Now availiable - Digital Communication Awards

EXCELLENCE IN 

ONLINE COMMUNICATION 

A C O L L E C T I O N O F S T R A T E G I E S , C A M P A I G N S A N D T O O L S 

D I G I T A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N 

A W A R D S 2 0 1 1

CONTENTS 

Introduction, Arne Westermann 4 

Online Strategies, Organisational Communication, Evaluation 

Introduction, Michael Boenigk 6 

Online strategy of the year, Petrom with Ileo Marketing Interactive 11 

Evaluation, Deutsche Post DHL 15 

Working Fields of Communication Management 

Introduction, Ralph Tench and Stuart Bruce 22 

Crisis communication, Aena with Inforpress Group 28 

Internal Communication/Change, Allianz Slovakia 34 

Digital Public Affairs, Farming First with Glasshouse Partnership 37 

CSR communication, BBVA Group 42 

Social Media Campaign of the Year, Koç with VO2 Digital 47 

Online Media Tools in National & International Corporations 

Introduction, Paul E. Ketelaar 54 

Digital/Print 

CSR Report, Deutsche Bank with Zeros&Ones and Advanto 59 

Web Magazine, Siemens with Virtual Identity 62 

Online Newsletter, PwC Portugal 65 

Websites 

Corporate website, Henkel Cosmetics 68 

Intranet, Randstad with MSL Amsterdam 71 

Online newsroom, Boehringer Ingelheim with Ogilvy Healthworld and infil 74 

Corporate weblog, RTE 77

Video & Games 

Mobile and Apps, Deutscher Bundestag with Babiel 80 

Online event, Mammut 83 

Image Film, DSM with Group.IE 86 

Web TV, Jyske Bank 89 

Online competition, Hasbro Poland with Weber Shandwick 94 

Corporate Game, World Food Programme 97 

Innovation of the Year, Turkcell with Rabarba 100 

Integration of Social Media in Communication Management 

Community presence, Philips with OneVoice powered by Omnicom 114 

Viral communication, Alfred Ritter with elbkind 117 

Twitter profile, Deutsche Telekom with Weber Shandwick 120 

YouTube channel, The Walt Disney Company with Pronto Communication 123 

Online Campaigns in PR 

Introduction, Serra Görpe 128 

Online campaigns of Institutions, General Teaching Council for England 134 

Online campaign of NGOs, AMREF 139 

Online campaign of Companies, Lego Duplo 142 

Academic Entries 

Bachelor Thesis, Freja Bange Nyboe & Anne Kathrine Kjær 148 

Bachelor Thesis, Kalin Kalinov 153 

Master Thesis, Jeannette Gusko 158 

Bibliography 163

4 

INTRODUCING THE DIGITAL 

COMMUNICATION AWARDS 

A R N E W E S T E R M A N N 

O 

ver the last 20 years, the field of 

professional communication has 

experienced significant changes: 

digital communication has become one of 

the fastest growing and innovative sectors, 

with companies, NGOs and organisations 

adopting digital tools on an increasingly 

large scale. At the same time the markets 

as well as the social environment have 

altered: consumers have become more 

conscious of what they are consuming. 

Not only do most consumers expect to be 

assured of quality and an attractive costvalue 

ratio, but the image attached to a 

product and the reputation of the brand 

or company offering the product are increasingly 

crucial for economic success. 

Similarly, acting sustainably in an economic 

as well as ecologic and social sense is 

becoming more and more a central factor 

for companies as well as for other types of 

organisations if they want to be successful 

in the long run: acting in line with what is 

considered to be legitimate by society and 

the different stakeholder groups is crucial 

for keeping the ‘license to operate’ which 

is the basis of economic success. 

These social developments started 

long before the emergence of the world 

wide web and have their roots at least in 

INTRODUCTION 

the sixties and seventies. But the world 

wide web has nevertheless become closely 

connected to these developments as 

it works as a catalyser that enforces and 

accelerates them. At the same time the 

world wide web has become the window 

through which we can closely observe our 

evolving environment thanks to the different 

opinions and discussions expressed 

and led there. 

Today the ‘young’ medium of the 

world wide web, being the basis for all the 

various applications and tools from classic 

websites to social media, is no longer 

a teenager but has entered its twenties: almost 

exactly 21 years ago, in August 1991, 

Tim Berners-Lee published the world 

wide web technology he had developed 

at CERN in Switzerland and thereby initiated 

one of the most important developments 

in the history of communication. 

(A good line up for the early history of 

the internet can be found for example in 

Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon’s ARPA 

KADABRA: Die Geschichte des Internets, 

2000). The relevance of this new world of 

communication for professional communication 

was soon obvious and practitioners 

as well as academics started to wonder 

about the consequences:

INTRODUCTION 5 

• How far do online media change the way 

public opinion is built? 

• What does this mean for the reputation 

of organisations and brands? 

• What are the dangers in this new communication 

world? 

• How can organisations use online media 

strategically to manage their reputation 

and brands? 

• What use can organisations make of online 

media when it comes to internal 

communication and collaboration? 

A new communications world 

These questions still sound familiar today 

when we think of the discussion of the last 

few years concerning social media. The reason 

is quite simple: although we have some 

answers to these questions and though we 

have some years of experience with online 

media, large areas of the new communication 

world still need to be explored. What 

we do know is that the way people inform 

themselves has changed. Online media 

– from news websites provided by mainstream 

media to blogs – have become some 

of the most important sources for daily information 

in developed countries. 

Moreover, people’s basis of information 

has become broader: there is almost no 

piece of information that cannot be found 

somewhere on the world wide web. Even 

the most closely-guarded information is 

frequently challenged to stay secret due to 

institutionalised whistle blowing via websites 

such as WikiLeaks. This leads to an at 

least potentially better informed general 

public and especially to better informed 

stakeholders. Finally it leads to more transparency. 

But what else has changed? The 

new communication world has its own ‘natives’ 

– the digital natives who have grown 

up with the internet. The young generation 

clearly differs from older generations as far 

as communication habits are concerned: 

they use digital communication wherever 

they go. Furthermore, millions of people 

not born into the digital age have moved 

into this new world of communications, 

where they either form entirely new publics 

and markets or they transfer existing 

publics and markets into the online world, 

making them more visible and active. Furthermore, 

a long-known phenomenon is 

of special importance in the digital world: 

the influence of social groups on people’s 

knowledge and attitudes. Group communication, 

the viral, mouth-to-mouth-flow 

It is obvious that 

communicators have 

to adapt to new 

ways of communicating 

and look at their 

stakeholders from a 

different angle. 

of information and the role active opinion 

leaders play in its dissemination and interpretation 

have become even more important 

than before. Opinion leaders now 

reach their peers much faster, and they 

reach more people, too. 

Finally, the structure of the internet 

formed by the world wide web and other

6 

functions such as email makes it a hybrid 

medium which allows switching from a 

mass communication frame to an interpersonal 

or group communication frame 

within seconds. This means that dialogic 

communication is inherent to the internet. 

If we consider these major changes it 

is obvious that professional communicators 

have to adapt to new ways of commu- 

The only way to cope 

with this complexity 

is to reduce it – 

and this is exactly 

what a brilliant 

communication 

strategy does. 

nicating and that they have to look at their 

stakeholders from a different angle. Stakeholders 

have become much more powerful 

and influential than before because they 

do not need huge resources of time or finance 

in order to get informed and to publish 

and disseminate their views. Moreover 

they demand to be part of a dialogue and 

professional communicators should lead 

this dialogue if they do not want to fail. 

But the consequences are not limited to 

the changes on the side of the stakeholders. 

Professional communicators also have 

many more opportunities today to spread 

their messages and especially to enter into 

INTRODUCTION 

a dialogue with their stakeholders: the variety 

of channels the digital world offers is 

almost unlimited. And because companies 

do not have unlimited budgets, the decision 

of which channel they should use and 

which one they should not has become 

more important than ever. 

This leads us to the crucial point: we 

face an enormous growth of complexity in 

the communication system. The only way 

to cope with this complexity is to reduce it 

– and this is exactly what a brilliant communication 

strategy does. Therefore, a strategic 

communication approach with a sound 

analysis of the stakeholders, with clear and 

focused goals, with deliberate tactics and 

choice of instruments, with a brilliant creative 

implementation and with fitting evaluation 

measures is more important than 

ever. It is at the same time a compass and a 

map helping to navigate through the new 

communication world. 

The Digital Communication 

Awards As a specialised university in the 

field of professional communication, the 

Quadriga University of Applied Sciences 

has initiated the Digital Communication 

Awards in order to identify and honour 

brilliant strategic approaches, taking the 

whole range of online communications 

into account – and to foster dialogue in the 

field between practitioners and academics, 

who are both exploring the new communication 

world from different perspectives. 

The goal is to advance practical excellence 

and academic research in the thriving field 

of online communications and social media, 

and to encourage an active exchange 

between academic knowledge and practi-


A new world of communications at your fingertips 

cal experience by bringing experts from 

both sides together. Furthermore we want 

to foster dialogue by experts from all over 

Europe, helping the profession to form 

an international community. That’s why 

Quadriga set up an international jury of 

experienced academics and excellent 

practitioners. Two categories for young researches 

are also included. 

Our concept of the award as a pan- 

European platform where high-level practitioners 

and academics could meet was 

unique and ambitious: we were full of 

doubts whether or not the communication 

profession has already developed a 

pan-European consciousness and whether 

the idea of the award would be compelling 

enough to attract excellent communication 

professionals and academics from 

across the whole continent. But our doubts 

vanished soon after we had started the call 

for entries. The response far exceeded 

our expectations: more than six hundred 

projects from all across Europe were submitted. 

But not only was the number of 

entries fantastic but the reaction of the experts 

and academics invited to participate 

in the jury was far beyond our imagination. 

The idea and concept of the award seemed 

to fall on fertile ground, and convinced us 

that the time really had come to take a close 

look at the status quo of online communication 

in an international perspective. 

This sense of conviction was reaffirmed 

by the superb quality of the entries. 

This quality is a clear sign that online communication 

– and particularly social media 

communication – is not only one of the 

fastest growing fields in the communication 

profession, but that communication 

professional in the whole of Europe spend 

a lot of strategic thought, creativity and 

excellent digital craftsmanship in exploring 

the opportunities of the digital sphere.

8 

The same was true of the bachelor and 

master theses submitted in the two special 

academic categories. The students - coming 

from diverse countries - showed a huge 

variety of different academic approaches 

with penetrating concepts and illuminating 

investigations into a range of topics, 

ranging from personality management to 

the evaluation of effects of different instruments 

on the online target groups. Consequently, 

the jury had a very difficult job 

in deciding which of the over 600 entries 

should be shortlisted and invited to present 

their projects personally in Berlin in September 

2011. To ensure a fair, transparent 

and independent competition the jury 

used standardised rating criteria based on 

academic findings during the online voting 

process. The same set of criteria was used 

by the jury to judge the personal presentations 

of the 90 nominees in 30 categories. 

The six academic presentations in the two 

academic categories were rated according 

to accepted academic standards. In addition 

to the project presentations, Quadriga 

organised a symposium on the day of the 

awards featuring senior-level practitioners 

and academics reflecting different topics 

in the online communication field. 

To further valorise the award winners 

and to advance academic reflections on 

public relations practice, Quadriga University 

has decided to publish this commemorative 

book featuring a selected sample of 

case studies supplemented by theoretical 

reflections and introductions by academic 

jury members. Thus the compendium follows 

the same concept already applied 

for the awards: practical projects and academic 

reflection go hand in hand. Articles 

INTRODUCTION 

were solicited from winning entries wherever 

possible and from the most distinctive 

runners-up in the handful of cases where 

winners were unable to submit an article. 

Layout of the book All case studies 

are structured in the same way: we asked 

the authors to describe the task they were 

facing when starting their projects and to 

describe their aims and strategies as well 

as the implementation. The authors conclude 

by outlining the way in which they 

evaluated the results. Due to this basic 

structure all cases in this book can be easily 

compared. Also, to give the compendium 

a coherent structure, we decided to bring 

together similar types of cases into different 

chapters. 

The first chapter focuses on approaches 

to online strategies: it is introduced by 

Swiss communication expert Michael 

Boenigk and consists of the winners of the 

Strategy of the Year and Evaluation categories: 

SC OMV Petrom and Deutsche Post 

DHL. The second chapter, introduced by 

Professor Ralph Tench of Leeds Metropolitan 

University, UK, features case studies 

from Spain, Germany, Great Britain and 

Turkey that deal with strategies in different 

working fields of organisational communication, 

i.e. crisis communication, internal/ 

change communication, public affairs, corporate 

social responsibility and social media 

communication. 

The third chapter is dedicated to the 

various instruments and tools of online 

communication ranging from established 

online instruments such as online reports, 

through social media newsrooms to apps 

and corporate games. It encompasses 15


cases from all over Europe, and is introduced 

by Paul Ketelaar of Nijmegen University, 

who examines the effectiveness of 

viral communication. The fourth chapter 

concentrates on social media channels and 

their integration into an overall communication 

strategy. The five different cases described 

here include Twitter and YouTube 

channels, blogs and community presences. 

The next chapter deals with online campaigns 

and is introduced by Serra Görpe of 

Istanbul University, who takes a closer look 

at online campaigns in public relations. 

The three cases presented in this chapter 

feature campaigns by an institution, an 

NGO and a company. 

The compendium is rounded up by 

the findings of the winning bachelor and 

master theses. Because the jury came up 

with a split decision in the bachelor thesis 

category, this chapter contains three essays: 

Freja Nyboe Bange and Anne Kathrine 

Kjær have researched a virtual communication 

tool to support cancer patient; Kalin 

Kalinov, the second winner in the Bachelor 

Thesis category, proposes a new matrix for 

ensuring online strategy success; and Jeannette 

Gusko, winner of the Master Thesis 

category, explores the image of German 

corporations on Wikipedia . 

A unique collection In total, this 

compendium is a unique collection of best 

practice cases and analysis with relevance 

for both practitioners and academics alike. 

It offers an overview of the ‘state of the art’ 

of online communication, taking all different 

specifications of this growing field 

into account: Various different channels, 

product-related marketing cases, corpo- 

rate communication projects, concepts developed 

by companies, NGOs and others 

– there are very few publications offering 

such a vast variety of different interesting 

cases. Thus the compendium may be used 

by professionals to learn from best practices 

from all over Europe, and can also be 

used by students and academics in order 

to get a glimpse into how online communication 

is planned and implemented at the 

beginning of the second decade of the 21st 

century. Finally this publication – as well as 

the award itself – helps promote the pan- 

European development of the profession 

by offering the possibility of having a view 

across language and cultural barriers. 

