The session will be hosted by the programme’s co-founder, Tina Judic, alongside a panel of judges, featuring Stevie Johnson, managing director at Disrupt, and Simon Hofmeister, Industry Head eCom at TikTok. They will be judging the four finalists of this year’s Digital Disruptors, all of whom are around 15 years old, who will be pitching their ideas for a brand new network or app. The winner will be crowned the McShane Young Digital Disruptor of the year.

So, why should you care about Digital Disruptors, and why should the final feature on your agenda? This week, I spoke to Tina Judic to found out more about this inspiring initiative, and how it’s shaping the future of our industry.

What is Digital Disruptors?

Digital Disruptors is a programme that’s on a mission to encourage young people to investigate digital marketing, the options it can provide as a career choice, and to think dynamically about the opportunities it can bring to our everyday lives.

It’s all about young people harnessing their amazing array of creativity and innovation and letting them loose with it, while working with some of the smartest individuals and businesses.

It was set up in the memory of Nicky McShane, one of the UK’s most exuberant and progessive digital marketers. She was always keen on supporting the underdog, so it felt like a really beautiful thing we could bring together.

We asked: How can we champion digital, whilst supporting younger people coming up, and see what their potential is in the space? And thanks to our partnership with The Hebe Foundation – a charity that helps young people discover and use their talents – Digital Disruptors was born.

Who should get involved, and why?

Everybody! Everybody should get involved. To any young person who wants to get involved, we’re here for you. We’re very keen for you to apply to join the programme. There’s a real potential to grow. The bigger we can make it, the better.

We would love more businesses to get involved. Whether it be a donation of funds, prizes, or time – all is appreciated.

Once young people are working on their responses, it’s great to have mentors. What we’ve seen with mentors over the years is they get quite competitive! (Laughs) And they’re working really closely with the young people to deliver the best they can possibly deliver.

What are some of your proudest achievements with Digital Disruptors?

First and foremost, it’s the enthusiasm of the young people who participate in the programme. They choose to do this in their summer holidays; they’re coming together after school to work on their response to brief. They want to be the best they can be.

When I get email after email: “What do you think of this, Tina?”, “Can I do this?”, “Can we run through our presentation with you?” Just showing that they care is utterly fantastic.

On top of that, I’ll never forget the first year we took them to PI LIVE. As an aside, big shout out to PI LIVE, which has supported us from the very first year. It’s so phenomenal that Matt and the team do this.

But, the mainstage – it’s quite a daunting thing. I think it’s quite a daunting place to go for any polished practitioner, let alone a 15 year old. It’s fascinating because you see some of them kind of go, “Oh my god!” (Recoils in terror) And then others are going, “Bring it on! This is where I was meant to be.” It’s just so wonderful to see.

Beyond that, I think we’re now starting to get into a few success story potentials. So, one of our first Disruptors, an amazing human being, is now at university. She came along to the Digital Disruptors programme this year as a youth support worker. She just volunteered her time.

I said, “Oh hello, Simbie! What are you doing here?”

“Yeah, well, I’m at university and I chose to do marketing because of Digital Disruptors. And by the way, I really want to have a conversation with you about work experience and getting a job when I’m done.”

I thought, ‘Brilliant’. She’s got ambition, drive, the knowhow; everything about her was so good. I told her to let me know when she’s done and we’ll have a talk.

It’s inspiring because there’s a whole 360 journey, from not really thinking about digital, to studying it at university, to speaking with me about working in the field.

Another chap, Francis, came to Digital Disruptors a couple of years ago. He’s now in college, just 16, and he’s set up a little side hustle as a design agency. We’re now speaking to him about getting some work experience with us and paying him to do some design work for the business. So again, we’re starting to see some of these young people now coming through and that makes it all the more rewarding.

