With owners who sing a personalised birthday song to celebrate every employees birthday, it’s no surprise that New Zealand-headquartered Alexander PR (APR) has been named ‘Best Agency to Work For (Micro), APAC’ for the third consecutive year at the 2023 SABRE Asia-Pacific Awards.
The agency also won the Public Affairs category, for its work on ‘Helping Ukraine from New Zealand – Anastasiya Gutorova with Alexander PR’, which was presented to APR’s team at the SABRE Awards ceremony in Singapore on 27 September 2023.
Commenting on the win, the judges said: “Alexander PR wins Best Agency to Work For honours for the third consecutive year in this category, underpinned by an empathetic staff culture that is reflected not only in the long tenures of its 11 staffers, but in the many opportunities it provides for their growth. There were uniformly high scores across the board, including such metrics as leadership values, confidence in senior management, an authentic culture, empathetic leadership, and ethics policies.
“‘Open, supportive, and creative’ is how one employee describes the culture, while others note the team is ‘positive, powerful, and inclusive’. Alexander PR’s focus on culture includes investing in staffers’ personal passions, parental and long leave, and retention initiatives that foster an environment where every staffer feels responsible for HR. Employees even appear to enjoy the personalised birthday song that the two company owners ‘elaborately’ sing for them over the phone to start their special day off.”
This win was closely followed by the agency being recognised in the global Hyer Culture Changers Awards, naming Alexander PR in the ‘Culture 50 – Emerging Companies, The Top 50 Most Rewarding Emerging Companies to work for in NZ’.
Demonstrating the globally active agency’s commitment to working on projects the team champions, APR threw itself into a pro bono project which caught the SABRE Awards judges’ attention:
- 2023 SABRE Asia-Pacific Awards, Winner
- Advocacy – Public Affairs
- Helping Ukraine from New Zealand – Anastasiya Gutorova with Alexander PR
- Advocacy – Public Affairs
- 2023 SABRE Asia-Pacific Awards, Finalist
- Geographic – Australia/New Zealand
- Helping Ukraine from New Zealand – Anastasiya Gutorova with Alexander PR
- Geographic – Australia/New Zealand
The 2023 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific shortlist was selected from more than 1,200 entries recognising superior achievement in branding, reputation and engagement. This year’s campaigns were evaluated by a jury of more than 60 industry leaders.
For Alexander PR Co-Founder Kate Alexander, the recognition of the 2023 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific for the team’s culture and work is representative of the business’ values.
“We started Alexander PR almost 20 years ago with the intention of doing things differently in our industry. Many of our founding clients and team members remain with us all these years later, and I believe that plays a key role in what continues to make our team and work stand out.
“We have been up against some big, international agencies each year – but it’s our relentless pursuit of results, our problem-solving mindset, and our care for each other that is proving the winning formula. I am immensely proud of our team and grateful to our clients for trusting us to support them.”
Co-Founder Dwayne Alexander says: “Getting a phone call that says ‘We need your special brand of assistance’ is what gets us up in the morning. Creating results and shifting conversations through evidence-based communications is in our DNA. For our team, their well-being is paramount, as handling a crisis situation requires a special kind of resilience when you do it day in and day out. This is the third consecutive year we have been judged ‘Best Place to Work’ in APAC which plays to our philosophy – we take great care of our team, and our team takes great care of our clients.”
