At this year’s PI LIVE, Awin is shaking things up. With their bold session “Get Sh*t Done with Awin” and new AI affiliate features on the horizon, Regional Managing Director Rosalyn Berrisford says the network is doubling down on innovation, transparency, and creativity. In conversation with Hello Partner, she shared how Awin is helping brands turn creator collaborations into performance powerhouses, tracking every conversion through its CPI initiative, and reimagining the future of affiliate marketing, one data-driven experiment at a time.
Sofia Aira: Thank you so much for joining me, Rosalyn. Really excited to talk about all things affiliate marketing, all things Awin, and all things your session at PI LIVE this year.
Obviously, Awin and Hello Partner, we’ve been partners for a long time; I think it’s coming up to 20 years. You’re one of our long-standing sponsors, so what makes our friendship so special?
Rosalyn Berrisford: We are a long-standing sponsor. I think PI LIVE is such a key event in the annual calendar for the industry, and it’s such a unique opportunity to really have that breadth of different types of partners all in one place.
I think this year we’re going to be there on the 4th — I think you’ve got about 60 Awin staff coming across the two days — and we’ve got a headline sponsorship for our big stand, which is always a hive of activity. It’s great to have that space to be able to meet and connect with partners.
It’s great to have the opportunity to get on stage and to talk and to share insights and learnings. I’m particularly excited about what we’re up to this year, which is quite unique.
SA: Awesome, that sounds very exciting. This is my first time at PI LIVE as well, so I’m very excited to get a feel and come and see the Awin stand. So, what can we expect from you guys at the event? Have you got any fun sessions, activations, or announcements that you’re allowed to spill now?
RB: Oh yeah, so, I can’t share too much about the announcements. Obviously, we’ve used it for big announcements in the past. But no, this year our session is a little bit different, probably quite different from the CPI announcement that we had last year.
It’s on the main stage, it’s on day one, and it’s in partnership with a fantastic lady called Rebecca Roundtree, who has a brand called, and I hope I’m allowed to swear because it’s called Get Sh*t Done!
It’s essentially a format that’s really exciting, it’s really engaging, so I hope the audience is ready to participate, because it’s like a real-life demonstration of how the channel can answer marketing challenges, and we think that’s really what the channel is all about.
It’s about marketers saying, “We need to increase ROI, we need to diversify, we need to hit audiences here,” all the different challenges you might have as a marketer. We actually have some marketing campaigns that we use because we truly believe there are so many different types of partners that can answer all of those challenges.
So Rebecca has a format where she has a live version of doing that and solving challenges there in the room, in a really interactive way. We’re going to try it with the PI LIVE audience on the main stage. I’m not sure how many people you can fit in that room — normally it can be smaller workshops — but she’s done it with 600 people before, so we’re really excited to get all the affiliate marketers’ challenges and problems and hopefully come away with lots of people having new ideas and opportunities.
SA: Nice, that sounds really fun, really engaging, a nice way to break up all the sessions.
RB: Yeah, honestly. I mean, since PI LIVE 2024, it’s been a big year for Awin — a lot has gone on, a lot of steps have been launched.
SA: You’ve just launched in Mexico, that’s exciting! So what have you learnt and discovered about growth and strategy in Mexico since you’ve launched there?
RB: The whole LATAM region is really exciting for e-commerce and digital marketing at the moment. We’d already seen a lot of growth in Brazil, which is our core market in the region, and we were getting so much demand from our large global advertisers to launch in Mexico that it was really them who put it on our radar.
We knew we had an exciting opportunity there. The Mexican region is seeing double-digit e-commerce growth — around 18% year on year — and I think it’s good that we have experience of launching in other regions.
Awin is now a global network, and for us, it was a natural one to go to, given our growth in the region and knowing that Mexico in particular was one that brands really wanted to be active in.
