2024 Nordic PR Consultancies of the Year

2024 Nordic Consultancies of the Year

The 2024 EMEA PR Consultancies of the Year are the result of an exhaustive research process involving more than 200 submissions and meetings with the best PR firms across the UK, Europe the Middle East and Africa. Analysis of each of the Winners and finalists across 20 geographic and specialist categories can be accessed via the navigation menu to the right or below. Winners wee unveiled at the 2024 EMEA SABRE Awards, which took place in London on 17 April.

You can find the 2024 SABRE Awards EMEA winners here.

Winner

Trigger Oslo (Norway/Independent)

Backstory

Trigger was launched in 2010 by founder and managing director Preben Carlsen, a thirtysomething former IKEA communication manager, and made quite an impact over its first decade, becoming the biggest SABRE Awards winner in Norway and being named both Nordic Consultancy of the Year and Creative Consultancy of the Year by this publication. Since its establishment in 2010, the agency has been a pioneer in "engaging communications", a unique approach that actively involves the audience to foster participation and amplify engagement. This approach has been so successful that it has been incorporated into the curriculum of a prestigious Norwegian marketing institution.

Locations

Trigger is headquartered in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

Performance

Trigger grew revenue by 26% in 2023 to NOK80m, representing a record high. The firm’s client roster includes industry giants such as Samsung, Google, and Coca-Cola, along with new business from Havila, Saint Gobain, Redningsselskapet, and TINE.

People & Culture

Trigger's culture is highly inclusive and diverse, with women making up 63% of the workforce and 12% coming from various ethnic backgrounds. The agency's leadership is evenly split between men and women. This commitment is also reflected in the firm’s creative work, as evidenced by award-winning campaigns developed in partnership with minority groups. As a partner-owned agency, Trigger makes much of the absence of hierarchy, but key creative leaders include Magdalena Kamøy and Bjørnar Thorsen, both of whom have been with the firm for more than 10 years, while Bente Kvam Kristoffersen is CEO.

Thought Leadership & Work

Trigger has long demonstrated an impressive ability when it comes thought leadership and innovative work. These include an award-winning vaccine campaign developed with minority youngsters, the "Hate with no name" campaign that reached over four million people, a project with Coca-Cola during Ramadan that garnered international attention, and efforts to increase public knowledge of Sami nuances by involving Sami people in the creative process. Trigger’s work over the past year has included a specific focus on implementing neuroscience and AI.

— Arun Sudhaman

Finalists

Aura Group (Independent)

Backstory

Swedish corporate and financial firm Hallvarsson & Halvarsson was founded in 1995, before a sale to DF King Worldwide in 2008 and a subsequent MBO by Johan Ramsten, Martin Petersson, Anders Halvarsson and Staffan Lindgren in 2014. That launched H&H Group, which acquired high profile marketing agency Springtime to complement original firms H&H and Comprend. In the following years, a number of agencies were acquired, including 2022 deals for Nordic Morning (Martech), Mods (AI picture enhancements), Pyramid (B2B marketing), Petra (B2B digital marketing) and Graal (brand strategy). These acquisitions helped H&H grow by 50%, before it restructured in 2023, consolidating 250 employees under the Comprend brand, streamlining financial communs under the H&H brand and merging Identx and Savvy Design with Intellecta to form a public sector and social change agency. The parent group has since been rebranded as Aura to better reflect these three strategic offerings across trust, growth and technology.

Locations

Around 70% of the firm’s revenue comes from its home market of Sweden, while there are also offices in Finland, the UK, and Poland.

Performance

Despite a minor decrease in fee income to $71.9m in 2023, Aura Group continues to demonstrate strong business performance across its 537-strong employee base, including key client relationships with major companies such as Ericsson, Scania, Spotify, Samsung, Diageo, Volkswagen, Alfa Laval, SSAB, H&M, Porsche, Swedish Railways, and The EU Commission.

People & Culture

The agency's commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in its balanced gender representation, with women constituting 60% of the group and 50% of each agency's management teams. Key staff members, including Anna Grönlund, Jonas Sevenius, Åse Bäckström, Mikko Pältomäki, and Lars Tengen, have been crucial in driving the agency's success. Despite the slight decrease in income and workforce, Aura Group's ability to retain top-tier clients and maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce highlights its resilience and adaptability in a challenging market environment.

Thought Leadership & Work

There have been numerous thought leadership initiatives across the various agency brands, while campaign work is characterized by a unique blend of creativity and strategic acumen, resulting in impactful campaigns for such clients as Samsing H&M and EA Sports.

— Arun Sudhaman

Spotlight (Sweden/Independent)

Backstory

Chairman Johan Wetterqvist and CEO Axel Lagerbielk have seen Spotlight grow year after year since launching the Stockholm firm in 2005. At that time, Spotlight offered a new take on PR, one that puts driving business results for clients at the center of its work. That approach encompasses the firm’s strengths across technology, consumer, creative, digital marketing and thought leadership, including a Spotlight Scorecard that measures the firm’s work on three levels: output, brand effect and business impact.

Locations

Spotlight PR is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Performance

2023 was Spotlight’s best ever year since its founding, capping the year as a $4.2 million, 28-person business, continuing its four-year record-setting revenue streak. The agency continued its expansion of services, launching an AI practice while continuing to grow the strategy and creative teams and sustainability offer created in 2022. There was a strong new business haul from Columbus, Compass Group, Dina Försäkringar, Libresse, Pagero, TechSverige, Tork and Zipforce, joining a client roster that already included Adobe, Campari, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Cointreau, Eaton, Essity, Hendricks, Randstad, Reitan Convenience, Strato and Zaptec.

People & Culture

Camaraderie has always been core to Spotlight’s culture, and the sense of community that comes with that was never more important in the four years since the first Covid shutdowns. Spotlight’s leaders implemented a variety of means to keep its team unified and made a series of key hires that has built out the firm’s leadership team to include Åsa Hart, Aron Samuelsson, Axel Lagerbielke, Johan Wetterqvist, Isadora Cugler, Robin Kvarnström, Tommy Perlhamre and Stefan Rydén. Spotlight’s office manager Jenny Ericsson is also the agency’s designated culture ambassador. An equal gender split is reinforced by complete pay equity. Upon joining the firm, employees sign a document signifying agreement with the agency’s principles around diversity, equality, inclusion and respect for individuals.

Thought Leadership & Work

While media relations is still at the heart of Spotlight’s work, the agency has expanded into thought leadership and integrated campaigns to keep pace with client needs. 2023 saw the agency launch an AI practice, adding expertise in this field to embrace new opportunities in content production. The agency also expanded its thought leadership offering to include a 360-degree perspective; It also added new LinkedIn training products as well as services around sustainability reporting. Spotlight’s work included its Gold SABRE Award-winning campaign for trade group Almega and SABRE-shortlisted campaigns for liqueur brand Likör 43.

— Diana Marszalek

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