2019 Global New Agencies of the Year

The 2019 Global PR Agencies of the Year are the result of an exhaustive research process involving more than 450 submissions and face-to-face meetings with the best PR firms across North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific and LatAm.

Analysis of all of the Winners and Finalists across specialist categories can be accessed via the navigation menu to the right or below. Winners are announced at the 2019 Global SABRE Awards, which take place at the PRovoke19 Global PR Summit in Washington, DC, on the evening of 23 October. 

 

Winner: BoldT (EMEA, Independent)

In just 18 months, BoldT has built a heavyweight multi-market offering in Europe and beyond, which, combined with its positioning as a business and communications consultancy, gives it a distinctive edge.

With a founding team featuring former Burson-Marsteller leaders Jeremy Galbraith and Katarina Wallin Bureau, BoldT was always likely to make a bang when it started life at the end of 2017. Its fee income for 2018 was €1.5m, with growth of €4m forecast for 2019, underpinned by clients such as Google, YouTube, Generali, PepsiCo, MSD, Atea, DNB and Givaudan.

The team now numbers 20, with Galbraith building BoldT’s regional capabilities fast, focusing on senior talent from his former Burson-Marsteller stomping ground. In addition to Wallin Bureau, based in Brussels, the senior team includes former MEP and Dutch Labour Party chairman Michiel van Hulten and the former CEOs of Burson-Marsteller Nordics and Switzerland — Morten Pettersen and Matthias Graf, respectively. Other senior hires included David Brugger in Zurich, Simone Ceruti in Brussels and Erik Strøm in Oslo.

This senior team means BoldT’s client relationships are nearly all with the CEOs or other board-level executives, whether the consultancy is shaping legislation, navigating a crisis, changing a business model or helping companies deliver sustainable growth while living up to their purpose. BoldT’s thought leadership over the year included reports on corporate purpose, and managing Brexit and other EU challenges.

As well as its presence in Brussels, Oslo, Zurich – and, through Heuser Communications, run by the consultancy’s chairman Karl-Heinz Heuser, Cologne and Berlin – BoldT has established a network of strategic partners around the world, including formal partnerships with Madano in the UK, IBEX Partners/Summit Strategy Group in the US and Agora Public Affairs & Strategic Communications in Latin America. More informal partnerships allow it to work in China, Canada, Egypt and Turkey. – MPS

Finalists

Era Myanmar (Myanmar, Independent)

For a firm that didn’t even exist this time last year, Era Myanmar is making an impressive showing on our SABRE Awards short list. The agency’s campaigns for the likes of Coca-Cola and the Myanmar’s postal and telecommunications agency are among finalists in categories including cause-related marketing, marketing to women, multicultural marketing, public affairs, telecommunications and trade relations, and also helped it lead all firms with five IN2 SABRE Awards.

Less than a year after its inception, Era Myanmar is also the country’s largest integrated marketing comms agency, born through the merger of leading PR firm Echo and digital agency RevoTech. The goal: combining traditional PR and technology to develop integrated campaigns that go beyond supporting clients’ businesses and reputations to build lasting relationships with their most important audiences. In short, delivering ways for clients to better, and more creatively, reach today’s complex and connected consumers.

Under the direction of Echo founder Anthony Larmon and former RevoTech business development director Saw Thura Win, Era's upward trajectory is moving at rapid speed. Launched in March, Era today has a staff 80-plus strong. Based on confirmed earnings, the agency’s combined fee revenues are expected to nearly double to $1.8 million by the end of 2019.

Era's key existing clients are Coca-Cola (consumer & corporate), Facebook, Huawei (corporate), Myanma Posts & Telecommunications (largest local telco), Microsoft, Dagon Beer, IFC/World Bank, Thilawa Special Economic Zone (Myanmar's only active special economic zone) and Golden City mixed-use development. New business wins include UnionPay, Ministry of Hotels & Tourism, Maybelline, MPT Money, Tetra Pak, Honor Smartphones, Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels (Peninsula Hotel), Carlsberg Asia and Nestlé. — DM

SourceCode Communications (US, Independent)

There hasn’t been a shortage of new tech firms hitting the market over the last few years. But it is notable when a new firm emerges and moves right into producing award-winning work combined with solid, and sustainable, business performance.

Former Hotwire execs Greg Mondshein and Becky Honeyman launched SourceCode in the fall of 2017 and grew last year into a $1.7m business that operated at 42% profitability. Although SourceCode focuses exclusively on technology brands, the firm is committed to having a level of humanity at the core of tech communications. SourceCode is built on a fundamental belief that human beings create and tell the most effective stories, and that communicatons need to make an emotional connection between brands and consumers to succeed.The agency now has 10 full-time employees and 19 clients including 2018 newcomers such as Yotpo, Pindrop, Casaza, Elvie, SCRUFF, SOCi, FocusVision and Channel Bakers amongst others.

Other clients across its five key sectors — mobile & telecommunications, consumer technology, advertising & marketing technology, IT & enterprise and financial technology — include Blis, Puls, Rachio, 37.5 Technology, PCI Pal, Adzuna, Zailab and Felix Gray. To tackle the talent issues, especially as a new firm, SourceCode offers unlimited vacation, full benefits and flexible working arrangements. — DM