SharkNinja + Blue Light Card

[00:00:00]Sam: Hey, Rob.

[00:00:07]Rob: Hey, Sam. How you doing?

[00:00:08] Yeah,

[00:00:08]Sam: Good. I'm excited. This is the start of our new podcasting adventure. How do you feel about it?

[00:00:13]Rob: Yeah, good. Good. I just, I'm still not totally convinced by the name. I mean, I get it. It's meant to be a play on our brand [00:00:20] name and the way that it conveys that sense of affiliate partnerships being mutually beneficial for both sides.

[00:00:25] Rob.

[00:00:25]Sam: This, again, we've had this debate a lot. You even put it to the Awin staff and they said that this choice was the best choice. So you lost. Can we please put this issue to bed? We're recording the first episode. The ship has sailed.

[00:00:38]Rob: Fine. Yeah. Okay. [00:00:40] Let's get on with it. I just want my reservations to be noted for the record.

[00:00:43] Okay. Um, I get to pick the music theme though. Yeah.

[00:00:46]Sam: Yeah, sure. We'll see. Hi, I'm Sam and this is Rob.

[00:00:50]Rob: Hi.

[00:00:51]Sam: We're your co-hosts. For Awin's new podcast, Awin-Win Marketing Podcast. In our real lives, Rob and I both work on Awin's marketing team [00:01:00] across global regions and focuses.

[00:01:02]Rob: Today and moving forward, we're going to be talking to you and with you about this brand new journey where we're putting a spotlight on a variety of different online companies, successfully using affiliate partnerships to achieve a really wide mix actually of marketing goals.

[00:01:16]Sam: Exactly. Affiliate marketing has come a long way in 25 years and become [00:01:20] a really sophisticated tactic. for digital marketers to use.

[00:01:23]Rob: So we're going to be chatting to a range of ecommerce businesses, uh, big and small, to share with you firsthand how they're partnering together to create real value for both their companies and each other.

[00:01:35]Sam: More than just that, we wanted you to meet the people behind these partnerships, understand some of the [00:01:40] key challenges they faced, the accomplishments they've achieved, and see what they can teach us about creating partnerships that are greater than the sum of their parts.

[00:01:47]Rob: Kind of like one plus one equals three, right?

[00:01:49]Sam: Right. Terrible math.

[00:01:51]Rob: Uh, it's maths.

[00:01:52]Sam: Uh, let's not get into that again.

[00:01:54]Rob: Well, whatever. At the end of the day, whether you're already in the affiliate marketing world or you want to learn more [00:02:00] about it, this is the podcast to listen to. Today, we've got a great partnership between the global tech brand SharkNinja and a UK publisher called Blue Light Card.

[00:02:11]Sam: I know SharkNinja. I'm one of their air fryers and one of their blenders and a few vacuums. Big fan.

[00:02:17]Rob: Which, funnily enough, I think they also make, [00:02:20] actually. Big fans.

[00:02:21]Sam: Yeah, exactly. I'm not familiar with Blue Light Card though. Who are they?

[00:02:24]Rob: So, they are the UK's leading discount provider for workers in the emergency services here.

[00:02:29] Um, as well as for the NHS, social workers, the armed forces, a whole host of other really important professions.

[00:02:36]Sam: Got it. So, it's a closed user group where you have to be eligible [00:02:40] to join to gain access to the offers they provide their members with.

[00:02:43]Rob: Yeah, that's it. Exactly. And I sat down with them to find out a bit more about how they work together.

[00:02:55]Elliot Horn: So we started working with Blue Light Card around [00:03:00] 2020.

[00:03:00]Rob: That's Elliot Horn, Affiliates and Partnerships Manager over at SharkNinja

[00:03:04]Elliot Horn: What was key for us as a business was to not only Expanding to a new and engaged audience via NHS workers and other health care workers. But also it was the height of the pandemic, um, where NHS and emergency services were [00:03:20] working around the clock to try and keep us all safe.

[00:03:22] And I think as a brand, we wanted to give back and help in, in just some small way,

[00:03:26]Rob: which is what a lot of businesses at the time were really keen to do in any sort of discernible way that they could. From Awin's perspective, Holly, it was the first time that we had really seen you guys pop up on our radar in a significant way as a really high performing affiliate.

