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.

I went into the meeting with plenty of questions, and the amount of ideas and information that Adam shared with me meant we went off on a few tangents. But, every single thing we discussed is incredibly valuable, especially for you, those who care about performance marketing.

The cookie conversation

As Adam pointed out, the cookie deprecation conversation has been going on for as long as we remember, and time is the key here. When it comes to this conversation, something we need to focus on is ‘who is going to stand the test of time?’ Apple definitely seems to be honing focus in on solutions a lot more, and we can expect Microsoft, Google and Meta to follow suit.

From a consumer perspective, increased privacy is obviously a great thing. According to Adam, the creepiness needs to be stopped – consumers want their privacy to be respected. In order to win this battle, more focus needs to be placed on context. This means focusing not on who your customers are, but instead what are they reading about? What are they clicking on? Try to determine what they’re curious about based on what they’re doing!

“In ten years, our children will be shocked that we used to be tracked without giving our permission.”

The beginning of something huge

Adam told me a great story proving the value of trust, especially now that many of us now prefer to shop online as opposed to in store. He wanted to buy a trampoline for his kids, yet when he searched Amazon, thousands of products popped up. So instead, Adam spent time searching through various reviews on review.com. Here, a team of experts had reviewed various trampolines, putting in an incredible amount of time and effort. Then, when Adam came across the right one for him, he purchased it directly from the company.

“I appreciated the effort – I liked and connected with the reviews and then bought from the brand, DTC. I think this is something that is going to become a lot more common, especially with a younger audience that likes to connect to the story and personality behind a brand.”

So, publishers should definitely consider this – it’s a great opportunity to achieve success through content.

Take the New York Times’ Wirecutter and Future; publishers are becoming not only a source of trust for news and entertainment, but also for product reviews. This is a continuation of the context conversation that is taking place. This should matter to you, as an individual working in performance marketing, as it’s a great way that brands can attach themselves to an article in which a relevant conversation is being had about their brand.

The open web

It was really obvious throughout our whole conversation how passionate Adam is about the open web. He said that, if you rely on third party tracking of any kind, it’s important to spend time on the open web to see your other options.

“I support anything that encourages the open web and journalism. If it relates to advertiser and publisher success, I love it. We need to all commit to making the free open web strong and help ensure advertisers are successful outside the big walled gardens.”

Content moderation through AI

Adam told me that with certain things it is critical to combine machines and humans. An example he used to paint the picture of what can happen when content fails to be moderated is that of Facebook. Facebook missed out on being a great feed for users, simply because there weren’t enough humans involved in the process of moderating the feed. This, according to Adam, is mission critical. Any company with distribution to a lot of people needs some kind of moderation, and this is where AI needs to work alongside humans.

“Humans have guts, machines don’t have guts, but they can do other things faster and better.”

Performance advertisers specifically need a lot of tech and AI because, simply put, without them, you wouldn’t be able to do everything.

What is Taboola working on that you should be aware of?

Number one on the list for Taboola is making sure performance advertisers on the platform are successful. Where there are now around 15,000 on Taboola, they want to increase that number. The platform reaches about 500 million people every day, so Adam is keen to see how they can provide them access to great businesses and services they will like, and make this beneficial for advertisers at the same time.

Taboola news is also a new development, and the company’s fastest growing business at present. The aggregate publisher, for android devices, is good for advertisers too, showing relevant ads to customers.

It was Adam’s opinion that a lot of brands do not invest enough in performance marketing. He said the number one priority for Taboola is asking:

“Are you a great performance advertiser, yes or no? Are you dedicated to it, yes or no? If you answered any of those questions with a no, then you need to check your company, culture, processes, team, etc. Now more than ever.

“None of us know how long anything is going to last, but the one resilient piece of business is ALWAYS performance marketing.”

The post Why Performance Marketing is the Single Most Resilient Channel – Insight from Adam Singolda appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The post “Whilst the Measurability of Our Channel is One of its Core Strengths, I Think This Sometimes Works Against Trying to Plan More Innovative Campaigns…” – The Publisher Diaries appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The post “In Order to Truly Encourage and Embrace Diversity in Practice, We Need to Create the Space For It.” appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Sign up to read more about Heather’s time growing up and how her gran inspired her, as well as her tips for achieving true diversity in the affiliate marketing industry.

The post “Women Shouldn’t Be Made to Feel They Have to Sacrifice Their Life For Their Career and Vice Versa…” appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Chikay is Performance Marketing Director at Cult Beauty, and as well as this she is a multi-awarding winning marketer with over nine years of digital experience within the luxury and beauty e-commerce space. Chikay pushes the boundaries of performance marketing through innovative and diverse strategies and is outspoken about what is right, working to ensure inclusivity in partnerships is always achieved…

The post “I’ve Been in Many Situations Where I’ve Been Ignored as the Only Female in the Room or Had My Ideas Completely Dismissed.” appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Helen has a rich history in affiliate marketing, having entered into the space in 2007. She is passionate about creating a space for fruitful and beneficial relationships, and this shines through in her answers…

The post “Our industry encompasses a broad spectrum of global skillsets, which naturally captures a more diverse set of people.” appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Before he was brought in to increase Dunelms affiliate presence, Neale led the affiliate marketing strategy at Buyagift and Red Letter Days and has experience in different areas in digital marketing and other channels like SEO, Display, PPC and Social.

