Brand Cannes-versation Starter: Building Affiliate Marketing Campaigns Around Cannes'24

The most awaited entertainment event and marketing gala of the year, Cannes Film Festival is just around the corner ??

Filmmakers, influencers, celebrities, and brands are prepping up to make the most of the limelight. The red carpet is all set to unroll with dazzling premieres, fashion galas, and endless marketing opportunities for brands.

Especially if you’re in D2C or eCommerce business, Cannes Film Festival is a goldmine of opportunities to get your cash register ringing. If you’re active on social media, you might’ve seen how brands like L’Oreal, Taco Bell, Domino’s, etc. pull up their marketing socks to make the most of the buzz.

And not just eyeballs, the brands who are quick to hop the Cannes bandwagon have witnessed increased engagement and even sales attributed to these Cannes-centered campaigns. And numbers have it that marketing campaigns centered around big events like Cannes lead to better brand recall for businesses.

If you’re a brand or an eCommerce business and haven’t walked the marketing red carpet of Cannes yet, here are some recommendations to get you started. Feel free to tweak them to fit your marketing strategy.

Partner with Influencers

Depending on your brand’s budget, partner with influencers who are gracing the red carpet, especially if you’re a fashion and lifestyle brand. This can help you reach your target audience and put your brand right into the Cannes-versation!

If your budget is limited, you can still milk the Cannes opportunity with the help of moment marketing or micro influencers. For example, a makeup & beauty brand can partner with a micro influencer for a ‘how-to’ content on recreating a specific Cannes look.

Create Cannes-Centric Affiliate Campaign

This is the time when brands can line their affiliate campaigns around the Cannes theme. Launch a Cannes-themed product limited edition to gain more traction on your brand, and launch exclusive Cannes-themed affiliate campaigns with customized payout model to incentivize affiliates.

Create a unique code affiliates can share with their audience for a discount or special offer on your Cannes-themed product or other relevant products. This provides an extra incentive for people to click through affiliate links and make purchases.

Increase urgency among customers by running time-sensitive promotions and sales on your store, mirroring festival’s duration.

Note: Set up ‘promo code tracking’ on your affiliate tracking tool to ensure that your conversions are accurately attributed to correct campaigns and partners.

To make sure that your Cannes affiliate campaign is on brand, provide marketing material to partners using Trackier’s ‘Creative Management’.

Set Up SmartLinks for Cannes-Themed Affiliate Campaigns

If you’re into affiliate business, you must know what SmartLink is. If not, here’s a refresher. Smartlinks are dynamic URLs that automatically redirect users to the most relevant offer on their location, OS, and device.

Brands and advertisers can save wasted traffic by sending the traffic not fitting the set requirements to an alternate landing page. Using Smartlink, affiliates can use a single tracking link to promote multiple offers across different geos, device type, and OS.

Harnessing the marketing potential of events like Cannes Film Festival, combining with the capabilities of affiliate marketing can help brands, regardless of their scale, punch above their weight and achieve significant growth in sales, engagement, and brand recall.