UK Search Awards 2017 Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS

RELIVE THE SEARCH PARTY Welcome to the Book of the Night 2017. Inside you will find details of all our finalists plus a showcase of this year’s winning work. Over the past seven years, the UK Search Awards has celebrated the very best in SEO, PPC and content marketing across the UK, and recognised and rewarded the individuals, companies and organisations that are transforming the UK Search industry. Entry quality was extremely high and our thanks go out to our judging panel who had the unenviable task of shortlisting and choosing this year’s winners. I’d also like to thank our sponsors and supporters for adding their weight and considerable influence on a competition that continues to reflect the talent, expertise and continuing growth of the industry. Our thanks go to our headline sponsor Bing, our Photo Booth sponsor Majestic, our Vodka Luge sponsor DeepCrawl, our Social Wall sponsor Searchmetrics and our category sponsors, Marin, ScribbleLive, SEMrush and Specialist. If you were there on the night, you will have celebrated, mixed and mingled with the best in Search – not to mention enjoyed the comedic laugh of Jimmy Carr and danced the night away at the after party! So, our final thanks and huge congratulations goes to all the winners and everyone who made the shortlist. It’s a real achievement and I hope you enjoyed the evening. Nicky Wake Don’t Panic MD & Creator of Search Awards

Bing Network. Intelligent search. *comScore qSearch (custom), December 2016. Bing Network includes Bing, Yahoo Search (searches powered by Bing), and AOL Search Network in Europe. ** Microsoft internal.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; RETAIL FINALISTS Authoritas & PriceMinister.com Automating Insights at Scale from The Web Graph for Success in eCommerce BlueGlass & Bloom & Wild Easter Egg Hunt Branded3 & WatchShop.com Elephate & Oponeo.co.uk SEO Visibility Increased by 668% Greenlight & ghd #GHDPINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month Greenlight & Superdry Jackets by Superdry MediaCom Worldwide & Bose From Google to Amazon: Bose Reseller Search Strategy Polemic Digital & Discount Flooring Depot SEO Success from Floor to Ceiling Receptional & Discount Supplements Putting Muscle into Mobile Verve Search & Lenstore Crystal Clear Advantages

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WINNER: Verve Search & Lenstore SUMMARY Verve Search implemented a strategy that’s built over 100 highly authoritative links to some of Lenstore’s key pages. Together, we rapidly implemented audit recommendations – improving the site’s tech and content, leading to concrete changes in rankings, organic traffic and revenue that propelled Lenstore past high-street brands.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The Judges said this was a stella campaign with expressive content and links from surprising sources, combining excellent work with a very smart strategy.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – FINANCE FINALISTS Blue Array & Simply Business Driving Organic Traffic via Serendipitous Search Branded3 & Provident Unbroken Britain Croud & Hiscox Going for Gold Manning Gottlieb OMD & FCA Saying Bye Bye to the PPI Manning Gottlieb OMD & Royal Mint Bullion Going Live with Gold! MEC & Nationwide Helping First Time Buyers Feel at Home MoneySuperMarket.com Insuring the Life of SEO Reddico & Direct Line Life Insurance Receptional & Liberis Funding the Future of UK Small Business Verve Search & GoCompare Director’s Cut

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WINNER: Manning Gottlieb OMD & Royal Mint Bullion SUMMARY Royal Mint Bullion buy, vault and sell gold. The secret to investing in gold is timing. Gold tends to change value at a slower rate than stocks or currency which are impacted by uncertainty. The importance of timing meant that we had to develop a strategy that moved past traditional keyword coverage to one that harnessed greater contextual intent. This would give us an advantage in a highly competitive market; over 25 competitors fight over a small selection of keywords. We used TVTY to track the performance of the FTSE100 in real-time; if a pre-defined condition was met, TVTY would boost our bids. This in turn would increase our visibility at key moments within the search results page. Operating a truly real-time strategy in a demand-led market enabled us to be prominent at key moments, increasing CTR by 27% and Conversion Rate by 26% - all at no additional cost (CPCs decreased with contextual relevance). The political and economic uncertainty that Brexit will produce offers Royal Mint Bullion an opportunity, using TVTY to take advantage of these unpredictable times. Winning this award is a huge recognition that even an institution 1,131 years old can be genuinely market disrupting.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS An excellent use of data science and analytics to produce a fantastic campaign with some brilliant results.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TRAVEL & LEISURE FINALISTS Banc & Cruise 1st Search Campaign BlueGlass & Expedia Driving SEO Forward BlueGlass & Expedia Mythical Creatures Builtvisible & Staysure Travelling with Mental Illness Caliber & Saga Holidays Rejuvenating a Brand with Timeless Digital Solutions Digitaloft & Citybase Apartments Bringing Back an Industry Leader from a Penguin Penalty Found & Hand Picked Hotels Accommodating Content Performics Stickyeyes Taking the Ultimate American Road Trip with Hertz Verve Search & Expedia Norway Virtual Flam

