Founded in 2004, shares in the Manchester-based firm changed hands for as much as 658p, 32% above the 500p IPO price, before easing back to 625p, valuing the business at £5.6 billion.

The result puts founder Matthew Moulding more than halfway to hitting a target that would give him shares worth £700 million. Moulding is both chairman and CEO of the company.

Meanwhile, investors in the company were typically unconcerned by the health and beauty retailer’s unusual corporate governance structures, with Phil Drury of Citigroup stating that the deal had received “multiple levels of oversubscription”.

Given the current impact of the stock market due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the looming Brexit taking place, this is significantly development and great to see a British tech company making its debut on the London Stock Exchange.

The post The Hut Group Shares Soar in Landmark IPO appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Leupold von Löwenthal will be responsible for local business development, marketing activities & sales in addition to taking over two business directions: Admitad Affiliate Network and Admitad Technology. The latter is focused on software solutions initially owned by Adgoal, such as Admitad Extension link generator and Smartlink Technology that converts regular links into affiliate ones.

“My primary objectives will be to establish Admitad as a reliable service provider and use all its resources to pursue building long-term partnerships in the DACH region. Admitad wants to be perceived not as a competitor, but as an assistant, a boost rather than hindrance. I’m sure we have the right tools just for that,” said Dino Leupold von Löwenthal.

Since 2012, Dino Leupold von Löwenthal has been holding senior-level positions, including head of affiliate marketing & lead generation at iProspect, region managing director Central Europe at Awin and CEO of VerticalAds Group.

”We have a vision of Admitad as an affiliate service provider for all market peers – both in DACH and globally. Von Löwenthal is an acknowledged expert in the said market. I strongly believe he will help us pursue this vision and become a valuable part of the team. I am happy to welcome him to the Admitad family,” commented Alexander Bachmann CEO Admitad.

This news follows the recent announcement of Admitad’s parent company AB Capital Group investment of cashback service LetyShop of $3 million. The investment will aid in increasing the holding’s share in one of Eastern Europe’s leading cashback service providers.

The post Admitad Launches New Office and Hires DACH Region Manager appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Europe’s largest independent bank Engagement as a Service solution will continue building its existing and successful UK partnership with Visa, where they currently provide Customer Engagement capabilities and content to support several of Visa’s UK client programmes. These programmes provide customers with some of the richest retail offers in the market, across more than 30 of the UK’s leading retailers, due to Reward’s ability to deliver personalised card-linked offers (PCLO).

As part of the partnership, Reward’s Customer Engagement capabilities and merchant content will be distributed to a potential 250m+ customers across Visa’s European banking partners – launching first in the Republic of Ireland in the second half of the year.

“Our goal is to help design, build and operate the best Customer Engagement programmes in the world, around the world. We made a pledge in 2018 to give £1bn of rewards to customers by 2022. So far, we’ve given back over £740m and we hope this partnership with Visa will help us achieve that goal,” said Gavin Dein, Reward’s founder and CEO.

“In the last few years, we’ve made huge investments in anonymising, cleansing and aggregating transactional data so that our advanced algorithms can predict where consumers are likely to shop next. This combined with Visa’s ability to promote these offers on a one-to-one basis, enables us to give consumers access to offers from the world’s largest retailers. We call this process Personalised Card Linked Offers (PCLO) and it’s an evolution from a one-size-fits-all Card Linked Offers (CLO) approach. We believe that PCLO is the future of performance marketing and excited to bring this Capability to Europe with Visa,” he continued.

The partnership builds on Reward’s already sizable cardholder portfolio, providing retailers with the transactional insight and banks with technological capabilities to deliver PCLO offers and Customer Engagement solutions at scale.

This supports Reward’s strategic goal of giving £1 billion in rewards to customers through bank Customer Engagement programmes by 2022.

“With Reward’s extensive retail network and tailored content, Visa cardholders can get access to relevant and personalised offers to spend and save at the retailers they prefer,” said Kevin Akerman, Executive Director, Visa.

“In partnership with our issuing banks, we are delighted to continue working with Reward to bring tailored offers to our customers across Europe so they can save when they spend with their Visa card,” he added.

The post Reward Extends Partnership with Visa to Provide Award-Winning Customer Engagement capabilities to Banks Across Europe appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Schmidt will be responsible for establishing Impact’s growth in the region, from the new office in Berlin. He brings many years’ experience in affiliate marketing to the business, having previously held the roles of Head of Business Development at MenschDanke and Head of Key Account Management and Sales at Webgears.