The proudest achievement is being in a position where you’re inspiring young people and seeing their potential. At the moment, we’re living in a society that can often stunt creativity. Digital Disruptors enables young people to imagine, dream, create. It lets them put their unique stamp on things, on what matters to them. So, to give them that moment is amazing.

Even if they just take away something for their CV, or the confidence to express themselves, or the confidence to go on stage – and they can think back, “Wow, I did that at 15 years old!” – then that’s got to be a resounding success in its own right.

What can we expect from this year’s Digital Disruptors finals?

This year, we challenged them to create a new social media app/network. The brief was: ‘something that means something to you’. Everything is open, we don’t want to dictate anything. What we do want to know is how strong your idea is, who your audience is; what’s the validation of your idea, what research you have done, how are you going to promote it; give us an example of what might feature on it.

Four teams are going through to the final, so I’ll give a sense of what they’ll be presenting. We’ve got one team presenting a professional network, which is designed to minimise the gender gap. There’s a network that’s all about educating and developing young people’s skills. There’s a fashion platform, focused on helping people overcome their fears of purchasing online, providing a judgement free space for users. And the final one is a co-moderated network, all about helping young people be who they are in a very safe, entertaining environment.

They’ve only got six minutes each to bring these ideas to life, but when you hear them speaking about it – you hear the ideas, see the videos they put together – it’s just so inspiring because you’re seeing what is bothering them on a day to day basis, the things that they think are important. We should engage much more with the younger generation.

What are your plans for the future of Digital Disruptors?

Ultimately, we want to do more with it. We need sponsorships and support. There’s costs putting it together, bringing in the youth workers to support it, sorting travel for young people; we’re always looking for any financial support we possibly can.

We’re always super grateful for clients offering prizes. It would be great if companies could open up their offices and give us time; we want to expand further and take them on a tour of what they could achieve. I’m really delighted that this year the winning team will get to do a tour of TikTok – which I think they might like! The future is encouraging more to get involved with the initiative. The further we can take it, the better.

The post Digital Disruptors Should Be On Your Radar appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The past five years have been a strange and unsettling period for marketing. There’s been hyperinflation in some of the biggest marketing channels; martech stacks piled so high they’re close to toppling; the death of third-party data; the pandemic. Now the recession has pushed marketing to a pivotal point. The status quo isn’t working. To survive in the times ahead, businesses must now rethink their approach and adapt.

That starts with turning to your most valuable (and often overlooked) asset: your customers.

Turn customers into brand advocates

In the current economic climate, your customers represent the greatest source of untapped growth potential. 

Consumers trust referrals from friends or relatives more than any advertising. They’re much more likely to listen to – and act on – the glowing recommendation of a friend, than that of an influencer or targeted search ad. 

If you’ve built a great brand that offers quality products and service, there’s a good chance customers are already talking about you.  Effectively engaging with these brand fans will create a powerful community of advocates who market your business better than you ever could. 

As well as increasing the quantity of your customers, this word-of-mouth marketing will also enhance their quality. Compared to the average customer, referred customers have double the lifetime value and are 5x more likely to refer onwards – creating a powerful cycle of sustainable growth.

Putting customers at the heart of your growth strategy isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s imperative to the long-term success of your business. Referral can fundamentally transform the economics of your business. It offers lower acquisition costs alongside high lifetime value customers, driving organic growth directly from your core. 

That’s the holy grail of marketing – and the reason that thought leaders, including the creator of NPS Fred Reichheld, are now talking about how driving referrals and thinking advocacy-first is the secret to future-proofing growth. 

A sustainable competitive advantage

As well as a high-performing acquisition channel in its own right, referral generates uniquely rich first-party data that gives you a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Referral data tells you who your best customers are today. That’s not your biggest spenders. It’s your brand advocates – those customers actively introducing high-quality new customers to your business. 

With this data, you can optimise performance across your marketing channels. Social media is a compelling example of this. Despite being one of the modern marketer’s most invested in channels, the death of third-party cookies has seen this channel deliver fluctuating returns that can be near-impossible to predict. 

