– The Sabre Awards is to the communication industry what the Cannes Lions is to advertising. The Scandinavian communication industry is at the forefront globally, and it is a great honour to be named Nordic Consultancy of the Year 2015, says founder and CEO Hans Geelmuyden.

The SABRE Awards is the world’s largest PR awards program, running across six continents. It is hosted by leading communications industry analysts the Holmes Report, commenting on the winner:

«Longtime Norwegian market leader Geelmuyden Kiese went through a sticky patch during the first decade of the new century, but the past five years—since the return of Hans Geelmuyden to the CEO role and the installation of a new management team of 12 minority partners—has seen a robust recovery.

The firm has doubled in size in that time (fees last year topped £12 million) and diversified a business once best known for corporate and public affairs so that is now equally adept in areas such as change management, brand communications and digital media. That broader offer is not surprising, but what nobody would have predicted a decade ago is that GK would transform itself into a creative powerhouse.

Hans Geelmuyden believes that communications firms of all striped have entered an era in which “the best idea wins,” regardless of whether that idea comes from PR, advertising, and digital, and he is determined that GK will be the firm to deliver that idea. To that end he has invested in research and planning, insight and creativity, and multi-channel delivery—a process the firm breaks down into “sensemaking, storymaking, and storytelling.”

It has paid off in terms of growth, in terms of blue-chip client list (Ikea, Kiwi, Volvo, Novartis, McDonald’s, Scandic, Google, Ben & Jerry’s and more), and in terms of awards. GK is nominated for six SABREs this year (no independent firm tops that) for work ranging from a socially-driven hybrid marketing campaign for Toyota to a recruitment campaign for the Norwegian Ministry of Education & Research to creative internal communications for professional services giant PwC.

And while the firm is the dominant independent in Norway, it has also expanded into Sweden and Denmark (smaller offices, but equally capable of solid, award-worthy work) to offer a genuine Nordic service.»

The winners will receive the award at the 2015 SABRE Awards in London on May 19.

http://www.holmesreport.com/events-awards/agencies-of-the-year/2015/emea/nordic-consultancies-of-the-year