Commission Factory, Awin’s performance marketing network for Asia-Pacific, hosted the APAC edition of ThinkTank, Awin’s global event for performance marketing leaders, at Shangri-La Sydney on 6 August 2026.
The event brought together 250+ brand marketers, publishers and agency leaders from across the region, with advertisers making up the majority of attendees and affiliates the second-largest group.
The day’s program covered practical ground for performance marketers. Opening strong with “The New Era of Discovery,” Commission Factory CEO and founder, Zane McIntyre was joined by Kylie Tabrett, head of APAC at BrightEdge, to unpack how AI is rewriting search, commerce and the affiliate channel.
The pair shared data showing AI referrals are a small share of conversions but convert roughly 25 per cent better than average, and that in Australia, citations of brands in AI-generated answers are up around 75 per cent year-on-year while direct mentions are down around 25 per cent, underscoring the need for brands to build third-party authority through channels such as Reddit, YouTube and niche publishers.
In “Beyond Last-Click,” Hitesh Gopal, marketing effectiveness director APAC at NielsenIQ, and David Toporzisek, growth lead APAC at Who Gives A Crap, walked through a downloadable checklist for measuring performance beyond the final click.
The afternoon’s centrepiece was the Partner Grand Final, a live pitch competition in which four partners each proposed a solution to an advertiser challenge, covering every stage of the marketing funnel. Attendees voted live on the day, crowning Linkby the inaugural APAC Partner Grand Final champion.
Delegates on the day heard from:
- Conor Robinson, senior partnerships and growth manager at Linkby
(winner) - Richard Stevens, CEO at Zyft
- Chris Ferguson, commercial director APAC at Future Publishing Australia
- Joel Moran, CMO at Click Frenzy
Commission Factory also used the day to present the ThinkTank APAC Network Awards, sponsored by Scale Digital, recognising standout performance across the network over the past year:
- Best Advertiser: Who Gives A Crap
- Best Affiliate: ShopBack
- Best Agency: ADCORE
- Best Performance Marketing Team: TopCashback Australia
- Affiliate’s Most Valuable Player (MVP): Neguin Farhangmehr, ND Agency
- ThinkTank Rising star: Sid Puri, Emma Sleep
The event saw rave reviews with delegates rating the event over 4.5 out of 5, with over 90 per cent saying they would recommend the event to industry contacts.
The day closed with Official AfterHours, brought to you by Silverbean, at the Oriana in The Rocks, Sydney, giving attendees a chance to keep the conversation going over bubbles with views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.
ThinkTank APAC 2026 was supported by Awin, UNIDAYS, SkimLinks, DeLonghi Group, PION, Silverbean APAC, The Redman Agency, ND Agency, Scale Digital and ASICS.
