Hi, and welcome to the Affiliate Insider Podcast with me, Leanne Johnston. This is a podcast for digital and affiliate marketers. Listen up as I explore the latest digital and affiliate marketing trends and give you the insider scoop on what's occurring in affiliate marketing. Join us as we explore affiliate strategies, host expert interviews with leading affiliates and tech entrepreneurs, and discuss the latest affiliates and digital marketing trends. If you want to stay at the cutting edge of affiliate marketing, you're in the right place. Join me for this week's episode and let's get started.
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SPEAKER_03Welcome to Affiliate Insiders Affiliate Marketing Podcast with me, Leanne Johnston, and I am super excited to have the lovely Samantha Asensi join me on this podcast today to talk about affiliate marketing around the globe. And today our spotlight is going to be on Latin America. Samantha, it's my pleasure to have you on this podcast. Thank you for joining me today.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Leanne. It's uh my pleasure to be here with you.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. Now, before we get started on Latin America, which is our big chunky topic of discussion that we've got, I want to start the conversation with a little bit about your background and how you landed up in affiliate marketing in our great industry. So tell us a little bit about your background, where you started, and how you got to this podcast here today.
SPEAKER_04Okay, sure. Well, my background in the iGam industry in general is coming from a long time ago. I had my own company in Spain, Media Company, and we were also affiliates ourselves. So the first bingo online in Spain called us to start doing the digital media for them, and at the same time we were like master affiliates. So imagine that were glory days. I'm proud to say that that belonged to the first big online. Then the company was required by a moving one because of the regulation came into the picture. And I switched to roles. I decided to say like e-commerce manager, I create a department for an international pentacal company, but I was not feeling happy at all. I was not feeling fulfilled, you know. So then I was exploring all the possibilities, and I took my two kids and full of expectation, I moved to Malta. That was 10 years ago. So I started doing interviews, and my first role, it was already for country manager. But I thought it was gonna be for Spain, and then they asked me the following question. But what do you know about Latin America? And that hits me, you know, because like, wow, I should know more about Latin America. I should learn more and more. So I spent the the next eight years learning by learning and working with different uh operators and projects. I understand that some of them didn't want to continue with this market, change the strategy, so I was offering to change my role, but this is not what I wanted. So I decided to change the company or project because I always wanted to be regional manager for Latin America and traveling to conferences, predicting the culture, trying to understand more and more about this market. What happened on my last company after Corona, they decided to shut down operations in Latau. So I found this momentum, Yang, you know, I found this momentum that I said. Now I'm ready. I'm ready to help and I'm ready to contribute from others and helping European operators how to enter those markets properly. Because it's not only about the language, it's the counter and many barriers that they don't understand each other. So I feel like I'm the perfect bridge between both, you know.
SPEAKER_03And coming from that affine background, you understand what publishers need, but you also have the client side experience, which means that you understand how the strategy works on the brand. Um, and I think that's what makes you such a special guest on this podcast today, because you're bringing together all of that knowledge that you've kind of amassed in the last 10 years working in this very complex market, which we're going to dissect a little bit in a while. So thank you for telling us your story and giving us your history of how you got into affiliate marketing, because I think that's probably the best place to start, is just to kind of set the scene for our listeners and let them know that you've spent almost a decade dedicating yourself to this space. So we've all been hearing that Latin America is a fast-growing, emerging marketplace for probably the last kind of five years that I've been, you know, looking at that space as well. But what is the growth that's really there? And are you actually seeing more and more brands entering this space now at a faster pace? Do you see more companies actually focusing on proper strategy in Latin America because there's value there?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I can tell you that the last few years, I will say, I'm seeing a huge amount of companies trying to enter the Latin America market. It doesn't mean with the proper strategy, but they are trying, of course, because they see the potential. They finally see the potential.
SPEAKER_03So the customer value is there, obviously, because the volume is there. So talk to us a little bit about you know some of the regions in Latin America and differences between North and South and even sometimes the same countries. Talk to us about the customers and the localization aspects that sit behind the strategy that you advise.