Neale told PerformanceIN what he loves about the channel, what he doesn’t love so much and what he thinks we need to focus on this year…

What’s your role and what does it entail?

I’m the Affiliate Marketing Manager at Dunelm, the UK’s leading homeware retailer. My role involves creating the overarching focus areas that we want to address in both the short-mid term as well as the long-term. I’m also responsible for leading both the overall channel strategy as well as the actual execution of the affiliate campaigns themselves.

I think it’s fair to say that historically Dunelm’s affiliate presence has been fairly low-key. Therefore, I was brought in last year to not only give a long-term vision for the channel but to also scale the channel both aggressively and sustainably. It’s extremely fast-paced but equally very exciting as the opportunity for Dunelm in this space is huge!

What emerging publisher strategies are you seeing right now?

Whilst traditional placements like newsletters and on-site exposure continue to be prominent, more and more affiliates are now diversifying their campaign types to give advertisers newer and more engaged audiences. For example, push notifications are being better utilised through the affiliate space and I expect this will continue as we take advantage of this app-centric climate we’re in.

Brands are also leaning on more varied content mediums than ever before so I expect to see the appetite for the likes of video and widgets continue to grow too, particularly with content partners. Lastly, there are more publishers now with multi-retailer strategies in which they’re moving away from brands such as Amazon’s affiliate programme because of reductions in commission which opens up a huge opportunity for most advertisers.

What do you most respect or what impresses you about your key affiliates?

Not just now but during the entirety of the pandemic, most affiliates have been fantastic at adapting to suit advertiser needs and this highlights the power of our channel being so relationship driven. What’s impressed me most is the flexibility they’ve offered when it comes to ways of working as well as commercials.

In general, something I have always encouraged is a two-way, 50/50 partnership and this involves being as open and transparent as possible. There are hundreds of ways to work with just one affiliate and so I’m not expecting to be at full efficiency after one campaign, I’m also not expecting every trial to be groundbreaking. I respect publishers the most when they are transparent and don’t gloss over poor performance – that’s how you create a successful partnership. 

What shifts are you seeing in affiliate marketing with your company?

We’re seeing a lot of shifts right now at Dunelm, simply because our affiliate programme is young. In terms of affiliate types, the rise of Buy Now Pay Later partners has been staggering and is a great way to reach new audiences. I’m personally really excited to see forums like Reddit become even more important as customers become increasingly savvy with who they trust and the idea that these are very close, loyal communities is exceptionally powerful.

More holistically, one thing I’m particularly trying to educate Dunelm on is the idea that the affiliate channel isn’t simply a ‘bottom of the funnel’ conversion source but can offer valuable support to other areas of the business including other paid digital channels.

What impressed you about the industry in 2021?

I touched on it earlier but just how reactive and adaptable everyone has been in the last year. I think a lot of companies in the affiliate industry have not only been great at dealing with a very challenging year, but have taken that a step further by turning those challenges into new opportunities through innovation. I’m also a huge advocate for smaller long-tail partners and so the fact that so many more people have decided to start their own niche affiliate sites through the pandemic has been super impressive and ultimately gives us advertisers more scope too! Oh, and it was definitely the year I (along with most of the world) got into podcasts. So yes yes yes to podcasts…

What’s your top tip for publishers?

Openness, transparency and flexibility. The better the affiliate programme, the less important top-line sales become and the emphasis becomes more about the true VALUE those sales bring. An affiliate partnership is a long-term relationship so we all should be in it for the long haul. We know we’re not going to ‘split the atom’ the first time but a transparent approach will certainly help us get there eventually. 

What can affiliates do to stand out when working with your brand?

I’ve rinsed the word ‘transparency’ but it’s so true. Be even MORE transparent with data as well as provide real case studies that apply to our industries. Take the time to understand our overall goals and align campaigns to those, rather than doing things just because you’re doing it with one of our competitors. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

Definitely the obsession of ‘What’s Trending!?’ every year. Don’t get me wrong, it’s vital to be in the know in case there are opportunities you are missing out on, however, I think we also need to remember that every affiliate programme is different as we all optimise our channels to different goals and KPIs depending on what our overall company objectives are. It’s less aligning your strategy to ‘What’s Trending Now?’ and more harnessing the amazing innovations in the industry to fit your own strategy. 