[00:03:38] The pandemic was [00:03:40] crucial in that particular regard and, um, you grew enormously over that period. Could you give us a bit of context as to what that experience was like at Blue Light Card?

[00:03:48]Holly Riley: Yeah, of course. It was a very busy period for us as Elliot's probably an understatement. Probably a bit of an understatement.

[00:03:54] Yeah.

[00:03:55]Rob: And that's Holly Riley, Blue Light Card Senior Partnerships Manager.

[00:03:58]Holly Riley: We hit our three [00:04:00] year goal. I think it was within months. We were really fortunate during the pandemic given the audience that we were supporting and brands wanting to. Showcase their support for the NHS we were the perfect publisher to do that.

[00:04:12] We also had a lot of brands that obviously weren't getting their footfall in stores anymore and needed to find an alternative way to promote their brand [00:04:20] to get people coming in so that they could stay afloat as well. So I think that's when brands needed to look at how they get people from going into the shops to now shopping online.

[00:04:27] And we were really fortunate that we were able to. On board quite a lot of partners in that moment, and I think we managed to retain about 95 percent of them new partnerships that established in 2020.

[00:04:37]Rob: Yeah, which is really telling, isn't it? The fact that you're [00:04:40] able to grow so rapidly during that period of time, but it wasn't something that was isolated growth during the pandemic, and it kind of tapered off afterwards.

[00:04:47] We've obviously continued to build on that momentum.

[00:04:49]Holly Riley: Absolutely. We grow by about 70, 000 members every month, and we have continued to do that since 2020. So it's definitely continuous.

[00:04:57]Rob: So Elliot, could you just tell me a bit about what it [00:05:00] is Sharp Ninja looks to achieve through affiliate marketing?

[00:05:02]Elliot Horn: Yeah, so as a business, we're quite sort of trade led, inventory led and led by forecast.

[00:05:08] What that means is there'll be times in the week, in the month where we need to move some inventory. What we found is one of the most impactful ways and efficient ways to do that at speed is via [00:05:20] the affiliate channel. Yeah. And we do a lot of campaign stuff as well, of course, but I'd say one issue that affiliate marketing helps us as a business would be that trade and inventory piece.

[00:05:30]Rob: Yeah. So do the trade teams like there's a recognition from their side of things that the affiliate marketing team is really valuable? In being [00:05:40] able to hit certain targets or product lines that they know that they need to get out to customers.

[00:05:44]Elliot Horn: Absolutely for sure. Internally, we have a really close relationship with our merchandising team who are really great at looking at the stock situation, at forecasting, identifying areas whereby it might be possible for us to give certain affiliate promotions or certain leeway in order for us to move [00:06:00] and sell the unit.

[00:06:01] So yeah, we have a really close relationship in establishing stock where we can place those offers. And then it's my job to go ahead and take that offer and place that in the best possible position for the business to shift the volume at speed as well. And in order to do that, I must identify you to place them with for maximum efficiency and volume, and [00:06:20] you've got a huge amount of autonomy and being able to execute that as you see fit.

[00:06:24] Yeah, exactly. So it's my role to ensure that they have massive impact, which is great when, when it works, but also there's quite a lot of pressure involved, which is why it's great to have a partner like Blue Light, who are so reliable in what they do, to a point where a lot of the time our merchandising guys are like, we've got this offer, will Blue Light take it?[00:06:40]

[00:06:40]Rob: They're very aware of you guys already. Yeah, that's real validation, I think, for the success of the partnership, historically, the fact that an internal trade team merchandising team is already thinking about blue light card, right, in terms of how they can achieve their goals. So Holly, how do you go about actually executing that on your end?

[00:06:58] And what is it about Shark [00:07:00] Ninja as a brand that was particularly appealing?

[00:07:03]Holly Riley: Gosh, there's so many. The brand is really well received by our Blue Light audience. I think they almost associate Blue Light card with Shark and Ninja at this point because we've grown. So quickly together, essentially, I think also as a brand, you're really good at being very innovative and introducing new products, which [00:07:20] essentially means that our members want to come back and see what else you've got on, on the website.

