IAS took home two awards apiece for new clients, engineering firm, Radicon ('Best Corporate Tagline' and ''Best Corporate Logo') and the world's leading provider of secure information management services, Iron Mountain ('Best eBook' and 'Best Multi-Channel Lead Generation, Middle Market').

IAS was also awarded a remarkable four awards for the agency's very own music and cultural festival, The Unbelievable IAStival. These included three 'Awards for Excellence' in the 'Best Proprietary Company Event, Single', 'Best Integrated Trade Show Marketing Program, under $100k' and 'Best Agency Promotion, Video' categories.

To top it all off, the IAStival also took home the 'Best of Category Winner' for 'Best Multi-Touch Program'. The IAStival, a training initiative like no other, put IAS employees to the test, challenging them to work together to organise an entire festival - the first ever run solely by an agency.

IAS MD, Rob Morrice was delighted with the results: "To follow up last year's tremendous success with yet another impressive haul of award wins is an exceptional triumph for the agency, made even sweeter with awards for two of our latest account wins, as well as for last summer's IAStival - which proved to be undoubtedly the most anticipated social event in B2B history."

"After being named the BMA's 'Agency of the Year' at last year's awards, we know how significant the BMA's B2 Awards are when it comes to recognising the very best in global b2b communications. We have global aspirations to be the best B2B agency in the world and winning awards of this calibre show that we are well on our way to realising this ambition."

The categories in which IAS took home awards are:

- Agency Promotion, Multi-Touch Program - IAStival (Best of Category Winner)

- Face-to-Face Marketing, Proprietary Company Event, Single - IAStival (Award of Excellence)

- Face-to-Face Marketing, Integrated Trade Show Marketing Program, under $100k - IAStival (Award of Excellence)

- Agency Promotion, Video - IAStival (Award of Excellence)

- Custom Publishing, eBook - Iron Mountain (Award of Excellence)

- Demand Generation, Multi-Channel Lead Generation, Middle Market - Iron Mountain (Award of Excellence)

- Corporate Brand/Identity, Corporate Tagline - Radicon (Award of Excellence)

- Corporate Brand/Identity, Corporate Logo - Radicon (Award of Excellence)

- Corporate Brand/Identity, Brand Standards/Guidelines - Trelleborg (Award of Excellence)

Formed by the integration of the Roses Advertising Awards and the Roses Design Awards, and organised by The Drum magazine, The Roses Creative Awards sets out to recognise: "great creative thinking, pure and simple".

Reuben Webb, Creative Director at IAS, commented: "Yet again we've proven that B2B agencies can compete with and outmanoeuvre our consumer counterparts. And it is great fun to be recognised as contributors to the UK creative community. But creativity is often considered the sole preserve of agency creatives. What we're most proud of here is that at IAS we encourage innovation from every quarter. The IAStival is a great example of an agency wide idea that is now award winning!"

Rob Morrice, managing director at IAS, commented: "In many ways, the RAR's are more important than many of the other awards we win as these are the only awards where clients get to tell the judges what they think about us!

"We know we are one of the best around at what we do; this just goes to show that our clients think so too. These awards aren't specifically B2B either, as they cover the full spectrum of consumer and B2B marketing agencies across the country, the best of the best - so to win the Grand Prix for a third year running is nothing short of remarkable!"

Recently named 'MD of the Year' at the 2011 MiAwards, Rob Morrice, managing director at IAS, commented: "A few years back we set the audacious goal of becoming the world's leading B2B agency, and with the acquisition of Aastroem Munier BBN, a fantastic French boutique agency which we have had the fortune of working closely with for many years, we are well on our way to achieving this.

"We have never been shy about our global aspirations as a business and in order for us to be the best on a global scale, it is essential that we have on the ground support in key markets. Research has shown that the French market holds massive potential, which coupled with the fact that we already have some large clients in the area, meant this move was a no brainer."

The latest addition to the IAS group will join the Manchester and London offices in their bid to be the world's leading B2B marcoms agency. The agency will trade under the name IAS b2b Marketing Paris.

The agency held an official launch ceremony at the British Embassy on 29th March at which BMA board member, Tom Stein, provided the keynote speech.

Tom commented on the news: "I have been following the growth of IAS for a few years now and really do believe they are innovating in the global B2B marketing arena, and have been for a while.

"I was delighted when they were chosen as BMA's agency of the year and wasn't surprised to hear that they were opening a new office in Paris. In order to meet their goal to be the best B2B agency, they have no choice but to expand into new markets and regions - it's the way the industry is moving. I am confident this isn't the last we will hear of IAS b2b Marketing."

In addition to Tom and Rob Morrice who spoke at the event, Stéphane Munier from Aastroem Munier BBN and the new Strategic Planning Director and Partner at IAS b2b Marketing Paris, will be taking to the stage to share his views on the acquisition.

"We are extremely excited to be a part of the IAS family and look forward to working with their dedicated team to take the IAS award-winning integrated offering to both new and existing clients - we are confident that we are going to shake things up for French B2B marketing." commented Stéphane.

Following the success of the IAStival in summer - the first ever agency run music festival - IAS hosted a mini version of the successful event at the launch in Paris. Shipping over three acts, including renowned poet Lemn Sissay, guests to the event experienced some of the forward thinking, enthusiastic culture that IAS holds to heart and has seen it get to where it is today.

The inaugural awards programme, launched for 2012 by PRmoment, celebrates the very best in public relations, recognising the campaigns, agencies, organisations and individuals transforming the UK's PR industry.

