DealMaker Europe 2022 Highlights

It had been a long two years’ not being able to host our events in-person and we were delighted to welcome more than 500 advertisers, publishers, and agencies from across our European network to connect, learn, grow, deal and party! Given the importance of European expansion to our client base, we have expanded our London event to create DealMaker Europe, to bring together our clients and partners from the UK and other European markets.

This year was extra special. Not only was it the first time we’d been able to bring our network together in person since 2019, but it was also our 25^th Birthday, so we had plenty to celebrate. Doing business shouldn’t have been this much fun!

This year’s event was buzzing with actionable panel sessions, thought-provoking presentations, networking sessions and of course – the highly anticipated, European Golden Link Awards. Rakuten Advertising’s CRO, Jeffry Wender and International MD, Rakhee Jogia kicked off the event and explained how brands and partners are poised for a year where affiliate advertising outperforms.

Commencing our strategy sessions, Nick Fletcher, SVP EMEA, hosted a panel discussion alongside our partners Michael Elschenbroich at Stylink, Niki Harrold at Rad Power Bikes, and Sabrina Pèbre at Afiliza/Widilo. Focused on European expansion, our panellists provided their guidance and tips on how to succeed in different European regions and build an impactful regional affiliate strategy.

“Even though we are one European Union and have one currency in many European countries, each country has its own soul and needs. So, you must look deep into every country’s market – in terms of society and language.” Michael Elschenbroich, Stylink

Next up, James Little from TopCashback hosted an insightful panel alongside our Rakuten Advertising International Collective (RAIC) members. Simon Bird from RevLifter, Laura Meunier from Global Savings Group and Dean Ahsour from FitFlop discussed how advertisers are using the affiliate channel to align to broader KPIs, such as awareness, social purpose, and global expansion. The panelists touched on the importance of leveraging our tools such as multi-touch commissioning to measure the impact of marketing campaigns from discovery through to purchase.

With 1 in 3 of all new order-active publishers globally in APAC, the region is a hub of innovation and growth. Our APAC team took to the stage and shared the latest trends and publishers that are taking affiliate marketing to the next level such as buy-now-pay-later and card-linked offers. The team emphasised three key steps for success: choosing markets, identifying which publishers work in each market and focusing on ‘local’ publishers.

Following our networking lunches, our attendees were invited to join our afternoon breakout sessions. The first of which continued our theme of European expansion. Our regional experts explored the nuances that impact ecommerce and online marketing strategies and shared what it takes to build a successful affiliate programme in Europe.

During our Partner Sessions, our session sponsors Klarna, Magiclinks, vchfy.com, Incubeta, Stylight and Skimlinks all took to the main stage and shared developments from their businesses and how each model can help our client base diversify and grow their affiliate programme in 2022.

With our ongoing commitment to serving the unique needs of the financial vertical, we invited finance brands to join us for an exclusive networking mixer sponsored by our friends at Money.co.uk. During this session, 40+ financial advertisers and publishers attended to meet and mingle and hear developments from our team on compliance which is essential for any financial brand looking to take advantage of the affiliate channel.

Throughout the event, attendees were able to meet and connect with our event exhibitors in our DealSpace area, Huddle Rooms and ‘Rakuten Refresh’ Lounge. Underpinning our entire event is our networking app, Pathable, which provided attendees with the ability to connect and schedule meetings ahead and during the event. This year, over 1000 meetings were requested with our partners at the event!

The event concluded with our European Golden Link Awards ceremony. Now in its third year, the Awards celebrate our network’s most innovative and exceptional affiliate campaigns, teams, and companies. This year, we were excited to be joined by the hilarious Cally Beaton – a comedian, writer, speaker and business mentor from London. Alongside members of the Rakuten Advertising team, Cally presented winners of each of our coveted awards. You can view the winners and highly commended entries here.

After the awards, our attendees continued to party the night away with our DJ and feasted on more delicious food including hot dogs, sliders and cupcakes to celebrate our 25^th Birthday.

From start to finish, the energy at DealMaker was infectious! We hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did. You can view all the photos of the event here and catch up on the day by checking out coverage from our event media partners PerformanceIN and Performance Marketing World and the hashtag #DMEURO22.

Our event could only take place with the support of our amazing sponsors. A huge thank you to our Platinum Sponsor, Revlifter, for their continued support across our DealMaker events. Revlifter is a multi-award-winning deals personalisation platform who are helping our clients to deliver personalised deals and content across the eCommerce journey. The team also took away our Innovation Award for its innovative RevWallet technology at the European Golden Link Awards. Learn more about the team and how to partner with them here.

A huge thank you to all our other sponsors: Swapi, Airtime Rewards, Dealmoon, Bravo Savings Network, Fitflop, Honey, Intent.ly, GiveShop, Lyre’s, Optiopay, Redbrain, Reward, Revlifter, Siteplug, Soreto and TopCashback.

Our sister event, DealMaker USA is also taking place this month from 27^th – 29^th June over in Austin, Texas. Registration is open now if you’d like to join us.

We’re always looking to grow and improve our events. If you have any feedback, please do share it here.

See you next year!