From the glittering, holiday-decorated heights of the St Pancras Renaissance hotel, the greats of the global PR world celebrated excellence among their ranks. At last week’s annual ICCO Global Awards, the best agencies and individiuals in public relations from the international professional body were celebrated in London.

In the ‘Regional independent consultancy of the year’ category, London’s Instinctif Partners took home the EMEA prize. The consultancy has been on a tear since its 2014 rebrand, winning the top awards at the Corporate & Financial Awards and the PRCA Awards this year. MWWPR was honoured for its work in the Americas. The organisation has been led by founder Michael Kempner since 1986 who has recently overseen its growth into new markets. AdfactorsPR took home the APAC award for its work in India and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.

David Gallagher, CEO of Ketchum Europe and ICCO jury president says, “I’m delighted to see such a deserving set of cases from around the world recognised in this year’s competition – a reflection not only of high-quality work but of ICCO’s growing influence on the global communications sector.”

ICCO also honoured some of the world’s best PR campaigns, including MSLGroup’s work with Always on its ‘Like a girl’ project and Interel Group’s crisis management work during the Volkswagen emissions crisis.

Inducted into the ICCO Hall of Fame were Karen van Bergen, CEO of Omnicom, Jack Martin, CEO and chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies and David Gallagher, international president of growth and development at Omnicom.

The evening was skillfully presented by CNN journalist Hannah Vaughan Jones.

The full list of winners is as follows:

REGIONAL NETWORK OF THE YEAR
EMEA: Cohn & Wolfe
AMERICAS: Ketchum
APAC: FleishmanHillard

REGIONAL INDEPENDENT CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR
EMEA: Instinctif Partners
AMERICAS: MWWPR
APAC: Adfactors PR
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – MEDIA RELATIONS
Weber Shandwick – Daughters of Mother India
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – CONSUMER
Cohn & Wolfe – The Swedish Number
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – DIGITAL & NEW MEDIA
MSLGROUP – Always Like A Girl Emojis
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – B2B
Kwittken – 100 Years of Business Travel
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – CSR
MSLGROUP – Always Like A Girl Emojis
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – NOT FOR PROFIT
Weber Shandwick – #BrutalCut
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – TECHNOLOGY
Netprofile – Podcasting a brand into the hearts of hard-to-get B2B professionals
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – CRISIS & ISSUES
Interel Group – Volkswagen and emissions – defusing the crisis in Belgium
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – BROADCAST
Weber Shandwick – Daughters of Mother India
 
WORLD’S BEST PR CAMPAIGN – HEALTHCARE
FleishmanHillard Fishburn and Ketchum Research – Future Health Index
 
RISING STAR OF THE YEAR
Stephan Thalen
 
PR LEADER OF THE YEAR
Rob Flaherty
 
ICCO HALL OF FAME 2016               
Karen van Bergen, Omnicom Public Relations Group
Jack Martin, Hill+Knowlton Strategies
David Gallagher, Omnicom Public Relations Group