European GOLDEN LINK AWARDS CATEGORIES 2025

Best Global Expansion Strategy

We live and breathe global expansion. This category is for our trailblazing partners who are driving next-level performance across borders. Whether you’ve scaled across Europe, APAC, LATAM, the US – or all the above – we want to celebrate your global success. 

Open to: Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers

Best Influencer Marketing Campaign

Influencer Marketing isn't going anywhere. So, we created a brand-new category to showcase the very best in creator-powered marketing. We want to hear from brands who have taken their influencer campaigns to the next level with affiliate marketing to deliver a powerful one-two punch.

Open to: Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers

Best Managed Affiliate Programme: Retail

IIn this category, it’s all about performance. And you’ll have the numbers to prove it. Our judges are looking for a well-executed Retail affiliate programme (one or multiple countries). You’ll have utilised our expertise, data, and insights to deliver an affiliate programme that has overdelivered on results.

Open to: Advertisers and Agencies

Best Managed Affiliate Programme: Travel

In this category, it’s all about performance. And you’ll have the numbers to prove it. Our judges are looking for a well-executed Travel affiliate programme. You’ll have utilised our expertise, data, and insights to deliver an affiliate programme that has overdelivered on results.

Open to: Advertisers and Agencies

Best Managed Affiliate Programme: Finance

In this category, it’s all about performance. And you’ll have the numbers to prove it. Our judges are looking for a well-executed Finance affiliate programme. You’ll have utilised our expertise, data, and insights to deliver an affiliate programme that has overdelivered on results.

Open to: Advertisers and Agencies

New Campaign Strategy

In this category, it's all about new campaigns with the smartest strategies to meet objectives. And you'll have the numbers to prove it. Our judges are looking for a well-executed campaign. You will have utilized our expertise, data, and insights to deliver a campaign strategy that has exceeded expectations.

Open to: Publishers, Advertisers, and Agencies.

Partnership of the Year

Has one of your partnerships outperformed all expectations? We want to hear from you! Maybe you’ve been creative with commission rates or come up with a smart new strategy? We’re looking for a partnership between an Advertiser and a Publisher that has delivered next-level results.

Open to: Advertisers and Publishers. An award will be given to both companies in the entry.

Social Impact Awards

Conscious consumerism is becoming more important than ever to brands. In this category, we want to highlight our partners who are using the affiliate channel to make a positive difference to the world. 

Open to: Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers

The Outthink & Outperform Award

With us, it’s about outperforming. In this category, we’re looking for brands who are outthinking their competition. Whether that’s implementing a smart new strategy, taking advantage of a bold new opportunity or creatively executing a new idea – we want to hear how you’ve brought something new to the industry over the last 12 months.

Open to: Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers.

Affiliate Manager or Team of the Year: Advertiser

Behind all high-performing affiliate programmes are the exceptional individuals or teams who are going above and beyond to deliver results. This award is your chance to put yourself or your team in the limelight. We will be recognising those individuals or teams who are the driving force behind programme performance.

Open to: Advertiser-side Affiliate Managers or Teams

Affiliate Manager of the Year: Publisher

In this category, we want to highlight publisher-side affiliate managers or teams who are creating a better caliber of advertising experience. You or your team will be optimising every partnership to drive a real connection with your audience – and one that delivers results for you and your advertiser partners.

Open to: Publisher-side Affiliate Managers or Teams

Agency of the Year

This award celebrates the agency that has truly mastered the art of elevating brands in affiliate marketing. We want to hear from our agency partners who are driving growth, optimising performance to help their clients outperform on the Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Network.

Advertiser of the Year (noted by network)

We want to hear which Advertiser you feel has truly excelled over the last 12 months. All publishers on our network will be given the opportunity to nominate their ‘Advertiser of the Year’. The winner will be determined by a public vote at DealMaker Europe on the 19th March.

Publisher of the Year (noted by network)

Which Publisher is driving real value for your business? All advertisers on our network will be given the opportunity to nominate their ‘Publisher of the Year’. The winner will be determined by a public vote at DealMaker Europe on the 19th March.