WINNER: BlueGlass & Expedia SUMMARY After working with Expedia in 2016 on a number of compelling and successful creative content and link-building campaigns, we decided to focus 2017 on targeted and measurable results surrounding ‘car hire’. By resolving technical SEO challenges onsite with developers, developing an extensive content hub for ‘car hire’, and optimising existing content, BlueGlass was able to build a strong SEO foundation to which to cultivate an engaged audience. Moreover, this content hub now stands as a base on which to produce further creative content pieces for influencer outreach and digital PR aiming to send traffic to the hub and on-site ‘car hire’ pages. This comprehensive SEO project has increased page ranking for Expedia by over 5.8 positions, and increased car hire website traffic by 37.8% organically.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Judges noted how they identified a gap with an opportunity for growth. In a competitive market they had a creative campaign with clear objectives and great execution.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; GAMING FINALISTS Blueclaw & Free Super Tips Growing the UKs Leading Super-Affiliate Jellyfish & BWIN Party Casino Maximising PPC Performance Jellyfish & Coral SEO Campaign Latitude & Bookies.com Grand National Betting Guide TMI & Coral Boxing Clever: The Rise of Combat Sports TMI & OJO Raising A Young Casino Verve Search & Unibet eSports Champions

WINNER: Blueclaw & Free Super Tips SUMMARY Free Super Tips is unambiguously the standout sports and betting affiliate success story of 2017 for SEO traffic growth, customer engagement and brand momentum with over 3000 top ten rankings for key search terms. Blueclaw provides technical SEO, content-driven off-site SEO and laser-targeted PR and outreach strategies that complement FST’s energetic brand to measurably, profitably and continuously grow site traffic. As a result we have taken the site from low five-figure traffic to the multi-million visitor powerhouse it is today – with growth showing no sign of slowing as a result of this unassailable, full service SEO strategy. Headline results: • Traffic – 170% increase year on year 2,376,472 extra sessions; • Keywords – over 3000 top ten rankings; • L ink strength – earned links from top mainstream media outlets like the Mirror, Daily Star, Liverpool Echo, Manchester City News & Daily Mail, and top tier topical sports sites like 90 Minutes, Arsenal Vision & Tottenham News; • Conversions – massive growth in commercial performance and player acquisition. Winning this award is the ultimate recognition for a truly independent brand that has rapidly built a huge following, drawing on an expertly integrated approach to SEO, content, social engagement and a true connection with customers. Free Super Tips is a standout example of SEO success for marketers in any industry, but especially so in the ultra-competitive gaming sector.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS In a highly competitive space they produced impressive work, clearly identifying the audience with a mobile first approach and producing a creative widget and monthly proactive output of content.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; THIRD SECTOR FINALISTS Click Consult & Oxfam Dressed by The Kids 2017 Crafted & The British Library Crafting an SEO strategy for BIPC Mindshare UK & Tommys London Landmarks Half Marathon SEO Campaign Receptional & Concern Worldwide Planning for Disaster Receptional & MQ Helping 70,000 Access Mental Health Research Reprise Media & St John Ambulance Making Parents Lifesavers Shelter Retail Shop Donations

WINNER: Receptional & MQ SUMMARY Receptional is a specialist search marketing agency. In 2016 MQ: Transforming Mental Health came to us for help with paid search and SEO activity. MQ is the first major charity funding much-needed scientific research to transform the lives of everyone affected by mental illness. Their vision is simple: to create a world where mental illness is understood, effectively treated, and ultimately prevented. The results of Receptionalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work surpassed expectations, and winning the award is a great recognition for the incredible work done by this important charity.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The Judges saw this campaign as a great show of working intelligently with the client in a difficult space. Setting clear objectives and working with a very small budget they produced brilliant results.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; B2B FINALISTS Banc & Gazprom Energy Barracuda Digital & Team Tactics Trumping the Corporate Hospitality Competition Crafted The Workspace Advantage Croud & Regus Cutting Through to The Most Valuable Traffic Found & Questback Questing Back to Basics Impression & Company Address Growing a Business in a Competitive Marketplace Receptional & Liberis Funding the Future of UK Small Business Loud Mouth Media & Kx A Segmented Approach to Lead Generation MediaCom North & Premier BusinessCare The Power of Search MediaVision & Instant Offices Outstanding Growth in the Office Space Sector Specialist & Thomson Reuters Inside Finance & Risk Blog

WINNER: Crafted SUMMARY We’re excited to return to the UK Search Awards for 2017; the last 12 months have been phenomenal for Crafted – our most successful yet with client account growth, revenue records broken, incredible new business wins, outstanding campaign performances, a consistent portfolio of award-winning work and a loyal team of digital experts. This year; Crafted have broken into the eConsultancy Top 100 Digital Agencies list, have been awarded Google Premier Partner status and now have the honour of collecting a 2017 UK Search Award. Crafted continues to go from strength to strength.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They overachieved their goals with great use of banners and a creative use of marketing to produce a highly effective campaign that had B2B buy in to multiple formats.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – B2C FINALISTS Click Consult & Chill Insurance Insuring Ireland’s Future Digitaloft & Citybase Apartments Bringing Back an Industry Leader from a Penguin Penalty Digitaloft & Missy Empire A Technical SEO Success Story Engage & British Ceramic Tile Changing the Face of Consumer Tiles Epiphany & Insurance2go To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade? Found & Randstad Building Authority Through Content Genie Goals & Amara How to Execute an Outstanding Growth Strategy MEC & Irwin Mitchell Managing Calls with The Expert Hand & The Human Touch MediaVision & Hobbs Outstanding Growth Through Integration Verve Search & Lenstore Crystal Clear Advantages

