Affiliate Marketing: The New Media Relations Landscape and the Impact on Brands

Affiliate marketing – the practice of a publisher, blogger, or influencer promoting a merchant’s product or service in exchange for a set commission – is becoming more common in the evolving PR, advertising, and communications landscapes. More editorial publications are leaning on affiliate marketing to boost revenue and ad sales. Could this be a new era of media relations? 

Affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool for public relations – it can help your brand get on the media’s radar and have your product considered for editorial roundups, deals coverage, and reviews. In turn, your business has the potential to see an increase in sales and brand visibility.

Here’s what to know about how and why businesses are tapping in. 

Affiliate marketing isn’t going anywhere. Magazine print advertising is nearly 30% lower in 2021 than it was in 2017, according to Harvard Business Review research. As media companies seek sources of revenue beyond traditional ads, affiliate marketing has become a critical moneymaker, and it’s growing at a rapid rate. A recent Digiday survey of over 140 publishers showed a 9% increase in publishers utilizing affiliate marketing as a revenue source from 2020 to 2021. 

PR teams can help define the right affiliate strategy to help increase visibility and opportunity with your target editorial publications. 

How to build an affiliate strategy with PR. Affiliate marketing is most beneficial through an affiliate network: a separate entity that facilitates payment structure, monitoring, and relationship management practices and can vary in offerings and results. Public relations teams can help identify the best network(s) for specific industries and goals. 

Setting Up An Affiliate Program. Businesses can set up affiliate programs through an owned e-commerce website or an affiliate network (such as Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and Awin). In developing your program, you’ll see three different agreement structures that will influence the amount of commission an affiliate makes by sharing your link:

1. Pay-Per-Scale: Pays an affiliate when a customer purchases the product. Some pay a fixed rate per sale, while others, like Amazon, pay a percentage of the sale.

2. Pay-Per-Click: Paid based on how many visitors arrive at the merchant’s site via the affiliate link, regardless of purchase. 

3. Pay-Per-Lead: Affiliates are paid based on the number of visitors to the merchant’s site who then fill out a form or sign up for a service. 

Integrating Into a PR Strategy. There are multiple ways businesses can utilize affiliate marketing programs for PR efforts, including:

• Incorporating Into Pitching Efforts. Your business is worth talking about, and your PR team can use affiliate marketing in their pitching efforts to make sure your message is heard. Media outlets that utilize affiliate marketing include top-tier national and consumer media such as CNN Underscored, NYT Wirecutter, and BuzzFeed.

• Building Editorial Relationships. When editorial staff are overwhelmed (which, in 2022, is a regular occurrence), it can be hard to get your dream contact’s attention. To combat this, PR teams have seen success by reaching out to an affiliate team member, or commerce editor, directly. 

• Gaining Insights To Inform Your PR Strategy. Affiliate marketing can provide invaluable data to you and your PR team when partnered with an affiliate network. Tap into the data to better understand your customer base and further validate the value of PR.

Show me the results. Brands that have already adopted affiliate marketing strategies have seen a staggering increase in conversion rates and more orders per customer – a 2021 CJ Affiliate study of over 21 million retail customers and 5.5 million transactions showed an 88% increase in revenue per shopper.

No matter what industry your business is in, affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool for CPG products, CBD products, and everything in between. Currently, the fashion industry accounts for 23% of all affiliate programs and is the leader in the industry, followed by sports and outdoor at 18% and health/beauty at 14%.

As with all media relations efforts, coverage is never guaranteed – but utilizing affiliate links in media pitches is a great way to differentiate your brand’s message from other angles in editors’ inboxes. Ultimately, a journalist doesn’t usually make the call on if an affiliate link is included; that’s up to the editor and the affiliate team.

Affiliate marketing is a supplement to PR, not an alternative to it - earned media is still integral when working with the media. With the added revenue that affiliate merchants drive to digital media outlets and the continued rise of influencer marketing, affiliate marketing plays an equal role; and can benefit overall business growth.

Local Restaurant Leverages The Kanye / Drake Beef

Amidst Kanye and Drake’s rivalry, which has included placing competing OOH in Drake’s home city of Toronto, another player has entered the conversation. Local restaurant chain Jack Astor’s has erected a billboard across from Drake’s that plays on Drake’s latest album “Certified Lover Boy”, replacing pregnant ladies with ladies holding plates of food and the words “Certified Food Baby.” The new billboard marks the opening of a new restaurant location and complete redesign and leans into the humor that made Jack’s famous.

