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We continue our series on the faces behind the Productcaster success with an introduction to Immy Hussain, Head of Affiliate Marketing at Summit and Productcaster.

Having worked at Summit for nearly 10 years, Immy is a familiar face across the business, with a wealth of experience in lots of different areas. We asked him a few questions about his role, his experience and goals for the future. Take a read below.

How long have you been at Summit/Productcaster and what did you do before working here?

I have now been at Summit for just under 10 years. Prior to joining Summit, I worked across a lot of different sectors in various roles. During this time, I dedicated myself to personal development and education, successfully completing an Open University degree in Business Studies. In addition, driven by a personal interest in expanding my skill set and fun, I also took courses in household electrics, plumbing, and car mechanics, which has been incredibly helpful over the years!

What's your role at Summit and Productcaster?

My current role at Summit is Head of Affiliates. Essentially, that means that I spearhead the delivery of top-tier affiliate marketing services for our clients, focusing on fostering growth and cultivating diverse partnerships at the core of our operational framework. To get this done to such a high standard, it is imperative for our team to remain abreast of the latest industry trends through training and development, and to also forge really strong relationships with affiliate partners and networks. I currently lead a team of four, with a supporting cast from around the business.

Additionally, I work closely with the tech team in Productcaster to refine and develop cutting-edge affiliate technology solutions, ensuring that we can offer our clients a powerful and user-friendly platform. As part of this customer-focused project, I keep a close eye on cost management efforts, striving to maintain pricing levels that are lower than those of our competitors to give our clients  a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace.

What’s your work goal for the next 3 months?

In terms of my future goals, I have a clear plan for the next three years. But right now, I'm super excited because we're about to bring on board a big client in the coming months. Our team is currently deep in the planning process to make sure that we hit the ground running and give them the best service possible from Day 1. On top of that, we've just taken on two more brands, and we're working hard to bring their accounts up to our high standards as quickly as possible.

And with the peak season not too far away, we're working closely with all the marketing channels at Summit and Productcaster to make sure our clients come out on top with their performance in the second half of the year.

Tell us a fascinating fact about yourself

It’s hard to find something other people would find fascinating, but I do love cars, Comic book movies and can do the Rubix cube in under 2 mins.

Every time Apple launches the next iPhone model, the world scrambles to get hold of the shiny new product. Every retailer is desperate to get ahead of the competition and get their stock listed first at a competitive price. And our Affiliate Marketing client, Three Mobile, is no different.  In 2022, they turned to the team at Summit and Productcaster tech to ensure that their products beat the competition. 

The Challenge

Over the years, Three has relied on our Affiliate team and our proprietary tech FeedManager tool to help them be first to market. Being the first retailer to list the new iPhone has a huge impact on sales. For example, when the iPhone 12 was released in October 2020, Summit got Three first listing on Uswitch and visible on Affiliate channels within 5 minutes, leading to a 125% increase in YOY sales. 

This achievement doesn’t come without its challenges. In particular, Apple’s strict timescales on releasing any information only gives a limited amount of time to organise and act. So, when the 1pm deadline was reached, the Productcaster team sprang into action for the third year in a row. 

The Approach

The team worked seamlessly with colleagues at Three in the run up to the launch to make sure that the product feed was up-to-date and published on FeedManager immediately as soon as the embargo lifted. The tool is incredibly quick and pushes the feeds faster than most other technologies, which is vital in such a competitive launch situation.  

Whereas some providers have limitations on how often they can publish feeds. FeedManager can be updated every hour, with the capacity to create a manual push when needed. The technology is designed to ensure that any changes you make are done quickly, ensuring your products can be seen first. ​ 

The Results

This approach and usage of FeedManager meant that Three's offers for the new iPhone were featured before any other providers. As people like to be "first" when buying new phones like these, appearing first in comparison sites makes a big difference to the amount of sales you can generate from a phone launch 

In short 

“The team at Summit were highly instrumental in the success of our iPhone launch, with the speed and efficiency of both the people and the product feeds allowing us to appear on key partner sites before any of our competitors. This allowed us to gain momentum and take hold of the #1 positions which are so important for sales on price comparison websites. 

A big thank you to the team at Summit for their efforts!” 

Iain Davidson – Lead Affiliate Manager at Three UK 

Visit our FeedManager pages to find out how optimising your feed could help you drive more sales. You could even be eligible for a FeedCheck report, helping your understand the health of your product feed (and how you can improve).