[00:07:24] So I know there was the air fryer boom, but then we still got the cookware, you've got the knife set, et cetera, for ninja. And then I think the shark, it's not just the vacuum, it's the. Steam mop the spot cleaner then you've gone into shark beauty so i think there's always something that you guys are doing that makes it really exciting for us to [00:07:40] showcase to our members so we will always take on anything that Elliot offers because why wouldn't we want to give our members a better discount than they can already get essentially yeah it does tend to come on a Friday so it's right in time for the weekend But it falls well because that's when our members are shopping the most.

[00:07:55] Elliot will very kindly email. Normally, as soon as you get the heads up, you will let us know. So we [00:08:00] might not have everything we need to set the offer live, but we'll have the idea that something's coming or what's coming. And normally we'd say we turn it around within a couple of hours for you, which is great when you need to be reactive and get it live ASAP.

[00:08:11] And a lot of the time they end at 9 a. m. on a Monday. So it is very time sensitive, which I assume is also why Elliot needs to make sure that he's choosing a partner that can. Be reactive with that [00:08:20] time frame as well. There's always something that we can do to make sure we're putting that offer in front of our members.

[00:08:24]Rob: Yeah, responsiveness is a real kind of key asset here that's emerging, I think. Absolutely,

[00:08:29]Elliot Horn: that reactivity piece is really important for us. But also what I think is such a USP with Blue Light and why we love working with them. them is [00:08:40] that they place value on exclusive offers from us as much as, say, a tenancy payment in order to access additional placements within their platform.

[00:08:50] So if we go to them with, we can give you this market leading discount on this air fryer for this weekend, Holly will come back to me and say, fantastic, this is great because you've given us [00:09:00] this exclusive, we'll put it here, here, here. And what I find other areas within the channel, it might be like. This is great, thanks for the offer, but how much are you going to spend to put it here?

[00:09:11] So, when we only have limited amounts of exclusive offers to distribute, why wouldn't we give a lot of [00:09:20] them to Blue Light Card when they place that value on it and are willing to put it in those placements where others might not? without incurring additional charge. I don't know if you agree with this Holly, but often with the exclusive offers, they make as much, if not more in affiliate commission from having the exclusive than you might, if you would charge a [00:09:40] tenancy package on the placements that you give us.

[00:09:42]Holly Riley: I completely agree. I think it's definitely that performance marketing piece where we value that exclusive offer so much because it means we can give that a little bit more back to our members. So of course you. Not only give us your BAU offer, which is really strong because it's website wide, to then come to us, and I think in some cases you've been able to offer us like 52 percent off a [00:10:00] vacuum.

[00:10:00] Why would we not want to give that to all of our members? And not only that, we need to put it in places so our members can see that that offer's available. And you're completely right, like that does probably drive their ROI more for us both than actually if you'd have invested in tenancy to call out that offer.

[00:10:13] And the reason you're able to give us them exclusive offers at that level is because we're not asking for any investment in [00:10:20] In tenancy alongside of that as well.

[00:10:22]Rob: Yeah, it feels like a partnership that really embodies the pure performance model of the affiliate channel and what it's known for the fact that you're not fronting up what would be quite a speculative ad spend in terms of tenancy because it's, it's a placement that you're buying without the guarantee necessarily of what that's going to then [00:10:40] generate, whereas a deeper discount that's exclusive that you can pass through in a partner on that basis.

[00:10:45] Is then going to guarantee those conversions and sales and it's really tied quite neatly together then between the investment or the margin you've given away for that exposure.

[00:10:54]Elliot Horn: Exactly, Hollywood's bang on the money. We can give better deals when we don't have to pay to place [00:11:00] them in the areas that they need to be visible in order for the consumers to see them.

[00:11:03] That's a really key point in the partnership and that's one of the reasons why we love working with them so much.

[00:11:11]Sam: Just interrupting Rob for a minute to tell you that Awin-Win Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Awin. You might be listening because you're an e [00:11:20] commerce retailer struggling to grow your brand awareness, generate additional sales, Or maintain your bottom line with marketing and advertising. Using the Awin platform, these challenges go away as you unlock pay on performance, partnership opportunities, and promotional spaces that reach consumers everywhere.

