The International Performance Marketing Awards landed for the first time last night (October 23) at the Hilton Bankside Hotel, welcoming over 300 performance marketers to celebrate the industry’s growth and innovation globally.
Revealed live on the official IPMA Twitter account and now available to view in full below, the night’s victors championed within 23 categories, each a badge of honour testament to their commitment to unrivalled client service and commitment to pioneering industry standards internationally.
The task of deciding the IPMA winners fell to the awards’ panel of judges, represented by experts from the international offices of companies such as trivago, LinkedIn, Genie Ventures and Oath, among others.
Judge Adrian Cutler, Microsoft’s agency director international, spoke of being “particularly impressed” with the standard of entries, highlighting the “tough competition” across the categories which cover regional-specific campaigns, international-level organisations and outside of the judges’ remit, partner recommendations.
Regional Awards
Perhaps most emblematic of the new award show’s global direction, the Regional Awards saw competitors battle for Best Managed Affiliate Campaign and Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy across multiple global markets.
Global performance marketing agency iProspect flexed its muscles early on with a campaign with General Motors for Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy in the Middle East & Africa, taking on PMA newcomers, the Turkish-based Kubix Digital and Latitude Digital Marketing.
Middle East & Africa – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
iProspect
iProspect worked with GM to deliver the Middle East and Africa region “the car they never expected”, in a campaign that delivered Cost per Rich Engagement of just 1 cent compared to a target of 23 and increased brand image indicators to 89% across key sales markets.
Opening a new Jakarta office to bolster its APAC footprint at the start of the year, Optimise’s actions spoke louder than words, demonstrating unrivalled success in a region expected to overtake North America as the world’s largest digital ad market within the next year.
Asia Pacific – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
Optimise
Travel fare aggregator site Agoda saw 300% year-on-year sales growth thanks to work of Optimise in a campaign designed to deliver incremental sales on desktop, mobile web and in-app, across multiple markets in APAC.
In a category covering mature performance advertising markets such as the UK, Germany and Netherlands, it was no surprise that competition was incredibly tight in the Western Europe categories, and equally of little surprise that two established leaders took home the gongs.
Western Europe – Best Managed Affiliate Programme
CJ Affiliate by Conversant
Putting a focus on driving value through content, TUI sought holistic growth of its affiliate programme. Managed by CJ Affiliate, TUI’s request was not only delivered, it was surpassed. Driving “enormous growth”, effective return on investment stood at 38:1, well over twice as strong as the industry average.
Western Europe – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
Awin
Vouchercloud and Awin are behind fashion retailer TOPMAN’s most innovative campaign to date; using a minimal budget, TOPMAN challenged discount partners to create a unique Christmas gifting campaign, resulting in the brand’s market share increasing 41% and a revenue by 242% year on year.
The IPMAs were launched with one objective being to shine a light on the comparatively quiet engine rooms of markets such as LATAM. The success of Experiencias Xcaret in Mexico is a rare glimpse of affiliate marketing’s value and intelligent application across the globe.
Central & South America – Best Managed Affiliate Programme
Experiencias Xcaret
Tapping into the burgeoning US tourist industry in Cancun and with a mindset focused on campaign sustainability, Mexican tour experience company Experiencias Xcaret grew 141% in 2016 through affiliate, adding over 1,000 new partners and boasting an ROI of 1500%.
Optimise’s current prowess across the globe is tangible, with the group returning in the regional categories last night to seal a LATAM win with its campaign for the esteemed brand Santander in the booming Brazilian market.
Central & South America – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
Optimise
Supporting the launch of the new Santander credit card in Brazil, Optimise’s performance-based native media campaign involved innovative use of data and commercial models to exceed volume targets by 45%, while optimising cost per lead rates to 48% under budget.
In North America, a shortlist of heavyweights vied for the title of Best Managed Affiliate Campaign with Awin, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Marketing, Performance Horizon, OPMPros and SSENSE staking success on activity with brands such as Superdry, Marriott, Missguided and FedEx.
North America – Best Managed Affiliate Programme
Awin
Citing US e-commerce expansion as a priority, Superdry worked with Awin to target key publishers in North America, driving treble digit revenue growth and a significant number of new customers; the region contributed 44% of global affiliate revenue in Q4 2016, now the largest revenue-driving territory in Superdry’s affiliate mix.
Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy in the same region, meanwhile, featured campaigns with Button and Ibotta, Mediacom and Emirates, Awin and MyProtein, CJ Affiliate and Lucky Brand, and OPMPros and Marriott.
North America – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
Performance Horizon
With ambitions to become the number one airline in the global affiliate space, Emirates worked with Mediacom and Performance Horizon to roll out an innovative new commission model with the launch of the airline’s Fort Lauderdale route campaign in the US; the result blasted expectations, paving the way for the strategy to go global.
Set to be one of the most rapidly developing global markets in the next two years according to a report by Zenith this year, the Eastern Europe categories proved that many are in an early position to seize on the region’s growth with some promising campaigns bearing early fruit.
Eastern Europe – Best Managed Affiliate Programme
CJ Affiliate by Conversant
A fashion retailer leader in the Czech market, ZOOT.cz enlisted CJ Affiliate and VIVnetworks to orchestrate a shrewd program strategy that increased the program’s new customer acquisition by 35% and achieved the desired level of content program revenue, ultimately raising the channel’s value for the client.
