Paul Holmes, PRovoke Media Founder: Career, SABRE Awards

Paul Holmes is the founder and chair of PRovoke Media, formerly The Holmes Report, a publication covering the public relations business in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. He launched The Holmes Group in 2000, which also runs the SABRE Awards, and the ICCO Hall of Fame inducted him in 2011. His own site says he has written about public relations for more than 40 years. The 2026 Global SABRE Awards ceremony is set for October 26 in Chicago.

Last updated October 19, 2026.

What are the SABRE Awards and how do they work?

The SABRE Awards are the PR awards program run by PRovoke Media, which describes them as the world's biggest PR awards programme. Work is judged first in regional competitions, and the best regional winners go forward to the Global SABRE Awards, which name the 40 best PR programs of the year. PRovoke's own pages say the competitions draw more than 5,000 entries from more than 60 countries.

Level	What it recognizes	Regions or scope
Regional SABRE Awards	Campaigns in dozens of categories, plus Agency of the Year awards	North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, South Asia, Africa, and newer programs for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) and for Australia and New Zealand
Global SABRE Awards	The 40 best campaigns of the year, counted down at the ceremony	Selected from regional winners, which PRovoke says is fewer than 1% of entries
Global Agency of the Year	A group of 15 honorees, with one named Best Agency in the World	Chosen from regional Agency of the Year winners

What is happening at the 2026 Global SABRE Awards?

The 2026 Global SABRE Awards ceremony takes place in Chicago on October 26, 2026. MediaBrief reported that PRovoke named 15 Global Agency of the Year honorees, chosen from 75 agencies that won regional Agency of the Year awards, and that one of the 15 will be named Best Agency in the World for 2026. The ceremony will also recognize 40 campaigns.

The 15 honorees are Adfactors PR, Edelman, FGS Global, Golin, MSL, Real Chemistry and Ruder Finn, plus Bully Pulpit International, Brands2Life, Fight or Flight, Hopscotch, Mad Hat Asia, Rud Pedersen, The Romans and Whyte, per MediaBrief's report. PRovoke says it profiled more than 300 agencies over the past year in the research behind the list.

Who won the 2026 regional SABRE Awards?

The Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards ceremony took place in Singapore on August 18, 2026. Of the 44 firms in the Asia category, nine received an Agency of the Year trophy, and Ruder Finn was named Asia-Pacific Consultancy of the Year, according to a release from honoree Hahmshout Global. PRovoke's calendar for 2026 also includes the African, MENAT, and Australia and New Zealand competitions, which had an early entry deadline of October 16, 2026.

Who was Global Agency of the Year in 2025?

Several firms were named Global Agencies of the Year at the 2025 Global SABRE Awards in Chicago, because PRovoke honors a group each year. Golin said on November 4, 2025 that it was named Global Agency of the Year for the second straight year, SEC Newgate announced the same title on November 7, and MSL reported it as well. Each firm's own announcement is the source for its claim.

How do you enter the SABRE Awards?

You enter the regional competition that covers the market where the work ran, and a strong regional result is what puts a campaign in line for the Global 40. PRovoke publishes categories, deadlines and entry tips on each regional SABRE site, and deadlines differ by region, with early deadlines usually offering lower fees. Check the region's page for the current cycle before building a case.

How do the SABRE Awards compare with other PR awards?

The SABRE Awards are the PR industry's own global program, while other major awards sit in advertising, in a national society or in the trade press. The table shows how each one differs and where Everything-PR covers it.

Award	Run by	Focus	Everything-PR coverage
SABRE Awards	PRovoke Media	PR campaigns and agencies worldwide, regional then global	This page
Cannes Lions PR Lions	Cannes Lions	PR within a creativity festival, held in June	Cannes Lions PR guide
Clio Awards PR medium	Clio Awards	PR within an advertising and creativity program, held in May	Clio Awards winners
Silver Anvil Awards	PRSA	U.S.-based strategic PR campaigns, held in May	PRSA guide
PRWeek Awards	PRWeek	U.S. agencies, campaigns and teams, held in March	PR awards overview

Who is Paul Holmes?

Paul Holmes is a PR industry journalist and analyst who began in English newspapers and built a trade publishing business in New York. According to his PRovoke Media author page, he began in local newspapers in the north of England, worked for a newspaper group in South London and joined PR Week as news editor in 1985.

PRovoke's contact page carries a line from him that summarizes his editorial position: "PR is about how organizations behave, not what they say." That view runs through the publication's reporting on agency performance, reputation crises and industry ethics.

What is Paul Holmes's career timeline?

Holmes's career moves from newspapers to PR trade magazines to his own company. Every milestone below comes from his PRovoke Media author page unless noted.

Year	Milestone
1985	Joins PR Week as news editor after local newspaper work in England and South London
1987	Moves to New York to launch the U.S. edition of PR Week, which a PRovoke speaker biography describes as short-lived. He then works at Adweek and Adweek's Marketing Week for a year
1989	Launches his own company, first publishing Inside PR and later Reputation Management magazine
Before 2000	Creates the annual Public Relations Agency Report Card, profiling leading U.S. PR firms, and the Creativity in Public Relations Awards, which grew to be the largest in North America
2000	Launches The Holmes Group, with a website, e-newsletter, events, printed reports, research and consulting, and the SABRE Awards competition
2011	Inducted into the ICCO (International Communications Consultancies Organisation) Hall of Fame

What is PRovoke Media?

PRovoke Media is the publication formerly known as The Holmes Report, which Paul Holmes founded in 2000. Its About page describes its mission as providing reporting and analysis on public relations trends and issues, along with events and awards across several regions.

The publication's own pages list a global agency benchmark, an annual analysis of the top reputation crises, and its events business. The Holmes Group's website, newsletter, events and awards are the platforms Holmes described when he launched the company in 2000.

How does PRovoke Media differ from PR Week and O'Dwyer's?

PRovoke Media, PR Week and O'Dwyer's are separate trade publications with different formats. PR Week is where Holmes worked as news editor, and O'Dwyer's publishes U.S. agency rankings. PRovoke centers on reporting, analysis, events and awards. Everything-PR's reader's guide to the O'Dwyer's rankings explains how those lists work.

Where does EPR cite PRovoke reporting?

EPR cites Holmes Report articles as primary sources for agency news. The Burson Middle East page relies on Holmes Report coverage from March 2011 to show which firms Bahrain retained.

When sourcing agency news, name the PRovoke article and its date instead of citing the publication alone. The PR leaders directory, the PR firms directory and the Edelman profile give related context.