As I was sitting on the plane ride back to Munich from the Hague, I started trying to remember all of the great tips, crazy statistics, and key information that had been thrown at me the last two hectic days at the popular iStrategy conference. Good thing I took notes…

One of the biggest highlights for me was our CEO, Kai Boyd, giving his presentation on boosting conversion rates. He spoke to our main product, Pay by Shopping, how it works, and practical applications in the real world. He mainly focused on its application in Facebook games but also mentioned how it can be used in other browser games. He ended the session with a cutthroat round of jeopardy answers and questions such as these:

The answer: This number reached one billion in 2012. The question: What is the number of Facebook users?

The answer: This is the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment. The question: What are shipping costs?

There was a common theme at iStrategy of shifting our focus in marketing over to people. People are the future of marketing! iStrategy started out with a bang when Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy, dug deep into this theme by addressing the fact that the future of marketing is not technology but really analyzing human behavior. A great example of this is addressing the human fear of uncertainty and how that affects waiting in line. Many people get anxious waiting in a line if it isn’t moving. Disney easily addressed this by adding progress signs saying ‘from here the wait is 30 minutes.’ Problem solved.

Another great speech going with this theme was from Eric Edge, the Head of Marketing and Communications for Facebook in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He gave his perceptions on how to present your brand to really reach people on Facebook. Just throwing an ad on Facebook is not enough. His tips included being true to your brand, being useful, being relevant, creating a connection, and being entertaining. A great example of this was the famous Oreo ad during the Superbowl. (You can still dunk in the dark.) It was relevant, creative, true to the Oreo brand, and timely.

The closing keynote speech, and my personal favorite, was from Cindy Gallup, the vivacious founder of IfWeRanTheWorld and Make Love Not Porn (It’s an incredibly interesting project that is worth looking into.) She said that the future of marketing cannot be completely data driven and instead should be data informed. Her two main takeaways to improve your work life were to 1. Identify what you love (it’s probably what you do the best anyways) and 2. Identify the conditions under which you love doing it.

iStrategy was full of many other great speakers from the sarcastically brilliant host Adam Burns to the captivating Marc Mathieu, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Unilever and many more (Really too many awesome speakers to list!) Additional highlights for me were twitter man with his megaphone shouting out tweets, the iPad mini giveaway from Acquia (which I unfortunately didn’t win), Kai’s brainstorming team winning the Star Gazer Award, the great viral video presentation from eBuzzing Social (Remember: Content is King, Distribution is Queen), and of course, the iScars (which I also didn’t win. Insert sad face here.)

Oh yeah… GOLDI came too.

Overall, I found iStrategy to be an eye opening experience and I was so happy that I could take part.  I’d love to hear feedback from other attendees from not only The Hague but also from other iStrategy conferences as well. What did you guys think the key takeaways were? Who was your favorite presenter? And what were the top highlights for you?

(This was written by Courtney Bellmann, a Marketing Manager at deal united GmbH)

We had a fantastic time at Zanox Expert Day yesterday! Great speakers and a great location!

The long awaited Zanox Expert day is almost here and the Pay by Shopping team is on-site in Berlin and ready to go. This year’s theme is “It’s time for fashion!”  Expert day is an exclusive all day event. Clients and partners of the affiliate network, Zanox, are invited to come together to network and hear great speakers discussing the fashion industry. Attendees include publishers as well as advertisers in this branch. Topics for this year include mobile business, mobile implementation and case studies from three successful publishers.

If you are interested in meeting up with a member of our sales team at Zanox day, send a quick email to sales@dealunited.com.

For the last three months, Klebefieber has been a partner of Pay by Shopping using both of our products, the Pay by Shopping Facebook–App and Pay by Shopping Online. Klebefieber is a top German online retailer for wall art such as wall tattoos, posters, and self-designed posters made from your own personal photos. Not only has Klebefieber been integrated into the Pay by Shopping Facebook-App and our Offerwall, but they have also been testing out our plug-in.

