Q&A with Global Saving Group’s Pierre Warin
Tradedoubler’s very own Jesper Johansson recently caught up with the team at Global Savings Group. Special thanks to Pierre, Key Account Manager at Global Savings Group for joining us for this Q&A.
Let’s jump straight into it!
Describe a bit about yourself and your background before joining the GSG team.
I’ve been working at GSG for the past two years. I studied a year in Leipzig, Germany and then moved on to a Master in International Management in my home town – Lille, France.
I then moved to Munich after travelling for a while in Iran (great country, check it out!). I joined our Global Commercial Team back when it was composed of only two people.
After a year and a half, I decided it was time for me to focus on a specific market and made the move to Amsterdam, where our UK operations are based. We then decided that it made more sense for the Account Management Team to be based in the UK. And here I am in the amazing and buzzing London!
Can you explain what you currently do in the UK market for brands that might not be too familiar with yourselves already?
We are primarily a savings platform. We offer incentives to our users so that they decide to make a purchase at a certain online store.
In the UK, much like in the other GSG markets, we have a media partnership with two leading UK online newspapers; The Dailymail and Metro.co.uk. These partnerships offer us a strong online visibility, we manage their discount section and are pushing brands through different visibility options onsite. We are also developing tailored marketing campaigns via a collaboration with bloggers and influencers.
You see that we are trying to be at different stages of the user journey, inspiring through influencer marketing, and converting via our core business – voucher codes.
You recently opened up an office in London with you and the rest of your UK Account Managers making the move from the Amsterdam office. Do you feel that having the team based locally will have a positive effect on the future of your partnerships?
Definitely! Being in Amsterdam was great fun (our office there is in a former church!), however it was difficult to arrange a spontaneous meeting or an affiliate day for example.
Now in London, it’s easier to meet partners, attend affiliate events, and being more aware of the whole e-commerce ecosystem in general. Putting a face on an email address is always very nice, and I am convinced that the move to London will help us make our partners understand the real value we can bring to their marketing and affiliate campaigns.
What kind of music do you listen to on a particularly slow day in the office in order to keep the productivity going?
No bullsh*t by MYD is probably the song I play the most these days. I listen to a lot of rap and hip-hop, but I have to admit that if I need to stay focused, I will often listen to some techno music. No lyrics, straight tune to keep me going!
If you were to share something that excites you about any of GSG’s upcoming projects, what would it be?
we’re a very dynamic company. We are always on the look for innovative ways to work with partners. We have launched our curated travel and deals sites in France, Spain, The Netherlands and Germany, aiming at covering an earlier stage in the user journey.
An exciting project going on in the UK at the moment, is in test phase. We’ve built our personalisation coupon/voucher code solution. It will allow our advertisers to target voucher code users like never before. We will be able to adapt what Voucher code we show to a user depending on what’s their basket. Game-changing!
Who would you consider your greatest idol and why?
I don’t think we have a particular idol, but I find people like Elon Musk or Charlie Brooker very inspiring. They have ideas and visions that goes beyond what people usually even take into consideration. If you look up some YouTube videos about Elon Musk, or an episode of Black Mirror, a TV show created by
Charlie Brooker, you could be surprised by the deepness of their thoughts about the future of humanity.
Where do you think that the performance industry is heading right now, and what is GSG doing in order to stay ahead of the competition?
It’s difficult to answer, I think we hear a lot about the different attribution models. The question here is, who will get the sale attributed once the customer has received the TV he ordered? Is it the blog where the user first heard of the brand/store? Is it the review site where he decided he wanted that TV brand rather than another one? Is it the voucher code site that helped to convert him at that store rather than another because he got a better deal?
We are building an ecosystem where we aim at covering the full customer journey, from inspiration to conversion and thus also keep voucher a key tool of our strategy whilst broadening our offering to impact the business of advertisers positively. We are doing everything for our partners, without forgetting that at the end of the day, it’s the customer/user that decides if we have done a good job.
If one of our clients wants to partner up with you, what is their best course of action in doing so?
Make sure that you reach out to your Tradedoubler Account Manager, however you can also connect with the team at accountsuk@global-savings-group.com ! One of us will give you an answer and guide you through our process to implement a campaign.