WINNER: Found & Randstad SUMMARY Randstad UK are the UK arm of the world’s 2nd biggest global recruitment and HR services provider. Looking to increase their presence in the SERPS, against a backdrop of increased competition and fewer jobs on their site, Found were set the challenge of increasing Randstad’s SEO coverage. A switch in strategy away from chasing localised job listing rankings, towards building an evergreen content hub full of authoritative and relevant content defined the activity going forward. Through a combination of this strategy switch, some seriously thorough keyword research, a sprinkle of innovative content and tremendous technical know-how; we knew we had a recipe for success. Between the window of Sept 2016 and Sept 2017 we achieved some pretty impressive results even if we do say so ourselves: • 3,846 unique referring domains gained - up 46.5% YoY; • 33% increase in organic traffic across the site.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS An excellent SEO campaign that was backed up by innovative use of data and great content to produce clear, in-depth results.

BEST LOCAL CAMPAIGN FINALISTS agenda21 & Domestic & General Location-Customised Ads Croud & Regus Optimising Google My Business Listings Across 3,000 Locations Croud & Regus Targeting Mobile-First Entrepreneurs on Baidu Found & Marshall Driving More Local Leads for Marshall MediaCom & Centrica Local Heroes Go National Merkle|Periscopix Cleaning Up Local Search Mindshare & Mazda UK Thinking Local at Every Level: A Location Based Approach for Mazda Dealers Receptional & Signature Finding a Local Care Home Made Easy SearchStar & My Home Move Becoming Local When Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Not Local TopLine Comms & Access Self Storage Back to Basics: Making Local SEO Work for Access Self Storage

WINNER: Receptional & Signature SUMMARY Signature is a provider of high-end care homes. Their mission is simple: ‘To provide exceptional care, delivered by compassionate people, in the highest quality homes.’ Receptional’s aim was to deliver an increase in website traffic, enquiries and, ultimately, move-ins to their homes. We were conscious that the process of finding a care home for a loved one can be complex and emotionally challenging. The first step was to get to know the audience, their fears, and the challenges they face. We also wanted to understand typical user journeys, particularly as increasing numbers of visitors are using mobile devices. We restructured Signature’s Analytics account, which gave us greater insights, allowed us to report more accurately – and understand how location affected user behaviour. Our campaigns target users in the catchment area of each home. We created highly targeted PPC activity to attract relevant traffic to the site. We reorganised Signature’s Google My Business account and we reviewed the site’s on-page SEO, improving rankings for hundreds of local keywords. The results have surpassed our expectations. Signature are a great client, easy to work with, and decidedly dedicated. The Signature team – from marketers to carers - does fantastic work and we are so thrilled to see their efforts rewarded.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Very impressed with the overall strength of the campaign. They went above and beyond to deliver great results for the client.

BEST LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN FINALISTS BlueGlass & Ensoul Increasing Conversions by 709% Digitaloft & Missy Empire A Technical SEO Success Story Evolved Digital Fixing the Broken Toy Shop Funeralbooker The CremMate Kosch Klink Performance & SunHelp International Affiliate for Charity Latitude & ConservatoryLand Poisonous Plants Infographic Mayalukas & the Yorkshire Party General Election 2017: Speaking Up for Yorkshire Mindshare UK & Tommys London Landmarks Half Marathon SEO Campaign Reddico & Country Way Shop Direct VeryDresses Blogger Event

WINNER: BlueGlass & Ensoul SUMMARY For luxury Architectural and Interior design firm Ensoul, the key focus was to start getting the right, qualified people engaging with the site, generating meaningful conversations and ultimately closing deals. Typical Ensoul projects are home renovations with contract values >£500,000 working with high net worth clients, therefore, each lead takes time to prospect and nurture and is incredibly valuable to the business. In the search-led campaign, with limited budget, BlueGlass was able to increase Ensoul’s page ranking to #1 for under-garden basements, a niche service line with optimised content and helped pre-qualify potential customers as they start the customer journey. The guide is currently being downloaded at a rate of 1 a day generating early stage prospects for Ensoul whilst increasing targeted awareness of the brand. On this campaign, we focused on developing a high quality of traffic and lead generation, with limited resources to drive real business results - rather than getting distracted with areas which may have been bigger organic search wins, but not as important to the business.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They had a great understanding of the customer and what was required. From this they generated very impressive conversion figures. A campaign of achievements with excellent results.

BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Anicca Digital & Deichmann Shoes UK Launches the Star Collection with Ellie Goulding Blueclaw & Mobile Phones Direct Eight Figures of Revenue from Integrated SEO PPC Content Marketing and CRO Crafted & The British Library Crafting an SEO Strategy for BIPC Crafted The Workspace Advantage Discount Supplements & Receptional Putting Muscle into Mobile Epiphany & Furniture Choice Growing a Business Purely Online Red Hot Penny & PriceRightHome Rising Through the Revenue Ranks Sagittarius & KMSCP Streetlights Mean 30 Local Campaign The SEO Works Brief Encounters: UnderU.com Make High Street Retailers Look Pants! Zenith & NatWest Full Funnel Mortgage Update

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WINNER: The SEO Works SUMMARY Our client UnderU.com is an online retailer and promoted as THE place to go online for premium branded men’s underwear, men’s swimwear, clothing and men’s socks & accessories. Initial meetings showed they already had an excellent online reputation with great customer service, plus good sales volume. However, they were finding it difficult to break into the really lucrative market share currently held by big major household name brand retailers and they were skeptical as other agencies fell short and in the end proved fruitless. Having had experience in this area before, we felt more than confident to be able to help them achieve their ambitious goals with a fusion of old fashioned consumer research, a strong core SEO campaign and latest technical multi-platform and cross-channel strategies. Winning this award has achieved great recognition for us as an agency and will give us greater confidence to be able to help other clients in a similar position where they want to increase their market share in this highly competitive and demanding high-end designer brand retail market sector.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This was a fully integrated campaign with a phenomenal amount of extraordinary work across all shopping channels in organic and paid search. Excellent results on a small budget.

MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Crafted The Workspace Advantage Crafted & Generator Hostels A Crafted Approach to Combatting OTAs with PPC Genie Goals & Amara How to Execute an Outstanding Growth Strategy Genie Goals & Trendy Products A Google Shopping Overhaul with Dramatic Results Greenlight & Rajapack A Data-Driven Approach to SEO & PPC Manning Gottlieb OMD & Royal Mint Bullion Going Live with Gold! Nu Heat & Impression Achieving Position 0 Reflect Digital & Find 50 Clubs Innovation Through Gamification The Media Image & Air Charter Service Private Jets of World Leaders UK SEO Campaign Vertical Leap Helps Sarah Ravens Sales to Bloom

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JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS An excellent use of data science and analytics to produce a fantastic campaign with some brilliant results.

BEST PPC CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Crafted The Workspace Advantage Crafted & Generator Hostels A Crafted Approach to Combatting OTAs with PPC GoCompare Driving into 2017: Embracing Search Intelligence Greenlight & Superdry Jackets by Superdry MediaCom Worldwide & Bose From Google to Amazon: Bose Reseller Search Strategy Merkle|Periscopix & B&Q DIY (With Some Help from Google...) Performics & Marin Software More with Less: Streamlining Car Hire with Europcar Receptional & Bill Plant Driving School Driving 257% More Conversions and a 161% Increase in Revenue The Media Image & AVON North America A Gateway to Savings The SEO Works & Weldricks Pharmacy PPC therapy: 3015% Return

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WINNER: MediaCom Worldwide & Bose SUMMARY In FY17, our paid search strategy on always-on brand, generic and shopping campaigns resulted in a growth of 68% in revenue year on year (FY16 vs FY17), and therefore we were eager to explore further opportunities outside of Google & Bing to drive incremental revenue for Bose. Research showed us a trend in online shopping where up to 55% of e-shoppers start their purchase journey from reseller websites. Following this observation, we designed a reseller search strategy that would complement our always-on paid search campaign (Google & Bing), expand our paid search portfolio and capture untapped audiences. As a result, our online revenue increased by 181% year on year. The return on ad spend (ROAS) and conversion rate (CVR) was 80% and 132% higher than last year. With our reseller search campaign launched we completed our paid search portfolio coverage and drove additional paid search traffic by 19% which aided in driving higher paid search revenue

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This campaign had an innovative strategy, using 360 degree omni-channel engagement and creativity with reseller search. Delivering great results with a wide ranging, creative campaign.

BEST SEO CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Adido & Event Insurance Services Sprinting Towards SEO Success BlueGlass & Expedia Driving SEO Forward Bulldog Digital Media Total Fishing Tackle SEO Campaign Elephate & Oponeo.co.uk SEO Visibility Increased By 668% GoCompare Pet Project MediaCom & Canesten Are You Sitting Comfortably? Propellernet & Evans Cycles Return to Gold Hill Propellernet & Long Tall Sally Made Tall Stickyeyes & Solopress Hitting the SEO Sweet Spot Verve Search & Lenstore Crystal Clear Advantages

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WINNER: Elephate & Oponeo.co.uk SUMMARY At Elephate we take the utmost care of our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sites both in terms of SEOrelated technical issues, their overall functionality and online visibility. To boost the latter one, we polish and optimise the onpage content, and run customised campaigns for our clients. The campaign for oponeo.co.uk is another great success story that we are proud of, proving again that solid SEO work combined with the best content marketing practices can produce awesome results. Even though the road to success was bumpy at times, today we are happy to see the site reaping the benefits of our hard work, and it is such a rewarding experience!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS A brilliant campaign, fixing technical SEO issues and improving content while working with the in-house team. They ticked all the boxes of an SEO campaign and delivering great results.

