After an exhilarating first day at PerformanceIN Live, the event came to a close on day two, celebrating the history of affiliate marketing and the growth of measuring performance.

The Keynote Theatre once again witnessed inspiring lessons in performance leadership with Fiji rugby legend, Ben Ryan, on building optimal performance on a budget and Enlightened Leadership founder Andy Parfitt on how to lead a business in the age following the tech revolution.

Over the course of two days, the #PILIVE17 hashtag exploded across our social channels; scroll down through the PI LIVE Twitter Moments reel for a view from the crowd’s perspective, while below we provide a wrap up of an action-packed second day as it happened.

Moving away from ‘last-click’ win

Philip Keckeis, director international operations at TradeTracker.com delivered an engaging session on how advertisers can increase revenue and how to stand out from competition through solutions to tackle the ‘last-click’ principle. Keckeis emphasised the importance of incentive from advertisers to promote an understanding of their attribution channels better to beat the battle of the last-click principle.

A move away from the last click is a recurring talking point within the affiliate industry but is one TradeTracker.com has made real ground on. You can hear more about the network’s perspective in our on-the-ground interview with Keckeis at PerformanceIN below.

Meanwhile, Nick Fletcher, VP customer success at Rakuten Marketing noted that many more advertisers are moving “moving away from last-click” and looking in a more active view on user journeys. Fletcher also joined us to discuss the advantages of digital marketing in order to thrive in the face of increased competition, among a number of other speakers and exhibitors in our Facebook-exclusive Meet the Experts interview series from PI LIVE.

GDPR & Data-Talk

There’s been a lot of pressure on businesses and marketers to prepare for the upcoming general data protection regulation (GDPR) so it was no surprise this featured at a show devoted heavily to data-driven marketing. Martin Nolan, founder of the Blue Owl Network highlighted the risks of current third-party regulations within email marketing and the pressing tasks marketers need to tick off the list to ready themselves for new regulatory changes next year.

“PI Live 2017 provided a great platform to discuss the power of data,” commented Blair Robertson, chief analytics office at TVSquared who hosted a panel of experts from Havas, Readly and Enders Analysis, discussing the future of data use and the crossover of digital with TV advertising.  

“It’s both a scary and exciting time for TV,” Blair said after the session, “so discussion was of course focused on digital’s impact on the core TV business as we see the rise of connected devices bring opportunities – and new advertising products.”

Mobile strategy is key

This interesting session at the dome stage from Caroline Delacroix, global director of product consulting at Marin Software delivered some sound knowledge and advice on the defining a mobile strategy. She touched on the increased importance for brands and agencies to define their audience, aligning goals and exploring different ad types, particularly apps and running extensions to drive the consumer journey from mobile to website.

It’s all about experimentation

Stephen Pavlovich, CEO at Conversion.com discussed the groups their effective and experimental framework which touched on tools such as page layouts and navigation and using them to benchmark and improve everything from product to pricing, ensuring offerings are constantly optimised.

Using examples of brands such as McDonalds and Pepsodent, Pavlovich encouraged marketers to try out multiple possible methods utilising the framework of “measurement, hypothesis and experimentation”, challenging assumptions with radical concepts, filling in the blanks and taking an experimental approach to find the best solution.

Millennial marketers

Like or loathe the term, one of the last sessions in the Keynote Theatre saw a panel led by Webgains’ CEO Richard Dennys exploring the challenges of running ‘millennial’ organisations. Each of the panel, including Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones, Estrella Green director Natasha McKenzie and Pepperjam’s Derek Freer, shared the experiences managing the Generation Y, and the approaches and opportunities can take to motivate them, such as flexible working hours, financially-based goals and encouraging ‘side gigs’.

As evidenced by a number of questions at the end, a young audience of marketers were eager to join the discussion.

What an eventful two days. You can catch up on day one’s action here and look up the hashtag #PILIVE on Twitter for more. For further coverage from PerformanceIN Live, including speaker interviews and more, check out the website or leave your feedback on the event here.