SPEAKER_04Well, I will say that uh Brazil is the most developed region in Latin America for iGaming. There are 200 million people. They are betters, so the potential is there. They love to bet. Imagine that every round the corner on the street in Brazil, you can play and get the famous Jogo do Bicho game, which is super popular in Brazil. It's a mix of numbers and animals, and they love to get this Jogo do Bicho, and they play mainly on a daily basis. So the opportunity, of course, is there. It's totally different, the north from the south. So when they say I want to target Brazil, for example, by sponsoring a bootball club, okay, that's amazing, that's great, and always create brand awareness. But you need to be a bit further, you need to be as smart and say, okay, how are they on the south, for example, of Brazil, which I see more potential rather than the north. And it's different in another country because it used to be the north, but Brazil is the south. So how can I encourage the south of Brazil? What do they like? For example, they love uh sports journalists. Okay, get in touch with them, offer the opportunity to talk about your brand and get this brand hourless and see the customer value. I tell you something, Liang. Brazilian player is going to register in your website easily, but it's not going to make a deposit easily. It can take sometimes two, three months. Why? Because they don't know you. They don't know your brand, they don't even know sometimes how to make a deposit, what are the mainly deposits available, how they can get the balls. They have like many difficulties in terms of the typical frequently asking questions. Do they have? So I always suggest the same a totally customized and personal customer service. Normally, operators they have a customer service team that they deliver to Europe and they want to expand into America with the same team. This is not going to work. Schedules are different. Uh, the way they talk is not the same. If you hire a Portuguese person, you need a Brazilian person with different schedule and way of mind, how they think. They love to talk, they love to talk. So contact them, reach them. Hey, are you happy? I know the registration I want to call. Do you need any help? It's it's a kind of educate them, and it's not have to be aggressive or massive, and also to select the channels do they like. Is it WhatsApp? Is it SMS? You have to know this.
SPEAKER_03It sounds like, you know, to really be successful, that one size fits all approach to marketing does not work in Latin America. You know, like often we get brands and they go, oh, we're just gonna do this in the UK and we're gonna do this in Europe, and we're gonna do this in Latin America. And it really is about customizing the user journey, customizing that user experience from the first point of contact, like literally first touch, and make sure that you've got proper localization in place in order to actually convert that customer. Now you spoke a little bit about branding as well, and you know what you do in the north of Brazil and the south of Brazil is completely different. Why do you think the south of Brazil is such a big opportunity right now or a better opportunity for operators to be focused?
SPEAKER_04Because they are totally uh crancy about the sports, they are, and uh they have legend, different pubs and restaurants that are only focused on a sports event with big, big screens, and uh the family they meet there, the friends they meet there. Why don't you do some localized actions on these places, for instance?
SPEAKER_03So there's very much an offline to online component as well from the strategic side.
SPEAKER_04It works online, but you can provide QR code, for example, go with a promo code, something like that, that they can just, you know, scan with through the defaults. But yes, you need to interact also from offline to online.
SPEAKER_03Okay. We've spoken about Brazil quite intently, but what about some of the other Latin American regions? What are what are some of the things or trends that you're seeing that work really well in other countries in Latin America, like Argentina or you know, Chile, Colombia? Well, like what are you seeing in other regions?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'll tell you a bit of everyone so we can have some insights. Colombia is the only one with a regulated market. So everything works really well. We have Call Cuegos, which is the agency that helps on the regulation, and they provide all the help they need from the operator side. What happened in Colombia during corona is imagine there are 8,000 points of sales. And normally the users are getting used to taking a ticket there on the machine, they pay through pre-pay payment methods and then they scan something. We didn't have events in that period, and 80% of big shops were closed. So after the regulation, it was a boom with IKE and all the schools book and everything. But then obviously, yeah, something happened. What is happening now is that many international operators are acquiring or doing joint venues with them trying to help because some many of them was coming from the land base, so they didn't understand at all how digital space is working, so they found out difficulties when Corona came and everything. So I'm seeing now joint venues coming in into this Colombia, which is a regulated market. So for international operators, it's great because they already have the license, they have the brand, everything, so it's a great uh joint venture. When it comes to Peru, for example, Peru is super interesting marketing right now. We have some international operators that they saw before, and they are in this market for 10 years now. But in the last year, the last few years, Peru is booming. They are uh very willing to bet, to play the globe, and they have an audience between, I would say, 80 and 24 years or is quite young generation. So you want to touch Peru because you think that sports working is great, and it is, of course, and so it's uh my site mobile friendly. What are the arts they like? What are the tips they need to establish? I always suggest they say tutorials. Tutorials are crucial.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that's a very good piece of advice because I think sometimes as marketers we become a little bit blind to the customer journey because we used to running it in the same way all the time. And actually, you know, you're now talking about segmenting by region, and sometimes within that region, as in like we've just discussed with Brazil, North and South, but then you're also thinking about age categories as well. So, you know, how you would market to an older better or older, you know, player or customer is very different to how you would market to a like a Gen Z or millennial. So understanding the customer segment that you're targeting or the customer avatar that you're targeting in e tree sounds like it's super important.