BEST USE OF CONTENT MARKETING FINALISTS BlueGlass & Expedia Mythical Creatures Branded3 & Staveley Head London Under the Microscope Custard Online Marketing & Animal Friends Pet Insurance Chocolate Poisoning Campaign Digitaloft & Play Like Mum Mums of the World Dreams & Inside Online How Dreams & Inside Online Owned Sleep iProspect UK & John Lewis Building Buzz for the Christmas Advert Propellernet & Long Tall Sally Made Tall Screaming Frog & Which? Mortgage Advisers Fictional Homes The Media Image & Air Charter Service Private Jets of World Leaders UK SEO Campaign Verve Search & GoCompare Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cut

WINNER: Branded3 & Staveley SUMMARY Following a Phantom update insurance provider Staveley Head lost 40% of their organic visibility, with some of the largest losses being in the taxi and Uber market. Branded3 were challenged to deliver links and coverage and to regain the lost visibility. London Under the Microscope was created to focus in on the cleanliness of public transport, we partnered with The London Metropolitan University, and a total of 80 swabs were taken across the capital’s transportation system. 121 different types of bacteria and mould were found, including traces of nine of the world’s most threatening superbugs. An asset was created to allow users to reveal the germs found in Private Hire Taxis, Buses and the Tube. The campaign launched exclusively with The Daily Mail and achieved a further 163 pieces of press/media driving over 20,000 people to the asset on site and 2.6 million shares on the BBC. London Mayor Sadiq Khan released a statement following our study promising to launch a clean-up operation within the Underground in London. The domain has since reached record organic traffic levels with YoY organic traffic again exceeded 100% (102% in July) having dropped as low as 43% growth in April.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign had one of the most impressive uses of content seen by the Judges. Incredibly creative with a practical real world solution to a search problem.

BEST USE OF PR IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 10 Yetis Digital & Web-Blinds.com Homes, Postcodes and Property Prices Aira & On The Go Tours The Wonders of the World According to Instagram BlueGlass & Expedia Mythical Creatures Branded3 & money.co.uk The Money Castle MEC Manchester & Swinton Insurance Britain’s Most Dangerous Roads MVF Headlines and Hyperlinks Campaign for MoveHub Propellernet & Evans Cycles Return to Gold Hill Propellernet & Long Tall Sally #stylehasnorules Ready10 How Data and Creative PR Increased the Search Profile of Jackpot.com Verve Search & GoCompare Director’s Cut

WINNER: Verve Search & GoCompare SUMMARY Directorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Cut is an interactive piece which looks at the top deadliest films of all time. We were thrilled to quickly discover, that the results were fascinating and the campaign quickly piqued the interest of journalists and the general public on a HUGE scale!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This was a highly creative campaign with a great approach. It sat perfectly with the customer and delivered fantastic engagement.

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS BlueGlass & Bloom & Wild Easter Egg Hunt Click Consult & Oxfam Dressed by The Kids 2017 Found & Fender Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Fret About It! Greenlight & ghd #GHDPINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month MEC Manchester & GWR #GWRAdventures MediaCom & Canesten Are You Sitting Comfortably? Red Hot Penny & Lipsy Filling the Funnel with Paid Social Red Hot Penny & Megabus Sid Gets Social Reprise Media & TGI Fridays Driving Footfall Via Digital Media SQ Digital & Compare Cover #NationalWalkingMonth

WINNER: Greenlight & ghd SUMMARY As a longstanding client of ours, ghd reached out to us to drive engagement, awareness and sales for its ghd Pink range in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which occurs in October of every year, through a creative display campaign. As part of the campaign, ghd contributed a ÂŁ10 donation per product sold and also sought to drive awareness around how consumers can manage their hair in the midst of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS A strong campaign with well researched data to support great use of mobile to extend the audience reach. Well planned, well executed and they achieved great results too.

BEST USE OF DATA FINALISTS Authoritas & PriceMinister.com Automating Insights at Scale from the Web Graph for Market-Beating SEO Growth Big Group Insight & Edwin Improving ROI by Utilising Demographics Persona and Conversion Data Crafted The Workspace Advantage Crafted & Generator Hostels A Crafted Approach to Combatting OTAs with PPC Croud & Manfrotto Turning Insights into Action Hallam Internet & Garden4Less Managing Bids on Google Shopping with Bespoke In-House Scripts Manning Gottlieb OMD & FCA Saying Bye Bye to the PPI Manning Gottlieb OMD & Royal Mint Bullion Going Live with Gold! Red Hot Penny & Red7 Stags, Hens and Offline Trends Vertical Leap Helps Sarah Ravens Sales to Bloom

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS An excellent use of data science and analytics to produce a fantastic campaign with some brilliant results.

