Performance marketing network Rakuten LinkShare has taken a new approach to its digital marketing strategy.
The global Japanese-founded affiliate network will slowly but surely be swapping its logos and branding from Rakuten LinkShare, to Rakuten Marketing.
The new brand, which is a division within Rakuten for online marketing services, offers affiliate marketing (Rakuten LinkShare), display and re-targeting (Rakuten MediaForge), paid search management and lead generation.
The move was announced at this week’s Rakuten LinkShare Symposium New York 2013 event, and is to reflect the fact that Rakuten is growing into a wider online marketing agency offering clients a ‘more holistic approach’ to their digital marketing strategy.
Looking at the Consumer Journey
The company says both its service offering and global reach is expanding rapidly.
New York-based senior vice president of global marketing at Rakuten LinkShare, Scott Allan, said the ‘umbrella brand’ was really born from the needs of its clients which are increasingly looking across channels at the consumer journey.
“We’re considering additional services in the future and we’re also going global with these services. In parallel, we’re increasingly providing services to advertisers in two or more channels,” Allan said.
“For example, we now have over 50 clients that use our affiliate marketing services as well as our display and re-targeting services. And some clients use three of our services (affiliate, search and display).”
Check out a PerformanceIN news piece based on results from a recent Rakuten LinkShare study: True Extent of International Affiliate Marketing Uncovered