For me personally, as well as the organisers 

of the Digital Communication 

Awards, the last two points mentioned are 

of special importance: the internationality 

of the award and of this compendium, as 

well as the benefit it offers to both practitioners 

and academics. We hope you enjoy 

this compendium as much as we enjoyed 

collecting and editing the cases. 

Bibliography on page 163 

Professor Dr. Arne Wes- 

termann is professor of 

communications and mar- 

keting at the International 

School of Management 

in Dortmund, Germany. 

Drawing on experience 

with scientific and practical public relations and 

corporate communication, he lead the jury at the 

Digital Communication awards in 2011.

ONLINE STRATEGIES, 

ORGANISATIONAL 

COMMUNICATION, 

EVALUATION 

I N T R O D U C T I O N 

O N L I N E S T R A T E G Y O F T H E Y E A R 

E V A L U A T I O N

12 

IMPLICATIONS OF 

CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT 

& COMMUNICATION 

CHALLENGES 

M I C H A E L B O E N I G K 

T 

ONLINE STRATEGIES, ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION, EVALUATION 

here is a widespread belief among 

practitioners and academics that 

in today‘s saturated markets (characterised 

by fierce price competition and 

decreasing product differentiation) the 

success of any business critically depends 

on how it communicates with and is regarded 

by its key constituencies (Mast 

2010; Cornelissen 2008; Argenti/Forman 

2002). Therefore, marketing and corporate 

communications have emerged as 

indispensable and strategically important 

organisational functions in charge of orchestrating 

organisational communication. 

However, not only have the markets 

evolved over time but also the media environment 

itself has changed in several 

ways. Drastic changes include increases in 

the number and kinds of media channels 

available, fragmentation of audiences, 

changing information and consumption 

behaviors and media convergence, witnessed 

by an ever-growing increase of digital 

platforms that deliver various media 

channels to the consumer (McPhilipps/ 

THEORETICAL APPROACH 

Merlo 2008). As a consequence of media 

convergence, digitalisation and the emergence 

of social media, the productionconsumption 

boundary has become increasingly 

porous, evidenced by the shift 

to two-way, interactive communication 

and the subsequent rise in consumergenerated 

media content (Duffy 2010). 

Due to the media‘s increased speed and 

accessibility, companies reputations have 

become more fragile and stakeholders 

are demanding more authenticity and 

transparency in an organization‘s external 

communication (Van Riel/Fombrun 

2007). 

In order to persist in such dynamic 

media environments, companies are 

forced to reconsider the ways they interact 

with their stakeholders, replacing 

traditional communication models with 

wholly new approaches. If not adapting 

their communication and marketing efforts 

accordingly, organisations are increasingly 

relegated to the sidelines as 

mere observers in this highly dynamic environment 

(Kaplan/Haenlein 2010: 60).



Changing media landscape Communication 

media have changed dramatically 

over the last decades, with first 

computers, cable news, then widespread 

internet adoption, and more recently mobile 

technology steadily accelerating and 

shifting the dynamics of public opinion 

and communication. Mass media’s absolute 

information monopoly has been 

crumbling ever since the emergence of 

the internet. From an era dominated 

by newspapers, radio and television, the 

mass media environment has undergone 

a transformation into a fast paced, highly 

dynamic and interactive system characterised 

by advances in digital technology 

spawning a wide array of new media platforms 

and channels at the consumer‘s 

choice (Kaul 2012). 

The social web 

allows for an increased 

flow of ‘free’ 

unfiltered information 

and has become 

a fundamental part 

of how peoplevcommunicate. 

Social media have amplified the 

power of consumer-to-consumer conversations 

in the marketplace by enabling one 

individual to communicate with a limitless 

number of other consumers quickly, 

without any restrictions regarding time or 

physical distance and with relatively little 

effort (Mangold/Faulds 2009). The social 

web allows for an increased flow of ‘free’ 

unfiltered information and has become a 

fundamental and widespread part of how 

people and organisations communicate 

and participate online. For example, with 

a blogosphere of more than 100 million 

blogs and their interconnections, blogs 

have definitely become an important 

source of information and public opinion 

(Kietzmann et al. 2011). 

Changes in communication behaviour 

In regard to consumer’s information 

behaviour, a more comprehensive 

and individualised usage of media channels 

across an ever growing number of 

media outlets is observed. The use of on 

demand media services such as digital television 

and high-end media devices like 

smart phones – allowing consumers to 

choose their customised program at their 

convenience regardless of time and place 

– are gaining importance. For instance, 

48 per cent of Switzerland‘s population 

aged between 15 and 59 years already 

possesses a smart phone and 18 per cent 

intend to acquire such a multi-functional 

phone within the next 12 months (Publisuisse 

2010). 

Furthermore consumers are to a 

growing extent utilising social media 

platforms (such as content sharing sites 

like YouTube and Flickr, blogs, micro 

blog services like Twitter, social networking 

sites such as Facebook and MySpace, 

and wikis) to create, modify, share, and 

discuss content on the world wide web 

13

14 


(Kietzmann et al 2011). The emergence 

of digital media enables consumers to review 

and assess company’s products, services 

and prices to an extent that could 

not have been achieved with the means 

of traditional media. 

Self-expression, attracting 

attention 

and recognition 

are the main factors 

explaining why 

individuals engage 

in online social networking. 

The social engagement process (a key 

characteristic of social media) moves users 

beyond the act of plain content consumption 

but instead, customers have become 

more knowledgeable and more vocal about 

what they want. They let their online-peers 

know about their experiences with a product 

or service (Evans/McKee 2010). Facilitated 

by countless blogs, forums, chat 

rooms and social networking sites, it has 

become easy to retrieve and publish information 

at any time as Riegner (2007: 437) 

illustrates: “we now live in a 24-hour rolling, 

emotive, media world where we can 

satisfy our indelible need to feel a part of 

the events that unfold around us”. 

Self-expression, attracting attention 

and recognition are the main factors ex- 


plaining why individuals engage in online 

social networking. Having a sense of influencing 

others or taking power of control 

are often mentioned as further reasons 

for motivation. Furthermore the growing 

number of social media users is rooted in 

their wish to communicate, network and 

to stay in contact with family, friends and 

business partners. In this respect, apart 

from offering opportunities for dialogue 

the most successful social media applications 

are the ones that allow users to make 

a name for themselves (Kreutzer/Hinz 

2010; Li/Bernhoff 2009, Qualman 2009; 

Kreutzer/Merkle 2008). 

In her extensive literature review in 

this field, Brooke Erin Duffy (2010) demonstrates 

that this phenomenon has been 

explored and academically examined 

through a variety of scholarly works, including 

the emergence of a participatory 

culture of convergence (e.g. Bruns 2007; 

Benkler 2006; Jenkins 2006), the internet 

as a site of audience feedback (e.g. 

Johnson 2007; Andrejevic 2002; Brooker 

2001), the changing role of consumer labor 

in the digital age (e.g. Shimpach 2005; 

Terranova 2000), and the significance of 

consumer participation to traditional media 

industries (e.g. Knight 2008; Deuze 

2007). In consequence, online consumer 

recommendations, complementing traditional 

word-of-mouth communication, 

are increasingly perceived by consumers 

as personally opinionated and trustworthy 

sources of information (Mangold/Faulds 

2009). Multiplied and aggregated, these 

comments have a significant impact on a 

corporation‘s standing. A study by Ganim 

Barnes (2008) indicated that most of to-



The social web enables consumers to research and review companies and products 

day‘s consumers use social media and other 

digital communications tools and technologies 

in order to research and review 

companies products and services online 

prior to making a definite purchase decision. 

As an example, due to the amount 

of information available on the internet 

a customer today visits a car seller only 

once in the process of a car purchase, as 

opposed to 2006 when a buyer visited a 

seller five times before the actual purchase 

(Schögel 2011). 

Consequences for companies Facing 

this increasingly media-savvy, empowered 

and critical audience, corporate 

and marketing communications have recently 

come under great pressure (Siano 

et al. 2011) as corporate reputations and 

brands are increasingly defined not only 

by what organisations do or say but by 

how customers perceive and respond to 

their actions and words. The weight of 

traditional media to define brand identities 

and companies reputation is stead- 

15

16 


ily declining while negative consumer 

conversations in the social media sphere 

can spread quickly and severely damage 

brand equity and reputation (Argenti/ 

Barnes 2009; Siano et al. 2011). This democratisation 

of content and shift from a 

one-to-many to a many-to-many paradigm 

(Solis 2010) has moved the balance of 

power of voice in favour of the consumers 

(Argenti/Barnes 2009). 

The impact of digital media on brand 

equity and reputation will continue to 

grow. On one side, digital media have 

created new challenges for organisations 

in managing their communication since 

negative perceptions are spread more 

rapidly and widely, but on the other side, 

digital media have also created new opportunities 

to safeguard, enhance and 

promote reputations and brands. Due to 

its unique characteristics, digital media 

can be considered a hybrid element of 

the communication mix as they enable 

organizations to talk to their stakeholders 

in a traditional one-to-many direction but 

also allow direct dialogue, targeted messaging 

and online word-of-mouth among 

customers. Electronic word-of-mouth in 

the form of online consumer reviews, 

comments or conversations is believed 

to play an important role in determining 

consumers’ purchasing decisions. In 

a digital environment where individuals 

and communities create, share and consume 

content, multi-mediality, intermediality, 

interactivity and individuality will 

become key characteristics of corporate 

and marketing communication (Bekmeier-Feuerhahn/Eichenlaub 

2010). Digital 

media will mostly not replace other 

Professor Dr. Michael 

Boenigk heads the 

Competence Center at 

theLucerne University of 

Applied Sciences and Arts, 

Switzerland. His current 

research field is integra- 

ted and cross-media communication management. 

Boenigk studied business administration at the 

University of Muenster, and received his PhD from 

the University of Basel’s Marketing and Business 

Management Department. 


forms of media in a communication mix. 

Instead, they complement, expand and 

enrich organisational communication. 

Selecting and prioritising digital media 

according to their target group performance, 

will become a key challenge for 

marketers and communicators. 

Challenges for science As reputation 

formation and brand meaning are no 

longer only controlled by traditional offline 

media, it is of utmost importance to 

explore theoretical and methodological 

approaches to how the influence of digital 

media and conversations on corporate 

and marketing communication can be 

adequately addressed by organisations. 

Even though digital media are undeniably 

magnifying the communication impact in 

the marketplace, methods for integrating 

digital media in the communication mix 

have not yet sufficient been developed in 

academic research. 

Bibliography on page 163


ONLINE STRATEGY OF THE YEAR 

VALUES AND HERITAGE: 

HELPING ROMANIANS TO 

REDISCOVER ROMANIA 

P E T R O M W I T H I L E O M A R K E T I N G I N T E R A C T I V 

T 

his is a story that started with a dream 

rather than concrete ideas. Two 

years later, it flourished into a wonderful 

project in a way that no government 

programme could: the culture, customs 

and people of Romania fully revealed to 

Romanians themselves and to anybody else 

interested in this fascinating country. This 

was not a dull brand campaign but a tool 

for each and every one of us who intend to 

change something in our lives. Moreover, it 

accomplished the objectives by using real 

people, not only communication specialists. 

Rediscover Romania became a benchmark 

in using communication resources in 

social media and in creating and motivating 

the advocates of the brand and of the campaign 

for a period of two years. The brief 

was almost impossible: to communicate a 

corporation in a relevant area for Romanians, 

to enhance the company’s connection 

with Romania and with traditional values 

and to make people proud to be Romanians. 

In two years Rediscover Romania campaign 

reached five million people without 

investing in media or in any other artificial 

or non-organic efforts in buying audiences 

through the traditional ways. 

17 

Overview Petrom is the biggest company 

in Romania with a very common significance 

for every Romanian: ‘the filling station 

closest to me’. It has an extensive network 

of filling stations all around Romania 

and it represents a common reference or 

meeting point for lots of Romanians. 

Tied to this infrastructure is Petrom’s 

brand which is founded in Romanian values 

and heritage, and which makes the 

bold claim that Romania will grow through 

common sense and responsibility. Petrom 

needed to prove to the Romanian people 

that it is equal to their perception and that 

it can do something real and useful about 

Romania, beyond classical advertising approach. 

Reasons Rediscover Romania started in 

2010, when Petrom decided to place Romania 

back at the top of the list of Romanians` 

favourite tourist destinations. The problem 

was that 80 per cent of the people who were 

spending money on holidays preferred to 

go outside the country. Those who preferred 

Romania had in mind just two main 

destinations: the beach coast or the Prahova 

Valley region. Petrom decided it was

18 


Petrom is the biggest company in Romania with a very common significance for every Romanian: ‘the filling station closest to me’. 

time to show Romanians what it means 

to visit Romania. So the main objective of 

this campaign was to re-establish Petrom as 

a brand close to Romanians and to place 

Romania once more in the people’s hearts 

and minds. We also wanted to offer tangible 

utility for those who want to visit Romania: 

namely, as locations, photos and videos on 

an online map. 

Finally, we wanted to celebrate 

Petrom’s infrastructure and re-establish 

our filling stations as main waypoints in 

people’s trips throughout the country. The 

chosen strategy was to create the largest 

corporate and public partnership, a veritable 

social manifesto to promote Romania. 

When tailoring this campaign, the main 

point taken into account was the strong 


brand attribute that Petrom is close to the 

Romanian people as the largest network 

of filling stations. We then developed that 

aspect into a discussion with stakeholders 

about opportunities for consumption and 

the beautiful places to visit in Romania. 

Petrom shifted its communications from 

‘let’s talk about me’ to ‘let’s talk about what 

we have in common’ and invited social media 

exponents to revisit Romania. In this 

way it engaged even more people because 

social media advocates have their online 

followers. This innovation determined the 

outcome, turning communication into a 

more personal, more emotional and more 

actionable content. The result was an unprecedented 

emotional connection linking 

the brands together with a longer lasting ef-



fect. Another paradigm change in this campaign 

was a change in approach from one 

brand broadcasting the message toward a 

brand alliance working for a common and 

relevant outcome. To achieve this, Petrom 

once again assumed the leadership and 

managed to create the biggest alliance of 

Romanian brands yet. It successfully convinced 

the biggest Romanian brands on the 

market to be part of this effort: Dacia (automotive), 

BCR Erste (banking), Romtelecom 

(telecommunications), Paralela45 

(tourism) and The Museum of the Romanian 

Peasant (an authority on Romanian 

traditions and customs). 

Building on the Romanian attributes 

of the collected companies worked stronger 

than any advertising formula because each 

partner is a genuine Romanian company 

and has a true Romanian heritage.Beyond 

the infrastructure which they provided, the 

partners strategically offered direct access 

to a lot of Romanians: their own employees 

and their customers. 

