Affiliate Summit East (ASE) 2021 Recap

With COVID causing the 2020 ASE to get cancelled it has been a long time coming for ASE 2021. We didn’t know exactly how things would be this year but it’s safe to say that ASE IS BACK! The Today’s Business team had a great time attending the ASE 2021 at the New York Marriott Marquis in Time Square. The team attended educational seminars, met with key publishers, vendors and friends and also networked at some of the events’ happy hours. Below is a recap of some of the events that TB participated in.

Affiliate Summit East 2021 Educational Seminars


Presenter: Courtney Spritzer | CEO Socialfly

Attendee: Joe Sanfilippo

Summary: This presentation was interesting as we got to learn how other influencer agencies approached influencer marketing. This firm decided to partner with just six influencers over two months opposed to our typical mass influencer recruitment strategy. One thing that would have been nice to know was the budget that went into this campaign as it would have provided some context as to why they chose this approach.

Takeaways : This approach can be a more efficient way to manage influencer campaigns while still generating quality results. Under the right circumstances, we may look to utilize a majority of our budget to partner with top influencers and really focus on amplifying their content.

Presenter: Kasim Aslam | Founder & CEO Solutions 8)

Attendee: Joe Sanfilippo

Summary: Kasim did a fantastic job at presenting. He spoke fast but he was really good at capturing the attention of the audience and knew how to make a somewhat mundane topic exciting.

Takeaways: I think my biggest takeaway here was that I need to get my hands dirty with some Smart Shopping campaigns so that I can really understand how these work and how they can be useful for our clients. I also would plan to revisit this presentation for any upcoming presentations that I have so that I can utilize some of the shock and awe techniques that made this presentation enticing. 

Presenter: Andrew Sabbatino

Attendee: Matthew Serbos

Summary: Andrew did an awesome job presenting all of the information in a concise manner. He moved a bit fast through the presentation due to time constraints, but being allowed to take pictures helped me focus on the main points of the open discussion. Andrew described the main points of Buying/Setting up a Domain, Finding prospects for outreach, Writing Solid Subject Lines, Coming up with Clever First Lines, Structuring Campaigns, and the Next Steps after the initial Cold Email Outreach. I found his presentation style (results-oriented) to be very rewarding and engaging. It was nice to see that someone was speaking from experience, rather than mundanely reading off a slide show that someone else compiled. Andrew even provided the resources (sites) where we can find the information he uses to conduct his own outreach. He mentioned he basically had a 20% success rate in terms of email responses, which is incredible. It’s definitely the benchmark we can all strive for when conducting cold email outreach.

Takeaways: One of the biggest takeaways I got from the presentation had to do with follow-up emails. He had a specific process and outline for each follow up after the first email goes out. He outlined that the first follow up is just to bump the email back to the top of the inbox. Then, the second follow up, is intended to outline a huge win for one of your clients. After that, the third follow up is just “thoughts”; very short and sweet. Finally, the fourth follow up, you can get creative and include whatever relevant information there is for your vertical/niche. All in all, I thought the presentation was not only extremely informative, but easy to understand. He boiled down cold email outreach into a very simple science that anyone can do!

Attendee: Joelle Regh

Summary: Mike Roddy, CEO of Empire Social Group, shared his secret weapon of how he has helped his network of entrepreneurs and influencers to rapidly grow a massive account on Instagram with real targeted followers. Roddy broke down the system of the B.A.S.E method and how he uses it in his agency. The B.A.S.E stands for: Brand, Amplification, Social Growth, and Engine. This presentation was very interesting and informative, because Roddy gave detailed information on what the method stands for, and gave real life examples.

Takeaways: The takeaway from this presentation is to find your purpose and mission with your Instagram Account, research the market, define a niche, hashtags play an important role in discovery, and using your Instagram Bio to make the first impression on your audience. 

Affiliate Summit East 2021 Meetings / Networking


Joe and I got to meet with the New Business Manager who overlooks new brand onboardings for both of the networks. We’ve been in contact in the past but primarily work with a different colleague. Due to the great working relationship between Awin/SAS and Today’s Business, we just wanted to connect to get a sense of how we can strengthen our partnership and also learn what the affiliate networks have coming down the pipeline.

