We are delighted to have won two awards at the prestigious SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards 2022. So that’s a Gold for Service Excellence, and a Silver for Sue Keogh as Business Person of the Year.

How wonderful to take a step back for a moment and enjoy a night out together, at a really fun awards ceremony at Cambridge Country Club organised by Events and PR.

We were finalists in the follow categories:

• Service Excellence<<<GOLD!!!

• Business Person of the Year for our Founder, Sue Keogh<<<SILVER!!!

• Business of the Year (Under 50 Employees)<<<Congratulations to Intelligent Membranes for your win!

“I can’t tell you how proud I am,” says Director Sue Keogh. “We’ve always put a focus on looking after our clients and ensuring we deliver an outstanding level of service, but in the last year we’ve taken a lot of steps behind the scenes to finetune our processes. And with the creation of a Project Manager role we have a dedicated person to look after onboarding and delivery of the project all the way through.

”As a business owner, it seems like every day presents a new challenge; if it’s not the pandemic and the lockdowns, it’s a turbulent economy and tense geopolitical situation over which we have no control. Throughout this, as a team we have stuck together, supported each other, praised each other’s work, laughed at each other’s jokes, shared our knowledge, and listened whenever anyone had a reason to struggle.

”During our recent hiring process a comment that came up a lot was that it looked like we have a good company culture - well, we have! And because we have this internally, it radiates out to our clients. Winning Gold for Service Excellence means a great deal to all of us because we have always, always put the client first, putting ourselves in their shoes and coming up with solutions to their problems. Being the size we are means we are nimble and can act quickly too, making sure that everyone gets a personal service.

“So well done to the Sookio team. I’m so lucky to work alongside such a talented, caring and hilarious bunch of people.”

Some highlights from the year

We’ve run highly successful campaigns with clients including the University of Cambridge Museums and partners, Huntingdonshire and South Cambridgeshire District Councils, Eastern Learning Alliance and NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group.

We’ve filmed at the London Stock Exchange, in botanic gardens and concert halls - and even HRH Prince Charles.

We’ve got people to DO things. Like flock to arts venues and sixth form open days, revisit their local high street, and call 111 to reduce pressure on A&E. Behind the scenes we’ve been doing our best to look after our clients, not just through listening and supporting them but through our monthly Sookio Sharpener events - exclusive to clients - where we shared insights and tips to help them become better marketers too.

We also moved offices, packing up from our old HQ on Mill Road in Cambridge in the space of three weeks, and getting bedded into our wonderful new home, St John’s Innovation Centre - where we recently held a party for clients and friends (see above).

And Agency Bootcamp is just about to launch for year three! We’re really seeing the impact of our work experience initiative, in which 20 early career marketers have joined us for a week of remote work experience.

We love seeing the roles they’re securing and receiving kind messages saying how helpful our input was in getting these brilliant roles in marketing and communications.

About the SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards

Now in its fifth year, the #SMECambs awards are designed to support and raise the profile of industrious, hardworking and enterprising SMEs locally.

Our previous success includes:

• 2020 Business Person of the Year, Silver. Finalist in Enterprising Business of the Year

• 2019 Website of the Year, Gold. Community Business of the Year, Silver

• 2018 Business of the Year Less than 50 Employees, Business Innovation, Finalist

Wish us luck!

Many congratulations and best of luck to the other finalists this year. We can’t wait for the finals on 2 December. Next stop, Wembley!