In just a week’s time, we will be opening the doors to the performance and affiliate marketing community at PI LIVE Europe, and CJ will be joining us as Headline sponsors.
Back at CJU24, I caught up with Linda O'Connell, Senior Vice President, UK & Ireland at CJ, to learn more about the network’s plans for the show this year, their involvement with the Digital Disruptors scheme, and whether data really is all it’s cracked up to be.
Below is a transcript of our conversation and you can find a video right down at the bottom.
Sol Wilkinson: Hey, we're here at CJU 2024 in sunny Santa Barbara, California. I'm here with Linda O'Connell from CJ. First of all, how have you found CJU so far this year?
Linda O’Connell: Well, amazing. CJU has to be one of my favourite events. And obviously, in sunny Santa Barbara, you can't beat this beautiful sunshine. I’m having an absolutely fantastic event. Great to get all our advertisers, our publishers, our agencies, partners all together. Lots of fantastic speaking sessions, great networking opportunities, and always fun in the sunshine as well.
SW: Yeah, I've enjoyed every second. Another event that's coming up soon, which I'm looking forward to, is PI LIVE Europe in London, which you'll also be working on. Why did CJ choose to become a headline sponsor this year?
LOC: PI LIVE Europe is another one of my favourite events. CJ has been a headline sponsor at PI LIVE for a number of years now. As I always say, the foundation of our industry is partnerships. And to do that really well, you need to be there in person and meet and network.
PI LIVE is always a great event where you provide that environment. In addition, there are also great speaking opportunities. I know we have a session on the main stage on the first day, really looking forward to that, but also hearing, you know, different industry topics and hearing from different perspectives.
There's always a lot to take away and learn from as well. It’s always a really good turnout and a good mix of all people involved.
SW: Is there anything specific at the show this year that you're excited about?
LOC: Yeah, it looks like a great agenda and I'm excited about the CJ session, which is on the first day (Tuesday 22nd, 12:00 PM to 12:30 PM), on the main stage.
We're talking about the importance of harnessing first-party data, (which is) obviously really important for brands – something that came up at CJU (during) our keynote session.
Our theme for CJU this year was Amplify Beyond, but it's also focusing on the importance of data for brands, as well as publishers. So, I’m excited for that session. There are a lot of other speaking sessions coming up, so I’m excited to hear some of those.
SW: For me, the biggest takeaway from CJU (has been) the importance of data. I attended a really interesting session this afternoon about media mixed models and how if affiliates can really clean up their data, they will start to see much better results and growth (in comparison to) all the other channels receiving budgets.
But I do wonder, is too much data sometimes a bad thing? Can you get a little bit lost in the weeds of analysis, rather than going out there and just making the moves regardless? Or do you think you should always use data to inform your decisions?
LOC: Data is absolutely fundamental to making any decision – certainly strategic decisions.
But to answer your question in terms of whether can you ever have too much data; I would say no.
But your data needs to be of a high quality. There's no point having lots of data if it's not accurate or real. Clean data is crucially important. And then with the media mix modelling session you spoke about earlier, it's really about understanding how you're interpreting the data and what are the other considerations and variables that can impact decisions in terms of how you analyse and look at the data as well.
SW: Back to PI LIVE Europe. I know CJ has been working on Digital Disruptors this year, which is also coming to the show. Could you talk a little bit about that?
LOC: So, last year, we partnered with Digital Disruptors with Tina Judic and Julie York, who are phenomenal. Two phenomenal women who set this up in memory of Nicky McShane.
We had the pleasure of hosting about 36 young adults. They're part of the Hebe Foundation, which helps the age group from disadvantaged parts of London to educate them on all things about digital marketing.
CJ had the pleasure of hosting them in our offices for a day, which was quite stressful, but very rewarding, making sure they all were contained within the building, and we had great sessions on affiliate marketing and influencer marketing.
The group of young adults that were there were absolutely amazing in terms of with a lot of the breakout sessions and different tasks they were given. And so we're really excited.
They're working on projects, and the finalists are presenting it live and then the winner will be announced there and then. It's such a great cause, which very much aligns to enabling our industry to grow from the grassroots and helping individuals who just may not normally have open opportunities to that work kind of work experience. So, it's a great initiative.
SW: I saw the Digital Disruptors session at PI LIVE a couple of years ago, and it was really good fun. It's one of the best sessions I've been to. It's got a great energy to it. It's really creative because of the young people's minds; they're able to come up with really interesting, creative takes on affiliate marketing, I guess because they're coming at it so fresh.
LOC: Exactly. It's amazing. Even some of the working sessions that we did when we hosted them just about two weeks ago; just how they come up with some phenomenal ideas and how they really understand it, and quite quickly.
It’s really impressive for such a young age, for them to be able to do that now. It's encouraging and reassuring our future. We're in safe hands.
SW: Affiliate is in safe hands. Cool, well, thanks, Linda, it's been a pleasure.
LOC: Thanks, I hope you enjoy the rest of CJU!
Join us at the Digital Disruptors Final on the Main Stage from 12.30PM - 1.30PM on the second day of PI LIVE Europe.
Not yet got your ticket? Snag one of the remaining passes quickly here.
