Christmas always comes early for marketers, and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, it’s been a charged week for news at PerformanceIN.  

Mobile marketing

Mobile has been a strong theme throughout the last seven days. Opera Mediaworks MD of EMEA put the spotlight on ten mobile marketing areas to look into within the fastest growing sector of the ad industry, while more immediate advice took the form of ‘Black Friday Mobile Marketing Strategies for Retailers’.

The advice doesn’t come unfounded, with a joint study finding that almost half of consumers complete financial and travel purchases on mobile devices, with 54% booking hotels on mobile.

In an incisive feature, SmartFocus CMO Jess Stephens argues that the power lies wholly in the seamless integration between both the handheld and the high street: “The power to win the customer lies squarely in the hands of the retailer who is not scared of the mobile device in-store,” she urges.

Festive fury

We’ve seen reams of seasonal advice, from where to direct your display budget over the Christmas period to how to tap into ‘Cyber Week’ with your email marketing messages, as well as some affiliate strategies to bear in mind from across the Atlantic.

Affiliate Window gave their annual forecast for the coming weeks, and looking beyond the snowstorm, Sizmek’s UK MD Ben Walmsley offered five predictions for digital advertising trends in 2015.

From the top

Following zanox AG’s merger with Affiliate Window, PerformanceIN spoke to recently appointed chief executive Mark Walters about the company’s new direction and future intentions in an exclusive Q&A.

Madison Logic Data’s Erik Matlick questioned the distinction between B2B and B2C marketing methods via INside the Boardroom US. And in just another day in the life of a performance marketer, Berlin-based co-founder of Eyeota, Kristina Prokop, talked international expansion, programmatic innovation and a past life as a Midwest ranch hand.

PMAs return

We were excited to announce that entries have opened officially for the Performance Marketing Awards. The PMAs return for their ninth year in April 2015 to the Grosvenor Park Hotel in Park Lane, with four new categories to cater for an ever expanding and evolving industry.

The annual black tie event celebrates innovation and creativity, attracting leading advertisers, publishers, agencies, networks and tech providers. You can find out more about categories, the judging panel, and how to make an entry here.