The Skinny on Affiliate Summit East
So what is Affiliate Summit, anyway?
It’s where brands, networks, affiliate and brand managers alongside heavily caffeinated PR pros gather to connect, swap insights and plot their next big commission wins. Picture this: keynotes that don’t suck, panels that actually teach you something meaningful about the exact partners you’re hoping to work with, meeting rooms abuzz on how to best collaborate and expo floor bursting with shiny new partners (and of course, all the SWAG.)
If you're in the affiliate game and want to level up your strategy—or just finally put faces to the people who keep ghosting your emails (yes, I followed up, Jeremy)—this is your scene. Think of it as networking meets geeking out on how to reinvent your strategies and campaigns.
Okay, but how important is it really?
Can you be successful in PR or affiliate without face time? Yes, of course. But do you want to be successful, or do you want to build relationships? Because if it’s that latter, nothing beats one-on-one connections. We can all get stuck in remote WFH life, but forging those relationships IRL with media, publishers and influencers is what takes your relationships to the next level.
We’ve all probably done desksides in the city. Think of Affiliate Summit East (and West) as the affiliate speed networking equivalent with a healthy dose of continued education.
Within the app, you can connect directly with affiliate partners, browse an expo floor full of booths and brand offerings, and attend keynotes from publishers you actually care about. The content sessions are thoughtfully curated—like the one below, Commerce and Content: Striking the Perfect Balance Between Editorial & Commerce Partnerships—designed to help you understand how affiliate partners think, so you can pitch smarter and land more wins.
A Few Takeaways from ASE 2025
Y’all there are always main themes that you pick up on when you’re attending 15 keynotes sessions & panels during a networking event. We are both anxious and excited to watch the recorded sessions that we missed, but of the dozen+ live discussions we sat through, along with the 1:1 meetings we took, overarching narratives and themes popped up.
Here were some of those red threads:
Publishers using First Party Data (FPD) to stay ahead.
Newsletters, videos & original assets (taken during the testing process) is working best both editorially, as well as for AI overviews and LLM citations. This means those highly curated assets your brands want media to use might have to take a backseat to new, original content taken from cell phones by editors actually testing your products.
Outlets are testing different newsletter content but have noticed that their partners are most excited about the data shared - that data we allllllllll love to see; the open rate, the content most interacted with, the A/B test that tested different versions of the story. And the takeaway is if you have paid spend, test & explore here. Some newsletters will work on CPA only basis, but get creative with the KPI’s you want to see and negotiate a way to make it work for them AND your brand.
Get MORE intentional about the creators/influencers you choose to work with & giving them an experiential community to be a part of.
Slack channels that are dedicated to your network of creators and private IG pages where the brand posts trending items, keywords, ideas for content that influencers have access to are changing the way that this channel is performing & the metrics that are being reported on. It’s no longer (and never really has been) about quantity - quality in every way, baby. It wins every time.
LLM Transparency & how they’re being used for publishers & affiliate partners.
This convo is ongoing and ever-evolving. Publishers openly acknowledge their current use cases could be completely different 3 months from now. Most have a strong opinion when they hear “AI” or “ChatGPT” - what are people using it for that saves teams time & saves the important work for the humans. As you’ve probably heard, AI models are trained on a massive amount of content — and a surprising 75% of their citations come from affiliate sites, platforms like Reddit, and blog-style content. That means your brand strategy needs to go beyond just PR. It should include GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tactics like updating your FAQ pages, blog posts, product descriptions, founder bios, etc. Anything that helps ensure your brand’s content is well-represented and easily surfaced in AI-generated search results.
Were you holding your breath while reading this?? It’s a lot. But that’s why we are here. To make it digestible & give you ideas on how it can be implemented.
Something doesn’t make sense? Drop a comment, send us an email ([email protected]) & we can answer it in the next issue. :)