SPEAKER_04Now I'm seeing many operators that they want to target, for instance, Chile and Peru at the same time. So I always say the same. Even if you think it's the same language, it's not, even the taste is not. For example, in Cas in Chile, they love casino. It's all about casino, and the age is older than Peru, which is five times, as we said before. So you need an infrared approach.
SPEAKER_03And how would you advise somebody getting into the kind of Chilean market? Because it is a bit of a smaller market, you know, within the Latin uh subset. But if casino is great then and the target audience is older, like how do you build that brand affinity? Because you've you've already mentioned that in order to actually really get into the root of Latin America, you have to have localization and you need to be building that brand affinity and trust before a customer will even deposit. So, what are some of the key ideas or incentives or marketing strategies that you can suggest to people wanting to get into those smaller markets that are also lucrative?
SPEAKER_04I suggest, of course, localization and uh the type of promotion, the currency also has to be local, the currency. It's very important, and also the promotion. They see a lot the different promotions that are around. I mean, they are not loyal at all, they are trying. Okay, so you need to know how your competitors are doing and trying to be on the same line. Sometimes it's it's different and it's hard because some of them are trying hard and are giving uh a lot of free spins, a lot of free bonuses. And mostly this can get some costly either marketing and budget. So I suggest to be some kind of smart by offering, for example, different products that your competitors are not looking at. I will say something, for example, they love lottery, they love lottery, and they think they can get rich in one day. Well, we are playing with emotion, so why don't rather than three bonuses like everyone and breaking your marketing budget, some lottery tickets, just one or two that are localized, and you give something extra and different, you know? So it's a question of thinking about, but obviously they love promotions, they love what kind of promotions are over there, and they check most of the promotions. So if you are not on the level of your competitor, you will not get there.
SPEAKER_03And how easy is it to get competitive market intelligence? Is that something that you need to hire a specialist agency to do to actually come in who has expertise like you? Or is it quite easy to get data online in Latin America? Just for marketers that might be listening to the show, if you can give some directions.
SPEAKER_04Well, to be honest, it's not um quite easy to get the right data. A professional like me, obviously, I know because I'm doing for a very long time, and uh I know the data I want to get. I have my VPNs, I have everything because you might think that you are in the correct uh website, but this is not because sometimes they just realize that you are not coming from the region. I also have uh tester people who run like research and they send me screenshots, videos about everything, and just a small, how can I say, issue on the orbs or on the promotion or on the currency or something like that can break everything.
SPEAKER_03It kind of starts at the beginning. You know, you have to get the fundamentals right, you have to focus on the brand awareness, you have to have that localization, and then you can start to do the fancy marketing stuff that we always try and start to do first. I mean, it's it's a classic kind of like thing in the iGaming industry, particularly.
SPEAKER_04In Latin America, for example, I always recommend uh do being a soft lunch period, one even two months, because they're not always something to fix, a small thing, but enough that uh is not going to work.
SPEAKER_03So I want to talk a little bit more about affiliates in the Latin American region. Yeah, and this is a question that a lot of my clients have asked me in the past. Do you find that the big traffic drivers in those areas are actually European affiliates who have kind of like expanded their European website with localized pages, or are they big Latin American affiliate publishers that are coming into the fore now, you know, in the last couple of years? Are traditional affiliates really the way to go there, or are you still working with like ad networks and you know affiliate networks, even if they exist over there? Or is it still very much, you know, finding a partner, educating that partner, building a relationship with that partner one-to-one? Like what's the landscape like there?
