The chairs for day two were industry experts Christian Gladwell, Global CEO at M&C Saatchi Performance and Ciaron Dunne, MD at Genie Ventures. The pair each began the day with a brilliant welcome and opening comments session, letting attendees know exactly what was in store for the final day of the conference.
Ciaron opened by saying: “Yesterday went brilliantly. I’ve been coming to these conferences since 2008 and I’ve never seen it so energetic. We’re in for another amazing show today so enjoy!”
Christian commented: “The performance marketing industry is really interesting and dynamic – this is a very exciting time to be a part of it. I would even argue that right now, all marketing is performance marketing. Day two is set to be just as good as yesterday, so look forward to it!”
What did attendees take away today?
The fusion of performance marketing and science
In this session, in which a topic not commonly discussed at previous shows, Lady Kitty Chisholm, Director at Praxeis, passionately spoke about the importance of mastering your mind.
She discussed the fact that decision making can be make or break, so mastering our minds so as to better control our actions and our reactions is very important.
“Some parts of the brain aren’t quite up to date with human innovation, meaning we need to spend more time on them.”
Kitty discussed the basic factors that your brain needs in order to make a good decision: energy, certainty, absence of threat, combination of rationality and emotions, migration of bias and expertise.
However, the performance marketing industry is a very uncertain universe to work in, meaning this can make it difficult for the brain to predict outcomes and make decisions.
Her session is recorded and available through the video vault – it is bursting with expertise and insight, so be sure to check it out!
The need for talent in the industry
At PerformanceIN, a topic we have noticed coming up a lot over the past few months is the need to find and retain fresh talent in the performance and affiliate marketing industries. In this panel discussion hosted by Luke Judge, the experts looked at how we should be future proofing the industry and creating learning and growth opportunities.
They discussed innovative initiatives like the four day work week at Awin, and whether or not companies are planning on going further to attract potential recruits.
Lack of progression seems to be the main reason the affiliate industry struggles to attract and retain talent. Awin’s Alex Parmar-Yee posed the question, however, about whether this problem is new or has simply been exasperated. eBay’s Richard Lane pointed out the fact that roles are still being defined in our relatively new industry.
Lauren Ogúndèkó, CDO and Co-Founder of Bicycle London, said: “We need to remember that this issue is across all digital, not just affiliate.”
The panel explored the fact that people often isolate the affiliate handler in the company, and that the branch often gets less resources put into it. Project management tools often came up as a solution, and they also went on to discuss more ways to keep things interesting and healthy for staff in order to encourage talent retention and progression.
The convergence of influencer and affiliate marketing
In this live recording of PerformanceIN’s How to Podcast, Niamh Butler-Walton chatted to Robin Ward, Head of Sales at LTK. The pair discussed influencers, why brands would choose to use them over more traditional publishers, the best practises for an integrated influencer marketing strategy and the future of creator commerce.
The podcast was recorded and will be available on Anchor over the next couple of weeks…keep your eye out!
What do you have to say?
The event may be over, but if you missed out on the sessions that took place, don’t fret! All sessions will be available via the video vault when the show is over to rewatch for 12 months, so ticket holders, make sure to sign up to the mailing list to stay notified.
A huge thanks to everybody that took part in and attended PI LIVE London 2021. It truly did not disappoint – seeing the friendly faces we know, as well as some exciting new ones, and of course the huge amount of insight and impressive, creative thinking, made the long wait worth it.
We look forward to seeing you in 2022!