SANTA BARBARA, CA – September 10, 2025 – The 2025 CJ Excellence Awards winners are here!
Now in their 26th year, the CJ Excellence Awards celebrate the best in performance partnerships. This year's winners were revealed Wednesday evening at the CJ Excellence Awards Ceremony during #CJU25 in Santa Barbara, CA.
2025 CJ Excellence Award Winners
Advertiser of the Year – Large Enterprise: USAA
Over eight years, USAA delivered outstanding performance with 50%+ consecutive growth for four straight years. This sustained success solidified their role as a trusted partner to affiliates in the insurance industry.
Advertiser of the Year – SME: Mercatalyst
Mercatalyst’s founders pioneered daily deals and flash sales, creating the first daily deal site, Woot!, in 2004. After Amazon's acquisition, they're back innovating with Meh.com, SideDeal.com, and MorningSave, providing product deals for daytime TV shows including The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, and Inside Edition.
Agency of the Year: Assembly
Assembly is a global omnichannel media agency that makes brands perform. Backed by Stagwell, they unite data, talent, and technology to create experiences that connect and grow. With 3,000+ experts in 44 offices worldwide, Assembly delivers full-funnel solutions to ambitious brands.
Capital One Ads offers a suite of marketing solutions that connects advertisers to their target audiences and delivers on brand goals. As the trusted banking institution for over 100M+ loyal customers, Capital One Ads provides the most incremental traffic to our partners.
Growing an affiliate ambassador program with 300+ Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle creators isn't easy, but Macy's Style Crew, Anchor by Motom, and CJ Influence make it happen. Through creator relationships, gifting incentives, bonus challenges, and IRL activations, the program generated 21M+ social impressions, nearly 3,300 social posts, and 57% YoY revenue growth.
High Commendation: Tork
Best Channel Expansion & Activation Strategy: Shutterfly and Couponology
Couponology boosted Shutterfly's performance by offering TV Content as a distinct affiliate channel. Adding the brand to an Early Black Friday NBC Show during 2024's holiday season, they generated $1.5M+ in sales in just 8 weeks. This campaign included a TV spot, onsite exposure, and newsletter inclusion—delivering an impressive 150:1 ROI from a $10k investment.
High Commendation: Google Cloud
Best Global Growth Strategy: Autodesk
Autodesk and CJ created an omnichannel campaign that drove exceptional global growth across UK/EMEA, Americas, and APAC. The program combined global best practices with local expertise, using creative content from interactive automotive builds to custom guitar craftsmanship. The strategy focused on full-journey engagement through Connected TV partnerships with NBC Universal, Hulu, and Univision, plus influencer collaborations generating 3+ million impressions. Performance-driven search marketing achieved 400% year-over-year growth. Regular alignment between Autodesk, CJ, CJ Influence, and partners like tvScientific ensured seamless execution. Results delivered 85% YoY sales growth at 608% of target, nearly $40M in incremental sales, with double-digit growth across all regions.
High Commendation: Bravo Savings Network
Best Use of CJ Technology or Solutions: Mytheresa
At Mytheresa, we've reborn luxury affiliate marketing with situational commissioning, a cutting-edge CJ technology that incentivizes our publishers to align sales efforts with our most valuable brands and target audiences. This strategic approach enhances profitability while maximizing customer lifetime value by aligning our business strategy with the compensation model of our publisher partners. By integrating advanced product feeds with CJ, Mytheresa has developed multiple situations which ensure profitable and scalable revenue growth.
High Commendation: Dr. Martens AND TopCashback
Klarna and Expedia Group created something beyond traditional affiliate marketing. The Klarna team integrated smart payments directly on a custom Expedia Group landing page, unlocking exclusive deals gated by line of business. This reimagined experience targeted Klarna's high-intent shoppers with a tailored journey that encouraged bigger bookings and higher-value travel packages, significantly boosting average order value. By moving beyond standard affiliate channels, this partnership showed how innovation and collaboration can redefine performance marketing and set new benchmarks for the industry.
High Commendation: Zoro and Capital One Ad Solutions AND Nike and Well+Good
About CJ
CJ is the performance commerce platform powering the next chapter of Connected Commerce. We unify affiliate, creator, marketplace, lead generation, and commerce media strategies in one system—delivering measurable growth through connected data, intelligent commissioning, and compliance-first infrastructure that protects brands, partners, and consumers at scale.
As part of Publicis Groupe and Epsilon, CJ bridges identity, media, and transaction, enabling brands and partners to Connect, Amplify, and Grow across every stage of the customer journey. With the largest, most reliable partnership platform in the world and unmatched expertise across verticals and regions, we help clients transform performance marketing into a scalable growth engine.
Learn more at cj.com.
About CJU (CJ University)
CJU is CJ's flagship annual event, bringing together 1,000+ global leaders in performance partnerships to shape the industry's future.
Hosted in Santa Barbara, CA—where CJ began—CJU blends high-impact networking, strategic content, and hands-on learning. It's where brands, publishers, agencies, and technology partners come together to connect, amplify performance, and grow through new partnerships, shared insights, and innovative strategies.
From product innovation showcases to vertical-specific sessions, CJU equips attendees with the knowledge and relationships to unlock Connected Commerce's full potential in their programs.
For more information, visit cj.com/cju.
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