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

My first meeting at ASE was with my rep at Chron.com, the digital home of the Houston Chronicle. I’ve worked with my rep on a handful of campaigns and the results have gone pretty well. After being able to meet in person, and understand more about how Chron.com works and how Today’s Business works, we were able to discuss much more robust opportunities which will only lead to better results and a better partnership going forward!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

I was sitting at a table planning for my upcoming meeting when a member from the Fat Media team approached me. Almost instantly after introducing himself, I recognized the name and recalled a conversation we had back in 2019 about potentially partnering. We never secured a partnership back in 2019 but after reconnecting at ASE, there’s definitely some great potential to partner now!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

Brent & I had the pleasure of meeting our friend from The Adult Man in person. It was really nice meeting with him as we have been working with him for quite some time now for our clients State & Liberty + Tomahawk Shades. We discussed tons of exciting new ideas and ways to get more of our brands featured on TheAdultMan.com. I’m really looking forward to following up with our friend on some of the things we discussed. Also, there’s a chance we might be able to meet in his neck of the woods (Winston-Salem, NC) as I already had plans of traveling there!

Joe Sanfilippo

Manager, Growth & Partnerships

I got to meet with my rep at 360 Media Direct who also runs a popular New York Giants blog and we work together within the FOCO campaign. We had a meeting planned just to catch up and see what each other has going on in the near future to see how we can continue helping each other be successful.

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

Upon receiving access to the ASE attendee list, I pinpointed a few prospects that Today’s Business has not worked with before but believed there would be a great opportunity with our brands. I was able to secure a meeting with a rep at Microsoft Rewards to explore how they work with different brands and see if there would be an opportunity to partner in the future. I was presented a deck with all of their partnership opportunities along with highlighting the different brands that Today’s Business works with too. I walked away from the meeting with a great understanding and should be able to find some great ways to work together and help Microsoft Rewards increase their loyal customer base!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

On the first day of the summit, the TB Team attended the Awin Happy Hour at St. Pats bar, a few blocks away from the Marriott Marquis. At the happy hour, Joelle recognized one of our reps at USA Today/Reviewed and engaged in a conversation. We decided it would be best to set up a more formal meeting the next day to discuss more logistical questions of our existing partnership and better understand how we can serve the USA Today/Reviewed team. I walked away knowing that they have a Deals newsletter along with paid placement opportunities for inclusion in upcoming content. I look forward to expanding our partnership with them by providing some exclusive promo opportunities!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

On day two of the summit, Matt and I connected with a long-time partner from Revitrage over a nice lunch at Junior’s, right across from the Marriott Marquis. I got to pick my rep’s brain on Reddit, as this is their primary form of promotion, to better understand how he’s utilizing the platform to drive purchase intent. On top of that, Matt and my rep got into discussing their music interests which were a perfect match (I was quite lost during the discussion). I definitely look forward to regrouping now that the summit has ended to see what other opportunities exist to partner together!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

Envolve Tech is an interesting Virtual Shopping Assistant tool. It basically is a live chat tool that helps you get your customers to convert in real-time. They are unique in that they operate utilizing an affiliate payment model so you only have to pay a percentage of sale when customers use the live chat to convert. We’re planning to make an introduction to our client, Tomahawk Shades, to get a demo and possibly test this out.

Joe Sanfilippo

Manager, Growth & Partnerships

On day two of the summit, I got to meet up with a good buddy of mine who handles the partnership side of BeFrugal, a cashback site. My rep and I became close at Affiliate Summit West in 2020 because he put on a charity ice hockey game out in Las Vegas to raise funds for cancer research, called Faceoff With Cancer. I participated in the event, which was an awesome time and we’ve been friends ever since, texting each other about NHL news every so often. We discussed some partnership opportunities but primarily were catching up since it had been a while since we last saw each other in person.

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

Similarly to Microsoft Rewards, Savings United is a partner I’ve heard of before but never was able to pin down a partnership… Until now! I got to speak with two reps from Savings United, who were new to their respective positions about all the different types of partnership opportunities they have. The conversation was extremely refreshing and I believe there’s going to be a ton of ways that Today’s Business can help drive revenue for their site. The best part of the conversation was that Savings United can truly be a flexible partner, something that 100% aligns with the brands Today’s Business works with too.

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

Towards the end of the last day, I got to meet with a partner that Today’s Business has been working with since about 2017, My Subscription Addiction. Recently, we’ve been able to secure some paid campaigns to enhance our relationship and exposure with The Menlo Club. During our meeting, we even finalized some details about an upcoming giveaway and placement package. We are also exploring some other opportunities to move forward with other brands on the Today’s Business roster that we may not have had an in-depth partnership with before.

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager

My last meeting of ASE was with a rep from StackCommerce who I’ve worked with at a different company in the past and recently made the switch. I got to learn more about the way StackCommerce structures their partnerships and opportunities and while most opportunities involve a flat fee, I believe there is going to be some great potential to work together in the near future!

Brent Eppley

Senior Affiliate Manager