Awin Talks: Affiliate Marketing Insights

This month the podcast features a variety of audio highlights from Awin’s recent annual conferences in the US and the UK. Every year, Awin hosts its own industry events where its partners can come together to meet, network and learn more about the current trends within the affiliate industry. It’s a hugely valuable opportunity for businesses of every shape and size and both events had packed agendas, filled with content from a host of speakers. In Chicago Rob appeared on stage to interview a trio of contributors to this year’s Awin Report to hear more about their thoughts on the state of digital marketing and the affiliate channel. Tijs van Santen, CRO at Button, discussed the evolution of mobile and the profound influence that is having upon ecommerce right now. Kim Westwood, MD of Shopping Links, explained how influencer marketing is becoming increasingly professionalised and how it has been adopted by the affiliate channel to great effect. And Gary Kibel, attorney and partner of Davis & Gilbert LLP, provided an informative and illuminating summary of what the California Consumer Privacy Act consists of and how it differs to Europe’s GDPR. We then hear an excerpt from the UK conference in London where the Awin board and its UK Country Manager, Ian Charlesworth, are quizzed by Lisa Hammond, Awin’s Marketing Director, about the state of affiliate marketing and Awin’s position within it.

This month, Craig and Rob co-host the podcast with Awin colleague Clementyne Lavender, the recent winner of the performance channel’s Industry Rising Star award. Clem sheds some light on the gruelling process involved in being assessed for the award and describes some of the experiences she had as the network’s Media Partnerships Manager that helped swing the vote her way. Our main interview is with Sophie Parry-Billings, Senior Marketing Manager, EMEA at the agency Acceleration Partners, and focuses on the industry initiative Turn the Talk. Turn the Talk is focused on empowering people and improving the diversity of voices from across the performance industry. Sophie has been instrumental in promoting the initiative and she explains why it’s such an important subject, what they’ve achieved so far, and the initiative’s plans for the future. Finally, Craig hosts another round of Publisher Picks, asking Clem to highlight two new publishers on the network for listeners to make a note of.

Awin’s annual global guide to the state of the affiliate industry, The Awin Report, is back with a new edition for 2019. In this month’s episode of Awin Talks Rob, Kevin and Craig discuss the themes of the 2019 publication and also interview a selection of this year’s contributors.

Rob speaks to Sean Mahon, Affiliate Team Leader at the agency Equator, about his guest article in the report which focuses on the role of affiliates within the wider digital mix.

Kevin interviews Vicky Bruce, Head of Affiliates at The Telegraph, and Simon Bird, co-founder at RevLifter, a new ecommerce technology partner. Their discussion features some frank and illuminating views on the state of the channel and what its prospects are for the future.

Finally, Rob chats to Chris Johnson, Client Services Director at Groupon, and hears more about his featured article in the report which highlights the importance of storytelling in affiliate campaigns.

You can download a digital interactive copy of The Awin Report 2019 for free here. And, if you’d like to contact us about future subjects to focus on in the Awin Talks podcast please email Kevin, Craig and Rob here.

The first episode of 2020 is live now and we get things started in the new decade with a couple of in-depth discussions with three leading industry figures. First up, Rob Davinson, Awin's Content Analyst, discusses the state of the travel sector in the affiliate channel with Colin Carter, Director of the travel site Weather2Travel, and also Maria Chatterton-White of the tours and activities specialist, Viator. We get the respective views of a publisher and an advertiser working in the travel sector on some of the challenges they face in today’s climate, and what particular nuances of the travel sector can play out in the affiliate industry. Kevin Edwards, Awin's Strategy Director, then speaks to Kate Knight, attending in her capacity as a representative of the newly-formed Publisher Board in the UK. The Publisher Board is a new working group of affiliates representing a variety of different websites in the UK that have come together to advocate for improving standards in the channel and building partnerships. Kate discusses the Board’s recently released Best Practice Guidelines for Advertisers, their aims as a working body and how they hope to achieve progress on some of the long-standing issues that affiliates have faced operating in the digital industry. This month’s episode also looks forward to the imminent release of the brand new Awin Report 2020 at Affiliate Summit West. You can find out more about Awin’s presence at the annual industry conference in Las Vegas and the various talks we’ll be giving here. If you can’t make it, then you’ll be able to view a digital interactive copy of the Awin Report on January 29th on the Market Insights section of the website.