From AI innovation and adaptation to overcoming blind spots and building hopeful horizons, this year’s DealMaker was a reminder that the industry is always evolving.
At last year’s Rakuten Advertising Dealmaker, Nick Fletcher, SVP EMEA, said he’d never seen a year of so much change. This year, the rate of industry transformation has accelerated.
“The rate of change is now so rapid we can scarcely keep up with it,” said Fletcher, who noted that from new AI models and quickly developing platforms to obscured consumer journeys, it’s up to the industry to keep pace in this state of flux — but it’s not a straightforward task.
Surfacing the consumer iceberg
Fletcher used the analogy of an iceberg to visualise the challenge marketers face in understanding the consumer journey in this new landscape.
“We need to accept there’s a huge amount of consumer journey underneath the surface that we simply can’t see. And this presents a challenge for us as marketers, because performance marketing therefore needs to evolve.”
Part of this evolution involves maximising tracking: think server-to-server and probabilistic measurement. Here, Fletcher announced the company’s partnership with Similarweb, a team-up centred on understanding how users interact with affiliate-generated content inside LLMs.
“We need to start looking at wider forms of measurement, trying to understand that there’s a world outside that deterministic view of the user journey,” said Fletcher, adding that that means realising marketing channels are driving more value than they’re given credit for.
This was emphasised by Rory Sale, Head of Partnerships at Fospha, who explored the importance of accurate measurement for affiliate marketing, something he said is often missed by last-click measurement, and explored full-funnel attribution as a method for closing the gap and capturing halo effects.
“Across our client base, we see that last click is not even fit to measure affiliates. It’s missing a lot of the value that this channel is driving,” said Sale.
Expanding the affiliate arsenal
Fletcher shared that Rakuten Advertising has released a number of solutions aimed at better navigating this new landscape, encompassing everything from fraud and compliance monitoring to user journey analysis and AI automation. The SVP also underscored the importance of industry data and analytics.
And, as creator and affiliate join hands, Rakuten Advertising shared that it is also focusing on expanding creator tools, with Partner Hub and Storefronts.
In keeping with the theme of transformation that dominated the day, was a panel on A New Affiliate Era, where panellists covered a wide breadth of industry changes and challenges, including search and discovery, AI decision loops, trust and authority in AI-driven search and influence attribution.
And with burning questions about how publishers adapt in an AI-first environment, battling zero-click and declining traffic, Dunia Silan, SVP of Revenue at Skimlinks, explored whether, as SEO evolves into AEO, storytelling needs to adapt to be cited.
“I think that publishers are experts in storytelling, but in the new era, I think it’s about perhaps writing the stories a little bit differently.”
Here, she said this could involve adapting headers, platforms, and the article’s TLDR.
“AI is lazy and wants to scrape answers quickly, so have your verdict, the links and everything else at the top.”
She also emphasised the importance of increasing the credibility of authors generating content. “AI will also want to lean on that human verification signal.”
Later, the day’s panel on Creators to Cross-Border Growth delved into the importance of measuring influencer activity beyond likes and shares. On the panel, Grace Davies, Global Digital Marketing Manager at FitFlop, highlighted that through micro-influencers, there is a significant opportunity to connect and build trust with engaged audiences.
We also heard from experts within financial marketing, who broke down the rising role of “in-wallet” data and the impact of compliance requirements on industry relationships, as well as travel industry heads on how consumer journeys are changing on the path to purchase.
Recognising innovation
But alongside sharing industry insight and stimulating conversation around evolving challenges and potential solutions, DealMaker was also a day for recognising industry success.
The day closed with the European Golden Link Awards reveal. In its sixth year, the awards spotlighted the industry players — brands, agencies and publishers — who are finding new and innovative ways to drive performance.
Winners who took the crown include Celebrity Cruises for Best Global Expansion Strategy; Samsung Electronics UK for Best Influencer Marketing Campaign, and Pets at Home for New Campaign Strategy.
P Louise scooped the award for Best Managed Affiliate Programme; adstrong x the LEGO Group were the winners for Partnership of the Year, and SPRNV came first for Agency of the Year.
In the Best Data-Driven Strategy of the Year category, Buyagift came out on top, and Samsung Electronics UK won its second award for AM of the Year (Advertiser).
Meanwhile, on the publisher side, TopCashback UK earned AM of the Year (Publisher) and the LEGO Group bagged its second award as Advertiser of the Year, with Linkby gaining the title for Publisher of the Year.
Stay tuned for exclusive interviews with Nick Fletcher on AI and affiliate; Meytal Markman on industry innovation; Fospha’s Rory Sale on MMMs, and Essencemediacom’s Kirsten Black on the rise of micro-influencers.