With first-party referral data, however, brands can target referrer lookalike audiences that are highly likely to convert and have high lifetime value – scaling their businesses whilst reducing their CPAs. Menswear trouser SPOKE is one example of a brand using this to great effect. By using referral data to build audiences on paid social, it’s driving 30% higher ROAS and 12% lower CPA.

You can even start to segment customers based on how likely they are to refer, and target them accordingly. By encouraging customers with a high propensity to refer to share the brand with friends, Moss Bros increased share rates in this segment by 6x. And by offering low propensity customers a discount on next order instead, it increased repeat purchase rates by 23%.

Become a winning business

In the tough times ahead, marketing teams cannot simply plough on with the same strategies and hope to survive. Maximising value from all your assets and channels is now mission critical. Referrals help you make this ambition a reality.

In the words of Fred Reichheld, referrals aren’t the icing on the cake; they’re an essential ingredient for sustainable growth. Harness referral and advocacy for your business, and you’ll optimise marketing performance, beat your competitors and win in the recession. All while earning trust that keeps customers coming back and bringing their friends, long after this challenging period is behind us.

The post How to Future-Proof Growth Through Customer Advocacy – in a Recession and Beyond appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The last several years have posed extremely challenging circumstances for everyone. Consumers and businesses have faced a series of unforeseen curveballs ranging from a global pandemic, lockdown regulations, supply chain issues, a regional war and accompanying sanctions, not to mention a cost-of-living crisis at a time of extreme inflation. 

With so many uncontrollable macro factors at play, the success of a business right now is largely down to its ability to adapt to these turbulent times. Change doesn’t have to be scary though. For the most agile companies, from giant corporations to rising entrepreneurs, these shifting sands have been an opportunity to grow at the expense of their slower moving competitors. 

And with the affiliate channel witnessing an explosion in partner types over the course of the last couple of years, covering every conceivable online media touchpoint, advertisers can use the channel in a highly adaptive manner. Today’s affiliate industry represents a galaxy of marketing options that can hit any range of KPIs, from brand awareness to new customer acquisition.

Combined with its heritage as a low-risk ad model where spend is tied to tangible outcomes like sales and revenue, and where the ROI returns are consistently high, it’s easy to see why advertisers have turned to affiliate partnerships in these difficult circumstances.

But to make the most of this new choice of options, a proactive and experimental approach is required. Advertisers that actively diversify their publisher base in the current climate are the most likely to see incremental growth. Those that are complacent, and who rely on just a small, unvaried programme of partners for growth are unlikely to see it in the long term, and risk becoming over-reliant on them.

Don’t just take our word for it though. We grouped a selection of current Awin advertisers into two distinct categories that aligned with these two approaches to illustrate the distinct difference in outcomes.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Awin works with thousands of brands, of many sizes, across every sector. Taking a sample group of large brands with defined strategies, we analysed two approaches to managing an affiliate programme. 

Group 1 – Armchair Advertisers: The first group of brands has a very passive marketing approach, focused on a couple of core partner types, and running a traditional programme strategy without room or budget for testing or trying more varied partnerships.

Group 2 – Adventure Advertisers: The second group of brands strive for a diverse programme mix, with set budgets available for adapting to market changes, and regularly welcome new partner types on board to support this strategy. 

Diversity of partners fuels increases in traffic 

When comparing both groups year-on-year Armchair Advertisers saw a 6% decrease in traffic mostly impacted by traffic drops from core publisher types, including discount (-8%), loyalty (-9%) and cashback (-29%). 

Adventure Advertisers however, benefited from audience diversity through their varied partner mix and saw traffic increase 29% for the same period. This growth was driven by a variety of the less conventional partners welcomed to the affiliate channel in more recent years, including SEM affiliates seeing 162% traffic growth on the previous year and CSS partners up 76%. 