SPEAKER_04I tell you, well, I'm the co-folder of affiliate summit Latam. And we do uh this month, end of the November, we will be in Mexico for the affiliate summit. And uh I can tell you that affiliation is the big thing, is the is the big tick. Of course, there are the international affiliate networks that are there in Latin America, let's say better collective, let's say Cantino Media, and they are good in terms of SEO, but it does not mean that it's converting well, you know. On the other way, there are like the small webmasters like we have had in Europe 15 years ago, young guys that they engage with the audience with one websites and they have a lot of quality traffic. Why? The reason is simple because they are the same as the audience are. So they know everything.
SPEAKER_03So then there's a lot of opportunity to actually connect across routes on the affiliate side and actually start building partnerships with these young entrepreneurs that are kind of building communities around their own brands.
SPEAKER_04The opportunity is uh totally amazing, and we will see in the next 10 years, two, three, five years okay to to establish properly. But obviously, yes, my suggestion is that to hire local people to get engaged with these uh webmasters and do partnerships with them and trying to understand the mentality rather than go for the glues and run collector.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and talking about different types of affiliates, like what's the mobile infrastructure like across the different countries in Latin America? Are there big social network influences, for example, that partners should really go and look at? Because we know the affiliate market is becoming extremely fragmented. It's not just about SEO affiliates or PPC affiliates anymore. It's now content curators that are, you know, doing uh videos, they're they're giving tips, they're using their social channels, their Instagram, their TikTok. Is that coming to the fore in Latin America as well? Are those the types of publishers and content curators that brands should be looking at?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, yes.
SPEAKER_03And what are the big kind of social channels in Latin America that you would kind of start with? Is it the same as here in in EU, like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter even? Or are there other channels that people are using that maybe we don't know about yet? Instagram?
SPEAKER_04Instagram is the main one, YouTube, both of them. Instagram and YouTube, I will say. And they love the video building, they love it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so that's really good advice is to actually, you know, kind of back the trend. Obviously, bring in your katanas, your Excel medias, your big better connected type um affiliates who have that SEO footprint, but start looking at the smaller ambassador type publishers and start building those relationships. That's really a good niche for brands who want to enter that market to build that affinity because they can bring those entrepreneurs into their business at an early grassroots stage and help them to actually grow their businesses as well, which is quite interesting because you know everybody wants to chase the traffic, but actually you need to chase the relationships, which is ultimately what affiliate marketing always boils down to. It's finding those, you know, niche relationships that you can leverage to then grow your other digital channels.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. I I can tell you for it, for instance, in in Brazil, there are two main players when it comes to affiliation, you know, one is A groom and the other one is super affiliated. And why? Because they are local and they were affiliates before.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I remember with Adrian way back, like 10, 15 years ago almost. So absolutely agree with that.
SPEAKER_04So, what are they doing? They are doing partnership with all the influencers, they get some exclusivity, they are very smart. So they have a huge network and they act as a last graphing game. And also, one of them, Habrun, they has their old payment methods. And how they build this was by teaching the players how to open an account, how to even get the device, you know, it was very, very close relationship with them. Until they grow, now they grow a lot and it's different, you know. But this is how they start, these are the beginnings, you know. That maybe might happen in Peru as well or Chile or even Mexico. In Mexico, I will say in Leon Starry World, it's a population with 128 million of people, and it's still it's mainly offline TB, radio, SMS. What is happening with affiliation? Some of them, even they don't have an affiliate tool. Wow, okay. And when they can't, they don't know how to use it. There's no leader for that, you know.
SPEAKER_03So in our way, we'll we'll tell them how to use it. It sounds like such an interesting region. And I'm glad that we've had you on this podcast to actually talk a little bit more in depth about it. Because on this side of the pond, we're hearing, oh, it's it's the new kind of golden nugget, go and invest in Latin America. But do so with caution because there's a lot of stuff that you need to know to actually get it right. And you know, I think often people are gung-ho and they want to spend their money and you know they might have huge budgets, but this is a region that budget isn't gonna help you with. It really is about being clever about your marketing and about really reaching into the community and building those grassroots relationships with all the various publishers that you can kind of work with. And and I use the term publisher in a very broad aspect because I think affiliate is a bit of an archaic term now. You know, kind of when you think affiliate, you think BBC, SEO, and and actually publishers are everybody now. Anybody with a a social media channel and a community of people that are following them is potentially an affiliate for you to work with. One of the other things I just wanted to touch on in Latin America, if you could give us some more of your time, is just the kind of infrastructure, you know. Like, are certain countries more predisposed to desktop to mobile, or is everybody mobile friendly? Like, what's what's the kind of channel that brands need to be thinking about when they go into the different regions?
