AdPurp Makes Global Connections at the Affiliate World Conference in Dubai

By Alex Cramer

There’s a common phrase that will probably be meaningless to younger generations: “water cooler talk”. We lost a lot during Covid, and while it wasn’t the most important thing, not being able to start a spontaneous conversation with someone, share a coffee or just bond for a few minutes took away a meaningful part not just of being at work, but of being human.

If you want to build a real connection with someone, whether it’s a friend, a date or a business partner, then you have to connect. That means sitting down in the same room, making actual eye contact and building the kind of trust and credibility that is the foundation of any good partnership.

Sometimes that means a quick drive across town to see a client, (JK, we’re in LA, no drive is quick) and sometimes it means we have to travel halfway around the world to do it.

That’s why in February, Advertise Purple flew our international sales team to Dubai, so that they could attend the World Affiliate Conference, one of the largest international affiliate marketing conferences in the world.

“Nothing compares to in-person communication,” says Venice G, our executive director of global account management. “After years of virtual meetings during the pandemic, our team was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with and connect with affiliates, networks, and clients in person at the Affiliate World Conference Global. Building new partnerships with industry experts and thought leaders in the global affiliate market is essential, and we look forward to continuing to grow our global presence.”

Max, Venice and Kelcie in Dubai.

Despite not bringing back any of the souvenirs I requested (I know that key chain was from the airport!), Max T, our director of international accounts, says that the trip was a tremendous success.

“The most important thing we took away from the conference is our understanding of the inner workings of how these international affiliates actually work. Figuring out what the affiliate space looks like internationally. How to work best with international affiliates. How to make our brands look desirable to their affiliates. We gained a lot of valuable insights into working in these markets and it was also a great way to start the relationship-building process with a lot of these affiliates that we want to create partnerships with.”

The international team has already had success building our partnerships and sales in the EU and UK region, but Max says that this conference was a good opportunity to connect with affiliates from parts of the world where we’ve only begun our outreach efforts.

“We actually did a fair amount of outreach to publishers from the Middle East and North Africa. We learned a lot about what markets are really hot in those areas right and how people in those areas are using affiliate marketing. In North Africa, there are a lot of people looking to start their own small e-commerce businesses and sell into the European market.”

It’s a long and complex process to build relationships with affiliates from all over the world, representing dozens of different cultures and languages and each one having its own unique business needs. The understanding that you need to make these relationships work isn’t something that can happen over email and text. That’s why we flew our team over 8,000 miles, to have the kind of face-to-face contact with overseas affiliates that makes business possible.

Max adds, “We have a big name as a US agency but we’re looking to be the biggest agency worldwide.”

Which is exactly the argument I’m going to make when I request to attend the International Bloggers Conference in Maui this summer. Aloha!