Last month, ValueClick announced a restructuring: All of their media programs have now been compiled under one roof, branded Conversant Inc, or Conversant Media if you go by their domain.

Now that we’re a month into the new platform, it’s time to look under the hood and find out what we can expect from this new domain.  In order to understand how the announcement is going to affect you, let’s look a little deeper into what, exactly, just happened.

What is Conversant Inc?

Firstly, let’s understand exactly what Conversant Media is. Officially, it’s billed as a “restructuring,” but there have been no corporate buyouts, no major management changes, so the primary purpose looks to be a new branding initiative.

ValueClick has, in some ways, still struggled to regain its hold on the affiliate marketing landscape, after years of battling complaints and stereotypes about a massive Commission Junction scam, with accusations of shaving affiliate and publisher earnings, so the name change may be an attempt to finally put the past behind them.

But there’s more to it than that. Conversant Inc is an attempt to streamline all of ValueClick’s offerings under one roof, making it easier for their users to engage with previously disparate systems.  Commission Junction, Dotomi, Greystripe, MediaPlex, and ValueClick Media are now grouped together. That means that Conversant offers enterprise, digital media, and affiliate options all in one place.

What Does This Mean for Affiliates?

Honestly, I think it doesn’t mean all that much. According to the CJ Blog announcement of the change, If you were already a CJ affiliate or publisher then all of your existing account data, links, contracts, payments, etc carry over automatically to the new system.

I think the big change is going to come only if you use multiple ValueClick platforms. For most affiliates that’s not the case, but if you run a larger organization, the enterprise software solutions or digital media campaign solutions may come into play.

At the end of the day, CJ is still providing the same behemoth service it always has, for better or worse.