SPEAKER_04Well, I tell you, internet penetration in Latin America, in this main region that we are talking, like Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, internet penetration is quite high between 75 to 85, different if we talk about Ecuador, Venezuela, or other regions. But when it comes to mobile, it's 95%.
SPEAKER_03So you need to be able to track you know mobile um implementation and you need to be able to actually push up us through like publishers that have mobile traffic. Are there a lot of like app developers that are coming out of the Latin American space? Are they are they like games developers and things that you could be partnering? Like the B2B partnerships of affiliate marketing almost.
SPEAKER_04Yes, uh in Racim, for example, it works very well. Different apps that you can log in and you can create your own polls and they can use some games and that engage with the user. I am not seeing now these kinds of apps in other regions, let's say Mexico, for instance, or let's say Peru, or other ones, which is a great opportunity. But I think that there is a lack of right now, that there is an opportunity there.
SPEAKER_03So that's huge, and that's a massive nugget we've just dropped on this podcast. If anybody's listening to it and anybody's an African or an affiliate, get yourself down into Mexico and some of these countries that Samantha shared with you today and start building your business because clearly you're you'll be entering at the right time, and clearly there's a market and an appetite for it. Just a couple of more questions, if you can give us more of your time today, because I know your time is precious. We've spoken about some of the complexities that brands need to get around before considering entry into this kind of complex marketplace. But what does the future of affiliate marketing really look like in Latin from your perspective? Is this now really the land of milk and honey? Like, is this really where brands should be focusing or should they still trade with caution? Like, what's the kind of verdict that you can leave us on today?
SPEAKER_04From my perspective, the future looks uh bright. I mean, it is the real and hand, of course. It is uh it's just a question of localization and understand how the content works again, you know. It's a question of what do they like, okay? For example, gifts, so small geeks, not not a big one, because if you give a big one, they will not transfer. But just start reading data, any patients start reading data and work with your CRM tools, even as an affiliate, start with some attractive newsletter that they engage the user and soon know your audience. If it's, for example, casino and Mexico, it's more about remain, so okay, engage them.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so it's about asking questions, it's about planning strategically, and it's not just about throwing money at the market and seeing what hits or what sticks. Samantha, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on this podcast today. You have really given us some great insights into what's happening in the Latin American market. I just wanted to ask you again about the Latin Affiliate Summit. When does that actually take place?
SPEAKER_04It's going to be uh end of uh November, 24th and 25th of November in Mexico City.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so we'll drop a link to that in the podcast as well. You may or may miss it, but I think it sounds super interesting. I'd love to get over to Latin America next year when travel um allows. Of course, you are invited. I would I would absolutely love to be there and actually speak and like meet people locally on the ground. So please do share, you know, the links for that. We'll put them into the podcast below. But I just want to thank you so much for giving us, you know, a really good insight into what's happening into that space because I've just felt like for so long everybody's been saying, Oh, it's great, it's great, it's great. But you know, we really needed to understand just how great it actually is. So thank you for being on the podcast today. Thank you. Thank you, Lianne.
SPEAKER_04It was my blessing and always happy to help and contribute with this amazing industry.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01Amplify your digital and affiliate marketing performance next year and join us for our affiliate insider summit. Taking place on the 17th to 18th of January, this free-to-register event will bring together a host of industry experts, brands, and publishers from all sectors to discuss the latest digital and affiliate marketing trends. Or you can elect to join one of our pay for master classes and learn with industry experts how to master a variety of digital marketing skills. Amplify your performance at the Affiliate Insider Summit and register now at affiliateinsider.com and then click on Affiliate Insider Summit. And that's a wrap for this week's Affiliate Insider Affiliate Marketing Podcast. If you're loving what we're putting down in this series, head on over to Apple iTunes and give us a five-star rating and subscribe to our podcast channel so you never miss another insightful episode. Tune in next week for more digital marketing insights and traffic driving tips, tricks, and strategies to keep your digital marketing fresh and your affiliate program driving consistent sales.