Implementation The unique trait of this 

campaign was that it was made for Romanians 

by Romanians. The strategy and the 

outcome were based on the activation of 

the biggest gathering of social media influencers 

and the participation of their follower 

communities. Throughout the campaign 

we managed to involve over 100 top 

social influencers and created the biggest 

buzz across blogs, Twitter and Facebook. 

Their participation was effective on two 

main levels: on a direct and personal level 

as passengers involved in the trips around 

Romania, staying in constant live contact 

with their audience; and on the supportive 

19 

level, by following and adding to topics and 

dialogue generated by others. Also, the majority 

of these influencers possessed a ‘double’ 

expertise, in social media and lots of 

other areas: photography, video, storytelling, 

geography, history, tourism, biodiversity 

and others, adding a lot of value to their 

participation here. 

In every place the team visited, we also 

involved the local community and local 

specialists who helped us ‘get’ the local nuances 

and authentic feel. The experience 

materialised into an application based on 

a map of Romania where you can now see 

1,250 reasons to visit Romania. Each tourist 

area is described, localised and recommended. 

This way we created the largest 

internal tourism resource in Romania. The 

application is available on web, phones, 

tablets, Android and iOs, becoming the 

most downloaded communication app in 

Romania, with over 30,000 downloads. 

Review of results The proportion between 

exposure and spending for this 

project makes it the most successful in our 

history. As one of the most important positive 

impact indicators, this was possible in 

one of the hardest periods in Petrom. The 

international oil price rise in 2011 generated 

numerous pump price jumps, leading 

to a reputation crisis expressed through 

social antipathy towards Petrom, who was 

perceived as the one to blame. Negative attacks 

popped up on social media on a daily 

basis. Yet even in this environment, we still 

managed to transform the situation into 

an opportunity because Petrom was open 

to dialogue and to overcome the negative 

context with the help of brand’s social me-

20 


dia advocates. Furthermore, even though 

the campaign took place during a crisis, 

this had no affect on the participation and 

the sympathy of people towards it. 

This campaign proved beyond doubt 

that companies can work together and can 

have a great synergy with social media people. 

The results of the campaign are outstanding 

in the context of Romanian social 

communication: in two years we reached 

one in four Romanians who spend time online. 

1.9 million people were reached only 

by social media, while the offline reach 

was 2.5 million people. We generated and 

engaged a coherent community of brand 

advocates who represent Romania (150 Social 

Media people, who cover 80 per cent 

of Romanian online social media audience 

relevant for our brand). And because we 

engaged not just the social media advocates 

but their followers as well, the whole 

Romanian social media spent two holidays 

in Romania. This means: going 20,000 

km, visiting 120 cities, taking 30,000 photos, 

writing 1,000 blog posts, 12,000 tweets 

and ultimately reaching almost 4.5 million 

people. Rediscover Romania chose to harness 

social media because of its authentic 

and informal way of creating connections 

between the online users, employees and 

brands. Each participant completed the 

communication canvas and implemented 

a direct and coherent strategy to sustain 

the brand voice in the most negative context. 

The conversation resulted only from 

the public relations activities of all the 

partners involved, without using any form 

of paid advertising and the public relations 

value of the campaign is over 150,000 

euros. This way, Rediscover Romania be- 

comes the first communication campaign 

using friend brands to deliver utility to Romanians. 

The success of the campaign was 

recognised all around Europe: not only 

did we win Online Strategy of the Year at 

the Digital Communication Awards 2011, 

we also were named Best Use Of Social Media 

at Webit 2011 in Sofia and were nominated 

for Best Social Media Campaign at 

the 2011 Golden Drum Awards in Portoroz 

2011. We also won first place in the 

category Mobile Applications and Special 

Projects at Webstock 2011 as well as Best 

Interactive Campaign at 10 Years of Romanian 

Creativity Awards 2011. 

Finally, at Internetics 2011, the campaign 

was recognised as best use of social 

media, best campaign, best website, and 

best use of mobile. With this campaign, 

Petrom created a new dimension of communication 

in our country: the best corporate 

partnership communication using 

social media by delivering a long term benefit 

for Romanians. 

A graduate of the Univer- 

sity of Bucharest and the 

Aspen Instiute Romania, 

Ana Bulgăr is currently 

online manager at OMV 

Petrom S.A., the largest 

Romanian oil and gas 

group. Among other tasks, she is responsible for 

the strategic adjustment of the corporate online 

appearance, the development of the Petrom online 

strategy and implementation of company-wide 

projects. Previously, she was website coordinator 

for the company. 

ONLINE STRATEGY OF THE YEAR


EVALUATION 

CUSTOMER CARE, 

ON-LINE AND ON THE BALL 

D E U T S C H E P O S T D H L 

O 

n December 13, 2011, a German 

Twitter user sends this message to 

his followers: “Anyone using the 

E-Postbrief? I only get newsletters and I 

couldn’t even open the one I got today.” 

A response comes quickly: “What Error 

Message are you getting?” User: “I could 

open the Zip file but not the PDF inside… 

By the way, thanks for asking!!” Answer: “If 

you are using the current version of Adobe 

Reader X you should be able to open it” 

The user’s expression of pleasant surprise 

(“thanks for asking!!)” is understandable 

because the question about the error message, 

as well as the answer that followed, 

did not come from any of his usual Twitter 

followers. It came, unexpectedly, from 

Deutsche Post DHL’s E-Postbrief Customer 

Service department. 

A look into the future Deutsche Post 

DHL’s groundbreaking – and award-winning 

– use of social media means that it 

can interact with customers even before 

they contact the company directly. This 

kind of proactive customer service sets a 

new standard for customer care. Moreover, 

it reflects a much wider change in the way 

social media is influencing the relationship 

between providers of goods and services, 

21 

and their customers. Today, businesses no 

longer face the question of whether or not 

to use Web 2.0 communication channels, 

but rather, how to do so most effectively. In 

2009 Deutsche Post DHL, a multinational 

post and logistics corporation with approximately 

470,000 employees in 220 countries 

and territories, found itself facing a rapidly 

changing media landscape. 

In its approach to developing a social 

media strategy, the company proved 

itself to be creative and flexible. While 

there were deficits at first, Deutsche Post 

DHL showed a willingness to grow and to 

improve its social media presence. The 

company realised it needed to make a 

concerted effort to focus resources on 

creating tools and processes that would 

enable social media monitoring of its 

business interests. Its aim: to facilitate a 

meaningful and effective customer dialogue 

on the social web itself. Deutsche 

Post DHL had developed a diversified online 

presence over the years by creating 

Web sites (dp-dhl.de, dhl.com), Facebook 

pages for business units and products, a 

Twitter account, and more. But due to its 

organic growth, the extensive social media 

agglomeration was missing an overarching 

structure and organisation.

22 


Fixing the problems For one thing, the 

system was lacking transparency. So Deutsche 

Post DHL made it a major objective 

to quantify and track the online discussion 

of its business areas, using a tailored 

set of monitoring tools. A second problem 

was that the company was unsure of which 

tone this discourse was taking: were comments 

weighted to the positive, or the negative? 

Which topics were being discussed, 

and by whom? What were the desires and 

experience of the users, and what com- 

Companies that 

take part in social 

media communication 

demonstrate a 

level of service-orientation 

and customer-friendliness. 

plaints did they have? Moreover, in which 

social media were these discussions taking 

place? To help answer these questions appropriately, 

a monitoring service needed 

to be implemented. Third, Deutsche Post 

DHL needed to develop a standardised, 

approved method of redressing customer 

complaints. At the time, comments were 

answered irregularly and sometimes even 

inappropriately. Lastly, the company needed 

a speedy and proactive plan for crisis 

communications. This was all too evident 

in March of 2010, when a Cuban blogger 

EVALUATION 

accused Deutsche Post DHL of acting as 

a “political filter” for the Castro regime. 

Because no crisis control measures existed 

involving monitoring the social web 

for defined search terms, the comments 

initially went unnoticed, and several days 

passed before the company could issue a 

response. 

A three-pillared initiative By 2011, 

Deutsche Post DHL had created a system 

to address these problems. The three-pillared 

Social Media Initiative aimed to steer 

the immediate development of company’s 

Web 2.0 growth, with the further goal of 

achieving the company’s long-term objectives 

of sustainable and efficient social media 

use. The initiative was created under 

the leadership of the corporate communications 

division and is built on the three 

distinct work streams: Governance, Intelligence, 

and Engagement. Governance 

and Engagement are not the focus of this 

article, so shall be described only briefly 

below. The Intelligence work stream however, 

was considered unique enough to 

win the European Digital Communication 

Award. The Governance pillar sets policy 

on the use of social media and Web 2.0 applications 

for the company and employees. 

Its goals are to increase employee knowhow, 

create a framework for marketing 

and sales to leverage new media potential, 

and coordinate Social Media across the 

various Deutsche Post DHL business units. 

This effort resulted in a series of published 

handbooks, policy guidelines, style guides 

and teaching quizzes. The Engagement 

work stream aims to support the brand 

and foster proactive, dialogue-oriented


EVALUATION 

communication with end users. Here the 

company built up a stable of well-managed 

presences in selected social media channels, 

including Facebook pages for business 

units and products, Twitter accounts, 

a YouTube channel, and more, devoted to 

marketing and branding activities. These 

include Deutsche Post DHL’s support for 

Formula 1, Fashion Week, and the Volvo 

Ocean Race, and products like E-Postbrief 

and the Packstation. 

A closer look at ‘intelligence’ Finally, 

the Intelligence central work stream refers 

to Deutsche Post DHL’s methods for monitoring 

the Web to identify relevant online 

sources, uncover key opinion leaders and 

stay informed about user’s communication 

activities. What are their major complaints? 

What are their wishes and desires? The 

company then built a direct complaint-response 

mechanism via customer relations 

agents, who act based on the information 

gathered. The project, officially titled 

Deutsche Post DHL Corporate Monitoring 

& Reporting and E-Postbrief Monitoring 

& Customer Interaction, exemplifies new 

uses of Web 2.0 platforms for customer relationship 

management. 

Clearly, Intelligence is critical to social 

media-led customer relations. It is crucial 

that a company be informed about the content 

of online communication whenever it, 

or its products, are the topic of discussion. 

Yet another question remains: how can the 

analysis of social media Intelligence benefit 

not only the company, but the customer? 

The answer lies in the precept that all 

social media activities should aim towards 

a balance of both listening and participat- 

23 

ing. Most companies are mainly focused on 

listening, but few are aware of the valuable 

effect that can be had by initiating a dialogue 

with the user. Deutsche Post DHL’s 

social media project intertwines aspects of 

both listening and participating, to create 

a sustainable relationship with users on the 

social web itself. 

Deeply different communication 

The use of social media in corporate communications 

is far from terra incognita. 

Indeed, the future of Web 2.0 applications 

as a basis for professional and systematic 

exchange between a corporate entity and 

its customers is virtually assured. Yet Deutsche 

Post DHL’s active approach to seeking 

out customer commentary through 

non-branded channels highlights its position 

on the cutting edge of current trends. 

Communication on the social web is different 

from traditional corporate communications, 

since creating a sustainable relationship 

implies knowing the content – both 

factual and emotional – of user posts, as 

well as the sources of those posts. Overall, 

the relevance of the communications has 

to be assured, as does the identification 

of influencers and opinion leaders. Who 

is talking about the company, and in what 

forum? What is the content of the posting? 

Finding out those key figures can help establish 

an effective dialogue with the user 

on the social web. 

Driven by the wish to improve their social 

media presence, Deutsche Post DHL 

joined together with the Berlin-based Business 

Intelligence Group, or B.I.G., a social 

media management agency that focuses 

on technologies. B.I.G. developed a tool

24 


to crawl the web; it aimed to monitor all 

relevant English and German social media 

platforms, including websites, influential 

blogs, video-sharing platforms and other 

online communities, and to determine the 

sentiment of the discourse about Deutsche 

Post DHL it found there. To monitor the 

web efficiently, Deutsche Post DHL and 

B.I.G. defined a set of important search 

terms including acronyms and common 

product names. The monitoring and setting 

of search terms was made flexible, so 

that new or specific, critical search terms 

could be added easily. That means, when 

it comes to new campaigns or product 

launches, Deutsche Post DHL and B.I.G. 

can define search terms to determine 

the incoming buzz related to the specific 

launch. 

A variety of reporting possibilities 

To interpret the social media monitoring 

results correctly, the responses are analyzed 

and collated into a variety of reports. Altogether, 

five varieties of report are generated, 

each with its own purpose and target 

group. The aim of the reports is to provide 

a way for managers to improve the business 

by listening carefully to the customer’s desires 

and opinions. The range of reports includes 

comprehensive bi-weekly evaluation 

reports, ad-hoc reports, executive reports 

and exception reports. Each report type is 

directed to a specific business unit within 

the company: bi-weekly evaluation reports 

are mainly focused on buzz developments 

about product launches and branding activities, 

and they are sent to the marketing 

and sales department as well as the 

corporate communications department. 

EVALUATION 

Managers use these reports as the basis for 

decision-making and coordinating activities 

worldwide, and to find areas for product improvement 

(ad-hoc and exception reports 

can be used whenever applicable). They 

are delivered to decision makers daily for 

a specified duration of time and frequently 

focus on one specific topic. Monthly executive 

board reports are generated to provide 

a concise briefing on dominant media topics, 

tonality of discourse, online presence 

and the types of media featured. Overall, 

this type of report reflects the importance 

company leaders place on social media developments, 

and they stress the immense 

relevance of social media in corporate communications 

for Deutsche Post DHL. 

Award for E-Postbrief Online discussion 

about the pros and cons of the E-Postbrief 

essentially began with a negative blog 

entry by a well-known German blogger in 

July, 2010, shortly after the product was 

launched. After he failed to get an answer 

to a question he had sent to Deutsche Post 

DHL about the E-Postbrief, he decided to 

publish an article about it on his blog. The 

entry emphasised negative attributes of the 

E-Postbrief and listed every bug in the system. 

That blog entry immediately spread 

across the internet, where it set off a round 

of discussion on digital mailing services, 

and called into question the whole idea. Because 

Deutsche Post DHL was actively monitoring 

the social web, the company was able 

to react to this blog post immediately. The 

blogger expressed appreciation for the response, 

despite the slight delay. In this case, 

the company requested exception reports 

to monitor specific key words surrounding


EVALUATION 

the E-Postbrief. Furthermore, laying out 

the results in reports helped make the impact 

of the exchange even more tangible. 

Deutsche Post DHL decided to extend 

its customer service on Twitter and 

Facebook. Here, customers can direct any 

issues that arise around the E-Postbrief 

and they are assured of getting a response 

from a trained customer relations team. 

Relevant posts from various streams (complaints, 

comments, requests and questions) 

are forwarded directly to the in-box of the 

customer service agents through a reporting 

structure that is similar to Outlook, 

called the Social Media Interaction Service. 

