The third iPX Sydney saw over 250 brands, publishers, and agencies gather at Beta Event’s venue for a day of insights and ideas from the impact.com team and industry leaders.
While the impressive swag bag and engaging activations enticed many to the event, the keynote speakers, panel sessions, fireside chats and networking opportunities aimed to spark creativity, drive connection, and inspire iPX attendees.
Adam Furness, APAC MD at impact.com, told Mediaweek: “Our third iPX Sydney was bigger and better than ever before with over 250 brands, publishers and agencies gathering to discover the latest trends and best practice in the burgeoning partnership marketing sector.
“A core theme of the day was the role partnerships, whether that is brand to brand, loyalty and discount publishers, content creators or customer advocates, play in the new consumer path to purchase,” he said.
Adam Furness
“With the traditional marketing funnel being replaced by a constant loop of discovery, research, engagement, conversion, advocacy and retention, consumers are less interested in what brands have to say about themselves and more interested in what their trusted networks have to say.
Furness added: “This is where partnerships have a critical role to play and their increasing importance to brands, explains why we’ll need to find a bigger venue next year to accommodate the uptick in interest we’re experiencing!”
In his keynote, Furness declared the traditional marketing funnel is broken. “We’re all familiar with the principle of AIDA – attention, interest, desire, action. It’s out of date.”
He said that model assumes that at the end of the purchase, the customer’s journey is over. “That’s no longer the case. The job isn’t done. Today’s marketing funnel looks more like a circle or a journey that is cyclical in nature. These stages have opened to reveal discovery, research, engagement, convergence, retention, and crucially, advocacy.”
iPX Emcee, director and host of Add to Cart, Nathan Bush
Fireside chat with Shopify and July
Furness moderated the marketing lead fireside chat between Shopify’s Michelle Pusherfski and July’s Zhoe Low. The trio spoke about marketing shift from the funnel to a cyclical nature, new generation of marketers, the role of partnerships, measuring ROI and incrementally, creating advocacy with customers.
When asked the shift from the funnel to a cyclical model, Pusherfski said that as a B2B platform, younger marketers joining the organisation are “ready to go.”
Furness, Pusherfski and Low
“I think we have this side by side of some of the folks that do heavy research and then there are others who are like ‘yeah, let’s go.’ As much as the funnel exists a bit for us still, yes it’s blurred and it’s blurred by the demographic.”
On July’s growth, Low said that partnerships has been its “not-so secret weapon” and noted that it has been the main factor that has propelled growth.
“We know that partnerships in one of the most effective forms of marketing for us. People want to learn about our brand from other people, they don’t really want to hear from us. When we think about partnerships it is one of the best ways for us to drive brand by the partners that we chose which we are very selective about,” she added.
Alanna Marie Bracelet activation
impact.com’s product roadmap
Helena Barroso Zarco, impact.com’s director, customer success and sales ANZ, took to the iPX stage to present the partnership management platform’s product roadmap. She was joined by Will Fraser, head of advocate at impact.com, who spoke about the advocate referable platform and its capabilities.
Courtney Sauceda, senior director of product management, followed to speak about the improvements made to impact.com’s creator product and what is next in store for its customers. Rounding out the product roadmap presentation was Charles Pham, director of customer engineering – APAC, to discuss the latest innovations.
Charles Pham, Helena Barroso Zarco, Courtney Sauceda and Will Fraser
Collaborate to innovate
Next on the iPX stage was Neguin Farhangmehr, managing director at GrowthOps, moderated the panel discussion on panel discussion on fostering successful partnerships through integrated marketing efforts. Alongside her was Merry People’s James Smith, Virgin Australia’s Kate Clements and Ashley Molyneux, from Big Red Group.
Molyneux spoke about how alignment on shared Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at BigRedGroup is revolutionising our approach.
Neguin Farhangmehr, Kate Clements, Ashley Molyneux and James Smith
“By establishing common KPIs, we have streamlined integration across diverse marketing teams and skillsets, facilitating more cohesive and effective strategies,” she told Mediaweek following the panel.
Molyneux also concurred that the traditional linear marketing path has collapsed to make way for “more fluid, interactive customer journeys.”
“To thrive in this new environment, brands and marketers must focus on building genuine, authentic connections with their audiences. As customers increasingly seek meaningful interactions, the emphasis is shifting from structured funnels to dynamic, personalised experiences that resonate on a deeper level,” she added.
Ashley Molyneux
Creator and affiliate partnerships panel
Laura Redman from The Redman Agency took to the stage to lead the discussion on creator and affiliate partnerships. She was joined by Emily Brewster, global partnerships manager for hair care brand Straand, Brand Collective’s digital marketing manager Roger Lee, and Caroline Groth, content creator and digital consultant.
The group discussed the relationship between brands and content creators, influencers and advocates in light of an evolving market and changes to technology.
Groth, who has been a content creator for almost a decade in the health and wellness space, said that she is specific and intentional when choosing brands to work based on her audience.
“I really only work with brands that I have tried, that I know about. Even if it is a brand that come to me that I haven’t heard before, I will say to the brand that I want to try it for a period of time before I commit to doing work with them. Not everyone is like that, but that works for me because I can come across from an authentic and emotional angle that I know is going to benefit my audience as well.
Laura Redman, Emily Brewster, Roger Lee, and Caroline Groth
Turning happy customers into revenue-driving brand advocates
Will Fraser returned to the stage for a fireside chat alongside Mal Chia, managing director of Ecom Nation, to talk about turning customers into revenue-driving brand advocates. Chia, whose background includes Uber, UberEats and Rydalwear, highlighted the importance of creating reward program that makes customers feel like they belong to a community makes them more likely to participate.
Fraser concurred and said: “some people are in it for greed and the reward, if we are honest, but a lot of people are in it to build both the brand or to help their friends.”
Will Fraser and Mal Chia
The Price of Trust: A Resilience Story
Rounding out iPX Sydney 2024 was marketing consultant Tracy Hall who shared her harrowing story of resilience after her a man she had been dating turned out to be a serial con man who had swindled $17.6 million from 15 victims, including herself, out of their hard earned money.
Hall spoke about her story, discovering the truth, her emotional journey and turning the negativity into resilience. She has since turned her trauma into a podcast series with The Australian called Who the hell is Hamish? and her newly released book The Last Victim.
Speaking of the podcast, Hall said: “The reason I wrote the book was because it is very difficult to explain 18-months of financial and emotional manipulation into a two-minute morning show sound bite for a very short news paper article. I needed 75,000 words to explain exactly how something like this could happen to someone like me.
Tracy Hall
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Top image: Adam Furness, Michelle Pusherfski and Zhoe Low