With PMI: Europe set for a triumphant return to Amsterdam in July following two years in Berlin, the scene is set for a new-look event to roll into the Dutch capital and bring cutting-edge advice on how to do performance marketing correctly.
The previewed agenda is now live and offers swoop over some of the big subjects this year. Although affiliate marketing and lead generation continue to represent big points of focus, prospective attendees will notice the presence of sessions covering new areas of the performance marketing mix: programmatic, content marketing and offline conversion tracking among others.
It’s through a topical focus as well as a new Debate & Discuss track that attendees will gain answers to some of their biggest performance marketing problems.
On hand to provide his own thoughts of the fast-looming event is Lauri Koop, MD of Benelux & CEE at affiliate network zanox, which returns to PMI: Europe as a platinum sponsor.
Why was it important to sponsor PMI: Europe this year?
Lauri Koop: As Europe’s leading performance network, it’s not only crucial for us to stay on top of the latest trends and developments in the industry, but to actively participate in and support events that share these insights.
PMI is Europe’s biggest forum for performance-driven marketing and hosts a wide variety of industry experts, presenting exclusive insights as well as hands-on strategic advice. The curation of speakers, panelists and topics by an expert panel ensures the sessions are of the highest quality and every performance marketing professional should be able to gather useful lessons for their business.
To help foster the industry’s further growth and development, we proudly support PMI:Europe.
The event organisers have chosen Amsterdam as the host city. What’s interesting about this market from zanox’s view of things?
LK: Through history, ‘Dutchies’ have been early adopters of new ideas and seeking out new opportunities. Within digital they were the first to pick up Twitter and continue to show one of the highest penetrations for mobile and social media usage.
Today, the Benelux market [Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg] is packed with entrepreneurial publishers with whom we keep launching new concepts locally and expanding internationally – scaling up with them has been a big focus for zanox. As an example, we were the first to launch a performance-based solution on Instagram.
The growth is accelerated further by high e-commerce adoption by consumers and mature advertisers, which adds to its potential.
What has changed at zanox since the last time we saw you at PMI?
LK: In 2015 we saw 12.8% revenue growth, which also reflects the growth in our teams across the 11 territories we operate in.
This wouldn’t be possible without continuous investment and development into our platform, technology and the service we provide.
A wrap-up of our latest achievements can be found in a recent blog post we published after we were shortlisted for the Publisher’s Choice of Network category at the first European Performance Marketing Awards.
And for performance marketing in general – what have been the big changes you’ve seen there?
LK: Performance marketing is becoming more and more diverse. Lately we’ve seen a variety of interesting technology providers emerging that advertisers can access at low risk through affiliate networks.
Our industry has also become much more transparent. Nowadays advertisers and agencies know exactly where their sales come from and how to use the variety of tools available to achieve their goals.
It’s not only on the publisher side that we’ve seen technological progress shaping the market, many advertisers and agencies now use diverse tools to measure transactions and performance. This helps marketers to display affiliate marketing holistically in a greater context within their overall strategy.
It also proposes new challenges for affiliate marketers. It’s no longer enough to scout publishers and communicate with partners on a regular basis. The requirements on affiliate managers have grown with the complexity of the tools and systems that the market uses.
Which topics and subjects are you looking forward to seeing on the event’s agenda?
LK: We are always eager to hear about new publisher models and current industry developments. For example, mobile affiliate marketing and data-driven advertising within the affiliate channel.
We’re also looking forward to our global project manager, Florian Wallner, taking to the stage for a session exploring new ways to leverage the customer journey with cross-industry advertiser cooperation. It’s not to be missed!
Finally, Lauri, can you tell us why it’s important for members of the performance marketing community to attend this year’s event?
LK: PMI offers a diverse range of panels for performance marketing professionals, including hands-on sessions that provide insights that participants can integrate directly into their strategies. In the fast-paced and ever-evolving nature of our industry, it’s crucial to keep up with the latest trends and PMI provides the perfect forum for this.
Click here to explore the full range of pass options at PMI: Europe 2016.
