for performance marketing in the UK and overseas.
Speaking on the new role, Southgate said it was the “right time” for someone to step back into the position to drive forward “not only the objectives of the PMC but also how the PMC supports the wider IAB objectives.”
She added that the support of Edwards, Salter and Boden would back the “key focus” of delivering value for all PMC members and the industry as a whole; “That will include better engagement and communication whilst we work together to drive forward the affiliate channel and continue to raise our profile in the wider marketing world.”
Quelling concerns
The decision was tentatively revealed in an email to the PMC’s members on April 7 from the IAB’s senior mobile and video manager, Mike Reynolds, who called the decision for the affilinet MD to head the council an “easy process”.
Within the update, Reynolds acknowledged recent concerns around the future of the PMC following the entry of new CEO Jon Mew and resulting staff reshuffle. This saw the departure of its former head of industry programmes, Claire O’Brien, who has been regarded as a driver of the council’s growth.
On those concerns, Reynolds conveyed his hopes that the early announcement would be “a step in the right direction” for the Performance Marketing Council’s members.
“As part of the new look IAB structure one of the things that we are keen to do is elect an industry chairperson for each of the councils,” said Reynolds; “There’s lots of reason we think this is a good idea but in short we want more people promoting IAB initiatives to the industry to raise the profile of the great work we do.”