Our clients
What they say
“In the last three years, we've gone on something of an “impact journey” - one which I'm sure would not have happened had it not been for the thoughtful insight, advice, and expertise of AKAS. Whether crafting an entire impact framework from scratch, or just being on the end of the phone to offer advice, AKAS have given us the tools and knowledge we so vitally need to measure and understand the impact of our projects. Their industry expertise is second to none, and we're both reassured and grateful to call them our partner.”
Rachel White, Executive Vice President, Philanthropic and Strategic Partnerships, Guardian News & Media
“…As well as developing individual and team strategic objectives, Richard with Luba developed the team's storytelling skills through a specific programme of training and development. This has allowed the team to bring insight to life for our commercial and editorial teams. During this time, we have seen a dramatic increase in performance of both key individuals and the team as a whole; culminating in winning the prestigious Market Research Society's “In-house team of the year” award – a testament to AKAS' contribution and commitment to excellence.”
Tim Hunt, Former Director of Marketing, The Guardian
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Impact strategy
Youth Insights
Mission, vision & corporate narrative development
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
Strategic communications & corporate narratives
Executive Facilitation
“I chose AKAS to work on the World Bank Group's Corporate Communications Strategy because of their world class expertise in merging strategic thinking, audience insight, storytelling and creative development. I was also impressed by their Board Level experience in the media and not for profit sectors. I have not been disappointed. AKAS didn’t offer cookie-cutter solutions but really listened and understood our unique challenges. Its insight, rigour and creativity have already had an impact at the World Bank Group in helping to translate our aspirational goals into engaging communications with real advocacy outcomes.”
Jeremy Hillman, Director Corporate Communications, The World Bank Group
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Impact strategy
Multi-methodology research
Mission, vision & corporate narrative development
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
“Whether extracting valuable insights from a complex research project such as the Aid Attitudes Tracker, helping us with a robust portfolio-level impact assessment, or providing us with a comprehensive profiling of youth audiences, AKAS has proven to be the most valuable thought partner. Our work would not have been the same without their contributions.”
Miguel Castro, Global Media Partnerships, Communications, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
“The facilitation and the structuring of the session was among the very best I have ever seen.”
Santanu Chakrabarti, formerly at Oxfam (After a facilitation session, which was part of a project AKAS was running for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
“Just wanted to drop a line and say thanks for an excellent morning today – I really enjoyed the discussion. Thanks especially to Luba and Richard for your facilitation – significant agenda to get through in 4 and a bit hours and to get such a positive and mutually supportive atmosphere even better!”
Will Tucker, formerly at VSO (After a facilitation session, which was part of a project AKAS was running for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
AKAS offer:
Executive Facilitation
“We have very positive experiences of working with AKAS. They really helped us understand how we were perceived in our countries of operations and had very useful suggestions on how we might strengthen our position. They were thorough, responsive and knowledgeable.”
Jonathan Charles, Managing Director, Communications, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Executive Facilitation
“C40 has benefited from 2 excellent cross-cultural facilitation trainings delivered by AKAS. The preparation and delivery was thorough, thoughtful and personalised to our needs. Two years after the first training, I still see the learnings being applied by my team which has not been the case with other trainings we've done. AKAS has helped us to better understand, engage and effectively facilitate exchanges amongst C40's diverse group of city officials.”
Shannon Lawrence, Director of Global Initiatives, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
“I wanted to extend you both a very big thank you for your amazing work with us. The team is still buzzing from it; they got so much value out of the 2 days, and came away with not only great new ideas, but a renewed enthusiasm for their work. They’re a tough bunch to please, but you still managed to exceed their expectations. So thank you!”
Terri Wills, Director of Global Initiatives, C40 Cities
"Luba and Richard have provided excellent training on facilitation within and across cultures to C40's Climate Action Planning programme, that has proved extremely beneficial to our work. We are already seeing an impact in the way we design agendas and facilitate more interactive workshops. Luba and Richard have been extremely flexible in designing a training that fitted the needs and logistics of our team, and have demonstrated to be highly prepared and great facilitators themselves. The training was filled with tangible examples from their vast experiences, always paired with a very friendly and engaging attitude. We would definitely recommend their expertise and services and we hope to collaborate with them again in the future"
Michael Doust, Programme Director, Measurement and Planning, C40 Cities
AKAS offer:
Multi-methodology research
“We have worked with AKAS for more than two years with one of our independent media investees in Ukraine. Their comprehensive approach to analysing the problem and systematically mapping out a pragmatic solution in the Ukrainian context has been excellent. Their work has transformed the way that the company views its audience and has resulted in a range of strategic and operational changes. They have kept us up to date with frequent and detailed reports and face to face meetings throughout the engagement - I would highly recommend them.”
Stephen King, Partner, Omidyar Network
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Impact strategy
Multi-methodology research
Mission, vision & corporate narrative development
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
Executive Facilitation
Business Modelling & Foresight Analysis
“AKAS are true wizards of numbers, who are able to convert polls into love of audiences and hard work of teams. On top of being fiercely professional, they are also warm and caring. Working with them feels like being cared for by your fairy godmother. But the result of the AKAS magic - is your growth of understanding of your audience, and increased professionalism of your team.”