Agents can edit their responses and 

post them on the same platform where the 

issue arose. For example, a criticism that 

is aired in Facebook will be answered on 

Facebook. Since the implementation of 

the Social Media Interaction and the creation 

of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube 

accounts, E-Postbrief traffic has increased 

tremendously. More than 130,000 video 

plays and 47,000 hits were logged on its 

YouTube channel. The almost 700 Twitter 

followers and 23,500 Facebook fans are 

testimony to the fact that the company’s 

online presence is highly appreciated and 

user engagement is substantial. 

Conclusions In summary, it is clear that 

the starting point of proactive social media 

communication and customer service 

needs to be a communication concept 

that provides a basis for a professional 

and systematic exchange with social media 

outposts. The formulation of this concept 

should be such that it suits the communication 

attributes of the social web on the one 

hand (fluid, non-linear, dynamic), while allowing 

for the integration of social media 

customer care into the existing service and 

customer relationship management landscape 

of the company on the other. Companies 

that take part in social media communication 

and the proactive customer 

service that it provides demonstrate a level 

of service-orientation and customer-friendliness 

that is likely to become a standard 

in the coming years -- something customers 

will expect. 

But for now, Deutsche Post DHL’s 

monitoring and customer interaction is 

breaking new ground. It is a large step toward 

integrating direct customer contact 

via the broadest possible array of interactive 

channels into its ongoing customer 

relations management, and actively moving 

the dialog that will help to determine 

the level of acceptance of its products and 

brand among consumers. By setting clearly 

defined goals and creating corresponding 

processes in this early phase of social media 

customer relations, Deutsche Post DHL is 

improving customer satisfaction and boosting 

its reputation in the long term. 

Christian Maybaum 

is global social media 

coordinator for the cor- 

porate communications 

department of Deutsche 

Post DHL. Based in the 

corporation’s headquar- 

ters in Bonn, he is responsible for developing and 

implementing the social media strategies of the 

world’s largest logistics service provider. 

25

WORKING FIELDS OF 

COMMUNICATION 

MANAGEMENT 


C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N 

I N T E R N A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N / C H A N G E 

D I G I T A L P U B L I C A F F A I R S 

C S R C O M M U N I C A T I O N 

S O C I A L M E D I A C A M P A I G N O F T H E Y E A R

28 

ONLINE STRATEGIES 

AND ORGANISATIONAL 

COMMUNICATION 

R A L P H T E N C H A N D S T U A R T B R U C E 

A 

n organisation’s approach to an online 

communications strategy must 

start from the premise that online 

is not simply a separate channel or entity, 

but is a fundamental part of how every organisation 

communicates and interacts. 

For many organisations online is becoming 

the primary means of communicating 

and interacting with stakeholders. 

Challenges and opportunities of 

online communication The continuing 

growth of social media has fundamentally 

disrupted not only how companies 

and organisations need to approach online 

communications strategies, but far 

more importantly how they need to approach 

traditional communications strategies. 

To cite the latest statistics chronicling 

the growth and importance of social media 

channels is of limited value as it is 

inevitable that the figures will quickly go 

out of date. It is not just the big four – Facebook, 

YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn 

(and now joined by Google+) – that are 

experiencing rapid growth, but also the 

plethora of smaller and niche social me- 

WORKING FIELDS OF COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT 


dia channels and networks such as Pinterest 

and Viadeo. The biggest challenge to 

organisational communication is change. 

Social media is disruptive. It challenges 

existing structures and orders. But the 

real challenge is not the technology that 

is simply the facilitator and enabler. The 

real challenge is what people do with the 

technology. 

On his Silicon Valley Watcher blog, 

former Financial Times journalist Tom 

Foremski advocates that ‘Every company, 

is a media company’ and that the internet 

and social media mean that companies 

must adjust to this new reality and look to 

implement communications and business 

strategies that enable them to be noticed 

in an increasingly noisy world. Companies 

like Dell and GM have recognised this and 

adapted their communications strategies 

accordingly. 

Characteristics of an effective and 

convincing online strategy For an organisation 

to effectively integrate online 

and social media into its corporate communications 

strategy it must take eight 

steps:



1) Accept the change For many organisations 

the hardest part of creating an 

online communications strategy is actually 

getting the necessary buy-in from all of the 

internal stakeholders and senior management. 

Some in the communications team 

will be reluctant to prioritise online, even 

if they recognise its importance, because 

it is outside their skill comfort zone and 

they feel threatened by it. Senior management 

will frequently be confused by it. 

They constantly see it talked about and 

referenced so they want a part of it. However, 

they also want to retain what they 

are familiar with. Other departments and 

job functions within the organisation will 

want to continue receiving the ‘service’ 

that they’re used to and others will see it 

as an opportunity to expand their territory 

and responsibilities into that of other professionals. 

The challenge is to win over allies 

within all of these internal stakeholder 

groups and create a coalition of the willing 

that can work together to develop online 

communications that successfully deliver 

on communications and business objectives. 

2) Start listening When delivering a 

traditional public relations strategy, the 

first step is to understand the existing environment; 

the same is true when developing 

an online communications strategy. 

There are two elements to listening online: 

the first is to audit the space in order 

to understand it; the second is to set-up 

on-going monitoring and listening. It is 

important to audit and understand all of 

the online space and is a mistake to simply 

focus on either social media or online 

29 

websites of traditional mainstream media. 

Doing an initial audit and then establishing 

on-going listening enables an organisation 

to ‘shrink the internet’ in order to 

focus on the influencers and conversations 

that are most relevant to its business and 

communications objectives. This provides 

the organisation with the firm foundations 

for developing an online communications 

strategy. The on-going listening exercise 

will provide the basis for continuing to 

hone and develop the strategy as well as 

providing insight for content creation and 

management. 

3) Agree objectives Just as with any 

other aspect of communication strategy 

it is essential to set specific objectives. 

Where online communications can differ 

from more traditional communications 

channels is that there is so much data you 

can collect, count, measure and evaluate. 

In Measure What Matters (Wiley, 2011) 

public relations measurement specialist 

KD Paine explains how to tie this measurement 

data to business objectives. 

It is vital not to confuse the numerous 

elements of online metrics that you can 

measure with true communications objectives. 

It is unlikely that the number of Facebook 

likes, unique visitors to a website, 

views on YouTube or retweets on Twitter 

are going to be legitimate communications 

objectives: what they can be are valid 

key performance indicators (KPIs). There 

are two main ways to use this data as part 

of your communications strategy: firstly on 

a tactical basis to assess on-going activity to 

amend and improve it on a day-to-day basis; 

secondly as input into a broader evalu-

30 

ation to help assess if real communications 

objectives are being achieved. 

4) Policies and governance It is essential 

for every organisation to set-up appropriate 

policies and governance to cover 

online communications and social media. 

Even if an organisation makes a conscious 

Even if an organisation 

makes a 

conscious decision 

not to participate 

in the social web, it 

must accept that it is 

already part of the 

conversation. 

decision not to participate in the social 

web it must accept that it is already part of 

the conversation. Its employees, investors, 

customers, suppliers, regulators and every 

other stakeholder group are already using 

social media and social networks so it is 

no longer possible to simply opt-out. The 

best social media policies are ones that set 

out to empower and permit rather than 

those that restrict and prohibit. However, 

it is noticeable from recent research in 

Europe (see the European Communication 

Monitor, 2011) that this is not being 

wholly enacted by organisations. 

A mistake made by many organisations 

is to simply search the web and ‘take’ 



one of the many public examples of social 

media policies that have been published 

by companies. Although these policies can 

create inspiration and guidance they cannot 

simply be adapted and used. If a social 

media policy is to be truly empowering 

and enabling it needs to be created to fit 

the people within the organisation. It has 

to take account of their skills and beliefs. 

It also has to take account of the organisation’s 

culture, values and the societies in 

which it operates. It has to take account 

of the laws and regulations governing that 

organisation. One of the best approaches 

to creating a social media policy was established 

by IBM in 2005 when it ‘crowdsourced’ 

its policy by involving employees 

and creating a bottom-up policy. 

5) Identify resources and implications 

on organisational structure 

A traditional online communications approach 

is to capture stakeholders and 

ensure that they stay on your website for 

as long as possible in order to persuade 

them to take action – whether to buy a 

product, apply for a job or support a policy. 

The new approach is to recognise that 

it is engagement and interaction that will 

help to secure that action or behavioural 

change and that it is more important to 

offer stakeholders content that they value, 

wherever it might be. 

There are numerous structures that 

organisations can deploy in order to effectively 

implement online communications 

strategies. The first is the centralised structure 

that attempts to impose a traditional 

organisational structure on an increasingly 

fragmented world where historical



business silos become far less relevant. 

The rapid growth of the social web means 

that an all too common approach is where 

online and social media has been allowed 

to grow organically and has resulted in 

multiple silos of activity without an overarching 

structure. One of the most visible 

examples of a company that has allowed, 

and indeed encouraged, its online communications 

to grow organically is Sun. 

From the chief executive officer down, 

everyone in Sun was allowed to blog and 

utilise social media. 

An alternative approach is the central 

hub and spoke where one hub sets 

rules, best practice and procedures with 

individual organisational units allowed 

and often encouraged to implement their 

own efforts (the American Red Cross is 

one organisation that has adopted this approach 

(the American Red Cross Connect 

site provides links to blogs and Twitter accounts 

for local chapters across the USA). 

For larger and more complex organisations, 

the most appropriate organisational 

approach can be to adopt a multiple hub 

and spoke structure where it can be applied 

across different brands, business 

units and regional market units. 

For an organisational structure it is 

more appropriate to take a holistic approach 

where individual employees are 

empowered and encouraged to participate 

in online and social communications on 

behalf of the organisation. It differs to the 

organic approach in that employees are 

organised and helped to participate and 

communicate. This is the structure that 

has been adopted by some of the companies 

that are frequently regarded to have 

some of the best online communications 

strategies such as Dell (www.dell.com) and 

online US footwear retailer Zappos (www. 

zappos.com). 

Another important aspect of organisational 

communications structures is to 

identify what resources are required to 

implement the online communications 

strategy. Every member of the communications 

team needs to take personal responsibility 

for ensuring that online is implemented 

effectively for their particular 

role. It is important that it is not consigned 

to an online silo while everyone else gets 

on with the job as usual. However, there 

are new roles that might be required and 

can make a valuable contribution to the 

communications team. A ‘social strategist’ 

can help to ensure that new technologies 

and developments are properly evaluated 

and integrated into the communications 

strategy. They can also take on the role of 

ensuring that the online communications 

strategy is properly coordinated across 

every business unit and job function. 

6) Content management and creation 

Developing a content strategy is not 

simply about identifying an organisation’s 

objectives and messages and then creative 

brainstorming to think of content ideas. 

An equally important element is developing 

and creating more effective content 

by using and analysing the available online 

data. There are various ways in which 

this can be done. The first is to rely on 

the analytics available on ‘owned’ media 

such as using Google Analytics to understand 

user behaviour on an organisation’s 

website – how do they find it and arrive, 

31

32 

what content holds their interest, how 

do they move around the site, and so on. 

Data is also available on most other social 

web platforms with sophisticated analytics 

available on YouTube and Facebook 

(which now offers real-time analytics so it 

is possible to see immediately what happens 

when you publish or share content). 

Twitter has numerous third party tools to 

help analyse how content is shared. 

However, an organisation’s content 

strategy should not just revolve around social 

media. Creating the right content for 

online mainstream media can be equally 

important. Just as a public relations professional 

needs to understand the different 

needs of traditional print and broadcast 

media, they must also understand the 

requirements of online media. Pure news 

is becoming increasingly commoditised 

and online mainstream media are seeking 

to compete with each other by offering 

interactive content that helps them 

engage with their readers and viewers. 

This means live web chats, videocasts and 

interactive data graphics. 

7) Platforms and technologies The 

last aspect of online communications 

strategy that needs to be addressed is to 

choose which platforms to use. There are 

numerous factors that need to be taken 

into account when identifying and deciding 

on platforms. The big four social web 

platforms are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter 

and LinkedIn, but in 2011 the big four 

became the big five with Google’s launch 

of its Google+ social networking platform. 

Google+ is the fastest growing of 

any of the big social web platforms, how- 



ever many of those who’ve joined since it 

started in June 2011 still haven’t become 

particularly active users (‘Google+ the 

fastest-growing social network ever’, The 

Independent, August 3, 2011). However, 

the relentless integration of Google+ into 

Pure news is becoming 

increasingly 

commoditised and 

online mainstream 

media are seeking to 

compete with each 

other. 

other Google properties means that it will 

become part of the fabric of more and 

more people’s online life. The addition of 

the Google+ Share button and the +You 

tab to the famously uncluttered Google 

home page mean that it will become a 

major social web platform. 

The social web means that online 

communications strategy no longer revolves 

around an organisation’s main website 

or specially created micro sites, but 

is now increasingly dependent on thirdparty 

sites that are used to host, distribute 

and share content. The implication of this 

is that content on these third party sites is 

now acting as a hook to engage stakeholders 

and pull them into an organisation’s 

main website. It also means that visitors to 

the main website have a way of staying con-



nected with the organisation through social 

networks that they are already using. 

8) Measurement and evaluation If 

the objectives have been defined correctly 

when creating the online communications 

strategy then it becomes far easier 

to measure and evaluate the success of 

the strategy as the measures and targets 

to be used will already have been agreed. 

Although there are many things that can 

be measured as part of an online communications 

strategy it is important to focus 

on the two most important areas. Firstly 

those that contribute to evaluate the overall 

success of the strategy and secondly 

those that can be used on day-to-day basis 

to feedback into and improve how the 

strategy is implemented. Econsultancy’s 

Chris Lake has created a list of 35 types of 

key performance indicators that might be 

used to measure social media engagement 

(‘35 social media KPIs to help measure 

engagement’ http://sbpr.co/GH1GIy). 

Deciding which of the many third party 

tools available, many of which are free, 

is also dependent on what organisational 

structures are used and what technologies 

are used to support the structure. 

Integrating online and offline 

strategies A successful online communications 

strategy is one that accepts that 

the mythical old ‘command and control’ 

model no longer works. It is one that recognises 

that for many stakeholder groups 

online is already more important than traditional 

print and broadcast media; it is 

one that recognises that many people now 

spend more time on social media and so- 

cial networks than they do traditional 

mainstream media; and it is one that recognises 

the need for internal cooperation 

and breaks down traditional silos and departments. 

Above all a successful online communications 

strategy is one that doesn’t exist 

as online alone. In other words there is 

absolute integration of online and offline 

communications strategies into a single 

successful communications strategy that 

delivers on organisational objectives. 


Ralph Tench is professor 

of communication educa- 

tion, PR and communicati- 

on at Leeds Metropolitan 

University, UK. A member 

of the the Chartered Ins- 

titute of Public Relations 

(CIPR), he has presented his research around the 

world and taught at several European universities, 

including a current position as a visiting professor 

at the University of Salzburg, where he has taught 

a Master’s course for several years. 