BEST SOFTWARE INNOVATION FINALISTS Adthena Competitive Intelligence for Search Authoritas & PriceMinister Web Graph 1, Venn Diagrams 0 Botify Keywords ContentKing No More SEO Surprises Through Real-Time SEO Auditing LinkResearchTools SafetyNet Powered by Jellyfish Searchmetrics Content Experience SEMrush Sensor STAT Search Analytics Uncovering SERP Features for the Win Trisolute Software Trisolute News Dashboard for Mobile and Desktop

WINNER: Trisolute Software SUMMARY The Trisolute News Dashboard is the first specific tool for SEO analysis and optimization of news articles (from Google News) whose data is based on a nearly real-time measurement cycle of both desktop and mobile SERPs. In addition, the News Dashboard’s two main portions allow for both short-time tips and optimization of articles, and for a broader analysis to spot trends and make long-term changes to a publisher’s portfolio and SEO strategy. We always listen closely to customer feedback and are always innovating, leading to new reports and features each year. Moreover, the News Dashboard is optimized regularly when there are any changes in Google News and its ranking types, such as the complete Google News redesign earlier this year. Winning this prestigious award has rewarded our customers’ loyalty and will allow us to continue helping journalists, from reporters to news SEOs and directors, become literate in the world of SEO and search. In turn, this makes a richer ecosystem for credible news.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This is an incredibly useful tool for the news industry, helping to research news and optimise content. With keyword clustering and Hadoop Elastic-search integration they have added truly innovative features to an already impressive product.

BEST PPC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS DoubleClick Search Kenshoo Search Marin Software Optmyzr Comprehensive Search PPC Management Software Suite

WINNER: DoubleClick Search SUMMARY DoubleClick Search is Google’s enterprise level search-engine marketing management tool. We offer the tools and functionality for large advertisers to build complex and successful Paid Search campaigns at scale – leveraging smart automation, market-leading machine learning; and an easy-to-use, intuitive UI. Following on from a brilliant 2016, we feel our maintained momentum and new initiatives in 2017 made us an excellent candidate for this category. Winning the award is a very welcome recognition of the consistent level of effort, care and thought poured into DoubleClick Search from Engineering, Product, Support and Sales over the last year. We have celebrated Search wins in 2015 and 2016, so are delighted to have now completing a momentous hat-trick!

JUDGES’ COMMENTS An innovative tool which continually delivers on its all ready market leading reputation. With additional features added for 2017 while maintaining their client orientated development this product once again delivers on all fronts.

BEST SEO SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Botify OnCrawl SEO Crawler & Log Analyzer Pi Datametrics ScribbleLive SEMrush SEO Suite seobility Online SEO Software SEOmonitor.com STAT Search Analytics Uncovering SERP Features for the Win

WINNER: SEMrush SUMMARY SEMrush is a leading digital marketing toolkit for SEO, PPC and digital marketing professionals worldwide. With over 25 tools within the software, search data for 140 countries and integration with Google services, SEMrush provides solutions for in-house marketing teams and agencies working with clients of any size in any industry. This award is a great motivation for the team and proof to our clients they have made the right choice. We couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done it without trust, feedback and enormous support from our community. We are honoured to be recognized as the best SEO software suite by the most experienced industry experts. We are putting our hard work and dedication in supplying the most innovative SEO software to our customers and providing them with top-notch service. We will make sure to continue expanding our toolkit with new awesome tools and features that will help our users be successful in their business. Moreover, it is a recognition of our agile internal culture. At SEMrush, we actively encourage creativity and decision-making on all levels, and this award proves that giving your people freedom is the right way forward.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS A strong visibility tool with continued innovation on an impressive level. A true all round performing suite, which serves clients needs whether large or small.

BEST SEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL FINALISTS Botify ContentKing No More SEO Surprises Through Real-Time SEO Auditing DeepCrawl LinkResearchTools Marin Software Panguin Tool by Barracuda Digital Demystifying the Effect of Google Algorithm Updates on Traffic & Rankings Productsup Marketing Software for Managing and Optimizing Product Data Feeds SEMrush Sensor Swydo Trisolute Software Trisolute News Dashboard for Mobile and Desktop

WINNER: DeepCrawl SUMMARY The world’s most comprehensive web crawler, making websites visible one crawl at a time! We don’t believe in fads, we believe in building a solid foundation for which you can then build upon. In our opinion, your sites architecture is the foundation needed for optimal SEO performance. A tool for everyone, DeepCrawl is used by SEOs both in-house as well as agency side. Whether you’re looking to crawl a few thousands URLs or a few million, DeepCrawl has the capabilities of being configured to suit clients of any size.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS A focused tool that performs consistently to a high level. With a huge number of upgrades and a user friendly interface this is truly innovative in the approach to search tool production.