Katya Gorchinskaya, CEO, Hromadske (Independent media in Ukraine)
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Impact strategy
Multi-methodology research
Mission, vision & corporate narrative development
“Dear Luba and Richard, I write to thank you formally for your daring and outstanding research. I have also been immensely impressed by your understanding of the fact that delivering messages to key stakeholders in an open and constructive dialogue is really as important as the findings of the research. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you and I hope we work together again.”
Dorothy Byrne, Commissioner of News and Current Affairs, Channel 4
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Youth Insights
Executive Facilitation
“A unique and bespoke strategic communications boutique. Luba and Richard provide illuminating and actionable audience insights. Using an intelligent mix of data, evidence and creativity, they are helping us develop engaging strategies for impact.”
James Whittington, Communications Director, Children's Investment Fund Foundation
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Mission, vision & corporate narrative development
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
Executive Facilitation
“As a result of your analysis, our London plus strategy has been fully endorsed for the next ten years. This is an amazing result and could not have been done without your brilliant work.”
Chris Gottlieb, Director of Strategy, Brand & Communications, London & Partners
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
Executive Facilitation
Business Modelling & Foresight Analysis
“After seeing AKAS present at a marketing conference, Strategy Analytics retained the firm to support our objective of improving the effectiveness of SA’s research and consulting. AKAS served as a catalyst in raising awareness of the power of storytelling to enhance data-based analysis and insights. Through a series of workshops, AKAS engaged our team in a process which combined insights on human behaviour with structural guidelines for more effective communication with our clients and prospects. AKAS has achieved success by shifting the perspective of our analysts and consultants in what we believe will provide an ongoing return on our investment.”
Harvey Cohen, President, Strategy Analytics, Inc.
AKAS offer:
Multi-methodology research
Strategic communications & corporate narratives
“We attended AKAS’ half-day storytelling session which I would recommend to anyone who is involved in presenting content to audiences. The session was full of insight, technique and examples with a sound theoretical underpinning, delivered in a lively session held authoritatively and with humour by Richard and Luba. The session was a compelling advocate for the value of storytelling, and how to do it well. It has had an immediate impact on the team in terms of our approach to storytelling, and is testament to the quality of the training and follow up sessions that we were able to apply the learnings so readily!”
Jo Graham, Research Director, nfpSynergy
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Strategic communications & corporate narratives
“[I would recommend AKAS Blossom surveys] Without any hesitation. For me it isn't about just thinking what you think the school needs, or what you feel, or your gut. It's about making sure it is based on research so that you can really put that research into your school development plan so then it becomes a key driver to move your school forward based on facts and what actually is required. Therefore for pupils, staff and parents you have a clear plan of action based on the evidence you have got from the Blossom survey.”
Schools in London Borough of Merton: Fiona Duffy, Headteacher, Dundonald Primary School
“Gorringe Park Primary School ‘requires improvement’. In this situation, as a new head with a new management team, it would be very easy to bring in change based on ‘gut’ feelings. Although I was satisfied that I had recruited well to my leadership team, I wanted to look at the ways they could be developed. The Blossom team was able to analyse the team very effectively and present us with the key areas we needed to develop. This in turn has informed training needs far more accurately.”
Schools in London Borough of Merton: Simon Elledge, Headteacher, Gorringe Park Primary School
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
“[AKAS’] Audience strategy work completed for Action for Children was cited by one colleague as the most insightful presentation he'd ever seen in all his time (2 years) at the charity. High praise that indicates that whilst we all have a wealth of data and research at our disposal, this is often a barrier to doing the right thing unless you have a means of distilling this down and bringing the important gems to life. This is where AKAS helped us the most.”
Sheona Michie, Action for Children
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Multi-methodology research
Executive Facilitation
"AKAS have put together a tailored, interactive and insightful webinar about audience engagement for a group of grantees and partner media outlets. After the session, Luba and Richard also kindly answered follow up questions coming from the group members. As hosts we were impressed by the originality and precision of the work delivered, as were the participants who provided extremely positive feedback to us as part of a survey. Overall, it was a pleasure to work with them."
Program on Independent Journalism, Open Society Foundations
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
Corporate & Brand Strategy Consultancy
Richard from AKAS helped us develop the strategy for a new pooled fund to support independent, public interest journalism in Europe. We have been working together for half a year now, and it’s been an absolute pleasure.
Together with Richard we put together tailored meetings which resulted in an ambitious yet realistic strategy that is inline with the needs of the field. He engaged our wide group of stakeholders in a very interactive and diplomatic way. All our meeting participants (and I) were immensely impressed by AKAS' methodology, thoughtful insight, and understanding of the field. I felt like we got twice as much out of each meeting and it was great to see the fantastic feedback we got from the participants in an anonymous survey after the first meeting. Several people explicitly recommended we’d work with Richard again!
But he was not just an excellent facilitator. He provided us with all sorts of strategic advice and extracted valuable insights from research and opinion polls for us. But more than anything, I felt he really “owned” the project we had been working on together – which was truly invaluable.
Léonie van Tongeren, Fund Manager of Civitates
AKAS offer:
Audience strategy, insights and future analysis
“AKAS has helped us think more systematically about how to measure and track the impact of our work, and develop a solid reporting framework to track it. Thanks to these discussions, we have refined our communications strategy by putting impact at the center of our work and developed internal and external narratives based on the real-work outcomes we seek to have in the world, which is to advance clean energy transitions while ensuring access to affordable and secure energy for all.”
Jad Mouawad, Head of Communications and Digital at the International Energy Agency (IEA)
AKAS offer:
Impact strategy