Schmidt will report to MD EMEA Florian Gramshammer and will lead the German business in a market where the digital penetration is at 93% and there is significant growth in opportunities for advertisers.

“Impact has created a game-changing SaaS platform which enables advertisers to leverage high-quality partnerships globally at scale. Having worked for a number of years in the affiliate industry I’ve seen many attempts to provide the full picture in this way but the level of insights, reliability and effectiveness that Impact’s Partnership Cloud offers is unique. I’m more than convinced that our platform will help DACH advertisers to unlock the growth potential of partnership automation,” said Schmidt.

“Germany is the fifth largest consumer market globally and brands have been harnessing the power of partnerships over the last 12 months and this is timely for us to be launching in this strong and innovative market.”

In his previous role, Schmidt successfully established the Webgears Group as a whitelabel provider for savings across three markets: Germany, the UK and the US. He also designed a performance-based commerce content strategy for media houses in order to generate new revenue streams and prove incremental value in affiliate marketing – most famously for Germany’s largest newspaper Bild.de, which resulted in revenue gains of over 500% in two years.

“We are delighted to continue our growth in EMEA with the German office marking a significant milestone for Impact. We see huge potential for the region and Felix is the ideal fit to lead the business forward. Felix is the ultimate performance marketing specialist and his strategic know-how in this area will undoubtedly help us to get the message of Impact’s unparalleled offering out to this crucial market,” commented Florian Gramshammer, MD EMEA, Impact.

Catch up with our interview with Gramshammer on how Impact has been responding to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The post Impact Opens German Office and Appoints Felix Schmidt as Country Manager appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The UK Advertising Export Report 2020 confirms the UK enjoyed the largest balance of payments surplus for advertising in Europe of £3.6bn, with advertising exports growing from £2.4bn to £7.9bn in the decade from 2009 – helping the advertising industry overtake engineering and telecoms to become the country’s second-biggest export sector after computer services

Meanwhile, the US remains the single largest market for UK advertising services, purchasing £1.1 billion of work services, closely followed by Germany (£1 billion) and France (£733m), Switzerland (£661m) and Ireland (£640m).

“This new report demonstrates the continued strength of the UK as a global centre for advertising and marketing services. To have jumped into second place as an export among comparable industries is a genuine demonstration of UK advertising’s strategic, creative and technological strengths,” said Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association

“It is something we should be rightly proud of. We are determined to throw all our energies into building on this position of strength to enhance the UK’s status as a world-class hub for responsible advertising that makes a valuable and trusted contribution to people, society, businesses and the economy,” he continued.

Although with ad exports in a strong position, Woodford did warn that in the wake of the current global health crisis, more than ever, the country has a fundamental role to play in supporting businesses from the UK and from around the world to keep the economy moving and support jobs and livelihoods.

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The latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure report was published at the time of the Advertising Association’s LEAD summit for the UK’s ad industry at the QEII Conference Centre in Central London.

The findings revealed that growth in the third quarter of 2019 was 0.8 percentage points ahead of forecast.

Looking ahead to the full-year figures for 2019, UK ad spend is forecast to reach £24.8 billion, meaning growth of 5.2%. This is expected to rise a further 5.2% in 2020 to reach £26.1 billion.

The figures stated were a result of increased spend on online advertising, which saw percentage increases across every format.

Attributing to this, the increased spend in the channel was led by digital out of home, which rose by 17.1% followed by TV broadcaster VOD which saw a rise of 16.7% and national online news brands (6.5%).

The report also demonstrated particularly strong growth in Q3 2019 compared to the same quarter in 2018 in cinema advertising, which saw a very impressive rise of 46.5%.

The online figures reflect the recent Advertising Pays 7: UK Advertising’s Digital Revolution report from industry’s think tank, Credos. The report revealed that Britain is the largest online advertising marketplace in Europe and that the country has the highest per capita online retail spend in the G20. 

“UK media spend has continued to perform strongly in Q3 2019, now on the twenty-fifth straight quarter of growth. The figures show ad spend increases across a range of media with digital formats and sectors continuing to drive growth. These media spend figures are particularly impressive given this was a period of Brexit and political uncertainty and very low overall economic growth. As the Credos report on UK digital advertising showed, this is in part fuelled by the exceptional growth in SME spend in digital, as well as larger advertisers continuing to move budgets into digital formats in most media sectors. The projected growth for 2020 shows these trends continuing. With Brexit now a certainty, industry’s focus now turns to the future relationship with the EU and the importance of this to the overall health of the economy, which underpins these media spend growth,” said Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association.