After making a purchase from Klebefieber, our plug-in makes it possible for users to share their shopping experience on their own Facebook wall.  The Advertiser, in this case, Klebefieber, gets extra word of mouth marketing out of the deal. Studies have shown that users are more likely to buy from stores recommended by their friends than from websites they’ve never heard of before.

Since the partnership with Pay by Shopping began, Klebefieber has seen increased traffic to their website. This increased traffic is also made up of customers with a strong intent to purchase. It is a win-win-win situation.

If you’re interested in more information about our products, including our plug-in, please contact us at sales@dealunited.com.

The Pay by Shopping Facebook-App is in the holiday spirit this Valentine’s Day with a special offer from Valentins.de. Users can get a 5€ gift certificate for half the price of a normal gift certificate on the Facebook-App. Normally, users must pay 369 GOLDIs to redeem this gift certificate and now it’s just 142 GOLDIs. Users will also receive a special Valentins badge just for visiting the app. Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, so use the gift certificate to get something nice for your loved ones at Valentins.de.

This offer and many more can be found at https://apps.facebook.com/paybyshopping. The Pay by Shopping Facebook-App is a great tool for Advertisers and Publishers to receive new and relevant customers. The way it works is that it motivates users in a game-like setting to make purchases from Advertisers in order to collect GOLDIs. These GOLDIs can then be redeemed for virtual currencies and gift cards in the user’s favorite browser games or online stores. It is a win-win-win situation. If you’re interested in becoming integrated into our App, please contact us at sales@dealunited.com.

Pay by Shopping launched two new partnerships this week. The first partnership is with maxchoice. maxchoice has been around since 2001 and is a company that sells gift certificates that can be used almost anywhere. Users can currently find these gift certificates on the Pay by Shopping Facebook-App.

The second new partnership is with maxdome. maxdome is the source in Germany for the best TV shows and movies available. Users can get a one month membership for free or a voucher for six free movies when they use Pay by Shopping in their favorite online games.

Did you know that Valentine’s Day is the second most celebrated holiday in the world after New Year’s Day? And that it has also been celebrated as a romantic holiday since the 15^th century?  In honor of this love-filled holiday, Pay by Shopping has specials in many your favorite online games. One of the games included in these specials is the Settlers Online (Die Siedler Online) and begins on February 11th. Don’t wait! These offers are only available for a limited time. If you are interested in teaming up with Pay by Shopping to make your very own campaign, please contact us at sales@dealunited.com.

In general, fraud is described as an act of deception intended to result in personal or financial gain. More specific to deal united, fraud is committed, for example, when a user gives fake payment details to an Advertiser in order to get their extra virtual good. These fraudulent acts negatively affect all parties including the Advertiser, Publisher, and deal united. Therefore, deal united has taken a proactive stance against fraud.

deal united, with the help of a device identification service agency, has adopted measures to stop and prevent fraud from occurring. These measures include strict criteria checks, blacklisting users who attempt fraud, reviewing transactions on a daily basis, deleting accounts of known fraudsters, and in extreme cases, criminal charges have been implemented.

Recently, deal united won a court case against a person who had committed strong acts of fraud. They made transactions with fake payment details in exchange for virtual currency. The offender was ordered to pay damages to deal united.

Pay by Shopping is in the Fasching spirit this February with several great offers in all of your favorite games including My Free Farm, My Free Zoo, Wurzelimperium, Free Aqua Zoo, My Fantastic Park, Garbage Garage, and Kapi Hospital. These campaigns are running the first two weeks of February and users can receive 150 Coins, Diamonds, or Dosh in addition to a special extra item. If you are interested in teaming up with Pay by Shopping to make your very own campaign, please contact us at sales@dealunited.com.

deal united is excited to announce a brand new partnership with the German department store chain, Galeria Kaufhof. Galeria Kaufhof has been around for over 130 years and is well-known throughout Germany for its high quality and exclusive products. This new partnership with Pay by Shopping allows users to earn GOLDIs and other virtual goods by shopping online at Galeria Kaufhof. They can do this through their favorite online games and the Pay by Shopping Facebook-App.