Here’s What You Missed at PI LIVE London Day Two

Luke Judge, CEO at Tapx, and Steve Cox, CEO and Founder of Planit, chaired day two and kicked off the day by welcoming attendees back for another day of invaluable learning across two separate content tracks.

Now fully settled into the event, it was great to see so many conversations taking place across the Networking Village, impact.com’s Prosecco Lounge, Webgains’ Sports Bar, and for those wanting a quiet space to make those all-important deals to finalize, the Nookery Zone was the hot spot.

Fellow journalist Sol Wilkinson and I were busy throughout the day interviewing speakers and participants. It was great to be able to sit down with speakers after their sessions to dig a little deeper into the insight they hoped attendees would gain. We also did some digging and asked about trends and predictions for 2023. Keep your eyes peeled as we’ll be reporting these findings on our brand new publication, Hello Partner, in the coming weeks.

Some of the sessions you missed

Influencers, Live Shopping and Social Commerce: Affiliate is the ultimate conversion tactic
As we become more aware of the convergence between influencer, affiliate and performance marketing, and with 74% of buyers making purchasing decisions based on social recommendations, this type of behavior should not be ignored, were the discussions that took place during this panel. a true sign of the times.

If influencer marketing is something that piques your interest, our sister event, the Influencer Marketing Show, will be held at Old Billingsgate tomorrow – and it’s not too late to grab a ticket!

Until then, here are some of the best learnings from the session:

• If you’re considering implementing influencer marketing into your social shopping strategy, do it! But make sure you track every process, don’t wait until the end of the campaign to sign your reports.
• When looking for influencers to work with, don’t automatically go for the macros with millions of followers. Mid-level and micro-influencers who target niche areas are often going to get the best results and engagement.
• There are risks when working with people rather than technology, you can’t treat an influencer like a billboard. But to ensure you achieve what you want to achieve by allowing the influencer a sense of freedom, make sure those contracts are in place and thoroughly understood at the outset.

Fireside Chat with Boohoo: The value of unlocking the app for affiliates

The majority of affiliate campaigns still drive users to mobile websites, rather than apps, where the user experience is limited, engagement is poor, and conversion rates aren’t what they could be. Edith Batchelor, Senior Affiliate and Partnerships Manager at Boohoo, shared how the fast fashion brand worked with Branch to “unlock the app” for affiliates to properly track and credit program conversions, and to get their app in to change one of their best performing channels.

Some of the key takeaways from the session include:

• Apps can benefit different brands in different ways. An e-brand like Boohoo can make an app that has the same functionality as its website, but with a more seamless post-conversion process, while a fintech brand can develop an app as a companion to its web platform.
• Excellent tracking is essential to nail when developing an app for your brand. When you can rave about your program’s tracking capabilities to your affiliates, that’s what will keep them coming back.
• If there is a technology provider that can train and advise you on developing the best app possible, take all the help and advice you can get!

Lessons from 2008: What’s Next for the Recession-Era Affiliate Marketing Industry

Every year, PI LIVE is the ultimate hub for forward thinking and discussions about the industry’s future. To future-proof your strategies, it is sometimes useful to look back in time. In this panel of knowledgeable professionals, we looked at how we can apply lessons from the 2008 recall to the current economic climate.

I was able to grab speaker Ben Helyar, from NetRev for the panel to dig a little deeper into the scholars, so stay tuned for our interview. If you can’t wait until then, here are some of the session key takeaways:

• We can expect to see an emphasis on the ‘lipstick effect’ as the recession looms. Consumers will still want to treat themselves to luxuries, but instead of investing in, say, a Chanel bag, they might instead go for a Chanel lipstick. So brands, make sure it’s the lipstick you’re promoting.
• While it may seem like the most natural response to a downturn in the economy, what you MUST NOT do is reduce your investment in marketing. Those who continue to invest during testing times are the ones who stay strong and achieve lifelong brand value.
• Making sure you are aware of and present on review sites will encourage consumers to trust your brand. Just make sure you have a plan in place to avoid fake reviews and bots.

Join us in Miami

PI LIVE London may be over, but open your diary and grab a pen because we’ll be heading to the US next year for the first edition of PI LIVE Miami in Q1 next year! The show will take place from April 2-4, 2023, with the US Partnership Awards ceremony taking place after the show on the 3rd (you can explore the entry kit now to get ahead of the game).

If you can’t wait until then, we’d love for you to join us tomorrow at the Influencer Marketing Show, where there will be not two, but THREE stages of content covering everything influencer marketing and creator economics.

Influencers and brands are our top two demographics in attendance, so you’ll be sure to find tons of potential partners and countless opportunities to forge new relationships and nurture existing ones.

PI LIVE London attendees are entitled to a 15% discount on IMS London tickets, just use the code PI LIVE at checkout.