Stuart Bruce is an inde- 

pendent communications 

consultant, part time 

lecturer with Leeds Me- 

tropolitan University and 

trainer advising compa- 

33 

nies mand governments in 

Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia. He specialises 

in digital corporate communications and public 

affairs, online PR and social media.

34 

his case study describes how Spanish 

public company Aena managed 

to successfully face a serious emergency 

situation last year, focusing its strategy 

on online communication media and 

using in particular a microblogging social 

media network highly widespread in Spain: 

Twitter. Aena’s official Twitter channel, created 

to help the company with a contingency 

occasion (namely, an air strike during 

the winter holiday period), proved to 

be very useful in alleviating the emergency 

situation by sending out useful real-time 

information to citizens and customers. The 

public, affected sectors and mass media all 

reacted very positively to an initiative that 

created a trend in Spain over the subsequent 

months. Weeks later, the channel 

became a permanent interactive online 

platform for the company and an example 

of a communications success story. Following 

Aena’s experience, many other public 

and private companies, government agencies 

and institutions decided to create their 

own Twitter channel. 

A difficult weekend for travelers 

On the third of December 2010, Aena - a 

company responsible for the management 

of Spanish airports - faced a great chal- 


CRISIS COMMUNICATION 

FLYING OVER PROBLEMS 

TO GIVE PUBLIC SERVICE 

A E N A W I T H I N F O R P R E S S G R O U P 

T 

lenge. Spanish air traffic controllers left 

their jobs en masse without prior notice 

and so the government was forced to shut 

down Spain’s airspace at a peak period, 

when tens of thousands of people were 

ready to start their winter holidays. As a 

result of this crisis, almost 700,000 travelers 

were caught by surprise at airports up 

and down the county, trapped and unable 

to fly. 

At the same time, the communication 

channels Aena traditionally used to communicate 

with its customers and the general 

public (telephone assistants and website) 

collapsed, due to the huge number 

of phone calls and online visits by people 

demanding prompt information about the 

current situation at various airports, especially 

in those first moments of surprise 

and confusion. Aena also received an avalanche 

of queries about cancellations, delays, 

future flights, complaints and claims. 

Considering the magnitude of the 

problem, Aena made an unusually quick 

and bold corporate decision and, in cooperation 

with consultant group Inforpress, 

set in motion an urgent plan of 

communication focused on the creation 

of a corporate Twitter account. Until that 

point, Aena had no prior presence in so-



cial media. In only an hour, Aena was able 

to create and launch its own channel, 

@aenainformacion, reporting in real-time 

to both customers and mass media around 

the country and the rest of Europe about 

what was happening. On the first day, the 

channel reached 3,500 followers – a Spanish 

record. 

Be useful and serve The immediate 

goal was to inform efficiently in real time 

about the emergency situation. A secondary 

objective was to then convert Aena’s 

Twitter channel into an effective vehicle 

of ongoing communication for the company. 

Clearly, the primary concern was to 

achieve the main goal: enabling Aena to 

quickly inform customers about the air 

situation, to attend to their complaints, to 

answer questions and to resolve problems 

during this sudden crisis. Only later would 

this Twitter account become a permanent 

emergency management tool and a daily 

vehicle for dialogue with customers and 

the wider public. 

Aena create the new Twitter channel 

with support from Inforpress: the group 

contacted key prescribers, relevant players 

on the web, mass media and businesses 

related to the tourism and air sectors. Inforpress 

also provided and constantly updated 

content, monitored hashtags and 

trending topics and posted updates in 

English and in the four official languages 

of Spain (Spanish Castilian, Catalan, 

Galician and Basque) from the very first 

moments. The fact that Aena’s communication 

staff and Inforpress’ online crisis 

team worked together from the beginning 

was a key point in the success of the online 

strategy. In the first three days, eight people 

were involved: four from Aena’s communication 

staff and four senior consultants 

from Inforpress. Later, the number 

of people involved was reduced to three 

Three days later the 

account had consolidated 

its position as 

a reference point, 

providing abundant, 

practical information 

on flights and 

operations. 

senior consultants at Inforpress: they were 

responsible for the direct management of 

the channel at this early stage. 

A successful strategy. Aena achieved 

its goal: to launch a channel that reported 

in real time, answering questions from 

customers and mass media and swiftly 

and efficiently informing thousands of 

citizens. In just one day, @aenainformacion 

had become an essential tool for anyone 

who wanted to know how and when 

Spain’s airspace would be reopened and 

how and when the first flights would be 

operated. Three days later the account 

had consolidated its position as a reference 

point, providing abundant, practical 

and updated information on flights and 

operations, as well as accumulating count- 

35

36 

Aena’s Twitter channel marked its first presence in social media 

less congratulations for its service. Weeks 

later the channel took on a full function 

as a communication tool for dialogue with 

the public, a role it currently maintains. 

Coverage and praise Spanish 

and international mass media (news agencies, 

papers, television channels, online 

newspapers, broadcast stations and so on) 

cited Aena Twitter as an official source of 

information from the beginning: El País, 

La Sexta, La Primera, CNN+, Onda Cero, 

Efe, Cadena SER, Cadena Cope, The New 

York Times, La Vanguardia (which soon 

included the monitoring of @aenainformacion 

as part of its website) Reuters, and 

many more became permanent Aena Twitter 

followers. Spanish news agencies like 

Europa Press and Servimedia immediately 

began echoing the service by retweeting 

it. And audiovisual and online media such 



as La Información (120,000 followers) 

cited Aena’s tweets and collected their 

main hashtags. Twitter @1001Medios 

wrote that “traditional media cite messages 

that @aenainformacion is on Twitter”. 

In the first 24 hours of its existence, 

@aenainformacion was included in 104 

lists of who to follow on Twitter with regards 

to the crisis. TVE-1 and Onda Cero 

– among many other media – immediately 

announced the emergence of @aenainformacion 

and advised people to its consult 

it. In fact, @aenainformacion became the 

main source of information for the major 

Spanish and international online and offline 

media. Even the Minister of Interior 

recommended @aenainformacion as a 

source of fresh and reliable news on the 

crisis. The channel received extensive congratulations 

from the public, mass media, 

economical and political groups, tourist



Aena’s work garnered widespread media coverage 

areas and sectors, hotels and commercial 

aviation. “Twitter, one of the main sources 

of information on air chaos”, became the 

news lead in the online edition of Telemadrid, 

Spain’s fifth national public television 

station (all headlines and tweets 

are translated from the original Spanish). 

“Twitter is imposed during the emergency 

in the air space controllers. Aena, airlines 

and citizens make the microblogging network 

on the best information source”, 

highlighted La Vanguardia, Catalonia‘s 

leading daily newspaper. Aena’s Twitter account 

also won praise from corporations, 

travel agencies and tourist companies: 

“Thank you from here the spectacular 

work of information in the Aena tweet”, 

wrote @hotelauditorium. Organisations 

such as Eurocontrol, airlines such as 

Vueling and airports such as London/Gatwick 

followed Aena’s Twitter account. 

Several members of the public and 

other Twitter users also congratulated 

Aena’s initiative: “Congratulations for the 

information at minute about the crisis” 

(@JuanWes); “Thanks so much for your up 

to date information concerning the Spanish 

air strike” (@jra _riotinto: this tweet 

was in English). “Thank you for having 

opened the Twitter channel, it’s very useful” 

(@Horacio_Alcala, who also tweeted 

“When a communication media is good, 

effective and quick, it works”). 

Others followers preferred to highlight 

the new channel’s number of followers 

and its importance as an example 

of how the crisis could also generate opportunities. 

“The effectiveness of twitter: 

37

38 

@aenainformacion launches an account 

with more than 3,500 fans well informed 

in a few hours” (@Jose_Cosin); “Congratulations! 

5,000 entries and 1700 followers at 

the official channel of @aenainformacion 

in 80 minutes. The power of online communication” 

(@AFuenteM). And another 

follower, @cmruben, reflected “@aenainformacion 

achieves more than 3,500 followers 

in one day…A record”. 

In addition, some of the network’s 

gurus, such as Carlos Salas, and leading 

Three days later the 

account had consolidated 

its position as 

a reference point, 

providing abundant, 

practical information 

on flights and 

operations. 

journalists such as Vicente Valles, encouraged 

Aena with messages and positive 

mentions. 

Given this excellent reception and 

proven efficacy, it was only natural to 

give continuity to this interactive channel 

which had emerged only as a specific 

tool to help manage a single emergency 

situation. Thus, AENA has decided to use 

@aenainformacion on a permanent basis, 

mostly directed to customers, airlines and 

online and international media, and to 



provide it with a clear remit of service. Furthermore, 

Aena will continue to use Twitter 

when faced with all kinds of crises as a 

means of directly communicating with the 

public. Months later, Aena has used Twitter 

to resolve several emergencies: airports 

and road closures due to weather problems, 

volcanic ash from Iceland, political 

instability in Egypt and Tunisia, and terrorist 

attacks in Russian air installations. 

In June 2011, Aena’s twitter channel 

was renamed as @aenaaeropuertos due to a 

change in the company’s name. Today the 

account has almost 14,400 followers and the 

‘Aena Twitter case’ is studied as a best-case 

success by digital experts across Europe. In 

fact, the importance of its emergence has 

been underscored by several experts. Eduardo 

Arcos, founder of Hipertextual and 

Alt1040m, and innovation expert Javier 

Prieto, have analysed @aenainformacion/ 

@aenaaeropuertos as a social success story 

that deserves to be studied. 

Furthermore, Aena’s Twitter success 

has created a new tendency within the 

company, both internally and externally. 

In June 2011, Aena launched Facebook 

and YouTube accounts in order to complete 

its digital communication platform. 

This social media strategy has been copied 

by Spanish institutions and companies 

who want to improve their communications 

and customer service. Months later, 

in the wake of Aena’s Twitter experience, 

many companies and government ministries 

(such as Fomento, Home Affairs and 

others) have created their own Twitter accounts. 

So something that was initially set 

up to help solve an urgent if brief period 

back in December 2010 has become a per-



manent tool of communication not just for 

Aena, but for many other companies and 

instiutions. Today, the goal of @aenaaeropuetos 

is to provide timely information on 

Aena with the clear intention of serving 

passengers, airlines and media - an objective 

shared by the company’s Facebook 

and Youtube corporate profiles. Currently 

news about the Spanish and international 

airport network and practical advice to 

travelers prevail in the new Aena global 

online platform. The ultimate goal is that 

media and users have the best, most useful 

and prompt information about the company 

and its network in real time. 

Conclusions I strongly believe that 

the Aena communication plan succeeded 

due to several factors, among which 

three should be especially emphasised: 

it worked because we chose Twitter, a 

channel in which messages can be sent 

in a flexible and fast manner; because we 

firmly respect the network’s ‘codes of conduct’; 

and because we kept up an ongoing 

dialogue, even if only to say ‘no’ on some 

occasions. Another key for success was that 

we put out a great deal of information in 

several languages, and that Aena and Inforpres 

worked together in joining specific 

content and knowledge online. It was also 

important that we monitored trending 

topics and listened to opinion leaders in 

the network. And, of course, that we knew 

what interested people and kept up monitoring 

in real time. 

The success of Aena’s Twitter channel 

clearly and forcefully shows the need for 

companies and agencies to incorporate as 

soon as possible online tools within their 

communication strategy along with the 

traditional channels we are accustomed 

to inform our stakeholders. The world of 

communication has changed dramatically 

and it is now vital for companies to participate 

in the new web 2.0 environment and 

to explore and use – with skill and agility 

- the possibilities offered by social media 

networks, and which are increasingly used 

by citizens around the planet. To do so, 

companies and agencies must train their 

staff in the codes and language of the new 

mass media. Companies must become accustomed 

to a new way of communicating, 

one that has emerged with the progressive 

replacement of the traditional communication 

model (based on vertical and intermediating 

attitudes) by new digital social 

channels: open, horizontal and founded 

on dialogue, agility and speed. The times 

they are a’ changing, and communication 

is far from being an exception. 

Carlos Alvaro Luso is 

a senior consultant at 

Spanish public relations 

firm Inforpress Group, 

He is an expert in eco- 

nomic, international and 

European Union affairs 

and also specialises in on-line communication and 

social media networking. During his 25 year career 

in journalism, he has worked for RNE, Europa 

Press news agency and the newspapers El Norte 

de Castilla, Expansión and business newspaper La 

Gaceta de los Negocios. In the latterhe became 

editor in chief and executive staff member for 

more than 10 years. 

39

40 

ince 2008, Allianz TV has become an 

irreplaceable tool, fully integrated in 

the internal communication strategy 

of Allianz Slovakia, the Slovakian branch of 

the multinational financial services company 

headquartered in Munich. As in-house 

media, it provides up-to–date information 

to almost 2,000 employees and over 4,500 

tied agents throughout Slovakia. On a 

weekly basis, employees review short three 

to five-minute videos covering a wide range 

of topics such as company and business information, 

employee events, philanthropic 

activities, sales information, employee education 

and recognition - all available and 

easily accessible via the internal site or intranet 

page. Furthermore, Allianz Slovakia 

was the first of all Allianz Group companies 

to establish corporate television sharing as 

a best business practice. 

Video broadcasting starts every Monday, 

distributed over two channels – one 

for employees and one for our agents. Employees 

can watch videos directly on their 

desktops or via the Allianz TV intranet 

page, which includes a video archive with a 

ratings and comments section. In average, 

the intranet page is in the top three most 

visited pages each month. Tied agents use 

a different internal site where videos can 


INTERNAL COMMUNICATION/CHANGE 

TELEVISION AS PART OF THE 

COMPANY DNA 

A L L I A N Z S L O V A K I A 

S 

be reviewed on a dedicated page. Every 

year, approximately 50 videos are made, 

tailored specifically to each target group 

reflecting their needs and interests. 

We believe that there can be no effective 

employee communication without the 

employees’ active participation in communication. 

All of our employees – not only 

communication department people – are 

responsible for spreading the message (we 

take the same approach to leadership). Internal 

communicators guide and support 

our employees in addressing messages in 

the most correct and effective way, and 

Allianz TV is definitely one of these ways. 

Without any doubt, employee and leader- 

The internal television 

channel has 

brought increased 

innovation, engagement, 

interactivity 

and attractiveness to 

our employee communications.



The logo of Allianz TV, a “unique digital project” 

ship engagement is the number one benefit 

of having an internal television: they are 

the key elements of success. The involvement 

of our employees starts with the selection 

of topics and ideas, and goes right 

through cooperation on screen-plays, appearances 

in videos and, last but not least, 

valuable feedback and evaluation. Thus, 

our involved employees create one communication 

community. 

