Outleap, a global collective of PR and marketing agencies made up of Sling & Stone (APAC), Method Communications (US) and Harvard (UK), has released the ‘The New Age of Global Growth’ report. The study, which this year surveyed more than 200 global C-suite executives and comms and marketing leaders, explores how communications plays a significant role in targeted business growth.

A selection of key findings from the report includes:

• Almost half of comms leaders surveyed are directly involved in their company's business strategy.
• 60 per cent of respondents reported that their budgets are now higher than they were 12 months ago.
• 48 per cent of marketing and communications leaders rank brand awareness as the most important metric for evaluating PR and social media efforts, followed by company reputation at 44 per cent.
• Nearly half of companies plan to expand their business internationally in the next 12 months.