Taking on the World with Award-winning Global Affiliate Strategies

In a fast-paced global economy, many brands are exploring new markets to generate additional growth opportunities. A task which can seem daunting but certainly doesn’t have to be. The affiliate channel offers a low-risk, low-cost entry point to global markets, allowing brands to test the waters and confidently expand their audience reach.

Global affiliate strategies are further helping reduce entry barriers thanks to the channel’s agility. No other marketing channel allows you to pivot strategies based on changing shopper behaviours across the globe.

At Rakuten Advertising, we’re a truly global partner. We provide consistent service, reporting, and tech across regions and tap into the highest quality network of publishers – all equipped to help you successfully take on the world. And it’s not just us saying this. We’ve been recognised for our global affiliate strategies through a series of industry awards. Let’s look at how we’ve helped brands like yours conquer new markets.

Building brand awareness in new markets

Building brand awareness in a new market doesn’t have to be complicated. Brands can work with the publishers to leverage the relationships they have with consumers to increase awareness via authenticity and trusted recommendations.

A luxury European brand wanted to grow brand awareness and sales in South Korea and successfully used the affiliate channel to do so. They partnered with rewards platform MyAmexShopping.com to create a unique partnership that increased their market awareness and sales by +178% YoY.

The unique partnership saw the luxury retailer partner through MyAMEXshopping.com with one of South Korea’s largest banks and the biggest K-Pop band in the world. The bank was launching its new AMEX credit card featuring the K-pop band, and through MyAMEXShopping, the luxury brand could offer exclusive benefits to cardholders, including cashback. With MyAMEXShopping, we leveraged the offer to boost brand awareness, reaching more than 400,000 South Korean cardholders and increasing sales among millennials and Gen Z.

AllSaints: Scaling in mature markets

In addition to building brand awareness in new markets, retailers need to look at how they’re scaling growth, something which can be tricky to do in mature markets. But tricky, doesn’t mean impossible. With the right expertise and partnerships, brands can effectively scale in new markets, even those with affiliate maturity.

High-end UK fashion brand AllSaints partnered with Rakuten Advertising through their agency to drive scale in the US and Canada. Not only did they want to maximise results, but they also wanted to ensure brand integrity and tasked our team with finding style-appropriate partners committed to sustainability.

The team developed a unique strategy that ensured AllSaints investment aligned with their company mission and identified top performers across each stage of the funnel. From here, AllSaints partnered with a diverse mix of publishers and implemented a data-driven approach to commissions and optimisations to maintain competitiveness. As a result, AllSaints saw sales in the US and Canada jump more than 27%, with the US average-order-value (AOV) increasing by 95%.

Using new formats to reach high-value audiences

Understanding the cultural nuances and how people engage with and purchase from brands is key to successfully expanding in new markets. For this approach to work, it also means brands need to be open to testing new formats and platforms, allowing them to reach consumers where they spend their time.

We recently helped a beauty brand expand its reach in China by partnering with 55Haitao. The beauty brand wanted to grow its revenue in China by 50%, focusing on boosting brand awareness and new customers. Using an in-depth knowledge of the Chinese consumer and 55Haitao, we created two new content strategies and compelling coupons.

The content campaign included content seeding initiatives and live streaming through Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) with top Chinese influencers and content creators. This was supplemented with exclusive coupon codes to entice conversions further. The campaign exceeded expectations growing revenue 88% YoY and a 135% uptick in new customers.

New market expansion comes with a wealth of opportunities for brands. And it doesn’t have to be risky. You can scale your business using an adaptable low-risk approach with affiliate marketing. Taking on the world is well within your reach.

Keen to get started with global affiliate strategies? Get in touch with our experts here.