BEST SMALL PPC AGENCY FINALISTS Aira Anicca Digital Circus PPC Loud Mouth Media Mabo Media Platypus Digital Receptional Red Hot Penny Rooster Marketing

WINNER: Loud Mouth Media SUMMARY At Loud Mouth Media, we are proud to be a highly specialist digital advertising agency focusing solely on Search, Display and Social advertising. As a small, close-knit team of 14 people, the Loud Mouth team consistently goes above and beyond expectation to deliver outstanding results and outperform much larger, long established agencies in our industry. We have grown consistently over the past six years, managing a diverse range of over 120 clients and becoming recognised as a fully specialised Google Premier Partner agency earlier this year – one of just ten agencies outside London to receive this highest recognition of AdWords proficiency. Being a dedicated PPC agency means we continuously develop our expertise and are first to market with new innovative features, including most recently, Google’s In-Market 2.0 Alpha product. Within the agency environment, our primary goal is to achieve outstanding results for our clients, so much so that we adopt the client’s success as our success. As a relatively small agency, promoting the success of Loud Mouth Media has always been secondary. Following a great year, it is extraordinary to win the Best Small PPC Agency award and gain official recognition for Loud Mouth Media amongst our peers!

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They provide high class customer service by listening to clients, while producing innovative and creative solutions.

BEST LARGE PPC AGENCY FINALISTS Brainlabs Crafted Epiphany Genie Goals Impression Merkle|Periscopix Search Laboratory SearchStar The Media Image

WINNER: Brainlabs SUMMARY For a few years now, we’ve coveted the UK Search Awards. To us, it’s always been ‘the big one’ in the awards calendar. Back when we were a ‘small’ agency, everyone got to go, dressed to the nines, but now that we’re 160 strong, this is proving to be more difficult. But it’s always a special evening. And, as nominated writer of awards submissions, a particularly nervy night for me! We’re Brainlabs – hopefully you remember us – winners of Best Large PPC Agency two years ago. We’re the agency with that guy, Dan Gilbert, who wears a suit with trainers and keeps making the ‘we’re hiring’ joke in his acceptance speech. It’s ok, we think he’s annoying, too. We’ve come a long way since then, building on the Brainlabs methodology – which continues to rapidly yield far better results than any previous agency’s attempts, no matter the client – creating our standalone tech offering, expanding to the US, moving to a new London office. And yet we’re still not satisfied. That’s not to say awards are everything to us; our mission is to drive the paid search industry forward. But an award here and there doesn’t hurt!

JUDGES’ COMMENTS An agency with unbelievable growth based on a strong company mission and statement. They have worked incredibly hard to close the gender pay gap, pushing boundaries and aiming to deliver not just for clients but for its staff on a daily basis.

BEST SMALL SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Aira BlueGlass UK Bulldog Digital Media Caliber Evolved Digital Kaizen Polemic Digital Red Hot Penny Reddico Relevance

WINNER: BlueGlass UK SUMMARY BlueGlass UK is a fast-growing specialist SEO and content marketing agency with 3 distinct passions: a passion for people, a passion for innovation, and a passion for achieving outstanding client results. On a mission to secure ‘content marketing results, driven by creativity, backed by data’ the agency has achieved its goals by creating significant growth for both the clients and the business. With a focus in SEO strategy and a passion for excellent content, Kevin Gibbons founded BlueGlass in 2012 with a mission to help brands tell their stories and achieve their business goals. Armed with this objective, BlueGlass has exceeded expectations – growing revenues from £235,204 (and 4 people) in the first year to over £1.5 million (and 14 people) in the latest year and growing. With a phenomenal pace of growth, this year BlueGlass has still been able to maintain a satisfied client base while strengthening the scale of their business. Using smart commercial thinking while keeping a visionary outlook, BlueGlass has overcome any potential hurdles or slumps, poised to stay as a leader in content marketing.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS A range of excellent campaigns, they use smart, creative thinking to solve problems, working closely with the client. They have acquired big brands in 2017 and developed great relationships with them to truly understand their business and generate the best results.

BEST LARGE SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Branded3 Bring Digital Click Consult Crafted Epiphany Impression Search Laboratory SQ Digital Verve Search

WINNER: Branded3 SUMMARY Branded3 is a digital marketing agency delivering growth through SEO and paid media, PR, content marketing, social media, analytics consulting and CRO. Launched in 2003, our agency is now an 80-strong team working from London, Leeds, and Bath under the leadership of CEO Tim Grice. Our company ethos is to be Bigger, Bolder, and Better. We want to speak at the biggest events and deliver the biggest results for our clients. We want to be bolder and create the campaigns that other agencies cannot deliver. And we want to be better â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not only better than our competitors, but we strive to constantly improve our own work, delivering better projects for our clients.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS With a fantastic approach to share with the industry, they are results focused and deliver impressive numbers for their clients.

