We’re back with another enlightening episode of the Affiliate Marketing Podcast. This week, Irina Makarova, CMO at PIN-UP Partners, shares her experience transitioning from FinTech to iGaming. Irina shares how PIN-UP Partners maintains its market-leading position through community building, transparency, and strategic market expansion. This conversation offers valuable lessons on leveraging branding to create loyal affiliate communities and identifying emerging market opportunities that can benefit both new and established affiliate programs.
Our thanks go to PIN-UP Partners for sponsoring this episode.
Talking points include:
- Creating a community-driven affiliate program that goes beyond monetary incentives.
- Strategic market expansion into emerging territories like Ecuador and India.
- Building trust through transparency, data sharing, and genuine collaboration with affiliates.
Building Community Through Brand Identity
PIN-UP Partners has transformed traditional merchandising into a powerful community-building tool. By creating limited-edition merchandise collections that affiliates genuinely want to collect and wear, they’ve developed what can be called “a badge of honour” for affiliates. This approach has created organic connections between affiliates at industry events and fostered a sense of belonging to an exclusive community. The strategy demonstrates how established programs can leverage physical brand elements to maintain excitement and loyalty in a highly competitive space.
The Power of Transparency and Collaboration
One of the most compelling insights from Irina is how PIN-UP Partners approaches affiliate relationships without ego. Rather than pushing their vision onto affiliates, they focus on listening, collecting feedback, and providing the tools affiliates need to succeed. Irina emphasises that their analytics platform gives affiliates unprecedented visibility into performance data, helping them make informed decisions. This collaborative approach—where affiliate success directly drives program growth—represents a fundamental shift from the secretive tendencies often seen in the iGaming industry.
Strategic Market Expansion Based on Data
The podcast reveals how PIN-UP Partners identifies and enters new markets through careful analysis of socioeconomic factors, internet penetration, and audience demographics. Irina details their current focus on cricket betting markets in India and Bangladesh, highlighting their data-driven approach to product selection. Their confidence in this market is so strong they offer affiliates a break-even guarantee—an unprecedented move that demonstrates their commitment to mutual success. This strategy shows how established programs can continue finding growth opportunities even after achieving market leadership.
Listen to find out more about:
- How PIN-UP Partners created a collector’s culture around their merchandise that drives affiliate loyalty.
- Why offering a break-even guarantee for cricket betting traffic demonstrates confidence in market selection.
- How data transparency has become PIN-UP Partners’ competitive advantage in affiliate relationships.
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune in to go direct:
[05:22] Building brand community through merchandising.
[21:10] The transparent approach to affiliate partnerships.
[29:54] Strategic expansion into cricket betting markets.
About Our Episode Sponsor
This episode is proudly sponsored by PIN-UP Partners, one of the fastest-growing affiliate programs in the iGaming industry. Their commitment to transparency, innovation, and affiliate success has established them as market leaders.
PIN-UP Partners recently launched their own internal podcast series exploring industry trends and best practices—check it out here.
Discover more about the PIN-UP Partners program.
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