Like anything else, it’s about understanding the region, making sure the platform is localised, that we’ve got the right processes, and that we’re there with the slightly less glamorous side — tax regulations and so on — and making sure that’s all covered.
We’ve had a fantastic reception. Because we already had big global brands calling to launch there, they were able to go live when we launched in April–May time, and we’re seeing really strong results already. With that global presence comes great publishers in the region, and we’ll be starting to launch more local activity soon.
Really exciting, and yes, spearheaded by our regional MD based in Brazil. Exciting to see what else we might have in the region in future.
SA: Very exciting — lots to grow there, sounds really fun. You also announced this year at your Global ThinkTank that you’re building a brand-new affiliate platform with AI features "from the ground up", which is really intriguing. Can you tell us a bit more about this? What can we expect, and is there a timeline you’re allowed to share?
RB: Yeah, it’s really exciting! We announced the launch of a transformational new Awin platform at our Global Think Tank in Portugal in May, and we soft-launched it at the beginning of July. Over the summer, we rolled it out across most of our advertisers.
At the moment, it’s an opportunity to go in and have a look at it — it’s not the default experience when you log in, but people are starting to test it and use it.
As you mentioned, it’s AI-powered with lots of different features. One of those is Ava, our new AI agent — a quick way to get answers from the Awin Success Centre or to common questions like, “How do I do that?”, “What’s the quickest way to do this?”, “Can you tell me that?” It’s brilliant, we’re already seeing Ava answer a lot of the support queries we receive.
With AI, though, it’s all about the richness of the data that goes in. We’ve done a lot of work to ensure we’re benefitting from the scale and breadth of all the data across Awin, so we can pull that in to generate insights and recommendations based on where you are in your journey.
For example: “Have you thought about doing this?”, “Other advertisers have had success with this partner type,” or “If you increase your commission here, you could grow X amount of sales.” So it’s about using data to bring those insights to customers.
We’re rolling it out gradually this year, and while I can’t give too much away, February is when you’ll hear a lot more from Awin about the new platform. That’s when it’ll become the default experience rather than the testing phase we’re in now.
One of the biggest differences from the existing platform is in the view structure. The new platform has three views: programme view (everything you’ve got going on), publisher view (looking at your different partner types), and the new campaign view.
That’s really exciting because advertisers increasingly want to set up specific campaigns, Black Friday, product launches, student campaigns, and the campaign view helps them track spend, partners, placements, and performance all in one place.
So yeah, lots more to come!
SA: Nice — well, come January 2026, Awin will be having a “new year, new me” moment! Sounds very exciting.
For brands looking to shift creator spend from flat fees to CPA, how would you develop a performance-first trial?
RB: This is a really interesting one. The whole creator commerce or influencer-publisher space is seeing huge growth and appetite from brands wanting to use Awin and the affiliate channel to manage influencer activity.
It’s all about getting the right balance, understanding what we can add in terms of performance and sales, but also not forgetting the other metrics you can track.
Our advice would be to think carefully about the types of creators you’re working with. Some of the smaller micro-influencers, the ones who could almost be your customers, know and understand your brand really well, and they often achieve the best engagement and performance.
Testing is key. Work with a range of influencer types and across different platforms to see what works best for your brand and audience. Decide whether you want to use discounting, focus on particular products, or highlight certain calls to action, and test formats — grids, videos, reels — to see what’s driving the best engagement.
Start small with micro-partners, track everything (sales, clicks, impressions, and social metrics), and make data-driven decisions.
And importantly, let creators create! Don’t be too prescriptive about campaigns. Give them guardrails, yes, but they’re the creative experts. Especially if they’re smaller and really know your brand, let them use their creativity to deliver something authentic.
So: lots of testing, lots of learning, then double down on what works.
SA: Nice, we definitely see that argument come up a lot in the creator space: just let creators be creators, let them do it their way.
RB: Yeah, exactly, I totally agree.
SA: Looking ahead, with ShareASale being retired and consolidated by the end of 2025, how do you at Awin expect to protect publishers’ earnings as commission models evolve?
