Gisou

Case Study

Affiliate Marketing

Gisou is a luxury haircare brand founded by Negin Mirsalehi, rooted in six generations of beekeeping heritage and known for its honey-infused formulas. The brand sells worldwide through D2C and major retail partners, blending nature, beauty, and craftsmanship.

Summary

Gisou is a luxury haircare brand founded by creator Negin Mirsalehi, built on six generations of family beekeeping heritage and known for high-performing, honey-infused formulas. As the brand accelerated global expansion across D2C and retail partners like Sephora, Cult Beauty, and Amazon, Gisou needed a more scalable, data-driven affiliate program that could support international growth, protect brand equity, and strengthen incremental revenue. Hawke Media was brought on to transform the affiliate channel into a reliable global acquisition engine.

Challenge

Gisou’s affiliate program faced several constraints that limited scale. Tracking gaps from a Shopify disconnection reduced performance visibility. The publisher mix skewed too heavily toward a small cluster of partners, creating risk and capping growth. Hesitation around coupon and cashback partners constrained conversion opportunities, and global reporting lacked consistency across markets. The brand needed a cleaner infrastructure, a diversified partner ecosystem, and a scalable strategy that could maintain luxury positioning while improving revenue contribution.

Approach

Hawke Media developed a global affiliate growth strategy centered on diversification, data accuracy, and brand protection. The plan focused on four pillars: expanding content, loyalty, and international partners; implementing segmented commission structures tailored to partner types; strengthening tracking foundations through a full Impact migration; and activating localized strategies for the US, UK, EU, and Middle East. Goals included growing affiliate revenue to more than double the baseline, increasing the channel’s share of total e-commerce revenue, and building a balanced ecosystem that combined high-AOV editorial partners with responsible cashback and coupon activations.

Solutions

Hawke executed a full migration to Impact to unify tracking, restore attribution accuracy, and centralize global reporting. The team audited the entire publisher roster, removing low-value partners and onboarding high-quality content affiliates such as Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, InStyle, and Byrdie. Dynamic commission structures were introduced across content, loyalty, and deal partners to influence margins and incentivize performance. Coupon suppression rules prevented misuse and protected AOV.

A structured content and gifting program drove new editorial coverage. Creative refreshes every 4–6 weeks boosted engagement, increasing CTR and CVR by 10–20 percent. Cashback and loyalty partners were added selectively to support incremental revenue and retention. International growth was unlocked through localized affiliates in key regions, with promotions tailored to local holidays and market behaviors.