PI Live: Power to the Publishers

Attending PI Live is something of a ritual for Affiliate and Partnership industry professionals. It’s an opportunity to connect with old colleagues, meet with clients and partners as well as to show off to (and in some cases, glare at) industry rivals. 

This year’s event was a chance for advertisers, agencies and publishers to connect in person and have meaningful conversations in a way that our video call-driven working relationships don’t often permit. It was great to see those conversations happening across impact.com’s Prosecco Lounge in particular. Catching a glance at the event schedule of one of my clients revealed back to back meetings throughout the whole Tuesday - that particular glass of Happy Hour Prosecco really was earned.

What I noticed this year was that, amongst the tried and tested conference talk tracks of the industry’s stalwarts (who doesn’t love the in-house vs managed service debate!), the real change was the emerging power of the publisher. That was apparent on the conference floor thanks to Honey, LTK and Mention Me’s prominent stands. These (and others) are strategic partners to brands in the long term. Partnerships with some of the plethora of publishers in attendance at PI LIVE Show forms a key part of advertiser strategy - and the potential to be 20-30% of revenue according to William Hamer-Jones in his talk. These partners hold a wealth of data, have loyal audiences and deliver value across different mediums and in different places in the marketing funnel. They’re a vital part of the advertisers marketing infrastructure and deserve the power they’ve gained.

So what’s the cause of this growing influence? Perhaps it’s the variety and breadth of partnerships that this industry powers - from influencers to media houses that is creating a collective power. Perhaps it’s macro forces like growing CPMs for paid social turning the heads of budget-holders. Maybe it’s the desire from consumers for authentic content from opinion leaders and trusted news sources, as this study indicated. Maybe it’s that some advertisers are enormously effective at enabling the publishers where they are, and giving them what they need when they need it. On that, Wade Tonkin from Fanatics talks about how they do that in this podcast. It’s almost certainly all of the above and more. 

The consequence of all of this is exciting. This publisher power accelerates the flywheel of growth in this industry. Roll on PI LIVE 2023 where its effect will be even clearer.