“The UK’s ad market has sustained a 25-quarter period of expansion, but underlying data show that this growth is asymmetric – excluding online advertising, the UK’s ad market has contracted each quarter for the last four years. Online formats account for three in five pounds spent on advertising in the UK, and we expect this to rise to two in three by mid-2021, fuelling total market growth in tow,” commented James McDonald, data editor at WARC.

Industry reaction to UK advertising growth

Kirsty Giordani, executive director, International Advertising Association (IAA), UK: “With ad spend rising more than 5% in Q3 2019, we have a reason to be positive, but we can’t afford to be complacent.

“To maintain our creative edge and talent-attracting environment in a post-Brexit UK, the ad industry must be prepared for potential challenges from Q1 2020. These could include budget cuts, changes in campaign priorities, and disruption to the ebb and flow of homegrown and overseas talent. Regulatory enforcement from the ICO is also expected to increase this year, with the impact felt by the ad-tech industry and advertisers alike.”

Jeff Meglio, VP global demand, Sovrn: “UK media spend is continuing to perform strongly, propelled by increased investment in online advertising. With this growth predicted to continue—UK ad spend is forecast to rise 5.2% in 2020—we can expect a stronger emphasis on the quality of online inventory moving forwards, driven by increased data privacy regulations. 

“More than this, we can expect advertisers to spend more carefully, narrowing the number of partners they work with, and transacting in more consumer-friendly, transparent ways. This will lead to both supply and demand partners seeking differentiation in an effort to stay relevant.”

Chris Hogg, managing director, EMEA, Lotame: “It is not surprising to see an uptick in online advertising as advertisers are focusing on ways to meet modern audiences where they are, and connect with them in meaningful ways. Despite the current market climate, it’s encouraging to see marketers are not afraid to play around with different formats and creative opportunities, such as DOOH. This reflects the general consensus that audiences are, and will continue to be, spread across different media and platforms, generating multiple touchpoints and data sets.

Thanks to these digital technologies, marketers and advertisers today can have access to incredibly detailed insight which enables them to target increasingly specific audiences. Fittingly, Lotame has seen a 28.9% rise in data-related investments during Q3 in 2019 as brands seek to enrich their own data to find new customers but also to create a more panoramic view of their existing customers by tapping into different data sources.”

Jeff Pfefferkorn, head of sales, UK, MainAd: “The annual rise in ad spend is certainly encouraging especially at a time when declining footfall is hitting UK high streets hard.  

Digital media continues to be the main driver of growth with channels like Online Display experiencing an exciting 12.6% YOY uplift. This space is particularly interesting to watch because, as it becomes more innovative and sophisticated, it offers brands and advertisers the opportunity to experiment with different formats and reach consumers through truly dynamic campaigns.

The benefits of these technologies – better measurement, increased transparency and ultimately higher ROAS – are also leading to further investment in mobile as a result of the strong link between in-app advertising and product search and ultimately customer conversion. It is this shift in the devices we use to power our discovery and eventual purchase that presents a golden opportunity for brands to remain top of mind even when consumers are not online or in a physical store.”

Libby Robinson, managing director EMEA, M&C Saatchi Performance: “Digital’s impact on the growth of ad spend is unsurprising and promising for our sector, it’s also a reflection of the high accountability we’ve achieved as a collective. Advertisers are focused on quantifiable results and leveraging platforms and channels they know can deliver return on investment, and we expect them to hold on to this outlook in 2020.

“Advertisers will continue to utilise sophisticated tools to improve performance and to measure, at a granular level, along the entirety of the marketing funnel. The industry-wide movement towards greater transparency will make building a view of performance across all touchpoints easier for brands, which in turn will lead to greater efficiency and further investment growth.”

The post UK Ad Spend Reaches £5.97 Billion in Q3 2019 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

As the continued migration away from cookie-based advertising is pushing marketers towards new, rich media channels, Rakuten Marketing’s latest research revealed that UK marketers are still not tailoring their content to specific consumers, with only one in three advertising campaigns being personalised.

Although marketers are exploring new channels that make use of GDPR-compliant first-party data, such as video advertising (29% and in-app advertising (26%), 32% of respondents place ‘consumer fatigue with online ads’ among the greatest threats to marketing in 2020.

Rakuten Marketing’s research was conducted among 600 marketers in the UK, France and Germany.

