Navigating the Impact-Rakuten Merger: Insights and Concerns

Affiliate Marketing Shakeup: Rakuten & Impact Merger Insights for Agencies & BrandsDustin Howes and co-host Cristen Evans discuss Rakuten joining forces with Impact and the resulting migration of Rakuten merchants to Impact, calling it a major industry consolidation with an aggressive, wave-based timeline complicated by contracts and unresolved pricing details. They explore what this means for agencies and consultants, including fears that Impact’s referrals to agency partners could shrink and concerns about conflicts of interest as Rakuten’s managed-services arm gets “first crack” at accounts and may try to poach agency-of-record relationships. They note potential operational hiccups seen in past consolidations , possible publisher friction with Impact, and opportunities for agencies to support large-scale migrations. They also preview “Alfie Bridge,” a planned migration tool to help brands and agencies automate partner transitions.00:00 Agency Migration Opportunity00:35 Welcome and Introductions00:53 Disneyland Week Recap01:48 Rakuten and Impact News04:21 Agency Referral Concerns07:38 Platform Shift and AOR Risks11:05 Poaching and Ethics Talk13:29 Pricing and Migration Waves15:33 Alfie Bridge Migration Tool19:08 Events and Closing ThoughtsSubscribe to this channel for more affiliate program growth tactics.Want to recruit more affiliates? https://affistash.comConnect with Dustin Howes on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinhowes#AffiliateMarketing #AffiliateNews #MarketingStrategy#DigitalMarketing #AffiliateTools #PerformanceMarketing #MarketingInsights #IndustryUpdate #MarketingPodcast#OnlineBusiness #AffiliateManagers #MarketingTrends #BusinessGrowth #ContentMarketing #EntrepreneurLife Have you heard about Inflektion yet? They are changing the game in Affiliate marketing.The only platform with personalized funnels to scale partnership marketing for brands, agencies, influencers, and affiliates. Catering to the health and wellness space, this tracking soluition is helping build landing pages for partners in a manner of minutes instaead of weeks. They have social listening to capture all the content your brand is creating so that you can find more partners talking about yFor more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com