There are three employees in the corporate 

communications department dedicated 

to Allianz TV and they actively work 

with employees on the videos, each one 

with a specific role. The director responsible 

for casting, camera, graphics design, 

music and promotion is the only team 

member fully dedicated to the television 

channel: the rest of the team consists of 

our head of corporate communications as 

the television anchor and our head of in- 

ternal communications as the production 

supervisor responsible for screen-plays, 

production, broadcasting, feedback assessment 

and reporting. 

Performance booster As a result, the 

internal television channel has brought 

increased innovation, engagement, interactivity 

and attractiveness to our employee 

communications. It offers unique two-way 

communication between leadership and 

employees, and the act of broadcasting 

reaches all employees and tied agents at the 

same time, nationwide. The useful delivery 

of news in one package enables employees 

to be informed about the latest activities 

within a few minutes. No advanced technical 

skills are required to access the videos. 

Both our employee engagement and our 

corporate culture are strengthened, with a 

significant effect on our business perform- 

41

42 

ance. Employees bring new ideas to the 

table, which, when implemented, enables 

employee self-presentation and the development 

of their talent and potential. The 

information presented in the videos educates 

employees in different ways and ensures 

the sharing of knowledge and of best 

business practices. 

Highlighting the recognition and success 

of our employees in the videos has 

had a positive impact on their motivation 

and development. Internal television is 

a shared tool of both management and 

employees to send each other important 

messages. Among other traditional communication 

tools (such as internal magazines, 

newsletters, intranet and town hall 

meetings) it brings a diversity to our communications 

that is highly appreciated by 

all involved. 

According to an internal communication 

survey held in 2010 by an external 

company, 85 per cent of our employees 

and tied agents consider Allianz TV as the 

most important communication media. 

91 per cent of them appreciate their colleagues’ 

onscreen appearances as great 

way of getting to know each other. The 

same percentage of employees considers 

television as an important tool for receiving 

the kind of relevant information they 

need for their work. And over 90 per cent 

also appreciate the interactive, innovative 

communication and the clear messages delivered 

by the videos. 

Praise and plaudits Allianz TV’s 

outstanding accomplishment is prized by 

employees as well as by communication 

experts. The project received the Slovak 



Television Award for Innovation and has 

on more than one occasion won an award 

for Corporate Media of the Year in the category 

of electronic and audiovisual media. 

As the world becomes more and more 

digital, we are witnessing a boom in online 

video. New digital trends mobilise and challenge 

Allianz Slovakia’s employee communications 

to further develop and improve 

the existing tools. Finding the right balance 

in topics, attractiveness of videos, full 

capitalisation of television potential and 

technology options without incurring additional 

costs will be critical to the future 

success of this unique digital project. 

Katarina Schneidero- 

va is head of internal 

communications in Allianz 

Slovakia. She is responsib- 

le for developing and im- 

plementing an integrated 

internal communications 

strategy within the company. In her role, she over- 

sees strategic internal communications projects, 

the day-to-day operation of internal media and 

supports the leadership communications. Prior to 

this, Katarina joined several global projects with 

focus on employee engagement and communica- 

tion as both, team member and leader. She has an 

extensive experience in field of corporate social 

responsibility and diversity.


DIGITAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

FARMING FIRST’S 

GREEN ECONOMY 

INFOGRAPHIC 

F A R M I N G F I R S T W I T H G L A S S H O U S E P A R T N E R S H I P 

T 

he concept of how to build a 

green economy is currently being 

debated on the international policy 

agenda. Farming First (a global agricultural 

coalition representing the world’s 

farmers, scientists, engineers and industry 

as well as agricultural development organisations) 

aims to build awareness and 

support for the central role which agriculture 

can play in addressing this challenge. 

A green economy offers an alternative 

vision for sustainable development, one 

that generates growth and improves people’s 

livelihoods, whilst minimising environmental 

impact. 

Farming First asked Glasshouse Partnership 

(a specialist corporate social responsibility 

and sustainability communications 

unit within the London-based agency, 

Lexis) to develop and launch a campaign 

that positions Farming First as a global 

thought leader on the ways in which agricultural 

policies and funding streams can 

be shaped in order to drive broader sustainable 

agricultural development. 

As the central focus of the early campaign, 

Glasshouse Partnership developed 

an interactive inforgraphic called The 

Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy, 

which synthesised existing research 

and statistics into one compelling and engaging 

narrative. Through a combination 

of data collection, design, digital technology 

and effective delivery, the infographic 

encourages audience engagement and 

builds consensus around agriculture’s 

role in addressing global challenges whilst 

leveraging Farming First and its website’s 

position as an information hub on food 

and agriculture matters. To view the full 

infographic, visit: www.farmingfirst.org/ 

green-economy. 

The Context Our world faces unprecedented 

challenges. The global population 

is expected to reach nine billion people 

by 2050, requiring at least a 70 per cent increase 

in agricultural production to meet 

increased demand. Global demand for water, 

energy and food is on the rise, putting 

increasing pressure on our world’s natural 

resources. Rising and volatile food prices 

are pushing more and more people into 

poverty; according to the World Bank the 

2010/2011 food price spike is estimated 

to have pushed a further 44 million peo- 

43

44 

The new infographic dispays facts and figures about agriculture and the green economy 

ple into poverty. At the same time, climate 

change is threatening farmers’ ability to 

produce enough food to meet growing 

demand and poor communities’ ability 

to access nutritious food. In policy terms, 

these global challenges are being debated 

under the overarching term of the “green 

economy”. 

As a sector, agriculture is essential to 

the green economy, accounting for 37 per 

cent of the world’s labour force. Of these, 

97 per cent live in developing countries, 

where it is women farmers who grow the 

majority of food. Most of these farmers 

practice subsistence agriculture. Farmers 

need access to key inputs and training in 

better agronomic practices that will help 

them to improve the quantity, quality and 

diversity of their crops and combat changing 

weather patterns, soil degradation 

and pest problems. By investing in storage 



facilities to reduce post-harvest losses, in 

transport links to access markets and in 

communications systems to share knowledge, 

farmers can more reliably increase 

their crop production and the amount 

of crops they can bring to market. Better 

business boosts farmers’ incomes and 

stimulates local business, creating a ripple 

effect into the community and helping to 

improve local food security. 

Agriculture offers the potential to 

achieve the triple goals of a more secure 

food supply, poverty reduction through 

improved rural livelihoods and environmental 

sustainability through reduced 

footprint of production and climate 

change adaptation. Through further support 

in advancing agricultural research 

and development, global leaders can further 

progress the goal of building a future 

green economy.



1. Data Collection There is already a 

wide array of data on sustainable agricultural 

development available from a range 

of different disciplines. However, this 

data is often spread across many different 

organisations and buried deep within reports 

that are typically heavy with jargon 

or laden with data. This can make it difficult 

for non-specialist audiences to understand 

and engage in meaningful ways 

as they find it difficult to condense information 

and make connections about how 

these statistics relate to each other. 

We compiled data from many different 

leading agricultural organisations and 

from a range of disciplines related to climate 

change, employment, food productivity, 

poverty reduction and water management. 

Once this data was compiled, 

we then sorted it into relevant categories, 

which we then refined and used as the evidence 

base around which to create narratives 

for the infographic. 

2. Design Process The Story of Agriculture 

and the Green Economy infographic 

consists of 17 different graphics, 

designed to answer six frequently asked 

questions related to agriculture and the 

green economy.: 

1. How can we feed future generations? 

2. How can we reduce poverty around the 

world? 

3. Why does agriculture matter to a green 

economy? 

4. Where do we invest to build a green 

economy? 

5. How can we build a more sustainable 

supply chain? 

6. How can we manage environmental sustainability 

with economic viability? 

We used a broad range of visualisation 

techniques, which helped to make the 

infographic visually engaging and easy to 

comprehend. 

Each of the six sections contains statistics, 

graphs and commentary around rel- 

Given the complexity 

of the agriculture 

sector and the green 

economy, the infographic 

makes these 

issues easily digestible 

for broader 

audiences. 

evant topics to the green economy, such 

as making supply chains more sustainable, 

improving food security and managing 

natural resources sustainably. Given 

the complexity of the agriculture sector 

and the green economy, the infographic 

makes these issues easily digestible for 

broader audiences to engage in the green 

economy discussions. 

3. Digital Links As agriculture’s role in 

building a green economy is so crucial, it 

was important to sustain interest in the issues 

addressed by making the infographic 

interactive. We created a Green Economy 

45

46 

page on the main Farming First website 

to host the infographic, along with various 

policy position papers and guides 

which Farming First had already developed. 

Each of the 17 individual graphics 

had a Twitter button which allowed users 

to automatically connect to their Twitter 

profiles and share ready-made tweets on 

Twitter. We also created an Embed button 

so that the graphics themselves could be 

embedded on external websites and blogs 

to help others share and use the data and 

images on their own websites along with 

their own commentary. 

4. Delivery The infographic was 

launched prior the G8 summit in France 

between the 26th and 27th of May, 2011, 

where discussions on how to transition to 

Following the success 

of the infographic, 

Farming First has 

continued to build 

global consensus 

around the role of 

agriculture and the 

green economy. 

a green economy were on the agenda. In 

2008 the G8 nations made a pledge of $22 

billion to food security by 2012 and, with 

their commitments yet to be achieved, 

Farming First hoped to leverage this news 



trigger and position the infographic as a 

resource for policymakers on how to address 

the challenges of both feeding a 

growing population and building a green 

economy through agriculture. 

The media launch of the infographic 

was carefully timed and a press release 

was distributed to mainstream media, targeting 

a variety of journalists covering related 

topics. It was also distributed to development 

organisations and agricultural 

specialists, as well as more general blogs 

related to international development, the 

environment and food issues. 

In conjunction with the infographic’s 

launch, a hard copy version was produced 

for distribution at international policy 

events which various Farming First supporters 

already attended. The brochure 

has been handed out to hundreds of policymakers, 

advocacy groups, agricultural 

development organisations and the general 

public. It has and will continue to be 

used as an advocacy tool to call on world 

leaders to give agriculture the attention 

it deserves. 

Since the G8 summit we have continued 

to promote the infographic around 

other key international events such as the 

G20 summit in France in November 2011 

and the annual United Nations climate 

change conference, held in Durban, 

South Africa in December 2011. 

5. Results Achieved Visits to the Farming 

First website increased by 564 per cent 

after the initial launch and continued 

to increase by 125 per cent throughout 

the campaign. Farming First’s Twitter account 

gained over 1,000 new followers in



the two weeks following the launch of the 

infographic – an overall increase of 20 

per cent. The infographic also received 

‘top tweet’ status, which is awarded to 

tweets that have caught the attention of 

other Twitter followers based on how other 

users have retweeted, shared and interacted 

with it. Agricultural organisations 

and other important influencers that 

tweeted about the infographic included 

the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation 

(FAO), Oxfam, Gates Foundation, 

the International Food Policy Research 

Institute (IFPRI) and 1 Billion Hungry. 

We also received coverage on other social 

network sites, including Facebook and in 

blogs. 

Farming First had over 30 pieces of 

coverage on the infographic, including 

articles in the Guardian, Forbes, Reuters, 

Dow Jones, various United Nations agencies, 

the Gates Foundation and the UK’s 

Department for International Development 

(DFID). It also won the prestigious 

Gates Foundation global challenge, Small 

Farmers Are The Answer competition in 

2011, for best infographic. 

The direct policy influence of the 

infographic has also been clear. Following 

the launch of the infographic, Farming 

First received four new requests from 

potential supporter groups. Two United 

Nations agencies also requested Farming 

First to speak at global policy events immediately 

after the launch. 

Summary The infographic took four 

months to complete with two consultants 

and a freelance designer working on 

the project. Research began in February 

2011 and the design phase commenced 

in March 2011. The infographic was 

launched on 22 May 2011 with ongoing 

media outreach and evaluation when appropriate. 

The green economy infographic is 

the first item to be launched in Farming 

First’s Green Economy campaign, which 

continues up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit 

2012, hosted by the UN Commission 

on Sustainable Development in Rio de 

Janeiro in June. The topic of the green 

economy is one of the key themes addressed 

in this Summit. 

This infographic builds on Farming 

First’s already established reputation for 

producing innovative resource materials 

such as a Guide to Food Security Initiatives, 

which also exists both on- and offline. 

Following the success of the infographic, 

Farming First has continued to 

build global consensus around the role 

of agriculture and the green economy, 

since launching an animated video called 

The Story of Agriculture and the Green 

Economy. 

Farming First is a global 

agricultural coalition 

representing the world’s 

farmers, scientists, 

engineers and industry as 

well as agricultural development organisations. The 

coalition calls on policymakers and practitioners 

to develop a global action plan to increase food 

production in an environmentally-sustainable, eco- 

nomically-feasible and socially-responsible manner. 

47

48 

anca Para Todos – which could be 

freely translated as “Banking for 

all” – is the BBVA Group’s corporate 

responsibility website. But let’s begin 

with a proper introduction to set up the 

context in which to frame this evolution. 

BBVA, the acronym and trademark of 

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, is a major 

financial services group from Spain that 

serves 50 million clients in more than 30 

countries through a network of over 7,300 

branches and approximately 110,000 employees. 

With three strategic cornerstones 

- people, innovation and values - that support 

the whole business model and act as 

levers for growth, BBVA follows an innovative 

management model that focuses on 

the customer, that considers society in general, 

and that relies on teamwork, ethical 

principles and technology. 

Setting the scene In the stormy financial 

conditions of recent years, the BBVA 

Group is big enough to be considered as 

a systemic risk, despite the fact that - due 

to strict risk control procedures and geographical 

diversification - it is doing better 

than any other bank within its peer group. 


CSR COMMUNICATION 

A NEW APPROACH TO 

CORPORATE SOCIAL 

RESPONSIBILITY REPORTING 

B B V A B A N C A P A R A T O D O S 

B 

Regardless of the Group’s performance 

and activity, simply being a major European 

financial institution implies being another 

one among the usual suspects, and raises 

certain reputational issues in the mind of 

many stakeholder groups. 

Corporate social responsibility reporting 

has been a highly relevant communication 

challenge since as early as 2002 and as 

matter of fact, BBVA has been often recognised 

as a benchmark in corporate social 

responsibility reporting. Perhaps because 

of this pioneer position in the forefront of 

reporting, one contradictions have been 

spotted by our team that managing such 

projects: namely, that the typical conventional 

report on sustainability is undermined 

by an essential paradox – the nicer 

the presentation, the less sustainable and 

eco-friendly they are. A glossy finish and 

colourful, high-impact pictures do not go 

very well with recycled paper, not to mention 

the carbon footprint of shipping and 

handling these expensive reports which, at 

the end of the day, are read by few people 

other than some analysts and watchdog 

organisations. What a waste! Not to mention 

that despite the efforts and resources



The human face of corporate social responsibility 

poured into issuing an updated and timely 

corporate social responsibility report, they 

are almost always obsolete the minute they 

are published: they are only able to share 

stories, facts and figures about what happened 

in the previous year, usually months 

before the print date. At the current pace 

of information, these still snapshots, no 

matter how beautiful, are not only obsolete 

but largely irrelevant. 

