Podcast Summary: Always Be Testing – Episode #116

Scaling from $175M to $5B: Enterprise Affiliate Lessons from Fanatics | Wade Tonkin
Host: Tye DeGrange
Guest: Wade Tonkin, Director of Affiliate at Fanatics
Release Date: February 17, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation between Tye DeGrange and Wade Tonkin, the leader behind Fanatics’ massive affiliate program. The discussion spotlights how Fanatics scaled its affiliate-driven revenue from $175 million to $5 billion, exploring pivotal strategies, channel evolutions, measurement philosophies, and hands-on learnings from one of the most ambitious global affiliate efforts in e-commerce. This is a rich source of insight for anyone in affiliate, partnerships, or growth marketing.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fanatics’ Scale-Up Journey and Leadership’s Impact

• Growth Evolution: Revenue growing from $175 million (2009) to over $5 billion (mid-2020s), with affiliate revenue experiencing a similar skyrocketing.
  • "[In] the first year that I was running affiliate, …we did like 6.7 million. And then …the last couple years, we did that on like Black Friday for Fanatics." (Wade, 01:23)
• Leadership Influence: Emphasis on Michael Rubin’s dynamic leadership ("big crazy engine that is a Michael Rubin run company") and the constant emergence of new business units and team changes, keeping the environment stimulating and energetic. (Wade, 01:23-02:30)

2. Shifting Beyond Coupons & Loyalty to Content-Driven Affiliate

• Early Content Focus: Years before “influencer” became a common term, Fanatics was already partnering with passionate content creators and sports communities.
  • "We've been working with content creators the whole time…we were kind of ahead of the game with that." (Wade, 03:05)
• Media Partnerships & Real-Time Activation: Tactics like getting affiliate print ads into major newspapers right after a big sports win (e.g., the Chicago Tribune after Cubs’ World Series, the Washington Post after Capitals’ Stanley Cup).
  • Notable impact: “50% of the revenue was attributed to that print ad, which blew my mind." (Wade, 05:45)
• Evolution in Media: Transition from dealing with skeptical sales departments (“so I’m only going to get paid if we sell stuff?”) to performance-driven teams at publishers. (Wade, 07:17-08:30)
• Capitalizing on Fan Passion: Need to act within hours of a major win, tapping into emotional, impulsive buying trends. Missing that window can mean significant lost commissions.

3. Changing Beliefs & Lessons Learned in Affiliate

• Couponing & Loyalty Dynamics: Observed cyclical trends in couponing tied to macro-economic conditions, pandemic shifts, and changing site strategy.
  • "If you train people up to be coupon dependent, then they're not going to do anything until you have the coupon out there." (Wade, 10:25)
• Site Experience Tweaks: Redesign to retrain customers away from coupon-hunting (e.g., making clear on-site what offers exist, using ribbons, popups, product page notices).
• Loyalty Programs: Ongoing debate on investing in external loyalty sites vs. pumping up Fanatics’ own loyalty programs.
  • "Do we want people to be thinking about our rewards or do we want people to be thinking about their rewards?" (Wade, 12:20)
  • More openness to case-by-case evaluation for plugins/toolbars, emphasizing trust and transparent practices.
  • "If we're no bullshit and put it out there cleanly what we're looking for people to do...if they decide they want to work with us that way, awesome." (Wade, 13:44)

4. Partnership & Attribution Management

• Incrementality and Value Delivery: Strong stance that partners—especially deal/cashback/coupon sites—earn high payouts only if they drive verifiable incremental value.
  • “If you're a coupon site and you want to make content affiliate money, then do content affiliate things…send emails, send push notifications, and then make sure I can tell what you're doing.” (Wade, 16:49)
• Attribution Experiments: Aggressive use of attribution settings to de-emphasize or cut partners (e.g., Honey) when value is in question—sometimes realizing minimal net impact after removal.
• Holistic Analytics Integration: Advocates blending platform data with in-house analytics for a clearer picture of touchpoints and partner value.
  • “Don’t be afraid to have that incrementality discussion…” (Wade, 19:26)
  • Deep-dive research into partner value showed that coupon sites were often only true drivers for <15% of traffic; cashback somewhat better, and content partners often the best for high-stakes events.

