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Interview: Savings United CEO Panayotis Nikolaidis

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German coupon companies Panna Cotta Group and Global Leads Group have merged to become Savings United, creating a leading provider of online coupon vouchers in fast growing ecommerce markets including Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe and South America. In our interview, Savings United CEO Panayotis Nikolaidis explains the reasons behind the merger and how they can help advertisers to deliver targeted campaigns globally.

Savings United brings together the Panna Cotta Voucher Group and Global Leads Group. How does the merger strengthen your proposition for advertisers?

Our aim is to exceed the expectations of our partners. We believe we will only be successful if we fully understand the needs and the goals - both strategically and operationally - of the individual advertiser.

Through the merger we are now active in 10 markets, and in almost all of those markets we have established a Top 3 positioning. Our aim is to use this volume to diversify our product portfolio to continue to sustainably cater to the needs of our customers. We want to become the one savings company advertisers really want to work with.

What’s the story behind the new name and branding?

We were unhappy with our past holding names. Panna Cotta was an unrelated topic and intended as a joke name to start with. Global leads group sounded more fitting, however for us it evoked the image of a dirty, low quality traffic network.

With this merger we wanted to begin our journey of transforming this company from an international coupon player to a more diversified, sustainable incentive publishing business. We wanted a new name that better represented our current and future company. Additionally the name symbolises the union between the two companies.

Is it possible for an advertiser to run a global campaign using Savings United?

Yes, we are able to run performance campaigns in up to 10 markets using our coupon and deals platforms, our content network, and our influencer network. We put quality first, offering our partners a high standard of international exposure.

Can you give us some examples of the targeted campaigns you’ve ran in the past?

To give you some examples, we ran successful targeted campaigns for top advertisers in Poland and Spain.

The procedure is usually as follows: Our country teams analyse the specifications of each campaign and relevant brands to create a tailored proposal that focuses on the goals and expectations of this advertiser. To maximise the results, the brands provide us with exclusive codes and, if is possible, with exclusive Search Engine Marketing (SEM) rights.

Our portfolio includes visibility across all of our sites, social media and email marketing channels. We complete our offer with external actions such as influencer marketing or external display campaigns. All content is approved by the brand before it is published on the corresponding website.

Once the campaign is finished, the sales team sends a detailed report with the clippings and results. We are always looking for feedback on the brand to consistently improve our service.

Any exciting plans coming up in the next 12 months that you’d like to share?

In the following 12 months we are going to further focus on our transformation. We have launched several new business models in the savings space in the past few months. Our aim is to become the local market leader in every niche we are active in. Focus and strong execution is a deciding factor for success – also for our business.

For partnership enquiries, contact Saskia Mammen.