Sanoma Corporation, Press Release, 19 November 2012 at 16:15 CET+1

November is awards-show-time for content marketing. The Pearl Awards ceremony in New York opened the game earlier this month; Sanoma content marketing companies were granted altogether seven awards. Sanoma is also nominated for the Customer Media Grand prix in Amsterdam and for Content Marketing Awards in London later this month.

Recent Sanoma acquisition, Head Office from Belgium won an amazing five awards at the most prestigious content marketing award gala, the Pearl Awards ceremony in New York on 5 November 2012. One Pearl Award was granted to another Belgian Sanoma content marketing company sQills and one - Golden Pearl, to the Sanoma Independent Media Custom Publishing unit from Russia.

Sanoma companies are also nominated five times in the CMA Content Marketing Awards in London on 28 November: four nominations for Head Office and one for Sanoma Custom Publishing in Finland. In addition, Head Office is nominated in the Customer Media Grand Prix in Amsterdam on 22 November.

“These awards and nominations are visible proof of our competences and consistent, international quality standards,” says Chris Van Gils, Content Marketing Director, Sanoma Media Belgium.

Content marketing, often referred to as custom publishing, customer media or branded media as well, is a quickly developing and growing industry – one of the new areas explored by marketing organizations. For Sanoma, content marketing is strategically important and also a very natural focus area: creating desired and relevant content is one of our core competences and we know the needs of advertising customers very intimately.

“According to recent studies, advertisers are increasing their budgets allocated in owned media.  Custom made content programs combined with smart customer relationship management have a proven effect on sales and return on marketing investments," Chris van Gils continues.


Additional information
Chris van Gils, Content Marketing Director, Sanoma Media Belgium, tel +32 2 776 2102, chris.vangils@sqills.be

Sanoma inspires, informs and connects. Sanoma is a leading European group with a focus on consumer media and learning. We bring information, experiences, education and entertainment to millions of people every day. We employ nearly 11,000 professionals in some 20 countries. In 2011, the Group’s restated net sales totalled EUR 2.4 billion. Sanoma shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.