With entries open for October’s inaugural International Performance Marketing Awards (IPMAs), this Q&A series looks back at the winners of the Awards’ ceremony last year, gathering insight into the some of the past winners and inspiration behind the industry’s newly-decorated campaigns and companies.
Today we’re speaking with Performance Horizon’s co-founder Sean Sewell and also VP revenue EMEA who won the award for North America – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy.
Tell us about winning an International Performance Marketing Award?
They are also important because they showcase to both internal and external audiences who are really moving the needle on a business. Too often, partner marketing people don’t get all the recognition they deserve because they make it look easy to drive great sales and growth year in year out. People outside the industry sometimes don’t understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go into really delivering business results through partnerships.
Where does the value lie in winning North America – Best Performance Marketing Campaign or Strategy?
Historically, our company has been rooted in the EU. So, a US win provides great recognition that we are now a global leader in the space, strong in important regions beyond our root markets.
Has anything changed for your company since winning the award?
Our company has continued to grow strongly, more than 100% in the past 12 months in both the EU and North America. We’ve rolled out our AI-powered Performance Forecaster and Smart Alerts that help companies predict and increase future results. We’ve won a large number of assignments in Germany and the Netherlands and have created dedicated resources to serve those local markets. And we’ve developed and implemented a range of product features that enable us to better serve partnerships of any type including affiliate, influencers and strategic brand-to-brand alliances.
In your opinion, what kind of attributes stand out in succeeding in such regions as North America?
I’m a big believer that the sort of extraordinary results you highlight with these awards are a direct result of using data more comprehensively and quickly to develop and optimize programs. In our platform we see people spending far more time measuring more events and steps in the customer journey. We’re seeing them get much more granular in every aspect of partner program development, management, and optimizations. As the largest market for partnership, the US represents the most established marketplace for our category, so taking more aggressive approaches to derive and implementing insights from data is critical in that region.
What’s your take on the IPMAs as a vital aspect of driving the industry forward on a global scale?
These international awards play a key role in helping propel the industry and worthy careers. By highlighting the best thinking and programs in the industry, these awards help us all strive to do more. To get beyond the expected. They also ensure that the best and brightest in our industry get the recognition they so richly deserve.
Earlybird entries for the International Performance Marketing Awards 2018 close on July 10. Download the entry pack for more insight into the regional and channel-based categories that could see you, or your overseas teams, crowned international performance champions.
