Driving the future of Performance Marketing: Rakuten Optimism U.S. 2026. What is the future of performance marketing? That was the question at the core of Rakuten Optimism U.S. 2026 - Rakuten International's signature annual event. Held at the historic Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix from May 5 - 6 under the theme "Fueling Meaningful Connections," Optimism U.S. welcomed over 1,000 marketers and publishers to network, share insights and celebrate industry excellence at the Golden Link Awards. Highlighting 20 years of affiliate marketing leadership. Rakuten International CEO Amit Patel headlined Day One with a keynote that reflected on the history of the affiliate marketing industry and offered a bold vision for its future. Speaking in front of a packed audience of industry leaders, Amit outlined Rakuten's new strategic alliance with impact.com. The collaboration unites Rakuten Advertising's global partner relationships, managed services, and performance intelligence; Rakuten Rewards' Cash Back shopping platform and consumer reach; and Impact.com's leading technology platform and global marketplace to create the industry's most comprehensive and scalable performance marketing ecosystem. Amit also flagged a new Prohaska Consulting research report commissioned by Rakuten Rewards, identifying a critical gap in how the effectiveness of affiliate marketing is evaluated and the opportunity for the industry in introducing new measurement capabilities that address this challenge directly. The report, The Next Frontier of Measurement: Fair Evaluation of Affiliates in Marketing Mix Models, reveals the Marketing Mix Models (MMM) used by marketers to assess affiliate performance penalizes affiliate marketing by failing to fully capture its benefit to brand advertisers. Presenters explore transformative potential of AI in Affiliate Marketing. The potential of AI to transform the way companies connect with customers was a recurring theme of the event. Headlining the main stage on Day Two was a session exploring the potential and limitations of AI in the performance marketing space. "From Discovery to Conversion: Performance Marketing as the Constant in Consumer Change," was moderated by Guy Raz, the host of the "How I Built This" podcast, who led an engrossing conversation with futurist and bestselling author Zack Kass; Eric Seufert, an Analyst at Hercules Media; and Clayton Nelson, VP of Enterprise Alliances and AI at Expedia Group. Introducing Mirai. On Optimism's final day, Rakuten Advertising launched Mirai, the first advanced conversational AI agent for streamlining and optimizing affiliate campaign management. The launch of Mirai reflects Rakuten Advertising's continued focus on developing proprietary AI capabilities that deliver smarter, more scalable tools for advertisers. Attendees celebrate industry icons, enjoy rewarding experiences. As in years past, Optimism U.S. provided ample opportunities for attendees to maximize their experience and be rewarded along the way. Guests were encouraged to earn points by scanning their badges when attending sessions, the Connection Room and other activities. Points were redeemable at a variety of activations and experiences, including hairstyling powered by Dyson, leather collections with key tags powered by Sixt and leather luggage tags powered by TripAdvisor, customized toiletry bags powered by Golden State Warriors, Rakuten Kobo e-readers, sunglasses from Maui Jim, and the grand prize of a free trip to Japan. Outside the speaker halls and meeting areas, the event also welcomed eventgoers to connect, participate in the official Rakuten Optimism pickleball tournament and acknowledge industry All Stars at the annual Golden Link Awards, which celebrate excellence, innovation, and collaboration within the global affiliate and performance marketing industry. Leveraging tech to fuel meaningful connections. With Rakuten Optimism 2026 in the books, the path forward is clear: the future of performance marketing will be fueled by technology and insights that foster deeper, more authentic connections. By leveraging AI-driven insights through tools like Mirai, embracing more sophisticated measurement frameworks, and relentlessly focusing on customer experience, brands will be better equipped than ever to turn consumer intent into lasting loyalty.

Rakuten, impact.com partner to modernise performance marketing. The new collaboration between Rakuten and impact.com combines technology, global scale, and consumer intelligence to drive advertising performance within a unified ecosystem. Rakuten International and impact.com have announced a strategic alliance to modernise the affiliate and performance marketing ecosystem. The collaboration unites Rakuten Advertising's global partner relationships, managed services, and performance intelligence; Rakuten Rewards' Cash Back shopping platform and consumer reach; and impact.com's technology platform and global marketplace to create the industry's most comprehensive and scalable performance marketing ecosystem. Under this initiative, Rakuten Advertising and impact.com will deliver an integrated technology and services model, combining Rakuten Advertising's strategic expertise, program management, and global execution with impact.com's platform infrastructure for contracting, tracking, and payments across commerce partnerships. Advertisers working with Rakuten Advertising will benefit from expanded platform capabilities and a broader ecosystem, while impact.com customers will gain access to Rakuten Advertising performance intelligence and managed services. Through Rakuten Rewards' direct consumer signals, advertisers can better understand incrementality, improve attribution, and optimise performance, while driving both customer acquisition and long-term loyalty. Rakuten Advertising will continue to develop AI, analytics, automation and monitoring capabilities, while Rakuten Rewards and impact.com will collaborate to advance the next generation of performance-based marketing, including advancements in real-time tracking and attribution and the ability to offer enhanced shopper incentives throughout the shopping journey. "As a global network, publisher, and strategic operator for more than two decades, Rakuten has developed an unparalleled perspective on what drives performance," said Amit Patel, CEO of Rakuten International. "This alliance brings together infrastructure, service excellence, global reach, and consumer intelligence to offer a fundamentally stronger approach to performance marketing." "By pairing with impact.com's industry-leading platform, advertisers will have access to a unified technology and services solution that combines performance intelligence, managed execution, and consumer insight to deliver programmatic, data-driven programs with smarter insights, stronger execution, and measurable results at global scale." David A. Yovanno, CEO of impact.com, said, "Partnership marketing has become one of the most important growth channels for modern businesses, but the systems supporting it have remained fragmented." "Bringing our platform, Rakuten Advertising's global scale, and Rakuten Rewards' consumer platform into a unified value proposition will make it easier for advertisers to achieve their goals with better economics, greater transparency, and measurable outcomes." "This is a significant step toward a more scalable and powerful alternative to traditional performance marketing channels." The alliance will make performance-based growth more accessible and efficient for a significantly larger universe of advertisers and partners: * Advertisers will have greater control over how they plan, manage, and scale performance campaigns with stronger visibility, measurement, and performance for their growth programs. They will be able to reach and incentivise consumers at key moments in the shopping journey alongside deeper insight into incrementality, attribution, and return on investment. * Publishers and creators will gain access to a unified platform and one of the industry's largest portfolios of advertisers, offers, and monetisation models, with expanded opportunities across affiliate, creator, and commerce channels. The Martechvibe team works with a staff of in-house writers, and industry experts. View More