Welcome to the Fleishman-Hillard Technology News

Dear Reader,

Summer slump? Wrong! The economy is recovering, the IFA fair recently reported record numbers of orders, and some companies are already thinking about their communications activities in 2010. Above all, Digital Communications is in high demand. PR is the discipline within the communications landscape, which can be executed in Web 2.0 with the most measureable success. We are naturally very happy about this.

Furthermore, for this second issue of our Newsletter, we have once again gathered together interesting information about our portfolio. From now on, we will regularly present to you a special campaign, which we have carried out with clients. Maybe we can offer you food for thought for your own communication needs. In addition to this, in this issue we give you a short glimpse of our understanding of innovation management and how we implement this for our clients worldwide.

Talking about worldwide, as part of an international agency network, we advise many of our clients solely in English. From this issue onwards we will be presenting the Technology News in English as well. Welcome to our English speaking audience!

And, because networking is ever more important, we would like to introduce to you an interesting location, where you can meet with journalists and business partners. We were delighted to receive so much positive feedback from the first issue of our Fleishman-Hillard Technology News. Therefore, I would also be more than happy to receive your feedback and reactions to our newsletter at markus.hermsen@fleishmaneurope.com.

Happy reading.

Yours,

Markus Hermsen

Innovation according to plan

You think that ideas just happen by chance? “You’re wrong”, says Kathie Thomas, the head of the Innovation Practice Group at Fleishman-Hillard, “You can learn creativity just like reading and writing”. For Kathie Thomas, creativity, fresh ideas and new impulses are the motor in our brain. If this starts to stutter, we often start to fall into a routine with our thinking, in which new innovative approaches are crushed under the wheels of everyday tasks. For PR creative-types this is an existential danger as creativity – and with it innovation – is the key to long-term success in communications.

In order to constantly breathe new life into the PR activities of our clients, Fleishman-Hillard works with its own tool-set of 14 tried-and-tested approaches such as so-called Idea Springboards or Innovation Training Sessions. Under the leadership of our Chief Innovation Officer Kathie Thomas, more than 130 members support the Innovation Practice Group – at least one person in every office – in continually developing ideas for the respective client teams. In the first quarter of this year alone, the Innovation Group held almost 50 Innovations Sessions around the world for 40 different clients with a total of 550 participants. One such a workshop took place in mid-July 2009 for our client McCain. In the context of a three-day workshop, 28 senior consultants from different European offices met in London to be trained by Kathie Thomas’ innovation trainers. On the last day, the group developed new ideas for their market positioning together with the client McCain.

If you would like to know more about Innovation at Fleishman-Hillard Technology, please ask Robert Belle.

Virtual Press Center – Service for journalists

Email is still the preferred method to send news to journalists, but accompanying material such as pictures, graphics, presentations, white papers or videos make the inboxes of the editors explode and can disappear in the everyday flood of email.

For this reason, Fleishman-Hillard has developed individual websites, so-called Virtual Press Centers for Texas Instruments and Fujitsu Technology Solutions. Further press websites are currently in preparation.

The Virtual Press Center, which we offer our clients, serves at once as a pool of information and database for journalists, and at the same time bundles together all available information on a release or an event in one site.

In the Texas Instruments Virtual Press Center, press releases are available in both German and English. The English press releases are also introduced by a short summary in German. The site also offers press releases about events and trade fairs, which the other European Texas Instruments agencies can access. Journalists can subscribe to specific themes by RSS Feed, and therefore learn more about news coming from Texas Instruments. Up-to-the-minute updates, which Texas Instruments publishes online on the micro-blogging site Twitter, are linked to the site through a live stream. In this way, the Virtual Press Center brings together the various digital information channels and generates traffic not only to the company website, but also to the Twitter account.

The site has had very good feedback from editors. The average 1000 visitors per month are further proof of a positive reaction.

If you would like more information about our press website for clients, please approach Ortrud Wenzel.

Filming at Fujitsu Technology Solutions

New technology products nearly always need an explanation. A mix of pictures and speech is particularly suited to making complex topics understandable. For this reason, we recommended to our client Fujitsu Technology Solutions (FTS) that they present the new Server BX900 in a video. This sort of clip can demonstrate the usefulness of the product and, quite apart from PR, can be used in a flexible way in Sales and Marketing. Our team designed the concept for the short film and wrote the storyboard. Together with the production team from Pages and FTS, we decided on the content and form of the video. Simone Mitterer from Fleishman-Hillard coordinated the filming and represented the client as contact person during the entire production.

The result is a three minute clip in which Michael Homburg, Marketing Manager Server and Storage at FTS presents the BX900 server. The filming took place in the Munich Highlight Towers, where the offices of FTS are, as well as in the NH hotel in Dornach. Here, the BX900 Server was put together by FTS as part of a partner event, which meant that the filming was able to go ahead without any further technical effort.