Going digital Keeping that in mind, 

our decision to take the digital leap looks 

like the obvious, smart choice. Not only 

was the idea consistent with the need to 

be – and be perceived as being – green 

(saving the rainforest by using less paper, 

a reduced carbon footprint, and less print- 

ing and distribution costs), it also saved 

money. But while working on introducing 

the corporate social responsibility report 

into the on-line world, a bold idea found 

its way into the project: what if the corporate 

social responsibility reporting jumped 

directly to the 2.0 age? After all, BBVA had 

already been leading on social media innovations 

and were already managing 

over 100 groups or conversations in Facebook, 

Twitter, YouTube, blogs and Linkedin 

(www.bbvasocialmedia.com). With 

this background and expertise within the 

company, it seemed feasible and technically 

achievable, provided that senior 

management found our proposal reasonable 

and gave it their support. According 

to BBVA’s previous experience, managing 

49

50 

social media conversations is not difficult 

when the topic is either sports sponsorship 

(BBVA is well known for sponsoring the 

Spanish football league as well as the NBA) 

or innovation (ideas that are engaging for 

major audiences with easy-to-handle contents). 

Even on topics more closely linked 

to the core of our business – financial 

services, credit cards, pension plans, mortgage 

loans, and so on – different reports 

had found that the BBVA team had been 

managing social media with considerable 

success. 

The ultimate proposal When designing 

our “CSR 2.0”, the key requirement was 

the capability and the sensibility to address 

those topics that we are bound to discuss 

and that we must disclose regardless of 

whether we want to talk about them or not. 

And when embracing social media a committed 

attitude is required in order to hold 

conversations on a one-to-one basis. Conversation 

happens when both participants 

are on the same level, sharing the same 

language and communication codes. That 

means that the institution must be open to 

hearing not-so-comfortable opinions, to 

be questioned and to reply accordingly. In 

other words, it is about taking risks. 

Sticking to the old format of publishing 

a report with a single e-mail address 

hidden away towards the back for feedback 

purposes, is certainly a safer way to avoid 

headaches, but would not make any difference. 

And BBVA was determined to communicate 

clearly that it is a different kind 

of financial institution and that its strong 

commitment to values and people is making 

a difference when so many other banks 



are struggling to deal with the results of 

suspect business decisions. 

The ultimate proposal was bold and 

possibly disruptive: to get rid of the traditional 

corporate social responsibility report 

– in paper and on line - and replace 

it with a blog, a permanent forum to talk 

and discuss with stakeholders and analysts, 

NGOs, academics, or even regular people 

interested on how BBVA performs its business 

beyond the bottom line and the stock 

market value. No more yearly, quarterly or 

monthly report: a platform for open dialogue, 

accessible 24 hours a day, seven days 

a week, integrated with all business areas; 

a one-stop source for all information not 

found in the online press room. A source 

of conversation in simple and clear language, 

untainted by marketing lingo and 

the technical jargon that sometimes blurs 

the details of murky business transactions; 

a transparency that restores trust. 

Assimilating a new model Once the 

decision was made to go digital, the format 

was clear, given the nature of both contents 

and audience. It had to be a blog with 

links to forums where the corporate social 

responsibility conversation was already 

happening. The need to be on the same 

level as our readers in order to engage in 

conversations also lead BBVA to choose 

the look and feel of the site. A minimalist 

“less is more” approach was taken: a sophisticated 

high-impact corporate look would 

not match the idea of sustainability and 

responsibility. Furthermore, it does not 

feel right that the design and maintenance 

of the communication function takes a 

bite out of the already limited resources



allocated to corporate social responsibility. 

The most simple and lean of layouts, 

a standard Wordpress template (which was 

questioned at the beginning for being “too 

humble”) has proven to be an effective 

and credible design as well as an optimal 

platform to carry the messages and foster 

conversation. It is consistent with the message. 

Corporate social responsibility stakeholders 

are a very special tribe. Highly 

committed, passionate about the topic, 

and with a keen eye to spot gimmicks, 

tricks and other corporate cheats that have 

been used to hide the uncomfortable truth 

across different industries. They would 

only be satisfied with high quality content, 

both relevant and focused on the axes of 

financial inclusion, financial literacy, banking 

and responsible commitment to society. 

The contents of the Banca-para-todos 

blog structured according to the four core 

elements of BBVA corporate responsibility 

policy: financial literacy, financial inclusion, 

responsible banking and community 

involvement. Depending on the nature of 

the information, it may be classified into 

five different sections: posts, videos, news, 

documentation and the annual corporate 

responsibility information which must be 

identified to comply with regulations and 

policies. 

All contents are presented in posts (it 

is a blog after all!) which allows the reader 

the possibility of leaving comments 

and thus creates a bidirectional communication. 

The blog itself serves as the hub 

for the rest of the corporate responsibility 

channels: YouTube, Twitter and the 

rest of websites based on our corporate 

programmes. Being digital and online al- 

lows for the use of multimedia platforms 

to deliver the message, and when talking 

about the power of video to carry messages 

through the world there is nothing 

like YouTube to share them, to have them 

readily and easily embedded in your blog, 

to ensure that they can be e-mailed and 

otherwise distributed. The smart use of 

Twitter to push these contents among 

interested followers is simple, efficient, 

cool - and free! And most importantly, it 

is where the conversation is. Not that we 

forgot Facebook, the most widely used 

social site. Rather, we noticed that the 

corporate social responsibility conversation 

is not happening there: perhaps it is 

considered as a serious debate and that 

spreading it on Facebook might come 

across as frivolous or not serious enough, 

or a ploy to get fans to “Like” the Group 

page instead of offering more in-depth 

appraisals and commentary. Credibility 

and relevancy are two important assets 

which must not be jeopardised for the 

sake of popularity. 

This commitment required us to assimilate 

a new model of communication 

and to universalise such information, two 

things that obviously could not happen 

in the age of the written report because 

of limitative physical possibilities. Being 

universal, in a world without borders, 

like the web, requires reaching a more diverse 

crowd, so every piece of content is 

published both in Spanish and English. 

Results It is vital to be where the conversation 

is: with this in mind, Bancaparatodos.com 

was launched with the objective 

of maintaining a more fluid and direct 

51

52 

dialogue with our stakeholder groups in 

a credible, simple, innovative and interactive 

way. Such dialogue is only possible in 

terms of equality: you can only talk openly 

to someone on your own level, so a new approach 

using a more transparent and direct 

language had to be taken. Corporate 

jargon often helps in unidirectional communication, 

where no reply – no dialogue 

– is expected; but that is not the way to engage 

in conversation. As a matter of fact, 

every good conversation begins with the 

act of listening. Active and attentive listening 

requires you to not only open up your 

ears – your channels – but also acknowledge 

that you may have to hear and eventually 

take into account some messages 

you would rather not hear; ultimately, this 

leads you to take a course of action to address 

issues that create such conversations. 

The more transparent your conversation 

is, the more it obliges you to be consistent 

and responsible. There is no place to hide 

in an open conversation like there were between 

the lines of a carefully-edited report 

that few people were ever going to see. 

This ongoing dialogue held with sustainability 

analysts and institutional investors 

sensitive to these issues, together with 

a thorough process of strategic thinking in 

which over 200 managers of BBVA in seven 

countries, has led us to integrate corporate 

responsibility into our daily agenda as 

well as to promote corporate responsibility 

initiatives at the highest level, both locally 

and globally. As a result of this process, the 

2010 financial report fully integrates information 

on corporate responsibility. The 

Group’s first integrated report was presented 

in April 2011, entailing a breakthrough 



for integrating corporate responsibility 

into BBVA’s whole value chain and anticipates 

the latest trends in global reporting 

as promoted by the International Integrated 

Reporting Committee (IIRC). 

Some facts and figures Another collateral 

asset of going digital is having accurate 

information on what contents are really 

relevant, how many people read and like 

them, where those people come from and 

where do they go after visiting your blog. 

This is a source of data that was unimaginable 

with a paper report. Currently, bancaparatodos.com 

has a steady flow of about 

8,000 visits a month from 6,300 unique visitors 

who read about 2.5 pages each visit. 

Also, there are about 3,000 subscribers to 

the YouTube channel, where 32,000 videos 

have been seen. 

To sum up: in the new age of person 

to person communications, where direct 

conversation among citizens knows no 

borders and intermediaries, the digitally 

integrated social report is possibly the only 

way to restore trust and to share stories that 

can help build stronger brands. 

Ignacio Villoch is the head 

of the Laboratory of 

Innovation in Commu- 

nication and Branding at 

the BBVA Group, where 

he manages research 

and experimentation on 

branded contents, transmedia story-telling, new 

metrics, and social media stakeholders engage- 

ment, among other fields.


SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR 

KOÇ FEST: 

SELF-EXPRESSION 

THROUGH FUN AND GAMES 

K O Ç H O L D I N G W I T H V O 2 D I G I T A L 

K 

oç Fest is the most comprehensive 

youth festival in Turkey. It is a 30day 

event, covering seven different 

universities in seven different cities located 

in seven different regions. As the main 

sponsor of the official University Sports 

Games in Turkey, Koç Fest is the only festival 

that contains university sports games 

and finals, namely Turkey Koç Fest University 

Sports Games, music concerts and 

entertainment events. Koç Fest has been 

held annually since 2006 and has been the 

official sponsor of the University Sports 

Games in Turkey since 2009. In 2011, the 

main concept was brought up to date with 

the integration of new technologies. 

The brief The target audience of Koç 

Fest is the educated youth of Turkey, 

mainly between the ages of 15-25. Koç Fest 

reaches thousands of young people across 

Turkey but considering the population of 

20 Million people between the ages of 15 

and 25 universities remain very insufficient 

in the matter of reaching a mass audience. 

Every event has a physical boundary and 

our major brief was to extend this boundary 

and reach a sizeable percentage of that 

20 million through the universities. 

The approach To evaluate the significance 

of this project, you first need to understand 

how the internet has evolved up 

until now and recognise that we are living 

through a major shift in digital communication. 

Once upon a time having a web site 

Redefining the concept 

of a social network, 

social media 

enable us to archive 

and access our entire 

social history, from 

childhood friends to 

colleagues. 

was considered cool enough. Brands competed 

to attract consumers to their websites. 

Many web enterprises, developed crowded 

websites which provided every service or information 

one could (or could not) need. 

Then Google showed us that with only a 

single search box you could become the 

53

54 

most valuable company in the world. When 

quicker internet connectivity brought with 

it the era of web 2.0, users became content 

providers rather than content consumers. 

They started uploading rather than 

downloading. Then we experienced the 

YouTube phenomenon: people found a 

new outlet to express themselves and, just 

as Andy Warhol predicted, they became 

famous for 15 minutes. Then a new term 

entered our lives: social media. Redefining 

the concept of a social network, social 

media enable us to archive and access our 

entire social history – from childhood 

friends to colleagues and old lovers. This 

digitally-available social network attracted 

billions of people no matter what their 

education or financial status. It was a new 

tool for self-expression on levels never before 

experienced. From moods to special 

and ordinary moments alike one was free 

to bare their souls and life with the click 

of a button. 

People seek new friends, post photos, 

make comments, state opinions. They 

invite hordes of people to join a party or 

an organisation. And they do this simply 

for the sake of sharing. Our campaign 

was born from this incentive to share. We 

provided people with the instruments 

to record their own moments of joy and 

increased their incentives for sharing. 

What’s more, we gave them something 

worth sharing. Koç Fest is an unparalleled, 

comprehensive university youth 

festival. It is the kind of project that is 

comprised of many other projects, and in 

this case those projects fall under three 

different aspects: sporting games, entertainment 

events and music concerts. 



The real potential of RFID To combine 

the festival with the digital world, we 

utilised Radio Frequency Identification 

Technology (RIFID) and we designed a 

RFID card which we named the Koç Fest 

Card. RFID is a microchip on which you 

can store data and it works as a proximity 

card: that is, when you get close enough 

We provided people 

with the instruments 

to record their own 

moments of joy and 

increased their incentives 

for sharing. 

to a electronic readers, the reader can 

‘read’ the data stored on the card. First 

of all, we issued informative videos showing 

the uses of these cards and then distributed 

these cards to students before 

and during the event. We requested only 

one thing from them in return: that they 

connect to our system through their Facebook 

profiles. As they logged onto Facebook, 

their information was transferred to 

our database and matched with the RFID 

cards. So whenever a card was read by our 

readers we were able to identify the student. 

We used this technology at practically 

every step of this event. 

Sports Games Koç Fest is the official title 

sponsor of the University Sports Games 

Finals. Every year, thousands of athletes



An action-packed series of events 

represent their universities. As the games 

take place during class hours, the major 

problem was to attract more people to the 

sports games. First we designed a prize matrix 

whereby the students collected points 

through the event to win prizes. 

We installed RFID card readers 

around the games and asked students to 

check in with their cards at those points. 

At every check-in they won points. We 

enabled them to check in hourly so 

those who wanted to win prizes would 

watch the games played in the designated 

sports zones. 

Entertainment Events The entertainment 

area was designed in such a way to 

produce individual videos and we de- 

signed various games that were integrated 

with the RFID system. The games were 

designed to produce videos that would go 

viral. 

How does it work? Students attended 

the event armed with their RFID cards 

and simply used these cards by approaching 

the electronic readers installed for 

every game. This would open a session for 

that specific person: the card’s data was 

queried in the database and the user was 

identified by the system. After this process, 

the cameras started recording till 

they were stopped by an operator. When 

the operator stopped the recording the 

video was then processed and queued to 

be sent to the external channels, namely 

55

56 

our daily-motion channel, the Koç Fest 

website, and most importantly of all, the 

user’s Facebook walls, where the videos 

were uploaded instantly thus reaching 

their Facebook friends as well. 

The Games ‘bullet time’ effect We 

set up a system to create the bullet time 

effect, which became very well known after 

its use in the Matrix movies. Put simply, 

it creates an illusion of freezing time 

for a short moment. We set up a system 

to record the students. 45 Canon EOS 

cameras were lined up on a steel arc and 

installed with a central shutter release 

mechanism. The system instantly merged 

the video at the start, the bullet time effect, 

and the video after the effect to form 

10 seconds of single footage. Usually, 

similar footage is gathered after a lengthy 

post-production process, but on the field 

we had to create as much footage as we 

could to reach a wider audience. 