In this campaign lies a good learning on how brand’s can insert themselves into pop culture. By recognizing the excitement around Drake’s album drop and acting fast, Jack Astor’s was able to make their own announcement even bigger. Smart timing, a media-worthy idea, and alignment with the brand’s tone made this OOH campaign a complete success.

McDonald’s Gets Serious About Sustainability

3 years ago, the fast food powerhouse shared their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third by 2030. And just this week they announced a pledge to use dramatically less plastic in their happy meals toys by 2025. To get there, McDonald’s will have to completely rehaul their supply chain and navigate how to deliver new toys to over 100 locations worldwide. 

McDonald’s is building trust with their consumers, sharing every step towards their sustainability goals. While the company has been around for years and gained a loyal following, it’s important that they continue to evolve, bringing the audience along on their journey and proving they are serious about making change.

McDonald’s Gets Serious About Sustainability

3 years ago, the fast food powerhouse shared their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third by 2030. And just this week they announced a pledge to use dramatically less plastic in their happy meals toys by 2025. To get there, McDonald’s will have to completely rehaul their supply chain and navigate how to deliver new toys to over 100 locations worldwide. 

McDonald’s is building trust with their consumers, sharing every step towards their sustainability goals. While the company has been around for years and gained a loyal following, it’s important that they continue to evolve, bringing the audience along on their journey and proving they are serious about making change.

A Quick Brief on Trends and Hot Topics

• As fall gets underway, TikTok is celebrating all things autumn including #MegRyanFall (users are pulling inspiration from Meg Ryan’s greatest hits
  to create fall outfits) to the return of Dark Academia (an internet aesthetic popularized by Tumblr and TikTok).

• Season premieres are in full swing with the first episodes of Succession
  and the Bachelorette airing soon. In other entertainment news, Gossip Girl has already announced a second season for the show's reboot on HBO.

• September is the most popular birth month – and companies like 1-800-Flowers are already getting in on the hype.

Bulleit Supports Local Bars on Sunday

Bulleit is calling for consumers to make the last day of the weekend “Local Bar Sunday.” In a rally cry for the hospitality industry, Bulleit is giving a 10$ rebate on any drink purchased at a local watering hole on a Sunday. The campaign is part of a larger effort to help bars and restaurants recover from COVID-19 – last summer, Bulleit donated $250,000 to various charities supporting the industry. The brand is also offering immersive experiences with a traveling trailer, digital maps with a list of curated local bars, and a content series of cocktail recipes inspired by local towns. 

Bulleit is right on the money with this campaign, aligning their cause with their brand. Bulleit was started by bartenders and often talks about their contribution to the beverage frontier. In this new campaign, they’re making a direct connection to their brand and promoting a cause that today’s consumers can all get behind. 

Breath Mints In Orbit
Is that a Tic Tac in space? People have been wondering this since 2004, when a UFO in the shape of a Tic Tac was spotted in orbit. New video footage from that day has spurred another wave of fanfare and speculation around the sighting. Riding the wave of excitement, Tic Tac has announced they are sending a breath mint-shaped vessel into space that will project messages submitted by consumers to promote kind greetings and connections with extraterrestrials – hello alien friends! 

Tic Tac is just one of many brands entering the stratosphere today (see: Miller launches a seltzer) What makes their launch so special is the pop culture moment and their creative response to it. The media’s focus on space, paired with consumer interest in the UFO sighting, created a unique opening for a creative campaign. TicTac’s vessel announcement calls attention to the brand, the product, and brings the consumer into the conversation. 

A Simple, Yet Effective Holiday Product Launch
Snyder’s of Hanover has teamed up with Captain Lawrence Brewing for a new (pretzel) twist on the class Oktoberfest beer, combining two classic elements
of the German holiday in one can. The so-called “Snyderbier” was simply
created using Snyder’s pretzels in the brewing process. Just 8,000 of the
limited edition beers will be sold online. This is also not the first partnership for the two businesses – last year Captain Lawrence Brewing and Snyder’s created
a pretzel keg to serve pretzels and dispense beer at the same time. 

Oktoberfest celebrations were put on hold for another year, so Snyder’s and Captain Lawrence Brewery found an opportunity with at-home celebrations and capitalized on a key time of year for beer and pretzel sales. They launched a very simple, yet effective limited edition product – take note brands! Product launches don’t have to be weird or complicated to get consumers excited – a simple, classic and well-timed product can often do the trick. 

