The team here at Octopus Communications is very excited to announce that we have been shortlisted in two categories of the Digital Impact Awards 2012.

Our entries, which demonstrated the recent work that we have done with both Cisco and SAP have been recognised in the 'Best Corporate Viral Campaign' and the 'Best Community Development' categories respectively.

As a business, we are delighted to have been shortlisted for awards in the digital sector and are so pleased that the judges were impressed by the work which we are particularly proud of. We've long believed in the power of fully integrated communications, bringing together key marketing and communications disciplines to deliver the best possible results for our clients.  It's great to see that the industry is also recognising this and shortlisting campaigns such as KayakAttack for Cisco and Think Bigger for SAP for these prestigious awards.

Good luck to all those who have been shortlisted and we're keeping our fingers crossed for success on awards night!

We're delighted to announce that Octopus Group has been nominated by The Holmes Report for its prestigious Global Sabre Award for Outstanding Technology Consultancy for 2011. This follows the Group's award for European Outstanding Technology Consultancy, awarded earlier in the year.

The nomination highlights Octopus Group's strong technology expertise, international service capabilities and integrated approach, demonstrated by a growing client list that includes Cisco, Verizon, Sony, Trend Micro, Colt, Computacenter, Meltwater, Basware, Iris and the IET.

"It's great to be recognised at this level for the kind of work that we're doing. These are times of big change in the comms industry and we've been incredibly successful in helping brands manage that. It's paying off for their businesses and for ours - we were able to grow by 22% last year and we're on track to significantly beat that this year on the back of integrating PR, research, marketing and digital on an international scale. We're seeing significant growth across all areas even in these tough times," said Sandy Purewal, Octopus Group CEO.

Octopus Group is focused on helping brands change the way they are talked about through customer-driven integrated communications in the UK and internationally, delivered through specialist brands - Octopus Communications, Rocket and Loudhouse - and our international network, ION.

The Group is 152nd in the global PR agency rankings according to the Holmes Report and 7th in PR Week's UK Technology League table. The economic outlook may remain uncertain but things at the Group are looking pretty good!

This morning the CIPR announced the shortlist for the annual PR Excellence Awards, and for the second year running Octopus Group has been shortlisted for Outstanding Agency of the Year.

As you can imagine, we are all feeling pretty chuffed this morning.

2010 was pretty monumental for us. Priding ourselves on being astute at all times, in 2010 we went around the entire agency questioning everything we do and changing it if it was the right thing to do. The result was new processes, new approaches and some pretty amazing campaigns that took our clients into totally new leagues.

Internally, our team grew by 21% and our training investment went up by 70% which enabled 20% of the team to get promoted. Our staff satisfaction showed a record level of engagement - four times the national average according to Gallup.

We beat much older, bigger agencies to win business with some incredible international brands including Cisco Europe, Trend Micro, BMW and Meltwater. And 40% of our existing clients increased their spend with us because we were able to provide them with more services and prove greater value to their businesses.

We have now been shortlisted for outstanding consultancy eight times in six years (three times by the CIPR).  Will we bring home the silverware this year?

Will this year be our year, we shall have to wait and see. Fingers crossed.