Paul Myerscough, Head of PR at IAS, commented: "With an exceptionally talented team at our disposal, we always strive to develop innovative campaigns producing outstanding results for our clients.

"To have our efforts recognised by a new, exciting awards scheme such as The Golden Hedgehogs, is testament to our enviable ability to create hard hitting campaign, after hard hitting campaign.

"Our hard work and passion for B2B PR is unrivalled, we are consistently successful at every awards scheme we enter, and believe me, we have no intentions of stopping any time soon!"

IAS is currently working with Atos on one of its most important marketing programmes for 2012, as well as five vertical and account based campaigns.

IAS's first campaign needed to position Atos as a key player in a market dominated by huge global players.

Reuben Webb, Creative Director at IAS commented: "We developed the category redefining positioning "The Business Technologists" which struck just the right note with a recession-hit market needing information technology to become properly business focussed. The Business Technologists was also a major coup for internal branding and was celebrated as a culture redefining moment. At last the humble IT guy could hold his head high as a Business Technologist."

With over 1,082 organisations having applied for the esteemed accreditation, and over 246,000 employees surveyed, just 515 organisations from both the private and public sector made the grade and were awarded either a 'One Star' (first class), 'Two Star' (outstanding) or 'Three Star' (extraordinary performance) status accreditation. IAS is one of only 179 UK companies to be awarded Best Companies 'Two Star' status accreditation.

Recently named 'MD of the Year' at the 2011 MiAwards, Rob Morrice, managing director at IAS, commented: "To achieve such an esteemed accreditation is a fantastic achievement and testament to our commitment into employee engagement - something which is always high on our agenda.

"Three years ago we set an 'audacious goal' to become the best B2B agency in the world, and as part of this, unveiled the values we need to hold dear to achieve it; courage, courtesy and learning. Without our dedicated staff, who not only live and breathe these values, but embrace our forward thinking, enthusiastic culture we wouldn't be where we are today - BMA's Agency of the Year!

"Being one of the very few, elite organisations to achieve the accreditation, proves we can more than hold our own against companies across all sectors, and nationally, so obviously we must be doing something right and long may it continue!"

Survey results showed that IAS staff felt valued and committed to the organisation. They felt they made a real, tangible contribution towards the success of the organisation.

This was evident in 2011, when IAS staged the IAStival, a training initiative like no other. IAS put its employees to the test, challenging them to work together to organise an entire festival - the first ever run solely by an agency, which proved to be undoubtedly the most anticipated social event in B2B history.

See the IAStival Documentary here: http://www.iastival.co.uk/videos/documentary

Rob Morrice, managing director at IAS commented: "As a pioneer for all things ground-breaking in B2B, it's safe to say we like to do things differently and never back down from a challenge.

"Make no mistake about it, the IAStival caused a huge stir on the industry scene, and that is exactly what we love doing."

The fun-filled weekend for over 500 staff, clients, family and friends included a packed programme of music and cultural activities. Headlining acts included Turin brakes; The Sunshine Underground; singer/ songwriter Bailey Tzuke - who's 'Uninvited' track charted number eight with the Freemasons - and the first commissioned poet for the 2012 Olympics, Lemn Sissay.

"With London reputed as the hotbed of world creativity, this goes to show that we are the best agency of any kind in the country at marketing ourselves and that we can come up with superb creative ideas that nobody else can dream of," adds Morrice.

"Considering that we only opened our London office in this year, picking up the award is a massive achievement - the time and effort that our staff invested in making what many deemed the impossible - possible, makes the award that extra bit special."

For pictures and videos from the IAStival visit www.iastival.co.uk/gallery

"Nikki demonstrated a great understanding of PR spanning trade, consumer, digital and social media. She has worked her way quickly up the ranks at IAS b2b to become PR and Social Media Account Manager, and is clearly thriving in a position which holds a great deal of responsibility," commented the panel.

"In addition to managing several accounts, regularly being part of new business pitches and discussing examples to back up her broad skills set, Nikki was able to demonstrate the impact that her PR campaigns have had on her clients too. Moreover, her passion for PR and her honest work ethic shone through."

Nikki joined IAS as a Graduate in 2007 and has consistently performed during her four years with the agency, immersing herself in new world PR channels, content and tactics. Her digital communications know-how played an instrumental part in the success of a Kingspan campaign targeting architects, which was shortlisted for 'Best Use of Social Media' as well as in the 'Integrated Communications' and 'Best Website' categories at this year's awards.

For further information visit http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/events-awards/pride-awards/pride-awards-results-2011/north-west

"B2B marketers generally take more convincing when it comes to investing the time, resource and finance to commit to a meaningful presence on web 2.0 platforms," says IAS Head of PR and Social Content, Paul Myerscough.

"Consequently our consumer counterparts naturally stole a march on the social media score. Winning 'Consultancy of the Year' in this category against any agency, of any kind, is a clear indication that B2B has found its social media footing and that the IAS offer is nationally held up as a leading agency model."

The IAS approach recognises social media as an increasing vital channel to market, but only as part of an integrated web-based dialogue programme - not an isolated discipline. To this end the agency has developed an eight step process to plan, manage and measure online engagement. This latest award win sees IAS B2B Marketing secure 12 industry accolades and nominations for its holistic and forward thinking social media stance during 2011 alone, with a total 34 trophies collected across all categories.

The MiNetwork's annual awards ceremony was held on Thursday 17th November 2011 in Manchester. IAS B2B Marketing's MD, Rob Morrice, was also named 'Managing Director of the Year'. For further information visit http://www.miawards.me/