As Monotote - one of our third-party solution providers - operates in both the US and UK, Thom discusses the differences in market between the two for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, what he expects these events to look like in the future, and more.
How have Black Friday and Cyber Monday been adopted in your local market? Has it had a big impact upon your own business?
Monotote operates in both the UK and US market where Black Friday & Cyber Monday are the juggernaut trading days in the calendar. Every year, we see another set of records for trading, and as it stands, this shows no sign of slowing down.
The positive impact of this period for Monotote is that, alongside stronger trading, this is one of the times where our real-time pricing and frictionless journey matter most – advertisers are spending huge amounts of money for their products to be featured and publishers only have a couple of days to make it pay off. For that reason - pricing data, product info and stock availability absolutely have to be accurate for all parties to capitalise on the opportunity.
Tell us about how your company is preparing for Black Friday 2018.
Lots of testing. We know that there will be immense load on us come the last weekend of November, so we’ve done a whole load of work to ensure everything will work seamlessly for our clients. We’ve also scaled up the team, who are on hand to provide account support.
We’re rolling out with a lot more publishers who want to take advantage of real-time pricing to help get the most from the weekend and minimize manual admin.
What do you think of global retail events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Are they a positive thing for your business or do they make your job harder?
They’re great for us. It’s times like these that everyone wants an edge. Ultimately, it’s just a couple of days so every second counts – Q4 in general can make or break a business’ yearly performance, so it creates a great opportunity for us to help advertisers and publishers
What value can affiliates contribute to an advertiser’s objectives during Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Volume is the obvious answer, and targeted volume at that. The main thing, though, is that affiliates help to generate brand loyalty - seasonal shoppers & bargain hunters are an incredibly engaged subset of the market who are highly likely to keep coming back in promotional periods, and therefore generate lifetime value that is beyond the initial purchase.
How do you think Black Friday and the wider Cyber Weekend are evolving? What do you think these events will look like in the future?
They’ll continue to grow and will keep moving away from the high street. Demand isn’t showing signs of slowing down any time soon and neither is digital’s dominance within that demand. Competition is ever- intensifying, forcing advertisers & publishers alike to have to innovate & find ways to incentivize immediate action from a user in the short time they have their attention. If they don’t convert them, someone else will.
Ultimately, like everything in consumerism, things will eventually plateau but there’s no sign of this at the moment.
What one tip would you give to fellow companies participating in Black Friday activity this year?
Nail the basics, data accuracy, don’t send people to dead links - If you’re saying it’s in stock, make sure it is, if you’re saying it costs $10, make sure it does.
If you can’t give the user exactly what they want - keep them shopping and find a way to connect them with relevant alternatives. When the user is in front of what they want, make the purchase as frictionless as possible.
Embrace the user’s relationship with the publisher and consider how you might be able to harness a publisher’s multiple touchpoints with a user to drive better results.
To learn more about Black Friday 2018 opportunities on our network, contact your account manager or our publisher management team.