A Quick Brief on Trends

• Antiques Roadshow TikTok is trending. Time to turn trash into treasure! Could this also be the resurgence of antique cottage core style?

• The holidays are upon us. Instagram created a Holiday Marketing Guide sharing the best practices for how brands can help consumers more easily discover their products. 

• The space conversation continues. New steps were taken in the space race this week as SpaceX launched non-astronauts into the stratosphere for the first time.

PepsiCo's Buzzy CPG Collaborations

PepsiCo’s Creates Buzzy CPG Collaborations 
Genius or just plain weird? Cheetos and Mountain Dew have launched MTN DEW Flamin Hot, a new beverage melding sweet and spice. PepsiCo, the main company behind the collab, also launched a Flamin Hot apparel line with a modern brand, Broken Promises. To extend the lifeline of the campaign, the brand is working with “sweet and spicy” influencers to promote the products. 

Cheetos is showing just how far you can go with a limited edition product launch. They aren’t afraid and have never been, to create provocative products and make a splash in media outlets and on social channels. With a little risk and a long resume of unique ideas, Cheetos is keeping itself relevant with nostalgic consumers and new ones alike.

Oscar Mayer Revives Their Iconic Brand
In other creative collaborations – Lyft and Oscar Mayer teamed up to offer rides in the Wienermobile. For just 3 days in the biggest cities in the nation, Lyft customers who ordered an XL had the chance to be picked up in the
hot dog-shaped vehicle.

Oscar Mayer is on a journey to bring the brand back to life, but they didn’t just want to do it through traditional advertising. Instead, they used their assets to create a more unexpected brand moment - leaning on the legendary/eye-catching Wienermobile was a no-brainer, but how they implemented it into
consumers lives in a seamless way (through Lyft), is what makes this campaign
so smart. 

Budweiser Launches Genuine Brand Campaign

Through a new campaign “This Bud’s For You”, Budweiser wants you to cheers to hard workers – mothers, family, friends and colleagues. The brand is calling for nominations to be posted on social media and accompany a story about the nominated person. On Labor Day, Bud will choose 10 finalists to receive custom-made cans with their name and three month’s wages. 

Budweiser’s brand play is meaningful to the consumer and will likely be a good ROI. The campaign brings new meaning to Labor Day (one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year) while recognizing American works – aligning with the Budweiser brand in a genuine way AND capitalizing on a key time of year. 

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A Quick Brief on Trends

Snapchat Trends is the new Google Trends – find what topics perform well and better engage with your audience.

Hot Dog! Dogepalooza is the newest festival to hit the U.S. celebrating all things doge coin this October.

Twitter launched “Super Follows” to pay for exclusive content from Twitter creators. Good timing as OnlyFans can’t make up its mind on their content plans.

The Creative Dominance of AIRBNB

Airbnb’s Dream Vacays Continue Their Creative Dominance
Volvic Water and Airbnb have teamed up for the most refreshing getaway collab - offering a stay at a mini-home surrounded by 80 volcanoes in France. The location is the birthplace of Volvic’s mineral water and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The idea was born out of a consumer insight on the importance of connecting with nature to deal with stress + Airbnb found a spike in searches in 2021 for listings near national parks in France.

Airbnb has established itself as a creative powerhouse, creating unique stays through fun partnerships – they’ve offered stays at Fresh Prince’s Bel Air Mansion and Kentucky’s Jim Beam distillery to name a few. It’s a win-win situation for both Airbnb and the brands they work with, garnering media exposure at a low cost, often cheaper than traditional advertising. 

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Popeyes Chicken Nuggets Launch Calls Back to a Pop Culture Moment
As Popeyes launches their first chicken nuggets, they call back to the chicken wars saying “WE COME IN PIECE” (eight-piece to be exact!) Since 2019, fast food chains have engaged in the chicken wars, fighting to be the #1 chicken sandwich. As part of the launch, Popeyes is giving away the cash equivalent of 1 million nuggets – both their own and competitor’s products – to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Popeyes has also agreed to match donations to the charity up to $25,000. 

Popeyes recognized the success and domination that came with the launch of their chicken sandwich and applied learnings to a new product – a major opportunity for the businesses. Rather than simply adding the product to their menus, Popeyes created a brand moment. Their act of goodwill will likely resonate with consumers who look for purpose-led brands and generate interest in the new product by relating back to a pop culture moment.