I would also love to change the stigma associated with affiliate marketing in that it’s the digital marketing channel people just ‘fall into’. In this case I’m actually a massive hypocrite as that is exactly what happened to me but I’m so lucky I did! The affiliate channel is a beautiful space when you think about it. It’s one of, if not the only, paid marketing channel that encompasses real life human relationships and interaction at the heart of all decision-making and that’s something that will always remain the same. That’s pretty awesome in it’s own right and we need to be doing a lot more to shout about that as a whole to make the industry even more appealing to people starting their career.

What other areas of the industry would you be interested in being involved in in the future?

Affiliate partnerships are just a segment of the partnerships umbrella and I would love to look at that much more holistically. Brand to brand partnerships in particular offer huge value if done correctly. Even within the affiliate space, co-branding opportunities are becoming more common than ever before because of the need to maximise efficiency and reach wider audiences. I think it’s only a matter of time before we see a big shift in the affiliate space with sustainability partners though. We’ve already seen more and more donation-led affiliates like KidStart and Easyfundraising rise in popularity over the last decade so I expect we’ll soon see customers prioritise affiliates based on environmental incentives too. I’m definitely all for that!

It was an absolute pleasure speaking to Neale for this installment of the Advertiser Diaries. If you would like to be involved, please don’t hesitate to submit your interest here!

The post “I Respect Publishers the Most When They Are Transparent and Don’t Gloss Over Poor Performance.” – The Advertiser Diaries appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The post “It Can Be Frustrating to Not Be Recognised for the Work That We Do in Influencing Purchase Decisions…” – The Publisher Diaries appeared first on PerformanceIN.

What’s your role and what do you do at PUMA?

In my current role at PUMA as a Senior Manager of Affiliate Marketing in the Global E-Commerce department, I am responsible for creating and rolling out our global affiliate strategy. I help our existing markets stay ahead within the affiliate marketing world and I share knowledge about the channel across all our international markets, as well as helping new markets launch their own affiliate programmes.

What do you most respect or what impresses you about your key affiliates?

Our key affiliates are proactive, they share important information which helps us with optimising campaigns or brainstorming completely new ideas. They have our goals in mind and help us reach them without losing their own identity. When we want to test and learn, they are almost always open to try. We see our key affiliates as integral partners of the brand.

What shifts are you seeing in affiliate marketing with your company?

During the pandemic, e-commerce has become an even more important distribution channel. PUMA has been using affiliate marketing for a long time, but you can clearly see it has become even more of a focus over recent years. Going off that, we’ve been able to create a more thorough understanding about how affiliate marketing interacts with all our other marketing channels and what opportunities exist – stretching from classic affiliate models to brand ambassadors and brand-to-brand partnerships. We are now looking a step further and working to measure LTV, where we see a lot of exciting opportunities.

What emerging publisher strategies are you seeing right now?

More publishers are keeping the entire checkout process on their own site rather than using a classic affiliate link. From a consumer perspective, this creates a more cohesive checkout flow because when customers purchase products they aren’t directed to a different website. It has its pros and cons for the advertiser and is something to keep an eye out for.

What’s impressed you about the industry this year?

We are still a tight community even when events are limited to digital meetings. It’s great to see that everyone is willing to help each other, share knowledge and elevate the industry to the next level. This helps us to be quick with adapting to new regulations, adopting new technology and further growing our industry.

What’s your top tip for publishers?

It’s important to build a partnership and stand out from the competition. This can be by focusing on a niche, adding a piece of technology, or sharing information about what works well on your platform. Of course, in a profitable partnership we should both benefit, so we will return the favor and invest in valuable partnerships that we can grow together.

What can affiliates do to stand out when working with your brand?

Like I mentioned above, we like to interact with our affiliates and are open to new ideas of working together. It’s always great to hear from affiliates about new opportunities and how we can work together to get the best out of our partnership.

What one thing would you change about the industry?

In our industry, we all know how well-developed affiliate marketing is. Therefore, I would rather change the perception of the channel for everyone working outside of the industry. There is still a lot more to this channel than coupons, discounts, and fraudulent behaviour. Luckily on platforms like PerformanceIN, we see proud ambassadors spreading positive messages about how developed and widespread the industry is.

What other areas of the industry would you be interested in being involved in in the future?

Having worked across different sectors and on both the publisher and advertiser side, I have been gaining an array of insights into the industry. What I enjoy in affiliate marketing is that it’s such a diverse mix of partnerships, marketing, data, and technology – the job encompasses such a wide spectrum of knowledge. For me, I love working in these exact areas, and I hope to continue growing and learning. On the advertiser side, I like working closely with other channels and learning from them as well, which gives me a much better understanding of how the affiliate pieces fit into the puzzle.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of The Advertiser Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post Seeing Affiliates as Integral Partners of Your Brand – The Advertiser Diaries appeared first on PerformanceIN.