5. Industry Evolution: Affiliate Transparency, Aggregators, & AI

• Buy Now Pay Later: Massive growth (14–1500% YoY at peak), then cooling as credit tightens—exposing generational behavioral differences and the impact of economic shifts.
• Need for Transparency: Urgent push for sub-networks, aggregators (e.g., Skimlinks, Sovrn) to provide full reporting and referring URLs. Willingness to cut off opaque partners.
  • “We demand transparency…otherwise…people just make end runs…through non-transparent third parties. That's just not a thing that works with us." (Wade, 27:24)
• Compliance & Monitoring: Increasing importance of monitoring attribution, paid search abuse, FTC/state compliance, and using specialist vendors to catch “black box” behaviors.
• AI Adoption in Affiliate: Leadership challenge to automate drudgerous, repetitive affiliate management via AI agent development—freeing up the team to focus more on partnerships and strategy.
  • “Everybody go out and find two or three things that you can build an agent to handle for you…” (Wade, 36:56)
  • Use cases: approvals, fraud/risk mitigation, surfacing opportunity identification, creative upkeep.

6. Predictions for 2026 & Experimental Mindset

• Creator/Influencer Commerce: Major bet on performance-based influencer marketing with new tools making it easier for creators to integrate affiliate offers.
  • “[The] creator influencer side…is finally coming around to performance." (Wade, 31:43)
• Media Innovation: Excited about merging TV, live moments, and instant commerce—especially with league partnerships.
  • “To get really in the moment shopping opportunities…we've got some fun ones that we're working with that I think are going to change the game.” (Wade, 33:15)
• Experimentation Culture: Emphasizes breaking out of compensation formula “tunnel vision”—try new partner models, campaign types, or upfront spends when justified, stay endlessly curious.
  • “You’ve got to retain curiosity to the point of almost private detective level…” (Wade, 24:29)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Real-Time Activation:
  “Hope those drinks are good, bro, because that cost you guys about 20 grand in commissions.” (Wade, story about the NY Giants win, 04:42)
• On Attribution Modeling:
  “If you’re just sending everything to the same link and you're trying to keep things deliberately muddy…then you're not a good partner.” (Wade, 16:57)
• On Making Tough Calls:
  "When you’re willing to make a stand and walk away from a substantial amount of…attributed revenue…you'll get a lot of trust from your C-levels.” (Wade, 19:26)
• On Partner Transparency:
  “We demand transparency...this is the level that we require. We need to see reporting, we need to see referring URLs, we need to see, have a login, we need to get who's sending that traffic every week.” (Wade, 27:24)
• On AI in Affiliate:
  “Our leadership has challenged us to embrace AI…become AI agent builders. …I'm very excited to dive into that.” (Wade, 35:56)

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic/Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:23 | Fanatics' Revenue Growth Story & Early Affiliate Figures | | 03:05 | Evolution to Content & Creator Affiliate Partnerships | | 05:45 | Print & Media Affiliate Success (Cubs, Capitals) | | 07:17 | Changing Publisher Mindset: From IOs to Performance | | 09:44 | Coupon Loyalty: Cycles, COVID Impact | | 12:20 | Internal vs. External Loyalty Program Strategy | | 14:58 | How to Treat Loyalty Partners Strategically | | 16:49 | Defining Value and Attribution for Coupons/Loyalty Partners | | 19:26 | Holistic Attribution, Internal Analytics, Incrementality | | 21:59 | Statistical Insights: Coupon/Loyalty Partner Value Analysis | | 24:29 | Buy Now Pay Later: Growth, Credit Impact, Curiosity in Partner Management | | 27:24 | Aggregators & The Demand for Transparency | | 28:23 | Compliance Monitoring Tactics & Tools | | 31:43 | 2026 Predictions: Creator/Influencer Affiliate and Real-Time Media Innovations | | 35:54 | Embracing Experiments, AI, and Automating Affiliate Management Tasks | | 39:09 | Personal Segment: Travel, Hiking, and Bourbon Stewardship |

Personal Highlights & Fun Facts

• Wade's most treasured recent purchase: plane tickets to Germany to visit his son in the Air Force (39:09)
• Epic adventure: Hiked Everest Base Camp (2021) and the West Highland Way (Scotland) (39:41)
• Hidden talent: Certified bourbon steward and part-time bartender at a local distillery; three trips to Scotland in the past three years (40:18)

Tone and Style

The conversation is fast-paced, candid, and filled with real-world anecdotes from Wade’s long industry tenure—frequently humorous, occasionally blunt, and deeply practical. Both host and guest demonstrate a relentless focus on “what actually works,” directness in partnership expectations, and a willingness to adapt and challenge norms.

Closing Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for marketers aiming to scale affiliate and partnership programs. The biggest takeaways revolve around transparency, experiment-led partnerships, refining attribution and incrementality, the ongoing evolution of publisher and loyalty strategies, and practical adoption of AI-driven efficiency.

Listen to the full conversation for further tactile details and nuanced stories that only seasoned operators like Tye and Wade could surface.