Eastern Europe – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy
Awin
Sportswear brand New Balance partnered with Awin to disrupt its affiliate presence and realign its brand image in Poland. Partnering with publisher Pro Position, a market-pioneering SEM campaign was launched which ultimately delivered a fourfold increase in clicks and a near doubling of sales in the region.
International Campaign-Based Awards
Best Use of Data
MEC UK
MEC overcame strict Apple brand restrictions with creative panache for client Vodafone, identifying and targeting an audience of three million consumers in the market for a new iPhone, in what resulted as the carrier’s most successful display campaign to date and lowest ever CPA.
E-commerce in Scandinavia made an appearance last night with JVWEB and Swedish clothing brand Geggamoja.
Best Paid Search Campaign
JVWEB
A complement of unique technology and local knowledge sat at the heart of JVWEB’s AdWords campaign for organic clothing company Geggamoja. Across Sweden and Europe, this campaign exceeded expected revenue by 36%, with continuations an immediate success.
Best Paid Social Campaign
Marin Software
Under the expertise of Marin and tapping into its innovative technology, renowned newspaper The Economist boosted new subscriptions by 66% through a highly-targeted Facebook video campaign; the result shattered targets while generating a 72% lower CPC than image-based ads.
Rewarded for two exceptional campaigns for household brands last night, MEC UK returned to scoop another accolade, pushing boundaries in programmatic efficiency for mobile carrier Vodafone.
Most Effective Use of Programmatic
MEC UK
Harnessing the concept of “marginal gains” was key to to improving and optimising already stellar performance in programmatic advertising for MEC’s client – mobile carrier Vodafone – in a campaign which looked to other industries and fields of science for inspiration.
General Awards
Most Effective Large International Agency
Acceleration Partners
With a client roster including adidas, Reebok, Target and Warby Parker, Acceleration Partners drove $1 billion in revenue for its world-leading clients last year. The largest independent affiliate marketing agency in the US, the company allocates more resources to programmes than any other, continually raising the bar for the global industry.
It’s no surprise that the shortlist for Best International Affiliate Network drew out a punchy roster, with Rakuten Marketing (US), CJ Affiliate (US), Awin (Germany) and Optimise (UK) taking on Awards’ newcomers BitterStrawberry (Switzerland), MOBIDEA (Luxembourg) and Adcombo (Canada).
Best International Affiliate Network (Full Service)
Awin
Awin’s passion for affiliate marketing leads the network to create solutions that drive transformation for the entire industry; the network is firmly committed to making affiliate marketing easier, as well as providing unsurpassed data and insights.
Best International CPA Network
BitterStrawberry.com
Present in over 250 markets and six continents, BitterStrawberry.com is a mobile-oriented affiliate network active across the globe; its powerful performance tracker and analytics capabilities help publishers, affiliates and media buyers deep dive and easily optimize their campaigns.
Best SaaS / Tracking Platform
HYPR
30% of the world’s largest brands, agencies and influencer platforms trust HYPR’s data. Specialising in smart influencer search and discovery, HYPR provides real-time analytics for social influencers, while its targeted discovery platform opens up millions of highly-engaged influencers to its partners in just seconds.
Competing for one of the ceremony’s most coveted titles, Spanish-headquartered Marfeel joined a US-heavy lineup featuring Button, HYPR, Rakuten Marketing, iProspect, Impact Radius, Lytics and Wickfire to compete for the title of Best Performance Marketing Technology.
Best Performance Marketing Technology
Rakuten Marketing
Rakuten Marketing understands the complexities of the modern consumer journey, that’s why it developed Cadence – a proprietary cross-channel, cross-device insights and attribution platform; the embodiment of data transparency and innovation that gives marketers a full view of their marketing performance.
Industry Awards
Winners of the Industry Awards received streams of glowing praise from partners across the world, with clients praising customer service, pioneering technology and the ability to become “independent” as a result of their support.
Industry Choice of Network
CJ Affiliate by Conversant
An incredibly competitive and highly sought-after award, CJ Affiliate by Conversant has earned the round praise of an international client-base to be awarded the IPMA’s Industry Choice of Network. Called “ahead of the curve” and lauded for “fantastic management” by a wealth of peers, CJ Affiliate is a multi-market affiliate leader and a worthy bearer of this coveted award.
Industry Choice of Agency
iProspect
The stellar competition vying for the Industry Choice of Agency award is a testament to the outstanding quality of champion iProspect. Partners from across multiple markets praised the agency’s industry-leading support, expertise and innovation, as well as its firm commitment to advertising transparency.
Industry Choice of Technology
HasOffers by Tune
Going against some of performance marketing’s leaders in tech, HasOffers by Tune triumphed in the Industry Choice of Technology category. The company was praised by partners for usability, pioneering software, unrivalled support, and the independence it provides its clients across the globe.
#PMA18
With the International Performance Marketing Awards now behind us, eyes will now be set on the Performance Marketing Awards 2018, which return to the Grosvenor House Hotel in April next year with a slew of new categories.
The IPMAs also represent the first official networking event of PerformanceIN LIVE, the two-day international performance marketing show taking place at London’s Old Billingsgate for the next two days (October 24-35). Find out more about attending here.