FROM an office in Boldon, experts at Performance Horizon are creating what’s been called “the next generation of performance marketing technology”.

With products such as ExactView, clients are able to look in real-time at information showing how each of their online publishers – or affiliates – is helping their brand get attention.

By giving brands this up-to- the-minute data on how each affiliate is performing, Performance Horizon’s products can work in parallel with – and even replace – the affiliate networks usually employed to track this particular information.

Performance Horizon was set up in 2010 by Malcolm Cowley and Paul Fellows, who had previously run global affiliate network buy.at.

The Newcastle-based company was sold to AOL for $125m in 2008 and the founders set off in a slightly different direction.

Fellows said: “We knew it was the right thing to do because of our experience running an affiliate network. We saw this shift happening.

“Performance Horizon’s tool allows brands to manage their relationship with their partners and gives them the analytics they need. That’s work they’d normally pay an affiliate network to do.

“Traditionally, an affiliate network sits between the affiliate and the merchant, tracking the transactions and making the payments. Our offer allows the merchant to work much closer with the affiliates themselves.