LinkShare Sees Strong Customer Growth in Weak Economy

Demonstrates Value of Performance Marketing in a Recovering Economy

New York -- March 18, 2010 -- LinkShare, a performance marketing network provider, today announced the addition of more than 200 new companies to its network of advertisers in the second half of 2009. The new customer roster demonstrates the importance of performance-based marketing programs – and quality affiliate partners – in expanding a retailer’s brand awareness, especially as companies struggle to bounce back from a tough economy.

“With the economy on a slow upswing, retailers remain acutely focused on profitability and where they spend marketing and advertising dollars,” said Yasuhisa "Yaz" Iida, CEO, LinkShare Corporation. “More than ever before, retailers are looking to do more with less. Our growing network of quality publishers and ever-expanding set of tools from our BentoBox enables our retailers’ to promote their brands in new markets - in innovative and measurable ways.”

According to a ComScore report*, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter influenced 28 percent of U.S. holiday shoppers in gift-buying decisions in 2009. As more shoppers turn to the Internet, and their social networks, retailers are looking for ways to capitalize on this market trend. LinkShare has identified opportunities for members of its network to take advantage of this “social shopping” ecommerce evolution through the development of tools that are easy, fast and open. These tools – such as the Twitter Tweetshop or LinkGenerator Bookmarklet – present an opportunity for retailers to reach consumers who use social media networks to share, recommend and find products to buy.

LinkShare’s Twitter Tweetshop Tool was launched last fall and has been widely adopted by the network’s publishers. Using this tool, Twitter-users can monetize their Twitter streams through an online shopping mall, by simply including the #tweetshop hashtag in each tweet. Publishers are using this tool to easily recommend products and services to their followers, adding another channel through which they can help expand a retailer’s brand.

Second-half additions to the LinkShare network include companies within the Internet’s fastest-growing and most dynamic markets, that are looking to increase revenue through affiliate marketing, PPC search, SEO, SMO or lead generation.

*Article, “Facebook, Twitter Influence Holiday Gift Buying”, published by Bloomberg, December 2009

Source: LinkShare Corporation