Agency of the Year 2018 survey winners announced

Alma Media Corporation    Press Release 8 February 2018 

AGENCY OF THE YEAR 2018 SURVEY WINNERS ANNOUNCED 

The best marketing communications agencies selected in the Agency of the Year survey, held for the second time now in Finland, were announced today at a gala held at Wanha Satama in Helsinki. The awards for the best agencies are based on the evaluations given in the survey by customers who have purchased marketing services. The survey respondents are marketing decision-makers from the agencies’ major customer businesses. The survey received 905 responses. 

Based on the customers’ responses, the following agencies received the highest scores in the seven categories of the survey: 

Marketing communications agencies*: 
Sales margin over EUR 5 million: Bob the Robot
Sales margin under EUR 5 million: Ivalo Creative Agency 

Customer insight agencies:
Frankly Partners 

Design agencies:
Agency Leroy 

Technology and marketing agencies:
Oikio Digital Performance Agency 

Media agencies:
IUM Finland 

Communications, PR and content agencies:
Republic of Communications 

In addition, the following agencies received honourable mentions for their specialist services based on the survey:  

TBWA: strategic expert 

Sherpa: innovativeness 

Virta: digital expert 

Ellun Kanat: initiative and proactiveness 

Kurio: creativity and new ideas 

Based on a concept developed by Swedish research and strategy agency Regi, Agency of the Year is a survey on customer satisfaction among buyers of marketing, advertising and communication services, as well as the criteria influencing the choice of agency and trends in the marketing industry. A survey with the same content is conducted in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The market research agency Norstat Finland is responsible for collecting data and analysing the results, while the concept’s marketing and deployment is the responsibility of Alma Media and Regi. The Association of Finnish Advertisers and the Finnish Association of Marketing, Technology and Creativity are supporters of comprehensive marketing industry research. 

“I am particularly happy that nearly all of the agencies who participated in the survey for the first time last year in Finland also participated this year, and that there were also more than ten new participants. In my opinion, this means that agencies see the study as being very beneficial. The development of customer relationships is long-term work, and the study provides participating agencies with a lot of valuable insight into their own strengths, while also giving them the possibility do develop in areas that are important to their customers. The agencies participating for the second time can already see how they have developed. I think this is the greatest benefit of the survey, and the reason why the Swedish survey has become one of the most significant development projects in the industry, with 150 agencies and nearly 2,500 respondents each year,” says Pia Grahn, CEO of research and strategy agency Regi. 

Conducting the Agency of the Year survey 

The Agency of the Year survey evaluates the participating agencies’ operations based on the customer’s experience of the value of the cooperation, service, expertise and results. A total of 905 responses to the Internet survey carried out in September–November 2017 were accepted into the final research data, which was 180 more responses than a year ago. The material was collected from customer companies indicated by the agencies, primarily partners in cooperation. The survey data was supplemented with telephone interviews. 

A total of 56 agencies participated in the survey in the different categories. The participation criteria for agencies were the number of customer companies responding to the survey (minimum of approx. 8 customer companies per agency), the value of the customer’s marketing investments (min. EUR 25,000 per customer over the past 12months) and the agency’s sales margin over 12 months. Furthermore, the respondents were expected to be established clients, having worked with the evaluated agency for at least three months and over the past 12 months. 

The survey assessed the grounds for selection of and cooperation with the customer in a number of ways: project management and leadership, brand expertise, content generation and creativity, business and strategic excellence, digital expertise, quality/price ratio perceived by the customer, achievement of set goals, likelihood of good references, weaknesses and areas of development, the customer’s willingness to change agencies or reasons for the change, and the customer’s wishes for expert services in the future. Participating in the survey is free of charge for agencies and respondents. All the agencies and respondents receive a summary of the Agency of the Year survey and, if they wish, they can also purchase a more detailed agency-specific analysis of their operations. 

“The Agency of the Year survey is an industry-wide development project that aims to promote fruitful, long-term cooperation between customers purchasing marketing and communications services and agencies that provide these services. Our goal is to see an improvement in marketing expertise, goal setting and results in Finland. These factors increase the rate of growth and internationalisation of marketing companies. It’s great that so many agencies in Finland have dared to take the initiative in measuring and developing their own operations and that marketing decision-makers as respondents have participated on such a broad scale,” says Elina Kukkonen, Senior Vice President, Communications and Brand at Alma Media. 

Further information:
Pia Grahn, CEO, Regi Research & Strategi Ab, tel. +46 70 768 8101
Elina Kukkonen, Senior Vice President, Communications and Brand, Alma Media Corporation, tel. +358 10 665 2333

Alma Media in brief

Alma Media is a media company focusing on the service business and journalistic content. The company’s best-known brands are Kauppalehti, Talouselämä, Affärsvärlden, Iltalehti, Aamulehti, Etuovi.com and Monster. Alma Media builds sustainable growth for its customers by utilising the opportunities of digitality, including information services, system and expert services and advertising solutions. Alma Media’s operations have expanded from Finland to the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Central Europe. Alma Media employs approximately 2,300 professionals (excluding delivery personnel), of whom approximately 30% work outside Finland. Alma Media’s revenue in 2016 was EUR 353.2 million. Alma Media’s share is listed on NASDAQ Helsinki. Read more at www.almamedia.com.