Honey returns to PI LIVE this month as a premier sponsor and ahead of the event, we caught up with Daniel Pilkington, Director of Partnerships, UK & Europe to discuss what they’ll be bringing to the show in addition to the business’ international growth in the last 12 months and thoughts on the latest performance marketing developments.
It’s great to have Honey involved with PI LIVE once again, this time as a premier sponsor. What are you most looking forward to at the event next month?
Daniel Pilkington: We’re thrilled to be a part of PI LIVE again as a premier sponsor. Last year’s involvement in the show proved to be extremely valuable, providing us with an opportunity to connect with our partners, networks and peers within the industry, continuing to build awareness and long-lasting relationships.
We’re especially looking forward to the IPMAs as we’ve been shortlisted for three awards. We have a big team heading over from the states so we have our fingers crossed for a win. We also can’t wait to welcome our partners to our stand, which we’re excited to show off. We’ve created a pretty unique space, with comfy sofas, snacks and some great Honey swag to give away!
It’s been a great 2019 for Honey – what have been some of your highlights as a company?
DP: 2019 has been an incredible year of growth and we’re so thankful for the support from all of our members and partners that have helped us continue to grow over the last 12 months. We’ve invested in our product offering with the addition of our mobile app, which launched in February in the US market. Our international presence continues to grow, with teams in over 9+ offices globally and 15M+ members in over 200 countries worldwide.
We also invested in people, with the addition of a number of high profile hires, including our President, Joanne Bradford and Chief People Officer, Scott Domann. Joanne has spent 25+ years in leadership roles at companies such as SoFi, Pinterest, Microsoft & Yahoo, while Scott joins us from Netflix, having spent time building out their global team. We’re excited to have them both on board.
There have been a lot of trends this year which has shaped performance marketing for better or worse. From a publisher perspective, what’s been your take on the industry developments, particularly around innovation, data protection, ad spend etc?
DP: There has been a lot of innovation over the last 12 months, specifically focused on personalisation through data-driven insights and machine learning. Consumers are constantly looking for more powerful, intelligent connections that drive relevance and convenience at every single touchpoint in their shopping journey. Businesses that have this awareness at the forefront of their strategy are the ones that’ll succeed, as consumers consistently seek out the best ways to shop and engage with stores online.
For us, we have always been firmly focused on streamlining the online shopping experience. Whether that be through automatically applying discount codes and offering loyalty at checkout through our patented browser extension or through intelligent price monitoring with our price watching feature Droplist, which monitors the price of individual products and notifies members when there has been a price change. We’re obsessed with improving the overall online shopping experience and driving relevance to our members and are continuously looking for ways that we can achieve this by expanding our product suite.
Also, how has Honey responded to both the opportunities and challenges facing the performance marketing industry today?
DP: We are consistently evaluating and reiterating our product offering to ensure we’re providing the best experiences to our members. As I mentioned before, we recently added our mobile app to the suite of Honey products available to our members, which is focused on search and discovery through personalisation.
We’re always listening to what our members want from an online shopping experience and building products that drive value first and foremost but also providing opportunities for our merchants to connect to our audience in a non-invasive, intelligent way. There are some great additional products in the pipeline that will further support the full customer journey from search and discovery to conversion that I can’t discuss in detail just yet, but stay tuned!
Lastly, what can attendees expect to find at your stand?
DP: The Honey stand definitely won’t disappoint. We have a pretty big team on hand for PI LIVE to chat with our partners and educate them on Honey and what we have to offer. We’ve also created a pretty fun meeting space, with super comfy sofas and have a ton of great Honey branded merchandise to giveaway. We’ll also be raffling off a pair of Honey branded AirPods each day to one lucky winner, so definitely stop by our stand!