Summit shortlisted for Best Large Agency

Summiteers attended last night’s Prolific North Marketing Awards to represent the agency for our two shortlisted awards – Best B2C Campaign and Best Large Northern Agency. Although we didn’t win, the fact that we were shortlisted among such an amazing set of peers is reason enough to celebrate. And as far as we are concerned (and we know we’re biased), Summit is the best large agency.

So, why were we shortlisted in the first place? Please allow us to blow our own trumpet and share three great reasons…

1. We are retail performance marketing specialists

Summit is a performance marketing agency with a difference. We are retail specialists, with over 20 years of experience, counting major UK brands such as Ann Summers, H Samuel, and Three as clients. We know our strengths – SEO, Paid Media, Affiliate Marketing – and have the Google Premier Partner badge to prove we do them to an excellent standard. As a result, our client tenure of nearly 5 years is well above industry average.

Our marketing services side is supported by our proprietary technology business, Productcaster (Europe’s largest CSS, and a Google CSS Partner). We host over 1.5bn products across 21 EU countries and a wide range of verticals. 

Summit and Productcaster have an unrivalled footprint in the retail industry. We currently work with 32 of the Top 500 retail brands in the UK including Ann Summers, Look Fantastic, Wayfair, Aldi, and Three Mobile and many agencies and Enterprise partners such as The Hut Group, Ad’s Up, and OmniCom.

We also collaborate on the big initiatives that drive retail forward including Omni-channel measurement, testing new technologies (e.g. Pmax), promotion planning and use of first party customer data. We are in the top 5 growing Google premier agencies according to Alice Mansergh (Google MD) and have participated in more alphas and betas across Google shopping than any other UK agency. 

2. We are the leading partner in driving measurable value

How do we drive measurable value? Through innovative working practices, like our omnichannel blueprint which capitalises on the relationship between the online store and the instore experience. We’ve also developed partnerships with suppliers such as SkyAdsmart to amplify paid media campaigns, boosting brand awareness and increasing likelihood of purchase by up to 189%.

Our problem solving skills are second to none, and we’re not afraid of taking clients from more challenging industries, such as medical cannabis provider Sapphire Clinics, or Ann Summers with their overtly adult content. Our teams have worked to ensure that these clients achieve amazing results despite challenging restrictions and sanctions.

We measure success by

• £££ of retail sales that we have driven through performance marketing campaigns – we’ve been responsible for roughly £3bn in sales in the past five years. We focus on helping our clients smash their profit and ROI targets.
• The Summit Net Promoter Score (NPS), which stands at an impressive 64. We’re up there with Samsung, Netflix and Sony as a company that people would recommend online.
• Our retail accreditation, as we’re certified across all major performance advertising platforms and are the only typical agency to have Google Premier Partner and Google CSS Premium status.

3. We have a community culture with amazing benefits

We’re proud to be part of Hull, employing over 80 staff from the region and we’re growing year-on-year. Summit has a keen focus on development, with over 4000 of training hours in the past year, and people stay – our staff turnover is well below the norm for agencies.

In the past year, we’ve increased the Summit benefit package in line with extensive staff feedback in Summer 2022. The Operations team listened to our people and created a new package of benefits aimed at making Summit an even more desirable place to work.

• Flexible and hybrid working: Our working pattern is 40% office / 60% home, which works well for our clients and teams. We also operate flexible working arrangements. But while many agencies work around core hours, we’ve designed ours as 10am-3pm specifically to accommodate parents on the school run.
• Compressed hours: In our annual consultation, over 30% of staff said a shorter, compressed working week would be the most desirable benefit we could introduce. In short, the standard working week was reduced from 38.75 to 35 hours, and a compressed working trial was layered on top of our existing flexible and hybrid model. This means that the team can work a 9-day fortnight, taking every other Friday off. The hours of work are compressed into slightly longer working days over the two weeks. This was, and remains, an opt-in option for staff. The policy is extremely popular with staff, with over 90% of our people choosing to work this way.
• Improving the value of maternity and paternity policies: The length of time for maternity / adoption leave pay topped up to 100% was doubled, from 6 to 12 weeks. The next 12 weeks are topped up to 50%, whereas previously they had been on a sliding scale to 25%. Paternity pay at 100% was also doubled, from 2 to 4 weeks. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is one of the best parental leave packages for an agency of our size.
• Religious holiday swaps: With growing diversity across the team, it was agreed that all Summiteers are given the opportunity to swap UK Christian Bank Holidays for other religious events in the year.
• Milestone days: Summit introduced milestone days off in addition to annual and birthday leave entitlement. This takes pressure off staff who are moving house, getting married, graduating, or want to take their child to school for their first day.
• Study days: We already had a keen learning and development culture, but further steps were taken to formalize the terms. Each member of staff is now entitled to take one study day per quarter to enhance their learning in agreement with their line manager.

Coupled with our awesome office location near the Marina in Hull, strong community culture of work and social events, and office snacks (essential for that 3pm slump), we know that we are one of best employers in the region.

There you have it. Three brilliant reasons why Summit is, in our opinion, the best large agency in the North. To find out more about how you could work with Summit, drop us an email today. Or visit our Recruitee page for more information on our current vacancies.