What Did You Miss at DealMaker Munich 2019?

Rakuten Advertising’s DealMaker events bring together thousands of performance marketing professionals every year. Held in major cities around the world, including London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Scottsdale, attendees come to do exactly as the title suggests – make deals.

Thursday 16^th May 2019 marked the launch of DealMaker Munich 2019 – the very first DealMaker flagship event to be held in Germany. Over 125 international advertisers, publishers, agencies, and followers of the performance marketing industry found their way to Hotel La Maison in the center of Munich’s Schwabing for an action-packed day, loaded with insights on what to expect from the world of digital marketing and of course, to make deals!

Keep reading ahead for key insights into what’s on the cards for Rakuten Advertising, the current climate of the performance marketing industry globally and in Germany, and what affiliate marketing will face next.

Rakuten Advertising is at the forefront of expansion

Affiliate Marketing is evolving, and Rakuten Advertising are at the forefront of international expansion opportunities. The opening session, How AI & Programmatic Will Shape a New Performance Marketing Future – lead by Anthony Capano, Rakuten Marketing’s Managing Director, EMEA – discussed how businesses have heavily invested in aggregating their consumer data.

Anthony explored the trends that are transforming affiliate marketing – including hot-topics such as machine learning, automation, and Rakuten Advertising’s latest product, Programmatic Affiliate. With key takeaways on how to expand globally, this session was not one for publishers or advertisers alike to miss.

How Affiliate Marketing harmonises with other Online Marketing Channels

With consumers increasingly spending time on their mobile devices, Malte Hannig – Supervising Senior Affiliate Manager of xpose360 – pointed out that Affiliate Marketing is no channel for isolation. Revealing thought-provoking insights about the do’s and don’ts of Affiliate Marketing, Malte concluded that affiliate strategies urge for harmonising Integrated Marketing Campaigns to meet consumers on each touchpoint of their customer journey, starting with the research stage to the after-sales phase.

Shopping under Influence

“Some people love them, some people hate them – but what’s the real story behind the influencer hype?” –  Stefan Bernauer, Country Manager, Germany and the moderator of DealMaker Munich. Stefan launched our most recent global report on Influencer Marketing, referencing the demands of the German market. Attendees discovered that “83% [of Germans] trust influencers’ product recommendations when making purchasing decisions” and brand marketers are willing to pay up to 38,000€ per influencer post. In summary, he pointed out that more sophisticated data and publisher performance is necessary to reward influencers better and understand their ROI.

Read the German 2019 Influencer Marketing Report here

Challenges faced by Publishers

Annalena Bauer, Senior Publisher Manager, hosted a thought-provoking panel discussion on the challenges faced by our European publisher base, giving insights on what brands need to consider when entering the German market. Alexander Ketter of Global Savings Group, Myg Hitzler of Tracdelight, Damien Verichon of Stylight and Sebastian Atanassov of Shoop Germany GmbH shared the setbacks and opportunities facing the European performance marketing industry, and how their comprehensive market-knowledge supports advertisers to increase their reach, as well as ramp up affiliate adoption in EU markets.

All Eyes on International Advertisers

To round up the day with content sessions, luxury footwear brand FitFlop and lifestyle retailer Urban Outfitters showcased recent success in driving sales, thanks to the help of the Rakuten Marketing Affiliate Network. Both international fashion brands are keen to invest in the German market.

Big thank you to all our Sponsors

We would like to thank all of our sponsors and partners: Stylight, Urban Outfitters, Rakuten.de, FitFlop, PerformanceIN, Smarter Click, eCentime, as well as the many contributors who contributed to making DealMaker Munich 2019 to such a success. If you are interested in sponsoring the next DealMaker Munich, please connect with our Events Team to talk about your possibilities here.

See where the next DealMaker takes place

We have a number of exciting DealMaker and Rakuten events taking place throughout 2019. So, if you feel like you’ve missed out, come and see us at our next European event, DealMaker Paris, and keep your eyes on our website for what’s to come next, here!