Eight themes that could dominate iPX 2025

Owen Hancock, RVP Marketing impact.com EMEA, takes a look at some of the partnership hot topics that are likely to frame and shape the company’s annual industry leadership event.

impact.com’s iPX London event offers a great chance for the partnership world to come together, share the latest news and collaborate on furthering the industry’s progress.

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Now in its fourth year, it’s great that iPX has become a key event on the industry’s annual calendar, but in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, it’s not always easy to guess the trends that will shape the conference. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what we’re going to try and do, so here are the eight topics that we believe will define iPX this year… 

1. Diversification

At a time when budgets are tight and marketing departments are under greater pressure than ever to prove their worth, brands and agencies are having to be innovative in reaching their audiences and delivering successful campaigns. Over the last few years, it's become increasingly obvious that the old way of doing things doesn’t cut it. Basic integrations and simplistic co-marketing efforts just don’t resonate with customers, who are looking to build long-term relationships with brands based on trust, authenticity and emotion. Businesses that embrace diverse collaborations with an intelligent, considered mix of partnerships will drive sustainable growth.

2. Creator commerce

The creator economy is a fast-growing sector of the partnership economy, to the extent that Deloitte estimates it to be worth about $250bn. As such, creator commerce will be an increasingly important space for brands looking to engage consumers and push for conversions. Creators offer businesses a number of exciting opportunities, and can be especially potent for driving brand awareness and - funnily enough - content creation. Increasingly, brands are deploying this content across multiple channels, including CTV, showing the potential and value of a successful creator relationship.

3. Harnessing AI

AI has been an industry buzzword for the last few years, but the truth is that many in partnership marketing have been using it for much longer. There’s no doubt AI will be a hot topic at this year’s iPX, but what we’re really looking forward to is hearing about the novel ways in which our friends and colleagues are deploying it. For us, AI is at its best when streamlining workflows and saving our customers time. That’s why we deploy it in many of the impact.com platform’s key features, including everything from influencer discovery, to payment processing, brand safety and security tech, and campaign analysis. However, we firmly believe in leaving creativity to humans, with AI providing time-saving measures that allow partners to carry on doing what they do best.

4. Partnership marketing comes full circle

Referral marketing has come into its own this past year, and the idea that brands can now pay their audience to promote their products or service welcomes in a whole new era of creative marketing applications and opportunities. Although it has been around for a decade, as technology advances, it is beginning to find its voice in the partnership marketing world, using automation and AI to drive high-performing referral campaigns at scale. 

5. Partnership incrementality

Over the years, it has become increasingly obvious that the partnership economy requires very specific forms of measurement. Traditionally, marketers have applied the same measurement metrics to the space that have been applied to other paid and performance marketing disciplines. Yet, these methods critically undervalue the worth partnerships offer because single-touch attribution doesn’t provide the insight required to understand the performance of this highly nuanced, complex form of marketing. In 2025, I believe that we’ll see broader adoption of more appropriate partnership incrementality, and that it will be a hot topic at iPX this year. 

6. Influencer compensation

This was a hot topic at iPX 2024, and I expect the heat to increase this year. There’s a spectrum of concerns when it comes to paying an influencer, from negotiation to transferring final payment, and each step has its own challenges that are often idiosyncratic to each partner. Sometimes creators might not be particularly financially organised, for example, or sometimes a partner’s geographical location might raise financial compliance issues. Whatever the issue, working towards a streamlined compensation process will benefit all parties. 

7. Creative control

One topic that will always be relevant in the partnership world is that of creative control. Brands want it… but so do the partners they commission. Brands that go too heavy in shaping an influencer's output will stress the relationship, while also enabling the creation of content that is compromised because it misses the creator’s natural authenticity. Learning how to strike a correct balance between a brand wanting to promote itself and an influencer having the freedom to do this in their own voice is crucial for the partnership economy, and will be a hot topic for all stakeholders at iPX this year. 

8. Affiliate, influencer… and now referral

The great convergence of affiliate and influencer has been a source of regular discussion and discourse, but now a new sector is getting in on the action in the form of referral marketing. As we saw in point four above, referral marketing gives a brand’s satisfied customers the ability to spread the word about its products and services. What’s so exciting is the way that referral integrates with affiliate and influencer marketing to create an enhanced, full-funnel marketing strategy that can boost brand awareness, drive conversions, and hit KPIs. 

There you have it, a look at some of the topics and trends that are likely to define iPX this year. Tickets are available now here https://events.impact.com/ipxlondon2025, and we hope to see you there!