After the whirlwind of the first day of PI LIVE and the Influencer Marketing Show, Day 2 kicked off with another round of impressive sessions and debates celebrating the best of performance marketing and the progression of the influencer marketing industry.

Augmented reality technology

The Main Stage was once again packed full of keen attendees wanting to learn more about how augmented reality is a new reality for performance marketing in Snapchat’s session delivered by David Norris. During his session, Norris talked about “the role and the opportunity of the camera and how that’s changing the way people communicate, capture and consume their world.” We caught up with Norris after his interactive, successful session – you can check out the interview on PerformanceIN’s Facebook page.

Just beforehand was Sarah Bundy’s insightful session all about global publisher trends in performance. She shared her thoughts on publisher trends in influencer, personalisation, AI and more to an animated audience.

Authenticity in influencer marketing

Meanwhile, upstairs was one of the busiest sessions at the Influencer Marketing Show. Welcomed to the stage was Wura Sanusi from the Advertising Standards Agency alongside Scott Guthrie from CampaignDeus, Aiden Carroll, co-founder of The Colouring In Department and Mark Dandy from ISAWITFIRST.com. Authenticity is a hot topic in the influencer space currently, and the session deep dived into keeping on the right side of the law when partnering with influencers, affiliates and media owners with paid for content. The audience was keen to discover more about fraud, image manipulation, CGI influencer and more at this exciting channel.

Jules Lund, the founder of Tribe, also touched on authenticity and the decline of influencer fraud, which is only a positive sign for the relatively new and ever-growing industry. Lund’s hugely engaging session turned the audience into a creative agency to delve into a vision where consumers will be able to supply the creative for multi-channel brand campaigns. We talked to him after his session. 

Performance Punch

Performance Punch hosted on the dome stage saw hot debates on the particular burning topics in the industry. Up first, Anthony Clements from Connected Path, Helen Southgate from Acceleration Partners and Paul Stewart from Awin took to the stage to debate the cycle of commission erosion with taking to the dome stage in what was one of the busiest sessions of the day. As was the next lively Performance Punch session, which Chris Johnson from Vouchercloud/Groupon, Sean Sewell from Partnerize and Kevin Edwards from Awin debated affiliate marketing vs. partner marketing.

As evidenced by a number of questions during the debate, an intrigued audience of marketers was eager to join in the discussion. Attendees commented on how brilliant it was to hear opposing views on the same stage rather than one opinion.

Changing the performance marketing funnel 

Chris Russell-Smith, country manager of UK/IE at Tradedoubler, moderated an intriguing session on the changing of the performance marketing funnel. Throughout the session, they touched on the changing of the marketing pre-purchase and post-purchase stages to present a complete view of the entire customer lifecycle. According to the panel, multi-channel, multi-touch, multi-path customer journeys are the new marketing funnel, and marketers must now own the complete journey, not just cherry-pick touchpoints along the way.

Digital Disruptors

The audience was amazed by the fresh, exciting digitally disruptive thinking at this year’s Dragons’ Den-style final, which had the four finalist teams pitching their ideas to our very own PI LIVE Dragons. It was clear that everyone was enthusiastic about showcasing and supporting the up-and-coming talent and ideas within the industry. It was great to see the next generation of digital pioneers were thinking.

Until next year

What an eventful two days! You can catch up on the interviews here, and search the #PILIVE18 and #IMSHOW18 hashtags on social media for the conversations. For further coverage from the event, cast your eyes over the website.

Thank you to everyone that was involved in the event – it was fantastic and we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you want to continue the conversations, please leave your comments and feedback below or on our social channels using the #PILIVE18 and #IMSHOW18 hashtags, and hopefully see you again next year!