A diverse affiliate partner mix drives sales performance too

Traffic increases don’t necessarily equate to valuable business growth though. However, looking at sales performance year-on-year presents a similar picture. Armchair Advertiser programmes saw a credible 16% increase in sales, but Adventure Advertisers still exceeded this seeing an impressive 33% sales increase. Again, a mix of newer affiliate types were responsible for this significant sales growth. SEM partners were up +217%, influencers +73% and CSS partners +58% YoY.

Diversity of partners mitigates AOV impact from one partner type 

Increase in average order spend is another common KPI for an effective affiliate programme. Armchair Advertisers witnessed a 2% growth in AOV over the last 12 months, whereas Adventure Advertisers saw a 9% increase in AOV through the different partner types that they could leverage. 

Delving deeper into this disparity, we tracked a significant 12% drop in AOV from just one partner type which impacted growth for Armchair Advertisers who were reliant on this type of affiliate for driving almost half of their sales performance. Despite working with the same partner type themselves, Adventure Advertisers were insulated from this sudden decline thanks to the range of other partner types they worked with. 

Conversion Rate still strong at 4.76% 

Sharp-eyed readers will note the one metric Armchair Advertisers won out by in comparison to Adventure Advertisers was on conversion rates. This is not totally unexpected though. Traffic volumes, as we’ve already established, were significantly higher for the latter group. The diverse nature of their programmes means their programmes influence customer journeys across a much wider segment of the marketing funnel, further from the traditional conversion spaces which last-click attribution metrics focus on.

While this means their average conversion rates were lower (though a close-to-5% conversion rate is still strong), it also means that their partners are likely reaching customers at much earlier phases in their shopping journey. These are by no means wasted interactions. Instead, they can help drive vital brand awareness goals for Adventure Advertisers, keeping their brand in mind when that shopper does eventually decide to buy.   

“If life were predictable it would cease to be life and be without flavour.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

So, we’ve outlined the benefits of building a more diverse affiliate programme across a variety of important business goals. But who are these emerging partnership types helping our Adventure Advertisers?  

Influencers 

Influencer marketing is becoming an integral part of brand affiliate marketing strategy. We are increasingly seeing separate budget pots, KPIs, and success measures for them. In fact, over the past two years we have seen content creators and influencers go from driving 5% to 8% of all network traffic. The number of influencers actively driving sales has also increased 8% over this time period, with 112,095 sales-driving influencers live on the Awin platform in 2022. 

Feel Unique partnered with Sellers Alley via Awin to diversify its existing influencer activity outside of established social platforms to hit a new audience on TikTok. Using a test budget and focusing on UGC-inspired ads, this activation saw search volumes grow 27%, new user engagement up 84%, and delivered 15k sessions on TikTok. Feel Unique impressions reached far beyond the TikTok community with brand followers growing across multiple social platforms too, and increased searches on site for products featured in the TikTok campaign. 

CSS (Comparison Shopping Service partners)

In 2017, Google Shopping welcomed third-party CSS providers into their shopping ad auction. Whilst CSS isn’t necessarily brand new to the overall marketing mix, we are increasingly seeing brands wanting to partner with one or more CSS partner via their affiliate programme, allowing for quick campaign testing, running on risk-free CPA-based commercials, and aligned tracking and measurement alongside other partner types.

Awin has highlighted CSS growth over the last few years, and these partner types have proved no exception in 2022. In 2020, Awin tracked performance through 20 different CSS partners, however in 2022 we now have 304 different partners active in this space driving sales for brands. Investment in CSS partners from brands has increased 57% and CSS partners are now responsible for driving 4% of total network sales. 

