Two days of engaging, thought-provoking content dedicated to the measurable side of marketing were brought to a close as we bid Performance Marketing Insights: London farewell for another year.

The annual gathering of performance marketing experts has taken residency at London’s Westminster Park Plaza, where two days of sessions, networking, roundtable discussions and back-to-basics tuition have provided the 1,000 attendees with plenty to take back to the field.

Today (October 30) saw speakers from a range of demographics, from advertisers to tech providers, pitch their thoughts on performance marketing-related topics as PMI: London’s biggest ever crowd provided an endless list of highlights.

Early insight

Easing themselves into the day following a hard night getting down at the roller disco, attendees were greeted with presentations on corruption in the display ad economy, personalisation and PPC strategies.

One of the more popular sessions from the AM slot centered on growth marketers and how Silicon Valley’s heads of promotion have influenced the amount of activities a marketer will delve into. Moderated by Facebook marketing manager Natalie Brieger, the panel discussed the demand for multi-skilled workers among companies looking to punch above their weight.

Those same marketers would have gained plenty from some of the practical sessions on the event’s Create track. One of the talks of the morning was delivered by social media authority Eric Weaver, who outlined new methods of measuring ROI from activity on social networks among other ways of scaling known barriers to success with the channel.

In a new format for PMI, experts in the field of programmatic locked horns over where real-time bidding will come into its own in the future as part of a balloon debate. With the final vote cast by attendees, it was mobile that came away victorious.

The path to success

The afternoon saw a debut for PMI’s new Boot Camp feature, where 10 tables were set aside for marketers to chew over topics such as performance indicators in SEO, conversion optimisation, mobile commerce and the synergy between display and affiliate marketing among others.   

Attention then turned to the Capture track, where day-two keynote Matthew Syed took to the stage for an inspirational talk on black-box thinking.

The former Olympian deciphered the relationship that some of the world’s most decorated athletes and professionals have with failure in order to explain the effectiveness of learning from mistakes.

Plenty of nods were also given to some of the ways that marketers measure and test their efforts, with Syed highlighting their likeness to approaches adopted by some of the world’s biggest success stories.

After a quick networking break, the emphasis switched back over to practical advice as speakers from the likes of Starcom Mediavest Group, Hilton Worldwide and Oracle guided the attendees through sessions on incrementality in the affiliate channel and the true definition of content.

One of the big draws was a panel moderated by Travelex global marketing director Dominic Grounsell, which sparked a discussion on platform convergence and the troubles advertisers are having with trying to find a solution which answers a multitude of queries.

With the end in sight, it was up to PMI founder Matthew Wood to cap things off with a panel discussing some of the biggest talking points from the two days, touching on ad fraud, transparency, personalisation and where we’re heading next as an industry. 

Missed anything from the two days? Catch up with all the coverage from PMI: London with our very own live blog, and read the day one round up here.