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Cheetos' Smart Partnerships Reach and Support Hispanic Students
As part of their ongoing Deja tu Huella “leave your mark” campaign, Cheetos has teamed up with Bad Bunny and Adidas to celebrate Hispanic culture and support Hispanic students. The campaign recognizes the toll of the pandemic on the Hispanic community. Through an exclusive fashion collaboration, Cheetos is donating $500,000 through a student fund to Hispanic students in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The campaign is also showing up on TikTok, where students can share how they’re leaving a mark on the community, the culture, or the world for
a chance to win $50,000 towards their education.

Cheetos has created a well-rounded campaign that aligns with its goal to uplift Hispanic college students, likely a target audience for the brand. They’ve also secured a smart partnership with Bad Bunny, a pop culture icon and a fit for the target market. They've spent careful time finding the right partners, charities, and efforts to drive home their campaign message with a key audience.

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A Quick Brief on Trends

• Audio on Instagram is growing in popularity, and now the platform is making it easier to search for audio-specific content by adding an “audio” tab in search options. This will likely boost reel engagement for influencers and brands alike.

• Netflix is hosting a casting call for reality shows. Reality shows are having a moment, and brands and rising influencers can get involved.

• Move over TikTok, YouTube just introduced “YouTube Shorts", short-form video “to start a trend, try out a dance challenge, bring your hilarious ideas to life, and more.” 

The Limited Edition Product That Broke the Internet

Kraft and Van Leeuwen teamed up for the ultimate product - mac and cheese flavored ice cream that emulates everything about the classic nostalgic 90s pasta including the iconic orange color and the funky cheesy taste. And surprisingly, Eater reported this product actually tastes good. The limited-edition ice cream was launched on National Mac and Cheese Day (July 14) and crashed the Van Leeuwen website and sold out soon after. Van Leeuwen rode the wave of excitement around the product posting on social media saying “WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT #NationalMacAndCheeseDay WOULD BREAK THE INTERNET⁣” and Kraft launched a giveaway for customers to win pints of the ice cream before
it’s gone forever.

Limited edition products are a common way for brands to capture the attention of reporters and customers alike, tapping into trends and popular flavors or creating downright strange concoctions to make a splash. But what sets this ice cream apart from other product announcements is that this one isn’t just a gimmick, it’s a product people actually want. Both companies benefited from the launch, gaining brand awareness and positive chatter among key stakeholders. 

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CORONA TACKLES PLASTIC WASTE IN NEW WAYS
Corona launched the world’s first “plastic fishing” tournament, with 80 fishermen in Mexico competing to see who can retrieve the most plastic from the ocean. The winner received the equivalent of a month of wages from fishing at the usual rate in the area and all runner ups were connected with local recycling companies who compensated them for their hauls at higher rates than those they would be paid for fish. Corona teased that the competition will take place in more countries and beaches. The competition follows Carona’s announcement to become the first beer company to become “net-zero plastic”, recovering more plastic from the environment than they generate. 

The stakes are rising for companies to address climate change concerns and environmental impacts, forcing them to find creative ways to tackle issues. Corona went above and beyond and continues to demonstrate a commitment to eliminating plastic waste.

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REBUILDING CONSUMER TRUST POST-RECALL
Peloton released their first campaign since a difficult PR crisis in May where a child was fatally injured and multiple other accidents were reported. The new campaign crosses multiple channels and focuses on the community and the accomplishments of members individually and collectively. A 30-second spot
also features former Olympian Usain Bolt. 

Peloton has struggled in the consumer eye for both the recent recall and a
tone-deaf commercial in 2019 featuring a husband giving his wife a treadmill for Christmas. While leadership has struggled to respond in the best ways, this new campaign is a step in the right direction for the company. Peloton has shown the importance of both short-term and long-term responses to help rebuild trust with consumers and reconstruct a brand’s image.

Trending

The TikTok craze continues as brands find new ways to reach customers through the popular platform, including Dick’s Sporting Goods who partnered with Gen Z influencers for back-to-school season. 

The NCAA is allowing student-athletes to sign sponsorship deals. Brands are quickly taking advantage of this opportunity including Degree, Milo’s Tea, and Boost Mobile.

“TikTok Resumes” was just launched and allows users to apply for jobs with
video resumes.

Instagram has added a badge for businesses to designate themselves as black-owned and display a special logo on their profile page.