Seasonal peaks

With the shift in campaign approach, nine in 10 marketers are already responding to this need for better engagement by opting to create more relevant campaigns orientated around major sales moments in the calendar. These include season peaks such as Christmas (51%) and Cyber Weekend (32%) which are now joined by Prime Day (18%) and Chinese New Year (15%).

In the travel vertical, particularly in France and Germany, days including Chinese New Year and Singles’ Day, is a growing focus for marketers. A quarter (25%) of travel businesses in France and 20% in Germany will launch Singles’ Day campaigns, while 21% of travel companies in France and 20% in Germany have planned campaigns around Chinese New Year.

Cross-border experiences

The number of campaigns aimed at international shoppers by UK marketers has grown by 35% over the last two years, with the highest growth reported by luxury fashion marketers at 42%. Furthermore, one in ten UK marketers are now working in regions such as Singapore, Brazil, China, Japan and the Middle East.

In France, Germany and the UK, marketers estimate at least a third of their company’s sales are now generated by overseas shoppers.

“Marketers are increasingly struggling to reach their entire target audience across all channels at all times. The truth is it’s unsustainable. Marketers have to rationalise their approach, making data-led decisions about who it makes sense to speak to, when and via which channels,” said Nick Fletcher, country manager UK at Rakuten Marketing.

“Going international with marketing campaigns means making fundamental alterations – from language to pricing and messaging. In some cases, price competition and discounts are essential to driving cross-border commerce, but they should not be seen as a substitute for great customer experiences. To ensure brands can replicate their success in new markets, experiences that feel personal are a must,” Fletcher concluded.

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In 2019, we’ve seen affiliate marketing and partnerships grow rapidly across Europe, with more and more brands increasing their investment in these channels. As the partnership space broadens to include a more diverse set of partners and partner types, so has the ability for programs to deliver against a broader set of KPIs becomes stronger. 

The pay-for-performance model is proven to deliver outstanding ROI, be a viable source of customer acquisition, and drive higher lifetime customer value. As adoption spreads further across Europe, here are five approaches that can help drive continued strong growth in 2020. 

1. Expand content partnerships 

The depth and breadth of partnerships are growing at breakneck speed. Brands are experimenting more to find the optimal blend of not just partners, but partner types. In Europe, the affiliate space is growing with traditional participants like cashback and coupons and has now grown to include influencers and content publishers. Consumption of content is on the rise in part because mobile is increasing total connected time. Consider that in the UK, for example, mobile devices now account for 78% of all adult online minutes, and further, content umbrellas such as BBC and News UK sites fall in the top 10 properties for digital reach.

These numbers are for the UK, but the same trend can be seen across Europe. Brands will see continued growth in the opportunity to partner with premium content publishers to meet consumers in various stages of the buyer funnel. Integrating with content that is relevant to a specific audience can be rolled into a more strategic partnership mix. Use content for awareness and consideration, whilst keeping those cashback sites and coupon codes to seal the deal.

2. Go deep on leveraging local market expertise and shopping habits

As with expanding channel investment in any region, one of the first things you learn about partner marketing in EMEA is that you need to really understand the local market to succeed. For example, online commerce in Germany looks very different than commerce in other major world economies. 

German consumers have embraced e-commerce a little more gradually than those in leading world markets. While the German economy is more than 40% larger than Britain’s, for example, the total value of its e-commerce sales is significantly lower. That means that in Germany, e-commerce sales are just 8.8% of total retail sales, versus 16.5% for the UK. Nevertheless, most of the retail sales growth in Germany is coming from online and mobile commerce. And in the coming years, we expect the growth rates to far exceed those in more developed markets like the US. 
 
In addition, many Germans expect retailers to offer post-delivery, invoice-based payment methods, instead of focusing solely on credit or debit cards. Theirs is not a “debt culture” like North America. Allowing consumers to order now and pay later really is crucial for success.

Other regional nuances abound throughout EMEA and marketers must pursue more robust understanding across borders.

3. Commit to mobile and mobile measurement

It’s true, the digital community has been saying “mobile-first” for over 10 years. But the numbers simply don’t lie. In France, for example, mobile commerce sales were predicted to rise by 20.6% this year. In Germany, well over one-third of e-commerce sales are being made on mobile. These are just two examples; mobile usage for commerce continues to grow across Europe.

For partner marketers, a strong mobile strategy and measurement plan is mission-critical because many of the most well-known technologies for affiliate cannot, by themselves, holistically measure all partner-based revenue that passes through the mobile web and mobile apps. 