Technology Partners 

Technology partners are an exciting way to diversify your programme, but it’s also worth noting the amount of diversity within the umbrella term ‘technology partners’. There are 109 technology partners live on Awin, and a different partner available to meet every objective. If, like many retailers at the moment, the current cost-of-living crisis is impacting the number of items consumers are purchasing per shop, an on-site bundling partner such as Increasingly or Particular Audience might be the partner of choice to support you in boosting this goal. Or, if your business changes tack on what stock to shift and when, a partner such as RevLifter focused on personalised offers, or intent.ly’s on-site overlay technology might be the best choice to interact with consumers during their shopping journey and incentivise specific purchase decisions. Technology partners allow you to accelerate your own in-house innovation, removing traditional martech barriers around allocating development resource and costs. Year-to-date, our technology partners have driven over £160m in sales revenue for our brands globally. 

Brand Partnerships 

Another impressive recent partner success story at Awin has been that of brand-to-brand partnerships. Advertisers are increasingly partnering with complementary, non-competing brands to reach a potential new audience with similar values. Brands can co-promote each other and enter a reciprocal partnership, or follow a more traditional affiliate partnership model with one promoting the other. 

So far this year, Awin UK has tracked over 450 active brand partnerships driving £1.7 million in revenue. 

Awin have also launched partnerships with two providers who specialise in creating bespoke reward portals that brands can feature on their own sites. These offer a seamless, quick and effective white-label solution to fast-track your own customer reward space on your e-commerce site, further enhancing your offering. 

One of the pioneers in the brand partnerships space was the dining card membership brand Tastecard. They saw their whole business model come to a halt at the height of the pandemic lockdown, but swiftly pivoted their business model and worked with Awin to create brand partnerships that would continue to offer their members incredible benefits while restaurants were closed. By promoting other brand offers to the Tastecard audience they were able to maintain customer loyalty and drive a completely new revenue stream for the business which has since become an established part of their offering.  

Diversification as Awin’s North Star

Insights like those we’ve outlined above have helped to inform our own strategic direction at Awin. Understanding that diversification and a proactive approach to establishing new partnerships is vital to continued growth is why we’ve developed a new North Star metric that guides our own priorities and goals as a business.

Awin’s North Star metric is simple; to increase the number of active partnerships tracked through the platform each month. This benefits brands and partners alike, offering continued opportunities for growth and empowering brands and affiliates the choice to enter different partnerships, ensuring their performance goals are achieved and limiting the risks involved from relying on fewer partnerships.

If you are interested in diversifying your partner mix, testing new partnerships, or want to hear more of our case studies, please do attend our session on the mainstage at PI Live at 2.50pm on Tuesday with Awin’s Chief Customer Officer David Lloyd, or reach out directly to Joelle.mullin@awin.com.

And to explore the diverse array of partners you can work with via Awin, check out our Power 100 in this year’s Awin Report 2022 – our selection of the 100 most innovative and influential affiliate partners on our global platform.

The post How Can Brands Adapt to Change and Embrace Publisher Diversity? appeared first on PerformanceIN.

For ticket holders, it’s now time to access the Event Hub, and plan your experience. You can use the Hub to review the delegate list, arrange meetings, check out networking opportunities, and create your own personalised agenda. This will guarantee you an optimised experience, better ROI, and a memorable time. Check your inbox to find the link to sign up.

And of course, there’s more to PI LIVE than just business. 

After a busy day of building your network and gaining key industry insight, we expect you’ll want to loosen up in the evening and let your hair down. We’ve got you covered. 

The PI LIVE Afterparty will be hosted at the striking, newly renovated cabaret club Proud in Embankment and is being sponsored by OTB-Algo. Join us to sip on cocktails and celebrate the bright future for performance, affiliate, and partnership marketing. Details on how to get tickets for the afterparty will be announced soon.

If you still don’t have a ticket, please purchase yours here, we’d love to see you there. But act fast, as there is limited availability.

The post The PI LIVE Event Hub is Live! appeared first on PerformanceIN.

This is your last chance to join brands like Amazon, Gymshark, and British Airways as they come together to learn from the best minds in the partnership marketing ecosystem, in turn enabling them to optimise their strategies accordingly.

