As the 10th edition of India’s annual premier conference on performance, programmatic and affiliate marketing, the India Affiliate Summit (IAS), organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) concluded this Friday, below are some of the key takeaways from the two-day long summit.
The summit commenced with an insightful keynote session by Parul Bhargava, CEO, vCommission, on ‘Future Trends: Shifting Paradigms of Affiliate Partnerships’ who highlighted the transformative shifts underway in affiliate marketing and the need for brands to adapt to these evolving dynamics.
She stated, “Our industry is at a pivotal juncture where embracing change is not only essential but urgent. On the advertiser side, the pillars of transparency, compliance, clean media, and long-term engagement have become fundamental. For affiliates, the focus lies in achieving stability and campaign sustainability.”
Another highlight of the event was the panel discussion on ‘Winning Touchpoints: Less Clicks, More Sales’, featuring insights from Nitin Sethi, Joint President and Chief Digital Officer, Adani Group, who emphasized the importance of precision, personalization through analytics, micro-conversations, mobile voice search, and A/B testing frameworks in today’s competitive market.
“In today’s landscape, out of every 100 consumers, about 90 tend to bounce back on the first page. At each stage of the funnel, drop-off rates close to 70-80 percent are common. Even with significant investment to bring in 1,000 customers, conversion rates average only 10-15 percent, which is the industry’s best,” he said.
Next up was a fireside chat on AI by Neil Patel, Founder, NP Digital, who opined, “When you think about your KPIs and business goals, start by asking how AI can help you achieve them. Many marketers run ads, but when AI is used alongside human creativity, it creates a powerful combination. AI can analyze data in real time, helping optimize content and ad strategies on the go. Personally, AI has been instrumental in scaling my content. The next big trend I see coming to social media is live selling it’s already huge in China but hasn’t yet taken off globally. I believe it’s going to generate significant revenue in the near future.”
Furthermore, Vivek Malhotra, CMO, India Today, while moderating the panel discussion on ‘The Modern Data Stack: Revolutionizing Customer Insights and Marketing Agility’ also remarked, “In the past 12 months alone, we have collectively gathered more customer consent than in many previous years combined. I believe the key to unlocking future opportunities lies within this consent, empowering us to build more personalized and impactful customer experiences.”
Speaking on the same panel discussion was Sanjay Sindhwani, CEO, Indian Express Digital, who said, “In the media industry, if we look back five years, data largely rested with intermediaries, and we didn’t focus on it as much. Over the last five years, however, we’ve witnessed a tremendous shift. Media now has massive reach and relevance to advertisers, who increasingly seek more definitive, targeted insights. As subscriptions grow, the intersection of technology and marketing becomes even more critical in shaping this data-driven landscape.”
To this, Deepak Oram, Senior Vice President, HDFC Bank, added, “The modern data stack today essentially unifies a brand’s data, encompassing behavioural insights and predictive information. What many tend to overlook, however, is the importance of third-party data and the concept of data reflexes. While it’s relatively easy to hire data engineers in the industry, what’s truly lacking are data reflexes, the ability to quickly and effectively respond to data insights for real-time decision-making.”
Moving ahead, the panel discussion on ‘Bridging Online and Offline: The Impact of Programmatic Advertising on Consumer Behaviour’ saw Nidhi Rastogi, Head of Marketing, Uniqlo India, mentioning, “We strategically leverage data from our e-commerce platform to gain insights on order origins, guiding our decisions on store locations and optimizing our product assortment for each market. This data-driven approach is integral to our expansion and product mix strategies. Additionally, programmatic advertising has been highly effective in precisely reaching our target audiences.”
The two-day summit which brought together leading marketers, industry experts, and innovators, creating a dynamic forum to explore the latest trends and strategies in performance marketing, saw more than 50 stalwarts from the digital marketing ecosystem addressing over 15 sessions over two days.
The same was attended by over 6500 industry professionals and around 50 exhibitors with some of the major partners supporting IAS 2024 including vCommission, Valueleaf, Flickstree, Optiminastic, and Seventynine Digital.