Apps are of growing importance to affiliate marketing. Partly because of their value for retail app install campaigns, and partly because of the higher conversion rates that retailer apps consistently deliver versus the PC and mobile web. Ergo, comprehensive app management is essential. 

4. Emphasise transparency 

We’ve entered an era in which consumer trust has risen to the top of marketers’ priorities. The General Data Privacy Regulations (GDPR) have been in effect in the EU for the better part of two years, and other global regions are following suit with similar legislation. 

The good news for those in the partnership and affiliate space is that more brands are getting on board because the industry doesn’t track intrusively. Companies are shifting to platforms that enable the use of first-party data, server to server tracking, and full clarity for consumers as to what is happening to their data. In 2020, we expect this trend to grow exponentially as regulation increases and reliance on third-party cookies declines. The ability of partnerships to deliver on the promise of transparency is unparalleled.

5. Monitor the DTC space

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have been the eCommerce darlings of the US retail world for years, but that model has seen slower adoption in Europe. But that seems to be changing, especially in the UK. 

For these emerging DTC brands, partnerships with major retailers is a way to grow awareness and develop a following. Influencers have also been the core of many DTC marketing plans. Momentum for these brands comes through word of mouth and social communities, and success relies on the ability to deliver and pay all partners on time. For these new brands, being able to scale partnerships and their businesses will hinge on automation and strategy. 

But why should you care? Well, if you work for a DTC, exploring creative partnerships will be important in 2020. And if you are not working for a DTC, it’s important to monitor these brands as they are driving significant disruptions in many categories. 

2020 promises to be another great year for the partnerships space. By considering these five concepts, you can help ensure you get more than your fair share.

The post Five Partner Marketing Trends EMEA Marketers Should Leverage in 2020 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Ahead of Black Friday this month, there is evidence that the annual shopping event is gaining more traction in the UK market with only 39% of UK consumers not planning to shop on / during November 29, according to Mention Me’s third annual research report.

This stat is a sharp decrease from last year’s figure of 53% and 63% in 2017. 

Out of 2,000 UK consumers who took part in the study, including Generation Z and younger Millennials, 31% of 18-24-year-olds and 26% of 25-34-year-olds are set to shop on Black Friday, stating that they hold off making any major purchases two months prior to the event.

Meanwhile, 30% of 25-34-year-olds and 23% of 35-44-year-olds admitted that they decide what to buy on the day and go to the brands with the biggest discounts, suggesting that some Black Friday traffic spikes won’t necessarily translate into loyal customers.

However more reassuringly for retailers, the survey echoed the current wider sentiment that trust is an increasingly important theme across society. 33% of the 18-24-year-old Black Friday shoppers questioned the state that they would only shop with brands that they already know and are loyal to. This also applied to 20% of those surveyed who were planning to shop on Black Friday across every other age group. 

Discovery, pricing and ethics

The report also revealed that friend and family recommendations still top all other discovery methods for those planning to shop on Black Friday, with 26% of 18-34-year-olds, 25% of 35-44-year-olds and 24% of 45-54-year-olds, only dropping to 16% of the 55+ age group.

A new trend revealed in this year’s results reflect the wider growing significance of a brand’s ethics for consumers, with 29% of the 18-24-year-olds, 25% of the 25-34-year-olds and 20% of the 35-44 year old Black Friday shoppers surveyed stating that they will be influenced by brands with positive sustainable and ethical behaviour. This trend dips in the older generations with 14% of 45-54-year-olds and 12% of 55+ Black Friday shoppers.

Black Friday shoppers appear to have more selfish motives for their purchases according to the research, especially Generation Z with 36% of 18-24-year-old Black Friday shoppers admitting that they are buying for themselves rather than presents for friends and family (27%). 

The figures for self shopping are high across each age range but peak again for the 55+ group with 33% shopping for themselves compared with 24% shopping for presents. Men are also more selfish Black Friday shoppers with 23% more likely to shop for themselves than friends and family. 

“Black Friday remains a high octane impactful calendar event for our 400+ retail clients, echoed by our research revealing that 61% of the 2,000 consumers questioned are planning on Black Friday shopping,” said Andy Cockburn, CEO of Mention Me.

“What’s interesting this year is that the movement towards trust in brands and ethical shopping is starting to have an impact on this shopping event previously focussed solely on discounting. Retailers need to work to sustain their image pre and post-event and can no longer just rely on offering the best price on Black Friday if they want to build long term valued customers.” 

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