It was crucial to FTS for this project that the video could be used in many different situations. FTS has not only put the video on its own channel on YouTube, but has also used it for product workshops as well as for marketing purposes. Integrated in a Social Media Release, it provides journalists with information and should also be distributed over the regular FTS Media Newsletter.

A clip from the Fujitsu Technology Solutions BX900 video can be found in the multimedia bar on the right.

If you would like more information on the use of film material in PR, or you would like to know how we could support you in the planning and implementation of a film-shoot, please contact Simone Mitterer.

Guest at the White House

Who wouldn’t love to have a look behind the scenes at the White House, shake President Obama’s hand or even discuss important current topics with him? In July, Chuck Swoboda, the CEO of our client Cree, LED manufacturer, was given this privilege. Mr Swoboda was one of a total of eight CEOs of America companies who were invited by the President to the White House, in order to learn about the latest technological developments for energy efficiency and their positive effect on the economy. The meeting is further evidence how important “green” technology and strategies are to politics. At Fleishman-Hillard, we have been observing this development for some time, not only in our clients, but also in the media. Projects such as the Desertec leads one to the conclusion that energy efficient technologies will occupy society, politics and industry for the some time to come.

For Barack Obama at any rate these companies, who deal with the development of green technologies, represent a beacon of hope in the fight against the recession – belonging as they do to the few companies who currently create workplaces. “I have talked to representatives of companies who belong to the most innovative in the USA. Despite the current crisis, these firms are growing and are an important support for the American economy”, said Barack Obama in the press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House. Chuck Swoboda also had a positive outlook: “22 percent of the energy consumed in the US goes into lighting. Right now, this usage can be reduced by more than 60 percent through the implementation of LEDs. With the support of those in high-up positions, we can start on reaching this target.”

Through roundtables of experts such as this, Barack Obama shows that he is serious about supporting a green energy policy. And maybe Chuck Swoboda will tell his grandchildren about the day that he visited the White House.

If you would like to know more about Fleishman Hillard’s expertise in the area of green technology, please contact Ortrud Wenzel.

Campaign of the Month: The “Flexible Working” study by Avaya

Flexible working conditions are so loved by employees that many would even forgo a part of their salary for it. In addition, pensioners were willing to work beyond retirement age if they could choose their working hours and workplace more flexibly. How does this fit in with the Tech Practice Group at Fleishman Hillard in Munich? For the second year in a row, our client Avaya, provider of solutions for business communications, has commissioned a survey which has revealed precisely this result. They confirm that through the implementation of intelligent communications solutions in companies, employees are able to shape their work more flexibly and therefore become happier and more productive.

A short overview of the aim, the implementation and the results of the campaign can be found in PDF form in the multimedia bar on the right.

If you would like more information on the campaign, please contact Ortrud Wenzel or Julia Richter.

B2Run: Fleishman-Hillard runs and runs and runs…

At this year’s company race in Munich, six members of the Fleishman–Hillard team participated. Heimo Hecker, the owner of our IT-provider iTux, donated running shirts to the team to mark the ten-year anniversary of the firm’s partnership with Fleishman-Hillard. Thanks to the torrential rain in the early evening, one of the hottest days of the year was cooled down to a very pleasant running temperature.

After 6.75 km through the Munich Olympiapark, the finish through the Marathon Gate of the Olympic stadium was a very special experience for the team. Some were so impressed that they immediately signed up for the Munich Marathon in October We have made some impressions of “Munich’s water fight” available for you on the right, in our multimedia bar.

Opéra in the Alte Oper: Bavarian Delicacies in Frankfurt

The Restaurant Opéra is located directly in Frankfurt’s Alte Oper (the Old Opera House), which, along with the skyline, is one of the town’s most iconic sights. The restaurant therefore is one of the locations with the loveliest atmospheres. The Opéra is run by the Munich caterer Gerd Käfer’s team in the triangle between the bank district, the stock exchange and the Fressgass, close to the Zeil shopping mile and the luxurious Goethestraße. It has been a beloved spot for business lunches and classy events and parties for years. The bankers in the area most appreciate the fact that the tables in the Opéra are set far enough apart that it is possible to have a tête à tête without curious eavesdroppers listening in. In modern gastronomy, with closely-packed small tables or long benches, this discretion can no longer be taken for granted. However, the Opéra is also the ideal location for events from 5 to 500 people.

The Munich colleagues from the Fleishman-Hillard Tech Practice Group particularly enjoy that the Käfer Team has exported a little bit of Bavarian tradition to Frankfurt: At the so called Samstagsjause on Saturday’s from 11am till 3pm, there are genuine Bavarian specialties laid out in a large buffet.

Further information and contact detail are available at www.opera-restauration.de

Contact

Fleishman-Hillard Germany GmbH
Markus Hermsen
Herzog-Wilhelm-Straße 26
80331 München
Tel.: +49-(0)89-23 03 16-62
Fax: +49-(0)89-23 03 16-66
markus.hermsen@fleishmaneurope.com