Exclusive Interview with AM Days’ Geno Prussakov

Location, Location and the Future of Performance Marketing

Next month, we’re attending the very popular annual AM Days conference in Vegas. For those of you who are serious about performance-based affiliate marketing and appreciate the value of quality networking, make sure you add this one to your calendar.

With the 2018 conference only a month away, we caught up with AM Days Founder, Geno Prussakov to bring you this exclusive interview.

As the Founder and Chair of AM Days conference how have you seen the industry change over the past 10 times of running your conference?

Geno Prussakov:
Thank you for highlighting that magic number 10! It is hard to believe how fast time flies, but it does… and the upcoming AM Days, on May 16-17 2018, will indeed be our landmark 10th conference.

When Ben Edelman of Harvard Business School keynoted the very first AM Days in 2012, his insights into affiliate marketing fraud [PDF of his slides here] were eye-opening for many. Fast-forward to the present day, and we see how much savvier and more educated both advertisers and affiliates have become. And the farther we go, the brighter the future looks for well-run performance marketing initiatives.

What are you most excited about with this year’s presenters and attendance?

Geno Prussakov:
I’m most excited about the increasing number of top brands who are coming to this year’s show. Since its inception, I had dreamt of AM Days becoming a first-class professional forum where we’d gather to share our expertise and challenges, collaboratively coming up with solutions to common problems. It’s finally happening! Uber and Microsoft are going to be keynoting. Fanatics, Capital One, and Backcountry will participate on panels. CVS, KEEN, Symantec, The Home Depot, TicketNetwork, ULTA Beauty, Vivint, and hundreds of others will be networking. It’s a show not to miss!

What do you see as the main pain points advertisers are going to have to overcome this year?

Geno Prussakov:
(1) Compliance with the FTC disclosure rules,
(2) Attribution, and
(3) Proving the value of affiliate marketing (those who are dependent on an undiversified affiliate base will have a tough time here).

What are you most excited about in 2018 for the future of Performance Marketing?

Geno Prussakov:
Convergence between influencer marketing and affiliate marketing. While some believe the two to compete, they don’t! The latter complements the former, and those brands that realize the embedded potential are already reaping spectacular fruit.

How and why did you pick the new location of Las Vegas to host AM Days this year?

Geno Prussakov:
We sensed that, after holding the show for 6 years in San Francisco, it was time to try a new location. Surely enough, a poll of AM Days alumni confirmed that our attendees felt the same way, too. Vegas (with its affordable luxury and abundance of entertainment options) scored in the top percentile. So, Las Vegas it is! …at least for 2018.

Excited yet?

Meet us there and don’t miss our CEO and Founder Sarah Bundy’s session on Thursday, May 17^th:

“Leveraging Technology Integrations & Strategic Connectivity to Drive Improved Results”

Are you up to date in the world of technology advancements and integrations to drive improved results for your affiliate marketing program? This session will look at innovations and advancements from a technology integration perspective, analyzing different examples of what strategic networks, publishers and advertisers are doing to maximize performance marketing results with algorithms, API Integrations, AI and more.