Following a buzzing first day at PI LIVE Europe and a glamorous after-party at Salsa, Wednesday arrived with confident ease, as the show got fully into its stride.
The weather was on our side, as warm sunshine flooded the bustling Terrace in the afternoon and became the perfect site for profitable conversations and partnership-building.
Down in the Vault, an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Voice Box for our Female Leaders session with Julia Linehan, Founder and CEO of The Digital Voice. The Well Stage also attracted eager audiences for a number of inspiring talks, including an investigation from Matthew Higgins, Managing Partner at Dentsu, into what might have happened if affiliate marketing had never existed.
Upstairs, on the Webgains and Rokt stages, we saw even more insightful panels and presentations on a range of topics, from retail media to tracking.
Keep an eye out for more in-depth coverage of our sessions and video recordings coming soon.
In the meantime, check out some of the highlights below.
How Retailers Are Benefiting From Zilch’s Meteoric Rise to $2BN Double Unicorn in 14 Months Through Affiliate Marketing
Philip Belamant, CEO & Co-Founder of Zilch, and Adam Ross, CEO of Awin, explored the meteoric rise of Zilch into the realm of double unicorns within just 14 months. They delved into the power of affiliate marketing, revealing Zilch's explosive growth and its innovative Ad-Subsidised Payments Network (ASPN), boasting a remarkable 55% conversion rate. Belamant shared the highs and lows of pioneering this unseen model, making Zilch a unique and fascinating business amongst its peers. He unveiled a grand vision, aiming to eliminate consumer credit costs entirely, as this session provided an inspiring glimpse into Zilch's revolutionary journey.
We caught up with Belamant after his session. He explained why and how Zilch is embarking on this mission to eradicate the cost of consumer credit. “In the United States and UK, it’s costing customers $150 billion every single year just in fees and interest,” he said. “This is not the products you’re buying, it’s the credit. The mission of Zilch is to eliminate that cost. The only way to do that sustainably is to find someone to subsidise that cost. We can subsidise the cost of credit to zero by making use of the ad and sales budgets of brands who want to get in front of that customer and convert that customer.”
Zilch is employing affiliate marketing in a very creative way to achieve its admirable goal and its success has been proven already. We’ll be posting more insights from Belamant soon.
Winning Together: How to Thrive in Affiliate Marketing
The Rokt Pyramid Stage was completely packed for this session on how to find success in the affiliate space.
Simon Baptist, Director, Commerce Business at AppLovin, was joined by Kate Knight, Group Director, EMEA Publisher Development at CJ; Marthe Berlin, Director of Publisher Development at impact.com; and Clementyne Lavender, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Innovation at Awin. The discussion divulged a wealth of insights from these accomplished women who have already built sparkling careers, revealing the secrets behind their achievements in the industry.
We caught up with Baptist after the talk and he said that it was great to hear all of the insights and advice from the panel. The conversation highlighted how there are many different pathways into affiliate marketing, and also posited that the space might need to brand itself better.
“Help the CMO understand that this channel is very successful and doesn't need a rebrand,” Baptist said, “I’ve worked in search, mobile, and social and I dived into affiliate because I thought that the people I kept meeting in the industry were really smart and delivering a lot of value to the ecosystem.”
We’ll be posting our full interview with Simon Baptist soon.
Voice Box: Female Leaders
We were delighted to be joined by Julia Linehan for this special session at the Voice Box on female leaders.
Alongside Linehan, we hosted 90 minutes of live interviews with a myriad of powerful, inspiring women in the space, who shared thoughts on what the industry can do to improve its inclusivity, as well as role models, smashing glass ceilings, and much more.
Stay tuned for all of these interviews to be released soon. Each one of them is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration.
First up, we have our chat with Lee-Ann Johnstone, Founder of Affiverse, who gets candid about future predictions for the industry, the importance of mentorship, and self-belief, amongst other intriguing topics.
