The top 4 key trends from PI Live 2018
Earlier this month, thousands of marketers descended upon London’s Old Billingsgate to attend PI Live. This annual conference is one of the largest performance marketing events in the UK, and garners attendees from advertiser, media owner, agency, tech (and beyond!) to listen to talks from industry heads, participate in conversation on our rapidly-changing industry and give attendees an unparalleled opportunity to meet with their partners.
PI Live in numbers:
- 2,500 delegates in attendance, from 60 countries
- 1,868 meetings scheduled in the PI LIVE event app
- 392 questions asked to Keynote speakers via the app
As well as big brands from the world of digital advertising like Snapchat, Adidas, Net-A-Porter and Groupon, OMD EMEA Affiliates was represented by Alexander Head, Matilde Magalhaes-Cruz and Hailey Talbot-Tittle.
We wrapped up the 4 trends we saw at the event which are also very relevant to any clients in the digital sphere who aren’t currently running affiliate activity!
Key Trends from PI Live in 2018:
Cyber Week: As strong as ever, and growing on the continent
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the largest shopping days in eCommerce in the western market, so naturally Cyber Week was on everyone’s lips in keynotes and meetings. AWIN’s Robert Davison discussed how brands have had to adapt to changing consumer habits, as consumers have become increasingly price conscious and savvy about how they buy their online goods, as well as the necessity of clients to choose to join in or sit out, depending on their brand goals.
Affiliates like HotUKDeals, TopCashback and Vouchercodes.co.uk are incredibly efficient in converting users to purchase in the presence of an offer. If your client is running an offer for Cyber Week, is the affiliate channel on your plan? If not, they are missing out on capitalising on the largest traffic driving event of the year, and only paying on a CPA when genuine sales have happened.
It’s safe to say that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are very much cemented in the psyche of the UK population now, but markets on the continent have rapidly been adopting this holiday too. France, for example, has seen a 74% increase in sales in 2017 vs 2016, Italy saw an increase of 80% and Sweden grew by 104%. This holiday is showing no signs of slowing down, so our role as trusted advisors to our clients needs be to find the best opportunities for growth at the best price, whilst maintaining brand integrity.
Singles Day: China’s Largest Shopping Event
Although Cyber Week is the crown jewel in what many refer to as the ‘Golden Quarter’ in the western world, the largest shopping day in the world is on the Single’s Day in China. The date, November 11th (11/11), was chosen because the number “1” resembles an individual who is alone. $25.4 billion of goods were purchased from Alibaba alone in 2017 – which is an increase of 42% YoY. With such significant volumes and growth, the European eCommerce space is abuzz with how they can participate in this extremely important shopping event.
High-end and Luxury have seen huge new market in China, with a major luxury affiliate network reporting a 33% increase in the number of British Luxury goods sold on Singles Day 2017 vs. 2016, and greater growth expected this year.
Data from AWIN’s Keynote reported that 45% of shoppers are expected to purcahse online from non-domestic brands by 2020, so publishers with a strong APAC userbase like Dealmoon and RedScarf are ideal candidates to globalize any retailer’s global ecommerce performance.
Therefore, if your client is looking to get involved, the affiliate channel is uniquely positioned to help your client establish partnerships and enable promotional offers and content in this region on a risk-free Cost-per-Action basis!
Rebuilding Client CRM Post-GDPR on Pure Performance
Many in the digital realm have been affected in different ways by GDPR, with many losing valuable customer data from their database. With advertisers rightly keeping their cards close to their chest on quite how much they each had lost, one thing is clear, there is a need from advertisers to rebuild their 1st Party Data.
This is why so many advertisers are interested in Lead Generation via the Performance Channel this year! Lead Generation partners are helping advertisers rebuild GDPR compliant databases for clients on a Cost-Per-Lead basis, meaning that the client only pay’s when a valid lead is driven.
This results in a risk-free source of new customers who are engaged and interested in hearing more via email. This data can also be used to expand 1st Party marketing efforts in different channels.
The ability to build a GDPR compliant database and only pay for valid leads on a Cost-per-Lead basis is a huge opportunity for all clients in the business. If your client has lost any volume of users to GDPR, or is looking to bolster their already existing database, our team is experienced in delivering campaigns across all advertiser verticals and would love to speak to you!
Influencer Marketing: A huge opportunity via the Affiliate Channel
The biggest change this year was the was the number of partners offering Influencer Marketing. With the majority of the talks on Day Two focussing on the incrementality, measurement and value of influencers both in silo and in the larger brand experience – it’s safe to say that the industry is primed and ready to deliver influencer campaigns.
There were a dizzying array of Influencer Networks exhibiting at the event, and as many of these networks offer very similar services or platforms, the difference between each platform can be hard to distinguish.
Every client is looking to support their campaigns with Influencer Marketing, and affiliate marketing is an incredible avenue for advertisers to establish partnerships with networks or influencers directly and provide real-time tracking of performance, again on a risk-free CPA payment method. If your client is talking Influencer, have you considered running it via our affiliate team to deliver their campaign efficiently?
Therefore, the role of an agency such as OMD EMEA is especially critical in this field – our ability to curate potential partnerships and measure their impact outside of the affiliate channel as a silo enables clients to optimise towards the most successful outcomes for influencer marketing campaigns, whilst maintaining that visibility and brand security stay front of mind.