Interview of Nicolas Lorenzi, Web Marketing & Business Developer
Can you introduce Ouest-France and the role of the Shopping section in your activities today?
Ouest-France is the leading daily newspaper in France, with an audience of more than 8 million readers every day. It regularly ranks first in page-view audiences in general rankings, with nearly 200 million page views recorded by ACPM.
It is also the daily newspaper with the largest number of local editions, and one of the first to shift strongly toward digital, with rapid growth driven in particular by SEO.
Through our Ouest-France Shopping division, we have developed a vertical fully focused on performance, activating several levers such as content-to-commerce and affiliate marketing. This section now plays a growing role in our revenue diversification strategy. It has become an important lever for connecting our readers with the best offers while supporting brands in their visibility, SEO, and performance strategies.
We are enriching our offer with video and influencer strategies. We leverage both the strength of our audience and the SEO relevance of each piece of content. This enables us to better understand our audience and tailor our messages to their expectations.
Tomorrow, we will also address GEO, which will demonstrate how the reliability of the sources used to train LLMs is decisive, and why trusted media such as Ouest-France play an essential role.
What role does affiliation play in your overall digital strategy?
Affiliate marketing represents an increasing share of our digital strategy, as it combines measurable performance with a strategic lever for our advertiser partners.
We are seeing positive growth both in terms of traffic to the Shopping section and in terms of developed partnerships. Affiliate programs enable us to retain partners: often, a first test campaign over 2 or 3 months allows us to then build a more sustainable strategy.
Over the past year, we have secured more and more long-term framework deals, enabling us to grow key themes while supporting brands’ global strategies. Many true win-win developments have emerged.
How do you see the evolution of content-to-commerce in the coming years? Opportunities and challenges?
We are witnessing a strong acceleration in content-to-commerce and affiliate marketing. Consumers are looking for high-value content: buying guides, product comparisons, and product tests that help them make informed decisions.
The major opportunity lies in this growing demand for transparency and expertise. Trusted media such as Ouest-France have a key role to play here.
The main challenge remains the saturation of promotional messages. To stand out, it is essential to produce useful, informative content that remains consistent with the media’s editorial line.
We are also committed to humanizing our Shopping section, a project we have been developing for two years. This includes a stronger presence on social media and the development of audio formats through a podcast, allowing us to put a face to our content and strengthen the bond with our community.
As a media company, what does the Affilae platform bring you in managing partnerships?
Affilae provides us with a clear, centralized interface to manage our partnerships. It facilitates direct relationships with brands, without intermediaries, while ensuring great transparency in tracking and remuneration.
This allows us to optimize campaign monitoring and quickly adapt our content based on performance.
Results in 2025 have been very encouraging. Overall in 2025, we multiplied the traffic generated by our media outlets and increased performance for our Affilae partners:
On Ouest-France
- +240% clicks to partner websites vs. previous year
- +200% conversions vs. previous year
- +240% merchant revenue generated vs. previous year
On 20 Minutes
- +70% clicks to partner websites vs. previous year
- +85% conversions vs. previous year
- +91% merchant revenue generated vs. previous year
What differences do you see between affiliation and other digital levers for a media group like yours?
Affiliate marketing stands out through its measurability and flexibility. Unlike other channels, it provides a clear view of ROI and aligns objectives between publisher and brand.
It perfectly complements our digital mix by adding a performance-driven dimension that more traditional levers do not always cover.
Our content offers a triple benefit: performance, brand awareness, and credibility. When Ouest-France highlights a partner, it means we trust them — and they benefit from our highly qualified traffic.
Which acquisition levers emerged or gained importance in 2025 in your digital mix?
In 2025, three levers particularly strengthened:
- SEO, still essential for capturing qualified long-term audiences
- Google Discover, increasingly important thanks to personalized user experience
- Video, highly engaging and powerful for embodying content, also well indexed by search engines
Finally, social networks and influence marketing represent direct and efficient distribution channels, especially during major commercial events such as Black Friday, sales, and Christmas.
In your opinion, what is the future of brand–media partnerships through affiliation?
We believe that content-to-commerce and affiliate marketing will evolve toward more strategic, long-term partnerships combining visibility, branding, and performance.
Brands increasingly seek sustainable, tailor-made setups that combine the relevance of media with the ROI logic of affiliate platforms.
Beyond content itself, the credibility of the media and the relevance of its expertise will make the difference in responding to increasingly precise and diversified user queries.
Brands approach us with clear goals and specific challenges. We then activate the most relevant levers, relying on strategies already proven in previous campaigns.
What are your main examples of collaborations with brands on Affilae?
We have collaborated with numerous major brands in fashion, home, and interior design through the Affilae platform.
We implement hybrid campaigns that combine hot content (deals, promotions) and evergreen SEO content (guides, comparisons). This mixed approach generates immediate qualified traffic while ensuring long-term visibility on search engines.
To learn more or obtain concrete case studies, you can contact us directly.
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