The SYYCO Story: 15 Years of Affiliate, Partnerships and People-First Growth

This year marks 15 years of SYYCO.

A lot has changed in that time. Affiliate marketing has evolved into a much broader partnerships ecosystem, the technology behind the channel has become more sophisticated, and the way businesses think about where, and how, people work has changed dramatically.

But for SYYCO, some things have remained remarkably consistent.

The agency was founded with a clear belief that brands deserved better support within affiliate marketing, and that a business could be built differently, around expertise, strong relationships, trust and flexibility.

Fifteen years later, those principles still sit at the heart of SYYCO.

Spotting a gap in the market

Before founding SYYCO, Simon Terry had spent much of his career working across travel, e-commerce and online businesses.

As more of the travel industry moved online, affiliate marketing was becoming an increasingly important part of the digital landscape. But it was also a very different channel to the one brands recognise today.

Simon had seen the challenges from the client side first-hand.

Smaller and mid-sized brands often lacked the support and attention they needed from affiliate networks, while specialist affiliate management agencies were few and far between.

At the same time, the industry itself was still finding its feet. Tracking was less sophisticated, compliance was less developed and there was far less structure around how brands, publishers and networks worked together.

Simon saw an opportunity to change that.

SYYCO was created to give brands the specialist expertise and hands-on support they needed to manage affiliate marketing properly, helping them build stronger relationships, protect their interests and ultimately get more from the channel.

What began as a consultancy quickly developed into something bigger.

As the client base grew, so did SYYCO’s understanding of what effective affiliate management really required.

Bringing together expertise from both the client and publisher sides of the industry helped shape the agency model that followed, with dedicated focus on both client strategy and partner relationships.

It was the beginning of the SYYCO we know today.

Affiliate marketing has changed, a lot

Simon describes the affiliate industry of 15 years ago as something of a “Wild West”.

The channel offered huge potential, but it was far less regulated and structured than it is today.

Over the years, affiliate marketing has matured significantly. Tracking has improved, compliance has strengthened and both brands and publishers have far greater visibility and protection.

The definition of a “partner” has also expanded enormously.

What was once heavily associated with cashback, loyalty and voucher code publishers now encompasses content partners, influencers, CSS, closed user groups, card-linked offers, brand-to-brand partnerships and many other models.

Affiliate marketing has become partnership marketing.

And as the industry has evolved, SYYCO has evolved with it.

Remote-first before remote was the norm

One of the most distinctive parts of the SYYCO story has little to do with affiliate marketing at all.

SYYCO has been a remote business since day one.

Today, remote and flexible working feel familiar. Fifteen years ago, they were far less common.

Initially, running SYYCO remotely made practical sense. It kept costs and risk lower and removed the need for an office that clients and partners did not necessarily need the agency to have.

But it quickly became something much more fundamental to the way the business operated.

Remote working allowed SYYCO to build a team around talented, experienced people who also needed flexibility in their lives.

That might mean balancing work with raising a family, caring responsibilities, another career or passion, or simply wanting greater control over how work fits into life.

The philosophy has always been simple: people should be able to do great work without work needing to take over everything else.

Long before conversations about hybrid working, flexible hours and work-life balance became mainstream, SYYCO was already building a business around trust and autonomy.

And importantly, that has not disappeared as working habits have shifted again following the pandemic.

Flexibility remains part of the culture rather than simply a policy introduced because circumstances demanded it.

A major turning point

Like so many businesses, 2020 became a defining moment for SYYCO.

At the time, the agency was heavily associated with the travel sector. When COVID brought large parts of the travel industry to a standstill, SYYCO needed to adapt quickly.

While the agency itself had historically been travel-led, the team brought experience from a much broader range of sectors.

Before joining SYYCO, team members had worked across affiliate, partnerships and digital marketing for major retail, finance and other consumer brands.

That collective experience became hugely important.

SYYCO was able to use it to diversify the agency, building relationships with brands in new sectors and broadening the client base beyond travel.

The result was an important evolution in the business.

As travel eventually returned, SYYCO was no longer simply a travel affiliate specialist. It had become a genuinely multi-sector affiliate and partnerships agency, with expertise spanning a much wider range of brands and industries.

What was an incredibly challenging period ultimately helped build a broader and more resilient SYYCO.

The things that haven’t changed

The industry may look very different today, but many of the principles behind SYYCO have remained the same.

Trust is one of them.

People are trusted to take ownership of their work, make decisions and bring their expertise to the table.

Flexibility is another.

SYYCO has always recognised that talented people have lives and responsibilities outside of their jobs, and that giving people greater autonomy does not need to come at the expense of high standards or great work.

Relationships matter too.

Whether it is with clients, partners or colleagues, SYYCO has always focused on building long-term relationships rather than simply delivering short-term activity.

That approach can be seen in the clients who return, the referrals the agency receives and the relationships that continue even when people move between businesses.

And perhaps most importantly, SYYCO has always been a business built around people.

For Simon, seeing the team develop and watching SYYCO help its clients grow are among the things he is most proud of after 15 years.

Fifteen years on

From an idea formed after spotting a gap in a still-developing affiliate industry to a multi-sector affiliate and partnerships agency, SYYCO has changed significantly over the last 15 years.

The industry will continue to change too.

New technologies, new partner models and new ways for brands to reach audiences will continue to reshape the partnerships landscape.

SYYCO will evolve alongside it.

But growth does not have to mean losing the things that made the business successful in the first place.

The aim is to keep combining specialist expertise with strong relationships, continue adapting to where the industry is going, and protect the culture of trust, autonomy and flexibility that has existed from the beginning.

Because after 15 years, perhaps the best way to describe SYYCO is that it was simply built differently.

And it still is.