Publisher Spotlight: Bantoa
Can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Francesco Calzà, I am CEO and Founder of Bantoa since 2015
Can you introduce Bantoa and the core business values?
Bantoa is a fashion social commerce platform, where users can find total look outfits, created by a community of nano influencers. Every product you see on Bantoa can be shopped directly online from our partner’s website. Bantoa is about inspiration and sharing of passion for fashion.
Tell us more about your audience and what types of advertisers do you work best with?
The main target of Bantoa is made up of women aged between 30 and 50 even if 20% of our traffic is made up by men in the same age range. We are active in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, the US, and the UK.
Our ideal partners are mainly of two types: the large international fashion e-commerce, which offer a wide range of products, sizes and cover several budget ranges, already famous and known, while the second type of ideal partner are niche stores that offer selected and refined products, for users who are looking for the most original and trendy products and rely on Bantoa scouting. The partners we work best with are those that are looking for performance but are also aware that there is more than simple traffic when you talk about fashion. Your image and the way you present your product are also very important.
What would you say are the biggest benefits for an advertiser working with Bantoa?
Bantoa is not a simple product aggregator, but an inspirational platform where users go not only to buy but to discover new combinations and new ideas: our strength lies in the combination of garments proposed in total look outfits, made by our community, where each user sees only products of his size, for his budget and which reflect his taste, thanks to our profiling algorithm. This ensures that every user on Bantoa sees only items he can buy. The real deal is being able to reach 2 goals in the same place, performance, and brand awareness.
How long have you worked in the affiliate marketing space? How long have you had a relationship with Tradedoubler?
Since its origins, Bantoa has chosen affiliation as a form of revenue and has always believed in this business model. The relationship with Tradedoubler began in 2016 and has strengthened over the years by establishing lasting partnerships with many advertisers, who found a trusted and profitable partner in Bantoa.
Have you seen a change during that time?
We have always loved to work with TD, the competences and the kindness of the team has never changed in time, and you can still perceive that there are people behind the company and that is really important.
Unfortunately, we assisted to an impoverishment of the kind of publishers working on the affiliate channel. Content websites are moving away. Coupon and cashback websites are making up most of the traffic in the fashion sector and that is really bad for advertisers, because, as I said, the fashion sector is not traffic only.
Where do you see the industry going?
The industry of affiliate marketing must find new ways to enroll content websites and to solve tracking issues that are pushing this kind of website out of it. Affiliate channels must go back to be considered an important channel for advertisers.
Where do you think is the Affiliate space heading to in the next year and what are the main market disruptions?
The biggest challenges of the next year will be about third-party tracking issues and privacy. This could be a real challenge for the whole channel.
I think that the Affiliate space must renew their way to track performances, using cookieless technologies and can assist publishers with artificial intelligence and big data in order to create better performances for everybody.
What’s been your greatest experience working in the fashion space?
One of the best moments of the last 5 years has been the Bantoa Outfit Days 2018 when we brought the 50 best outfitters of Bantoa in our lovely city of Verona, sponsored by some of our partners and we “played” fashion for 2 days in a wonderful location. Fashion shows, games, meetings, and friendships. It was a real deep moment for the whole community.
Do you have any upcoming promotions, new launches, or exciting news&plans you would like to share?
Despite the recent events, 2020 for Bantoa started as a turning point which the launch of the platform in France in January, Germany, and Poland, between the months of May and June. For the next few months, there are many projects in the pipeline. 2020 has many more countries arriving. UK, Nederland, Mexico, Brazil, and many more.
We will develop many more features this year taking the user experience of our community to a whole new level and 2020 will be the consecration year of our international project.
Thank you Francesco for the interview and the insights!