[00:11:35] Choose which affiliate partners best match your marketing objectives. Control your [00:11:40] costs by defining how you pay these partners. And customize your affiliate marketing program using Awin's tools.[00:12:00]

[00:12:00]Rob: So Holly, more generally, what is it that you've liked most about working with Elliot?

[00:12:05]Holly Riley: I think it's that we've got such an open and honest relationship, which means that we can work really strategically together. Elliot's very much taking the time to learn blue light card, what our goals are. You're really, really responsible on emails, which helps a lot.

[00:12:17] And obviously we do meet up in person where we'll go for [00:12:20] some lunch together. And just about the relationship that way as well. So I think it's helpful that we're both, what's the word? Helpful that we're both

[00:12:27]Elliot Horn: Great people. Great people.

[00:12:28]Holly Riley: So friendly. It's just helpful that we do have a really good relationship.

[00:12:32]Elliot Horn: What I also really enjoy about working with Holly and team is that it doesn't feel transactional [00:12:40] to them. Their enthusiasm for our brands and their advocacy for our brands. Really shines through. You own some of our products. I know some of your team owns some of our products that massively helps when the account manager you have, like really push your brand and believe in your brand as well as wanting to do the bread and butter of account managing.

[00:12:55] Holly, can you give us an

[00:12:56]Rob: example of how a successful campaign might run between the two of you [00:13:00] guys?

[00:13:00]Holly Riley: One in particular would be our black Friday campaigns. So like I'd run a VIP deal essentially where we had. About 12 brands that gave us a really strong exclusive during that kind of week leading up to Black Friday and both Shark and Ninja took part in that where you give us a exclusive on a barbecue, which in November seems a little bit crazy and we weren't sure

[00:13:19]Rob: [00:13:20] quite how it would do.

[00:13:21]Holly Riley: Yeah, but we ended up accounting for that one day alone. It was like 30 percent of their Total sales year to date, um, on the barbecue from Ninja and then on Shark, we did the spot cleaner. That was something crazy, like 80 percent of their total sales from year to date had came from that one day alone that we'd pushed the brands and it's really fortunate [00:13:40] that the Trade team no blue light car because it means that when we equally want to ask Elliot for something from shark and ninja You're able to go and secure that for us and give us some really really strong discounts to shout about to our members So I'd say that's probably one that comes to mind.

[00:13:54] Yes

[00:13:54]Elliot Horn: It was a crazy period and you guys absolutely smashed out the park. I'll see a [00:14:00] barbecue in November. It's Super product, but it's not the most seasonal. I mean the places you put it And the push you gave it and the response to it was fantastic. So we were really pleased with the results. And because there's this two way approach between SharkNinja and Blue Light Card, it's not a case of exclusively, we need more sales on this product.

[00:14:19] So [00:14:20] we'll distribute it. If Blue Light Card come to us and they say, can you do us an offer on this product, which may be due to that time of year, it's super seasonal. We're selling loads of them. We don't necessarily need to discount it. We value the relationship to an extent that we'll be happy to try and find a solution and often can [00:14:40] accommodate it based on the strength of the relationship that we've built.

[00:14:42]Rob: Yeah, yeah. And I guess that success that you saw over Black Friday is part and parcel and a culmination of the fact that you've both built up that strong partnership. Over the preceding months and years. So Elliot, tell me what's next for the partnership. So for

[00:14:56]Elliot Horn: us, what's really key is to ensure [00:15:00] that all blue light customers are aware of the new products that we bring out on a regular basis across a variety of categories.

[00:15:08] And Blue Light do a fantastic job of getting behind every new product that we launch and we have really clear communication and transparency there as to when to talk about it. We're just getting going at Shout Ninja. We've got tons of new products [00:15:20] in the pipeline and it's going to be a really, really exciting year for us.

[00:15:23]Rob: Yeah. So do you find the blue light audience is pretty receptive to new products like what Elliot's describing?

