ASW20 Roundup

The Paris Hotel turned over once again to become the North American affiliate HQ. Over 6000 attendees from all major affiliate networks, SaaS providers, OPMs and leading online advertisers headed for Affiliate Summit 2020. In fact you can’t walk a corridor, go for a coffee or ride the elevator without starting another conversation. And, it could be an old friend or even a newbie – it’s the ideal conference vibe.

Amazingly there have been 50 Affiliate Summit events over the last 17 years – and as each comes around they get bigger and better. This year’s ASW20 was larger in floor area with some excellent sessions tackling some of the thornier issues in affiliate (or partner) marketing. In celebration, many of Shawn and Missy’s friends surprised them with a party at Toby Keith’s ‘I Love This Bar & Grill’. A great end to another great week.

The team from Publisher Discovery was exhibiting and showing our latest platform for identifying, filtering and recruiting new affiliates. Our booth was so popular at times there were people queueing to talk to us – its great that we hit the right note with attendees.

Next year’s ASW conference moves to a brand new venue in Caesar’s Forum, Las Vegas, from February 2-4. This is brand new and right on the Strip – with no smoky casino to walk through. The event hotel will be moving to Harrah’s, a more up to date venue – so, save the date – and see you there!

AM Days

AM Days has become an integral part of the Affiliate Summit offering as an add-on for serious affiliate managers. This year was three times larger than ever before – and in fact was more than sold out. They made sure that they made space for everyone who wanted the gen on this unique content..

Geno Prussakov led with the lead session with an ‘Advertisers’ Crash Course on Affiliate Marketing’.

The key session for us, from Wade Tonkin of Fanatics, was on Targeting Content Partners, which featured some of the main tools used. It also included a short presentation of how Publisher Discovery is used to view your the main advertisers in your market, and engage with their affiliates.

From conversation we had with attendees this is a truly invaluable part of the Summit for any affiliate manager. We’d highly recommend signing up early for the next at ASE20 in New York.

Main ASW20 sessions

Of course for a lot of attendees its the conference sessions that are the big draw. Each session led by a key industry figure – or a panel of leading figures. Some of the key sessions that caught our attention, reflecting the focus for a lot of affiliate managers in recruiting affiliates to keep ahead of their competitors. These included:

• ‘9 Software Tools Affiliate Managers Need to Grow the Program’ – Dustin Howes of j2 Global
• ‘Tapping the Power of Content Commerce Partnerships and Third-Party Reviews’ by Jessica Seib of Buzzfeed

• ‘Why Affiliate Should Be Every Advertiser’s Largest Paid Marketing Channel’ by ESPN/Disney’s Aaron Weigum

• ’15 Affiliate Recruitment Techniques That Work’, Geno Prussakov

The Keynote session was especially busy tackling a current topic of discussion in all markets: ‘Partner vs Affiliate – Is it One or the Other‘. This was a panel with key figures from leading players – including Awin, Partnercentric, Rakuten and Acceleration. Its surely a conversation that is set to run and run.

Our Next Shows

The next show we’ll be attending is PerformanceIn PI Advanced, New York in May. An innovative one-day format focusing on how e-commerce brands can optimize planning, execution and ROI in performance marketing. It is retail focused and will bring together the leading networks. SaaS and technology providers in one place.

In July we’ll return to the US for Affiliate Summit East – for the east coast version of the show now in a new venue at the Javits Center. You can see more and where to meet us on our Events page. We look forward to meeting you at the next show.

Chris Tradgett

Publisherdiscovery.com