This year’s Affiliate Summit East brought thousands of affiliate, influencer, and partnership marketing professionals to New York City for two packed days of learning, dealmaking, and sharing ideas. Our team dove right in, attending sessions, networking events, and countless meetings with both familiar faces and exciting new connections.

Where Networking Meets Strategy

ASE’s value extends way beyond the expo floor.

Over the course of the event, the commerce team held 40+ meetings with publishers, networks, and potential partners. And that’s not even counting the additional meetings handled by our BrandCycle team and leadership team!

We struck a healthy balance between deepening existing partnerships and exploring fresh collaborations, with discussions ranging from long-term growth strategies and cross-channel content planning to rapid-turn “quick-win” campaign ideas that could generate results in the next few weeks.

This year, we had the chance to connect in more relaxed and targeted settings, including VIP dinners for intimate gatherings designed to strengthen strategic relationships and industry happy hours for casual yet high-impact touchpoints for broad networking.

These events gave us space to have deeper, more candid conversations and set the stage for continued dialogue after the conference. 

The takeaway? ASE reinforced that the most impactful partnerships are those nurtured consistently over time and backed by trust, shared goals, and the willingness to innovate together.

What We Heard: Key Themes

Traffic is Top of Mind

Many publishers are laser-focused on driving more quality traffic to their content and commerce experiences. Conversations explored strategies to attract, retain, and convert audiences in an increasingly competitive environment, touching on today’s best SEO practices, the role of creator collaborations, and how on-site experience impacts conversion rates.

AI is Moving Incredibly Fast

Partners are actively exploring how AI can improve efficiency, from streamlining workflows to generating fresh content ideas and improving audience targeting. The flip side? Rapid advancements make it challenging to maintain compliance, transparency, and a consistent brand voice—topics we’ll continue unpacking well after ASE.

No Silver Bullet for Growth

Across the board, there’s no single winning formula. Most partners are in active testing mode: experimenting with formats, channels, and partnership structures to see what works best for their audiences and business models.

Quality Over Quantity

Based on conversations with various agencies, brands, and creators, the influencer marketing industry is shifting away from focusing on sheer volume. There’s strong emphasis on finding the right fit and leveraging quality creators whose audiences align perfectly with a brand’s niche. 

Beyond ASE: Looking Ahead

From back-to-back meetings to off-the-clock networking, ASE 2025 reinforced the importance of building relationships, staying agile, and embracing experimentation. We left ready to put these insights into action.

But this wasn’t our only major event while we were in town! Our CEO, Karl House, brought StackCommerce insights to the Martech Record MARCC NYC Summer Conference, where the conversation covered how recent market developments are shaping corporate M&A strategy, organic expansion, and what’s ahead for the space. 

Taken together, these appearances reflect our commitment to being at the forefront of industry conversations and turning those learnings into real-world results for our partners.

If we didn’t get a chance to connect in NYC, we’d love to do that now! Don’t hesitate to reach out.