🎵🎸Tune In And Turn It Up – CJ’s CEO Just Took The Mic

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Welcome back; we’ve got a stacked newsletter for you this week.

From Santi Pierini jamming out and talking shop to PI LIVE interviews that give you a peak behind the curtain at some of the biggest companies in the industry.

Partnerize’s Maura Smith delves into machine-mediated commerce; CJ’s Dan Staples spills the beans on elevating affiliate’s value, and Rakuten Advertising’s Nick Fletcher gets into partnerships in the AI revolution. Juicy stuff.

Plus, we hear the story behind Cashblack with CEO and Co-Founder Matthew Addai, and dive into affiliate as a tool for impact.

We’ve also got Reward Gateway’s Molly Pemberton, who tells us all about rethinking Q1, and impact.com's San Sareen has a message to share: last click is lying to you.

And a little note from me: This is my last Affiliate Pulse. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my newsletter takeover.

The New Year starts now: Give your brand a head start on Q1

January is often pigeon-holed as a month of austerity and dry January. In fact, consumers are planning more than many brands assume, and most haven’t yet decided where their money will go.

To find out what really drives Q1 spending, we asked 7,542 consumers about their finances, wellbeing priorities and plans for the start of the year.

The answers show where the opportunity lies: what people most want from the start of the year, which categories need an offer and which need inspiration, how offers create demand rather than just cutting the price, and when to be in market.

If you want to make the most of Q1, get your copy of The Wellbeing Outlook 2027 report by emailing the team today.

Email the team →

In today's newsletter:

Pick of the day: The Santi Pierini Interview.
Trending: Affiliate as a Tool for Impact: The Story Behind Building Cashblack.
Industry Insight: Lead With Compassion.

Pick of the day

The Santi Pierini Interview

Back in September, Hello Partner’s Sol Wilkinson flew out to Santa Barbara, California, for CJU 26.

He sat down with CJ’s CEO Santi Pierini to unpack his approach to leadership, the link between music and business, his thoughts on AI today, and where he's taking CJ next.

Plus, the two break out the guitars and jam it out with some Grateful Dead.

Tune in and turn it up.

What's hot on Hello Partner right now

questionZERO: Sustainability Is An Affiliate Opportunity

At PI LIVE, we spoke with questionZERO’s CEO Tanya Larsen and Commercial Lead Philip Herrey to talk about affiliate as a lever for sustainability and learn more about the tools making it happen.

How Does Affiliate Grab a Bigger Slice of the Pie?

At PI LIVE, we spoke with CREANDS Co-Founder Jacob Huang and Gen3 Marketing’s Executive Vice President, Paresh Vadavia, about taking affiliate to the next level, industry collaboration, and the value of in-person connection.

Rakuten Advertising’s Nick Fletcher Talks Partnerships in the AI Revolution

We spoke to Nick Fletcher, SVP, EMEA at Rakuten Advertising, about unlocking channel growth and the LLM opportunity.

CJ’s Dan Staples on Elevating Affiliate’s Value

At PI LIVE, we caught up with CJ’s Dan Staples to delve into the ins and outs of incrementality, emerging tracking challenges, and the future of AI visibility.

Last Click is Lying to You

San Sareen walks through the five-pillar operational playbook for building an integrated creator marketing system.

Rethinking Q1: 5 Key Learnings from Reward Gateway | Edenred’s Wellbeing Outlook 2027

Is Q1 really the quiet, cautious quarter most brands plan around? Molly Pemberton, UK Merchant Director at Reward Gateway | Edenred, shares lessons from the company’s new Wellbeing Outlook 2027 report.

“Visibility Doesn’t Equal Verified Value”: Partnerize’s Maura Smith Talks Creating Payable Outcomes

At PI LIVE, Partnerize’s Maura Smith delved into machine-mediated commerce and the platform’s industry-first integration with Profound.

Reddit Just Announced a Big Shift. Here’s What You Need to Know

From user growth to declining search referral traffic, Reddit’s been on a rollercoaster — now, big changes are coming.

Affiliate as a Tool for Impact: The Story Behind Building Cashblack

We caught up with Matthew Addai, Co-Founder of Cashblack and Afrofiliate, to discuss the mission behind the tech companies, Addai’s Dream It, Build It PI LIVE panel, and his entrepreneurial perspective on AI.

Lodestar Marketing Talks GPMA Gold Wins in the APAC region

We spoke with Managing Partners Anthony Quinn and Jesper Kauth to learn what the agency’s wins mean for them and the importance of showcasing APAC success stories.

Data Matters: CRDB Bank’s Joyce Nsekela Talks Award Wins, Community, and Campaign Insights

We caught up with CRDB Bank’s Joyce Nsekela to discuss community, financial inclusion and the recipe for a winning entry.

Industry Insight

Stay at the top of your game

Last week, Canva announced that it’s restructuring. 22% of its global workforce will be affected, whether that’s being laid off or relocated. It’s a staggering number of people whose lives are about to be shaken to the core.

Unfortunately, as many of you will be too well aware of, this is not an isolated incident. In tech alone, this year has seen over 200,000 people impacted. And marketing, of course, is not exempt. Some of these cuts are linked to AI; some are not. But the reality is, a huge number of people are staring down the barrel of unemployment in the worst job market we’ve seen in decades.

But while Canva’s job cuts are eye-watering, there’s something to glean from how they’ve treated the process — and their people. Hear me out — I'm not slapping them on the back.

In a LinkedIn post, Meg Salter spotlighted 1.) the transparency with which the news was shared and 2.) the redundancy package given to those that are affected.

In a climate where so many employees receive only statutory redundancy pay — if that (in the UK, employees who have worked with a company for less than two years are walking away empty-handed), the package is significant.

This includes at least six months' pay, 12 months of healthcare, one-to-one career coaching and a year of LinkedIn Premium, a 10k grant to pursue their own venture — and they get to keep their MacBook.

Of course, not every company has the means to facilitate this kind of package and the package itself is not some kind of success story — over a thousand people are losing their livelihoods. But as the job cuts come thick and fast, the message to company leaders is: respect, value and support the people who have worked hard for your company, and in a world where it’s increasingly difficult to stay afloat, provide a softer landing for them.

Partnership marketing is all about people, and if you’re gearing up to make cuts to your workforce, Salter put it best: “The way we treat the people affected is what they'll remember, and what everyone watching will remember too.”

And for those who may have already been affected by workforce cuts, as always, we’ve included this week’s jobs round-up at the bottom of the page — check out HR expert Yasar Ahmad’s top tips for applications here. I'm wishing each and every one of you the best of luck.