RB: That’s a good question. ShareASale is one of the US networks we acquired at least 10 years ago, if not longer. We made the decision to do the big migration this year to make sure all our US partners can benefit from what’s happening on the Awin platform.
As you’ve heard, we’ve got lots of new developments coming, and we wanted to focus on one platform so all our US publishers and advertisers can benefit.
For publishers, there are actually quite a few things the Awin platform offers that ShareASale didn’t, like payment on first click or payment on assist. We’d really recommend publishers talk to advertisers about these options if they’re nervous about last-click activity.
We’ve also got initiatives like CPI and a big push to ensure we’re tracking everything, which should reassure publishers.
In the US, we’re also focused on soft click, meaning any partners that might otherwise overwrite activity (like toolbars) can’t do so on Awin; they’re all soft click.
So overall, there are a lot of tools on the Awin platform that will help publishers protect their commissions and earnings. We’d encourage any US publishers to reach out to their publisher team or check the Success Centre, which has lots of collateral explaining these options. And, if needed, they can push advertisers to adopt alternative commission types that matter to them.
SA: Last year at PI LIVE, you guys made a big announcement — lots of launches going on at Awin, there’s a lot happening. You must be tired!
You announced the introduction of CPI, the study suggested meaningful lost revenue being surfaced for in-app tracking. Where are brands recovering the most value today, and how can they evidence that uplift in a way that finance teams will trust?
RB: It’s a good point. CPI, our Conversion Protection Initiative, was designed to make sure all sales are tracked. We’d noticed that while we’d updated our tracking methodology, many advertisers hadn’t yet upgraded their side, particularly around app tracking, which needs an extra integration.
CPI told customers: You need to update your tracking. If you can’t, we’ll use probabilistic tracking to fill the gap and capture sales you’re missing.
The industry really backed it, publishers loved it because it ensured they were properly rewarded, and advertisers loved it because it revealed the full value of the channel. Finance teams, understandably, had questions, so we work with them closely to demonstrate the changes.
We encourage advertisers to review their transaction reports, compare them internally, and see where we’re tracking sales they aren’t. Often, those sales were previously attributed to other channels, like search. So it’s not new spend, it’s fairer attribution.
We’ve seen brilliant results: around £100 million in additional revenue accurately allocated to the channel and £9 million in extra publisher commissions. We’re really proud of CPI’s success.
SA: Speaking of transparency, you recently put out a public call to Apple pushing for enhanced transparency in affiliate tracking across apps. How’s that been so far?
RB: It’s a really important topic — and quite complex. There are so many points in the app tracking process where data can fall down. Even if advertisers are completely on board and passing us all the information, Apple’s preset settings can still prevent tracking.
It’s something we’re passionate about addressing, and we’d love to collaborate with others in the industry to push for more transparency and discussion on this. We solved one big challenge with CPI, but app tracking is our next big focus.
SA: That sounds like a great step forward. Your session at PI LIVE, Let’s Get Sh*t Done with Awin, sounds really bold and fun. Can you give us your favourite quick-win test a brand could run right now to achieve a simple pass-or-fail mark?
RB: I’d say my number one quick win over the last few months has been to use supplier funding budgets to fund activity in the affiliate channel.
We’re seeing some really exciting results with advertisers who are taking manufacturer budgets and using them in the affiliate channel, whether to fund CPA increases or additional placements.
It’s a fantastic way to increase spend in the channel, maximise growth opportunities, and do it using funding that’s already there. Many advertisers just haven’t been thinking about using it that way, but there’s so much potential.
SA: Awesome, that’s great, and finally, where can we catch your session this year at PI LIVE?
RB: Our PI Live session, Let’s Get Sh*t Done with Awin and Rebecca Roundtree, is on Day One, 21st October, at 10:20 am on the Main Stage. Super exciting — really looking forward to it!