BEST SMALL INTEGRATED SEARCH AGENCY FINALISTS Curated Digital Further Marketing Signals MediaVision Passion Digital Receptional Spike Digital

WINNER: Receptional SUMMARY As marketers we live in a mobile world in which cross-device, cross-channel marketing is a fact of life. Often, it’s a challenging, chastening and frustrating fact of life … but one we embrace. In this newly mobile, multi-channel world, marketing has become more complex. As a result, agencies will need to cultivate a broader range of skills, embrace better internal co-ordination and develop a more rigorous approach to project planning. Which is why, at the start of the year, Receptional set out a strategy to improve the quality of its work and people. We wanted to broaden the team’s skills while improving our own understanding of clients and their businesses. We stuck to our plan. We have recruited designers, developers and sector specialists. We have upped our training: we set up a yearlong programme so that every week we improve our skills. Our staff retention rate is 96%. What’s more, we revamped both our marketing and internal processes, so we’re better able to communicate the benefits of working with Receptional. Our client retention rates (92.6%) have never been so strong. And we are signing more new clients, too. Never before has the business grown so quickly. We’re confident the challenges of a multi-screen world have made us more effective, more enthusiastic and better integrated than ever before.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They are providing a consistently high level across multiple campaigns and produce great results. With clear and transparent objectives, they are producing high quality at all levels.

BEST LARGE INTEGRATED SEARCH AGENCY FINALISTS Click Consult Climb Online Croud Found Impression Jellyfish Return ROAST SQ Digital Stickyeyes

WINNER: Found SUMMARY We’re Found, a London-based digital marketing agency whose mission is to remaster ROI. Big brands demand the best results, so that’s what we deliver. Working across PPC, SEO, content, paid social, analytics and more, we break the complex world of digital into a ‘Web of Moments’, moments we can then target with precision and style. But it’s not just the things that we do, it’s the way that we do it. Agencies can be cut-throat places, where talented people get lost. Or they can get Found. Without the creative and friendly people that make up our team, we wouldn’t succeed. We are delighted to win this award because we want to spread the word about the work were doing and culture we’re creating. We’ve got great results, new digs, killer new clients, talented new hires, acquired the uber cool social marketing company Disrupt, and won a 2017 Google Premier Partner award (plus a fair few others but who’s counting). In a nutshell: we’re proud of what we’ve achieved and excited for the future, and we want to share our excitement with the world.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Offering meaningful digital marketing their use of data analytics was exceptional. Strong campaigns which maximise reach across all platforms and devices. Delivering brand messages on point to their customers in a consistent and ever growing way was particularly impressive.

BEST IN-HOUSE TEAM FINALISTS Amara SEO Team GoCompare Search Team MoneySuperMarket Digital Team MVF Waitrose Search Team Worcester Bosch Digital Marketing Team

WINNER: GoCompare Search Team SUMMARY The team at GoCompare work in one of the most challenging verticals in search. This, combined with large budgets and large volumes of traffic means it is essential to remain at the cutting edge and not to overlook new trends and developments that could deliver fractional uplifts. Over the past few years, the team have faced spiking CPCs, heavy competition in both paid and organic as well as Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own attempts to enter the comparison industry yet still manage to deliver impressive year on year growth. Being recognised for our work by our industry peers means the world to us!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS They stood out as a team who had generated highly impressive growth. Their ethic and collaborative working was a shining example of a team coming together and achieving greatness.

YOUNG SEARCH PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR FINALISTS Andrew Campion Outreach Specialist, Verve Search Buzz Carter Head of Outreach, Bulldog Digital Media George Chadwick Senior SEO Executive, Pure Optimisation Harry Dodd SEO Account Manager, iThinkMedia Tom Etherington Head of Search, Evolved Digital Maria Fernandez de Osso Junior SEO Executive, ActiveWin Jack Kuehl PPC Executive, Space & Time Media Shannon McGuirk Head of PR & Content, Aira Megan Thomson PPC Executive, Jet2.com Hannah Thorpe Director, White.net

WINNER: Hannah Thorpe, White.net SUMMARY Hannah has demonstrated exceptional drive, passion and most importantly knowledge of both digital marketing and business during her time with White.net. She firstly led the founding and then the growth of the London office, progressing on to leading the SEO operations of the organisation. And secondly, has been such a major driving force for the company that she has progressed incredibly quickly through the organisation, being made a director in 2017 at the age of 23. During Hannah’s time with White.net she led the growth of the company’s client base. She has built excellent relationships with each of these clients and delivered outstanding results on her own, as well as through the exceptional team she leads.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Hannah has demonstrated great knowledge of digital marketing while understanding the business requirements. By leading the opening of the London office and driving its success she has shown incredible maturity. She has also developed her own skillset, speaking across industry events to share her knowledge and helping in the training of upcoming professionals. Becoming a Director at just 23 she has not just developed her own abilities but grown the agency in terms of quantity and quality.

UK SEARCH PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Jon Myers, DeepCrawl JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges felt Jon deserved to win this award given his longevity within the industry and his willingness to always help anyone who has a question or is in need of advice regarding Search. Recently Jon has been advocating the idea of ‘The Search Universe’, challenging the way we currently think about SEO and analysing various datasets. He has not only set off on a new journey this year to help elevate the Search industry, but is a well respected veteran of the community, both in the UK and internationally. Jon has always been someone to rely on and is a pillar within the search community.