Read Time: Approx. 2 Minutes 24 Seconds
Author: Lewis Stretton
Dave and myself had an early start on 19th March 2025. We grabbed the CFD goodie bags and caught the train in Doncaster to make our way down to London to our third Rakuten Advertising Dealmaker Europe event held at The Brewery, London.
What is Rakuten Advertising Dealmaker?
Rakuten Advertising host annual gatherings for Agencies, Advertisers and Publishers, known as DealMaker. Across previous years the event has offered publishers the opportunity to engage with agencies and brands across the many different areas of partnership and affiliate marketing to promote collaboration and discover the new opportunities arising. DealMaker doesn’t only offer the opportunity to talk to publishers on an affiliate basis, but also allows agencies to speak with brands to offer potential partnership services. DealMaker is held across the globe with events in Europe, USA and Australia.
Was the early start worth it?
When the clock struck 8.30am, we attended the European Agency & Publisher Mixer (my first one) and it didn’t disappoint!!
We were met by Rakuten Advertising’s Senior Account Manager, Darshni Prasad and Senior Director of Agency Services, Cary Pierce. We joined other esteemed agencies and a group of leading publishers for some well needed coffee, croissants and other tasty breakfast treats.
The only way I can explain the 1 hour mixer… it’s like speed dating, but with even more pace! It enabled the both of us to speak to publishers before the crazy day ahead of us, to discuss the opportunity to build profitable new partnerships for our brands.
There was a lovely mix of publishers and we caught up with familiar faces from Bravo Voucher and LTK and finally met face to face with our contacts from Karma Shopping, Stylink, Rakuten Rewards UK, FlexOffers, Digireach and The Telegraph. We also had interesting discussions with Capillary Technologies and Tangoo, who can offer exciting solutions, which you don’t usually see via the affiliate channel.
What happened next?
We were representing our full range of partners including Monpure, Chunk of Devon, Baked to Taste, Araco Interiors, JustWears, Decree, Threadbare, Palazzo Versace, Face the Future, Brastop and Curvy Kate. The latter two brands were in fact new partners in 2024, as a result of meeting with Amanda during last year’s DealMaker Europe event. Rakuten DealMaker Europe 2024 was a great event all round, hosting 700 publishers and advertisers and was really useful in many aspects for the team at Customer First Digital.
This year was bigger and better, with the infamous CFD goodie bags returning for another year, featuring many of our partners products, CFD brochure and sweets, after it made its DealMaker debut last year.
As the day continued myself and Dave divided and conquered, speaking with many publishers, across the funnel from, CSS (Adstrong, Connexity and Genie Shopping) and Editorial (Linkby, Hearst, Dianomi and Conde Nast) to Loyalty and Cashback types, such as Quidco and GoCertify. We had the opportunity to experience the full verification process for keyworkers and students using GoCertifys technology through a brands website.
Determined to speak with as many attendees as possible we kept our cups full of coffee and handed out our goodie bags, whilst catching up with other attendees from Stylight, Fidel API, Future Publishing, The Guardian, Independent and Dealmoon.
Many brands were also in attendance on the day. We took advantage of this and used the event to offer our free brand partnership service, which plays a crucial role in expanding our Brand Partnership community and Appraise, our complimentary Affiliate Audit service. The networking at DealMaker Europe provides a dynamic environment for encouraging collaborations, sharing insights, and driving mutual growth.
Golden Link Awards
There was definitely a sigh of relief from our feet and arms (goodie bags are heavy!) when the start of the European Golden Link Awards was announced.
It made a great end to the day, the awards allowed everyone to celebrate and showcase the affiliate industry who are out delivering their objectives and driving performance on that next level. Previous years have brought success for us, with wins in 2023 with our partners Threadbare for Best Managed affiliate programme and Agency of the Year in 2024.
This year we were shortlisted for 2 awards, for Best Managed Affiliate Programme alongside our partner BraStop and Agency Of The Year. There was some tough competition and it wasn’t our year this year, but if you want to find out more about the winners of the Rakuten Advertising Golden Link Awards 2025, click here.
We had a great day at the Rakuten Advertising DealMaker Europe 2025. It is always my favourite event of the year, however this year was by far the best. Sending a huge thank you and congratulations to the event team!
If we did miss you and you would like to speak to us, please get in touch with the Customer First Digital team.
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