[00:15:28]Holly Riley: A hundred percent. And actually we want them to know what new products are coming in because it touches on that innovative piece again. It gives them a reason to want to come back and purchase a different product, even though, as Elliot mentioned earlier, they might not be able to do it.[00:15:40]

[00:15:40] Deeper discount essentially on a new product, but you will always try and do something for our members, whether it be a free apron or something small. We still want to shout about it and actually given us a reason where they get a gift with purchase as well. Why wouldn't they want to go and patch it there?

[00:15:53] And then if they're going to get something additional, that's what they normally would.

[00:15:56]Rob: Finally, Elliot, uh, last question for the interview today, what would be your [00:16:00] advice for any businesses that are getting into affiliate marketing for the first time?

[00:16:04]Elliot Horn: I absolutely vouch for the channel, obviously, if you're, if you're looking for a channel where you can reach really relevant and engaged audiences to showcase your product on a performance based level.

[00:16:16] So it's super efficient for your business, completely endorse it. Um, [00:16:20] there's so many. different verticals to go out from content to influencers, to closed user, to lower funnel cashback coupon sites. There's a huge array of it. And to be successful in this industry as a brand is, is relationship building.

[00:16:35] And what's so great about that is that it's such. a [00:16:40] supportive industry. I've learned a hell of a lot since being in this industry from other account managers, from other publishers who I interact with, and there's a real community feel about it. So my advice would be, if you're thinking about doing it, do it and know that there will be a support network around you to help you learn the ins and outs and the intricacies of the channel.

[00:16:59]Rob: Yeah. Yeah. [00:17:00] People are pretty liberal about sharing advice and recommendations I've found in the industry, which I don't know if that's necessarily a characteristic that you would see maybe across other. Marketing channels, for instance.

[00:17:10]Elliot Horn: Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a feel when we go to conferences and stuff that we're all kind of part of like marketing's best kept secret.

[00:17:16] It's almost like a secret club, which I think is really cool, but I don't think it'll be [00:17:20] secret for long. I do think more and more brands are coming on board with the idea of the impact that it can have. And yeah, it's just going to go from strength to strength, in my opinion. Yeah.

[00:17:28]Holly Riley: I'd say as well, like be really open and take all of the learnings as good learnings.

[00:17:33] From a publisher perspective. We might advise to try different things. They might work, which will be brilliant. Um, [00:17:40] and we can continue to do that. They might not work, but we take that as a positive learning because we know that investment or that exclusive offer didn't do so well, and we won't try that again, essentially.

[00:17:48] So I would say, ultimately, we want you to grow. We want you to do well. We want you to engage with our members, get to know your publisher, what the goals are, why they're doing what they're doing, when they're doing what they're doing. That kind of thematic plan equally as important it [00:18:00] is from a publisher perspective to do that.

[00:18:01] Like it's important. Really insightful actually hearing it from Elliot's perspective because we don't see that side of things. It's very different from our perspective. So I think taking the time to understand the publisher would be really important because you'll understand quite quickly how your thematic plan can fit in with our thematic plan and some of the things that we've got.

[00:18:19] Developing and [00:18:20] from a product perspective that you might be able to get involved in, or we can kind of give you the heads up that this might be coming and we'd love to get you involved because of X, Y and Z.

[00:18:27]Elliot Horn: Should be called partnership marketing as much as affiliate marketing, in my opinion, because it's just such a two way street, you give and you get, um, and having that open transparency, that communication with partners and publishers.

[00:18:37] really ensures our brands are optimized for [00:18:40] growth within affiliate.

[00:18:45]Rob: Thanks so much for joining us on our very first episode of Awin-Win Marketing Podcast. Next episode, Sam is going to be sitting down with StackCommerce and Penske Media to discuss navigating upper-funnel awareness marketing. building in a predominantly elastic world.

[00:18:58]Sam: On that, don't [00:19:00] forget to subscribe to our channel on Spotify, Apple, Pocket Casts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:19:05] You can also find all of our episodes online at Awin. com slash podcast. Thanks again for tuning in to Awin-Win Marketing Podcasts, where we show you how affiliate partnerships always offer a win win. See you next [00:19:20] time.