The Golden Link Awards recognise Rakuten Advertising's most innovative and exceptional affiliate campaigns, teams and companies across the region. This year's award ceremony was hosted in person after two years of holding the award gala virtually.
This year's awards highlighted eight categories spanning all areas of affiliate marketing and two peer-nominated categories. Nominations were open to APAC advertisers, publishers and agencies. A team of judges from The Drum Asia, IAB Australia, Global Marketplace and Rakuten Advertising chose the finalists and winners.
We were ecstatic to be finalists for three awards, including Publisher of the Year, Campaign of the Year and Manager of the Year (Publisher).
We were even more elated to see Dominic Ferguson win the Manager of the Year (Publisher) award. Sophie Stickland, Head of Client Services, said, "Dom is one of the most passionate, committed, hard-working people I have had the pleasure to work with. He cares immensely about his merchants, the business and his team. It is great to see him recognised for all his outstanding contributions. Well done Dom!"
Absorbing the energy of the evening, Dom said, "I'm absolutely stoked to win this award. I couldn't have won this award without all our amazing partners that work with us that make every day so enjoyable. Also, to the incredible Cashrewards team who brings the 'Yay' to everything we do, I'm so proud to work here!"
Our winning streak didn't stop there. The final award reveal was met with a huge joyful uproar when Cashrewards was announced as the Advertiser's Choice Award winner.
Cashrewards CFO and acting CEO Zelma van Woerkom celebrated the win by saying, "Congratulations to everyone involved in this impressive feat. We take these achievements as an external recognition of the creativity, tenacity and collaboration put into action every day by our Cashrewardians. What culminated into a visible output to be critiqued against other worthy finalists is the result of all our teams collaborating across functions. Congratulations everyone!”
The Advertiser's Choice Award especially means a lot to us as a team because it was voted by the merchants, networks and agencies we work with every day. We want to share our sincere gratitude to everyone who voted for us. We will strive to build stronger relationships, deliver outstanding campaign results, and offer more opportunities to elevate brands. Thank you.