Key highlights from DealMaker Canada 2024

We had a record-breaking number of clients make the trip to Shangri-La in Toronto for our final DealMaker event of 2024. Attendees included top advertisers, publishers, and agencies from all regions of North America who got together to network, learn, and celebrate over two DealMaker days.

Our eager attendees pre-scheduled nearly 400 meetings to strategize for Q4 and beyond—the room was filled with laughter, dealmaking, and exciting conversation! Attendees learned about the advancement and success of our Canadian market, heard growth metrics from our executive team, listened in on a fireside chat with Kits and a Global Growth panel with TELUS Health and Gen3 Marketing, and learned more about top publisher partners Borrowell and Rakuten Rewards during our Publisher Showcase.

Here are the highlights from this year’s DealMaker Canada:

Making connections and deals at DealMaker Canada 2024

As the name implies, DealMaker is all about making deals and bringing the affiliate community together. The two-day event was filled with opportunities to schedule one-on-one meetings and network with the industry as a whole. In fact, our attendees scheduled nearly 400 individual meetings during the event!

The two-day event kicked off Thursday night with a welcome reception sponsored by Venngo. It brought together all attendees to chat and connect over food and the Venngo-rita, a delicious lime margarita and allowed everyone to get a chance to meet prior to the full day of networking and content.

On Friday morning, the morning started with some light breakfast and networking, with attendees making deals over coffee and tea. Executive remarks then kicked off with our VP of Sales, and our Canadian champion, Krysta Gutteridge highlighting Canadian network growth and the massive number of new advertiser, publisher, and agency partners that have joined our network in the past year.

When asked to describe the event, Krysta stated, “Dealmaker Canada is a vital event for our industry. Rakuten Advertising understands how important it is for our partners to gather in-person to optimize for the year ahead. It’s fosters open-mindedness for creating partnerships across the funnel, and allows attendees to use data to share insights, lean into expertise, and not be afraid to try new things. One of my favourite moments from today was overhearing 2 advertisers come up with an idea to partner on a new product, it was beautiful for me to witness that happen right in front of me! I’m honored that we could be the vehicle that helped bring that new idea to life. Watching new partnerships form, and to be a part of the excitement for our industry is a big reason why we all work so hard.”

While content and connection were center stage, we also had an exciting raffle to end the day. Attendees had the chance to enter our official raffle and win prizes from our stellar partners at KITS, La Vie en Rose, Canadian Down and Feather, and more. Thank you to our partners for making the day so special for fellow attendees.

Insightful Thought Leadership from KITS, TELUS Health, and Gen3 Marketing

Amidst client meetings, attendees had the opportunity to listen to compelling content from thought leaders in the affiliate space. This year, attendees had two opportunities to hear from top Canadian thought leaders, including a fireside chat with KITS and a panel with TELUS Health and Gen3 Marketing.

Driving Growth: Strategies for New Customer Acquisition

In our exclusive Fireside Chat with KITS, KITS.CA Senior Partnerships Manager, Katie Dempsey discussed the importance of incrementality within an affiliate program and provided her best practices for creating and maintaining successful relationships.

Senior Partnerships Manager, Katie, said it best: “As we’ve built our affiliate program and further developed our relationship with Rakuten Advertising, it has given me the confidence to explore new partners I’d never considered, and since then, we’ve seen exponential growth results.”

Katie and moderator, Lisa Ouroumis, Senior Account Manager for KITS, also provided some Q4 insight for the attentive DealMaker audience, emphasizing the importance of reaching out to top partners as soon as possible to make the most of peak-shopping budgets. 

Going Global: Taking Affiliate to the Next Level

This year’s panel explored the strategies and challenges faced by affiliate marketers when expanding into new markets, especially Canada. Moderated by our Director of Publisher Partnerships, Chris Schell, our panelists, Shaun Henson from Telus Health and Nikki Yorgiadis from Gen3 Marketing highlighted the role of affiliate partners like Rakuten in their UK and Australian growth, and stressed understanding local nuances, such as regulatory conditions and French translations, for entering Canada.

The pair noted significant shifts in the market due to AI and Card-Linked Offers and emphasized the importance of local expertise and strong partnerships, regardless of the new technology and tools available.

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We wanted to extend our gratitude and appreciation for our events team, we couldn’t have accomplished DealMaker Canada without their leadership and support!

To stay up to date on upcoming Rakuten Advertising events, check out our events page.