The partnerships industry goes beyond traditional affiliate marketing; where does the opportunity lie, and what should you focus on in the year ahead?

You don’t want to miss this

After a tumultuous few years, there’s a lot to catch up on. The leading brands that will be present at Old Billingsgate will give you key insight into successful initiatives and growth strategies, enabling you to set in stone your business-critical strategy going forward.

Make sure you join the above brands if you want to exchange views, compare notes and benchmark your operations.

From how to succeed in brand-to-brand partnerships to the partnership marketing strategies you need for 2023, there’s a wealth of lectures from industry leaders to help your brand become the best it can be.

There are also brand new networking areas exclusive to 2022’s show that will give you the opportunity to expand your network of industry contacts.

All ticket prices will increase on Friday, so if you want to join us on 18th-19th October, act quickly and secure yours now.

The post Last Chance for Brands to Secure a Free Pass to PI LIVE London 2022 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Success is clearly subjective dependant on objectives, but one thing is a cert, a hyper sensitive data-focus can ensure that turning the marketing dial can deliver results. In addition to a cool rational approach to the times ahead, the journey that the content will take you on will start with a look at the partnerships that are forging a new path for both advertisers and publishers and strip the curtain of value back, to attempt to understand what rewards consumers actually value.

This years’ PI LIVE London agenda features more first-time speakers than ever before, and the fresh faces gracing the main stage will bring with them a new perspective on the challenges and opportunities available within the space. From how to handle the changing roles in the new found world of partnerships to the ultimate recession-proof survival kit, this years’ agenda is everything you need to optimise your strategy moving forward.

As well as being able to experience all of our live content on the day, our VIP pass holders will also be able to access the content for the entire year to come, as all our content is recorded and stored in our video vault.

Head to the website to see our full line-up of speakers, sponsors, and all the content that PI LIVE will showcase, and then secure your tickets!

We look forward to seeing you at Old Billingsgate in a few months time.

The post Bracing for Change: What to Expect at PI LIVE London 2022 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The post LIVE from PI LIVE London 2021: Inspiration from Three Affiliate Founders appeared first on PerformanceIN.

In this panel session, the speakers discussed the Evolution of the Partnership Economy. So far this year we have seen extreme success in the partnership marketing industry, so taking a look back at this conversation is extremely interesting – how has the channel evolved since?

The post LIVE from PI LIVE London 2021: The Evolution of the Partnership Economy appeared first on PerformanceIN.

This is what makes PI LIVE London so special. It’s an event that the industry looks forward to all year long, simply because the quality of content is unbeatable, and the incredible brands, agencies, networks and publishers this draws in means the networking opportunities are unrivalled.

What’s new this year?

• New and improved platform for 2022 – The event hub is your personalised show companion. This innovative platform will allow you to create your personalised agenda, peruse the attendee list to contact and arrange meetings with like-minded delegates and check out what’s hot at the show.

• The Partnerships Lounge  – This brand new area will offer meeting spaces for 200+ delegates and will be dedicated to enabling profitable partnerships; the perfect opportunity to align your brand for successful collaborations.

The team behind PI LIVE London is determined to take delegate feedback into account every single year, so the event can be evolved and prove to be the perfect environment to thrive, whether that be through networking, learning, or simply reconnecting with familiar faces.

A limited number of early bird tickets will be available at a reduced price in June – make sure to sign up to our newsletter to be the first in with the chance of grabbing one.

The post Back and Better Than Ever: PI LIVE London 2022 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

I managed to grab Andrea Fenel, Paid Social Media Lead at HSBC UK, for a chat following her session: ‘Brand and Performance: How Can They Work Together?’

Attendees, we would like to remind you that the video vault is now available for you to access via unique code that will now have landed in your inbox, so you can head to the vault to recap on the full session.

The post Live from PI LIVE London 2021 with Andrea Fenel on Brand and Performance Working Together appeared first on PerformanceIN.