Marketing consultancy KAE partners with two Norwegian firms

05 April 2019 Consultancy.uk

Marketing consultancy KAE has agreed a partnership with two Norwegian digital consulting companies: NEW & Company and Shortcut. The collaboration will see the trio of firms work together in the area of services, capabilities, expertise and networks.

Based in London, KAE is a consultancy which provides bespoke evidence-led insight, analysis and strategic recommendations to some of the world’s largest brands. Its services range from traditional quantitative and qualitative research to strategic advice on high-profile and high-stakes business decisions. The firm has been assisting clients for the last 50 years, the second half of which KAE has spent focusing on the core sectors of financial services, insurance, travel, telco and mobility, healthcare, and new technologies.

Having led initiatives in more than 60 countries across six continents during the last decade alone, the firm has built relationships with companies of all shapes and sizes across the globe. Now, KAE has announced two new partnerships with a duo of Norwegian firms, as it bids to grow its footprint in the rapidly growing consulting market of the Nordics.

Marketing consultancy KAE partners with two Norwegian firms

First, KAE has partnered with NEW & Company, a Norwegian innovation and growth business that helps both Nordic and international companies discover new business opportunities and scale to thrive in the marketplace. NEW’s specialties include innovation, disruption, business development, venture capital, service design, business models, leadership, networking, and globalisation. The company also hosts an artificial intelligence firm operating at the intersection of strategy, technology and design to reimagine next generation data-driven businesses – which KAE clients will now be able to access.

Tore Totland, Co-founder & CEO of NEW & Company, added, “NEW is proud to present KAE as a partner and combine both businesses’ expertise for the mutual benefit of our clients. Through KAE’s world-leading payment knowledge and global capabilities, they have a clear ability to scale our transaction-based start-ups globally and optimise entry into new or existing markets through their analytics and insights.”

Additionally, KAE has also struck up a partnership with Shortcut. The Norway-based digital consultancy specialises in apps, providing services ranging from strategy and business to service design, prototyping, app design and development, cloud architecture and cloud transformation.

The deal will allow KAE and Shortcut clients to access and benefit from both businesses’ unique services, capabilities, expertise and networks.  It will also allow KAE’s clients to support their proof of concept initiatives through access to Shortcut’s quick turnaround prototyping capabilities.

Marius Mathiesen, Co-founder & CSO of Shortcut, said “Shortcut is thrilled to enter into a partnership with KAE. Although Shortcut has a long experience in research focusing on user insight and needs, the expertise and experience KAE has both in the payment industries and global scaling of businesses has been a real eye-opener for us. We believe that many of our clients face challenges every day where KAE can really make a difference with their insights and strategic capabilities. We have high hopes for this collaboration, and cannot wait to get started!”

Both partnerships are part of KAE’s wider service ecosystem. KAE’s network of partners is aimed at providing its clients with access to partners that can provide high impact and value-laden services.

Chris Holmes, Senior Vice President and Head of Sales & Marketing at KAE, said of the deals, “Shortcut offers a range of world leading services that will really help our clients transform their businesses and also test new concepts to support any proof of concept initiatives… Through our partnership with NEW, we will be able to offer our clients greater value via an extended team that has a proven track record in building innovative and disruptive solutions for the digital age... These partnerships reflect KAE’s continued focus on inspiring bold change and providing our clients with access to world-leading services and exceptional people.”