With this set up, when a user strikes 

a pose, the system creates footage in 30 

seconds and the video is transferred directly 

to their Facebook wall. This system 

produced more than 200 videos a day and 

at the end of the event more than 3000 

videos were distributed. Every video has 

been viewed by an average of 50 people 

where it scored more than 150.000 video 

views. 

Virtual car race We also set up a racing 

environment where people could 

have a ‘real’ racing experience. Unlike 

a game box racing game, we let users 

drive model cars while they were sitting 

in them. Wireless wide-view cameras were 



Something for everyone 

installed in the cars and connected to 

video glasses. When a user put on these 

glasses, his or her vision was isolated from 

outside and, through micro LED screens 

in the lenses, they could only see the view 

from the camera. The cars were operated 

via remote control and each performance 

was recorded to create footage. After the 

race, the footage was posted onto the 

contestants’ Facebook walls along with information 

such as their lap time and race 

positions. 

Karaoke One of the simplest and most 

effective games was the Karaoke Show. 

Many users got on stage to sing their favourite 

songs; again, they were recorded 

and their videos posted onto their Face-



book walls. Despite the simplicity of the 

concept and of the set-up, the Karaoke 

Show earned the most feedback on Facebook. 

The more we let users express themselves, 

the more feedback we received on 

Facebook. 

Roller Bowling Here the idea was to 

create a viral video where users could 

share their moments but at the same time 

every game had to be limited with enough 

time to serve the maximum amount of 

people. Roller Ball was one of simplest 

games we offered: the user gets in to a giant 

inflatable ball and rolls around to hit 

the bowls. All this lasted an average of 40 

seconds and Roller Bowling hosted about 

300 people per day where it produced the 

maximum amount of videos. 

Music This year Koç Fest signed rock 

star Emre Aydin to perform a series of live 

concerts at every step of the event. Besides 

his musical talents there was one more reason 

for Koç Fest to work with him: his 2.5 

million Facebook fans. A month before 

the event, we shot a video clip for one of 

his most famous songs. In the video clip, 

we placed dummy areas for users to insert 

their photos and messages. Then we designed 

a micro site, which visitors logged 

in with their Facebook accounts and uploaded 

their favourite photos to create 

their own video clip. In other words, they 

could share the screen with Emre Aydin. 

Again, each unique video was instantly 

posted onto their Facebook walls. To 

maximise the effect, an ingenious prize 

mechanism was developed. We promised 

to broadcast the five most watched video 

clips on the main music television channels. 

Just one post on Emre Aydin’s Facebook 

fan page drove 20,000 contributors 

to the campaign. To win the dream prize, 

users shared their unique links in every 

conceivable way. In other words, they became 

natural seeders of the campaign. 

The result This prize system attracted 

large numbers to the sports games. The 

videos gathered from the various entertainment 

events were watched more than 

500,000 times and earned 1.2 million 

Facebook ‘likes’ and comments. Emre 

Aydin’s video clips were watched more 

than 1 million times and obtained 3.5 million 

Facebook ‘likes’ and comments. In 

total, the campaign reached more than 

5 million people through Facebook. By 

simply giving people the opportunity to 

make their own videos, we gave them the 

opportunity to express themselves; in return, 

they constituted a bridge between 

Koç Fest and their personal network and 

allowed us to reach millions of people. 

Okyar Tuncel is Brand 

Manager at Koç Holding, 

Turkey’s largest industrial 

group in terms of reve- 

nue, exports, share in the 

Istanbul Stock Exchange 

and number of emplo- 

yees. He currently manages Koç brand’s commu- 

nication working on projects which are related to 

corporate communication strategies. 

57

ONLINE MEDIA 

TOOLS IN NATIONAL 

& INTERNATIONAL 

CORPORATIONS 


D I G I T A L / P R I N T : 

C S R R E P O R T 

W E B M A G A Z I N E 

O N L I N E N E W S L E T T E R 

W E B S I T E S : 

C O R P O R A T E W E B S I T E 

I N T R A N E T 

O N L I N E N E W S R O O M 

C O R P O R A T E W E B L O G 

V I D E O & G A M E S : 

M O B I L E A N D A P P S 

O N L I N E E V E N T 

I M A G E F I L M 

W E B T V 

O N L I N E C O M P E T I T I O N 

C O R P O R A T E G A M E 

I N N O V A T I O N O F T H E Y E A R

60 

V 

ONLINE MEDIA TOOLS IN NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS 

iral advertising can be described 

as a communication strategy that 

encourages consumers to forward 

internet advertisements to friends and acquaintances. 

Advertisers are increasingly 

using viral advertising to reach a large 

number of consumers in a credible way 

at relatively low cost. Previous research 

shows that if an advertisement is sent by 

an acquaintance rather than an advertiser, 

it is more credible and the consumer is 

more likely to pay attention to it. 

What we don’t know yet Advertisers 

who use social media for their marketing 

strategies have relatively little knowledge 

about the effectiveness of viral advertising. 

Social media become increasingly 

important in the dissemination of viral 

advertisements; social media may seem to 

be cheaper than traditional outlets, but 

the methods for measuring effectiveness 

are new. Benchmarks are not yet available, 

and advertisers still largely invest 

their dollars based on their gut feeling. 

Although cautious optimism is generated 

THEORETICAL INTRODUCTION 

THE HOW AND WHY OF VIRAL: 

CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH 

ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF 

VIRAL ADVERTISING 

P A U L E . K E T E L A A R 

by the strong response to viral marketing 

campaigns measured in number of hits, 

knowledge of those who forwards those 

viral marketing campaigns and why they 

forward them is lacking. This is especially 

important because viral campaigns should 

reach the right consumers to prevent advertising 

avoidance. An important reason 

for ad avoidance is consumers receiving 

messages from people who are just vaguely 

known to the receivers. 

Using friendships for advertising 

When do viral messages get distributed? 

The chances of a campaign being forwarded 

are greater when the strength of 

the relationship with the sender of a viral 

campaign increases, the appreciation of 

the campaign increases, and the consumer‘s 

involvement with the brand increases. 

The main motive for forwarding is the 

closeness to the sender, in which the reliability 

and credibility of the sender are 

crucial. The next most important motive 

is the degree to which consumers experience 

the viral campaign as entertaining,



and the strength of the relationship with 

the advertised brand. Advertisers should 

develop viral advertisements that are appreciated 

by the public to encourage forwarding. 

It is certainly useful to pre-test 

new viral campaigns. Consumers are more 

likely to forward campaigns for brands 

that they experience as strong than for 

brands they experience as weak. If a consumer 

experiences a brand as strong, the 

relationship with the sender is less important.; 

for brands that consumers see as 

weaker, elements such as the relationship 

with the sender and appreciation of the 

viral campaign are more important. The 

importance of who the sender is should 

not be underestimated; advertisers should 

focus on groups of good friends because 

this increases the likelihood that these 

good friends will forward the campaign. 

Advertisers achieve this by limiting 

the number of friends to whom the campaign 

can be sent (eg ten friends). In this 

case, less is more, because people who 

use social media sites are less likely to forward 

viral campaigns if they have received 

them from people they don‘t know well. 

Advertisers would do well to incorporate 

a social factor in the viral campaign. This 

encourages consumers to forward the 

campaign to good friends (and those for 

whom this campaign and brand are relevant), 

prevents advertising avoidance and 

automatically increases campaign results 

by ensuring there are more participants. 

Sounds familiar? Word of mouth 

For researchers, the fact that advertisements 

coming from a friend or acquaintance 

carry more weight than those sent by 

61 

advertisers has for decades been a reason 

to study the effectiveness of a similar phenomenon: 

word of mouth. This is defined 

as the mutual sharing of knowledge and 

opinions about products, services and 

brands by consumers. Therefore, the insights 

in research on word-of-mouth advertising 

may also contribute to the success 

of viral advertising. 

Firstly, generally, a small group of 

opinion leaders will gain knowledge 

through mass media and subsequently 

influence the rest of the population by 

word-of-mouth advertising. The same pattern 

is seen in various other fields (such as 

politics and fashion), though in different 

fields, different people assume this leadership 

role. Opinion leaders also assume 

these roles online. They are more likely 

to forward viral advertisements from the 

domain they are influential in (eg video 

games). Therefore, the first crucial step 

towards a successful viral advertising campaign 

is to identify these opinion leaders. 

These opinion leaders show greater 

satisfaction with the product shown in the 

viral advertising campaign and they utilise 

media outlets that report on the product 

category (e.g, game magazines). 

Finally, cosmopolitans – people who 

have a greater interest in international 

events, are fascinated by other cultures 

and travel a lot – tend to forward viral advertising 

messages more often. 

The same motives play a role in forwarding 

word-of-mouth and viral advertising. 

As one would expect, wanting to 

entertain others is an important motive 

for forwarding messages. More surprisingly, 

product satisfaction is an important

62 


reason for forwarding a message, not only 

in word-of-mouth advertising, but also in 

viral advertising; in fact, for many people, 

product satisfaction is a condition for forwarding 

a message. It is therefore important 

to focus on product satisfaction before 

launching a viral campaign. 

Another important insight is that after 

a single exposure, viral advertising has 

no effect on brand attitude. It is therefore 

advisable only to use viral advertising to increase 

consumers’ knowledge of a brand. 

Designing effective virals Virals are 

only effective if they are being forwarded. 

But what makes a consumer forward a viral 

advertisement? In a study at the Radboud 

University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 

consumers were shown four viral commercials 

that each represented one of the 

following types of content: a humorous, 

shocking, surprising and a sexually tinted 

viral commercial. After seeing a viral commercial 

respondents indicated to what 

degree they experienced the viral commercial 

as humorous, surprising, shocking 

and sexually explicit. Next, respondents 

indicated their intention to forward 

the viral commercials, and they indicated 

their level of appreciation. Those respondents 

who reported their intention 

to forward at least one of the viral commercials 

were asked to answer questions 

about their reasons for doing so. In addition, 

respondents indicated how many viral 

commercials they receive and forward 

and what media are used for this. 

More than 47 percent of respondents 

receive viral advertisements, often 

via email (68 per cent) and to a lesser 


extent through social networks like Hyves 

(25 per cent). Out of those consumers 

who receive viral advertisements, nine in 

10 consumers look at the received viral. 

More than one in three (36 per cent) also 

forwards the viral commercial. Again, this 

is done by e-mail more frequently than 

through social networking sites. Men do 

so more often than women, and about 14 

per cent of the distributers forward a viral 

The use of viral communications 

is on 

the rise, and viral 

commercials are a 

good solution for 

countering advertising 

avoidance behaviour. 

weekly. Just eight per cent of the distributors 

send a viral to as many friends and 

acquaintances as possible: the majority 

checks whether the viral suits the recipient. 

These distributors make an assessment 

of whether their acquaintances and 

friends will like the viral. An important 

reason for forwarding a viral is entertainment. 

Consumers forward viral commercials 

because they like them, find them 

funny and experience them as entertaining. 

Motives such as ‘involvement with the 

product in the viral commercial’, ‘relaxation’, 

‘escape from everyday life’, ‘a social



In the future, consumers will have to divide their attention between even more viral advertisements 

connection with others’ and ‘knowing 

the sender of the viral commercial’ play 

no role, though prior to starting the research, 

these were expected to influence 

forwarding behaviour. Viral commercials 

that consumers experience as funny and 

surprising have a high chance of success. 

One remarkable finding was that viral 

commercials that consumers experience 

as shocking or sexually explicit are not 

more likely to be forwarded. One explanation 

for this is that with viral marketing, 

consumers see themselves as the distributor 

of the message, and they do not want 

friends and acquaintances to see them 

as the distributor of sexual and offensive 

videos. This is also reflected in the appreciation 

of the viral commercials shown to 

the respondents. Appreciation for virals 

with sexual or shocking content is lower 

than for surprising and especially humorous 

viral commercials. The higher the assigned 

score, the greater the intention to 

forward the message. The average score 

of the four viral commercials is relatively 

low, a 5.6. But even with an average score 

of six or less, a percentage of the Dutch 

forwards the viral to acquaintances anyway 

(depending on the viral ad, that percentage 

is between two and eight per cent). 

Virals and the future Viral advertising 

is relatively new and much more research 

is needed. The main goal of viral advertising 

is awareness, not sales or brand loyalty. 

Measuring objectives is a delicate matter 

because the number of hits does not say 

anything about the quality of the contact. 

63

64 


Benchmarks for success such as targets for 

reach, brand image, and so on are missing. 

The advertising branch is in need 

of objective standards to be able to allot 

scores to virals and to compare viral messages 

to those from competing brands. 

More so than traditional advertising, 

virals must immediately provide consumers 

with the ‘wow factor’, on the one hand 

to arouse interest in the product and on 

the other hand to encourage consumers 

to pass the message along to friends and 

family. The creative concept gains importance, 

which increases the cost of creating 

campaigns compared to other advertising 

techniques. The need for more communication 

with the target audience also increases 

spending. 

In the future, consumers will have 

to divide their attention between even 

more viral advertisements because of the 

increase in volume. This will lead to a decrease 

in budget. Improved segmentation 

can offer a solution to retain the effect of 

viral advertising. 

Conclusion To sum up, the use of viral 

communications is on the rise, and viral 

commercials are a good solution for 

countering advertising avoidance behaviour 

as they utilise the behaviour of active 

consumers. 

The use of sexual and shocking elements 

in a viral ad appears to be counter-productive. 

Consumers don‘t forward 

sexually suggestive commercials any more 

often than virals without sexual content. 

The same goes for viral commercials that 

are shocking in nature. Surprising and 

funny viral commercials are much more 


effective. Consumers see viral commercials 

primarily as a source of entertainment 

and forward them for that reason. 

Consumers have higher appreciation for 

humorous and surprising viral commercials 

and forward those most frequently. 

The direct association of the viral commercial 

with the sender seem to deter 

consumers. 

The better a consumer is acquainted 

with the sender of a viral commercial, the 

more likely he is to forward the message. 

However, other factors also play a role, 

such as relationship with the brand, appreciation 

of the campaign and perception 

of the strength of the brand. 

Viral advertising is not the be all and 

end all as a single exposure to viral advertising 

has no effect on brand attitude. It is 

therefore advisable only to use viral advertising 

to increase consumers‘ knowledge 

of a brand. 

Dr. Paul Ketelaar is an 

associate professor in 

communication science at 

Radboud University of 

Nijmegen, Netherlands, 

where he investigates the 

effects of recent (digital) 

advertising strategies on consumers. He began 

his career as a free-lance photographer before 

co-owning a communication agency, and was a 

guest professor at the Catholic University of 

Leuven, Belgium (2008-2011). He also works as a 

freelance market researcher and photographer.


DIGITAL/PRINT: CSR REPORT 

PASS ON YOUR PASSION 

AND BUILD 

SOCIAL CAPITAL 

D E U T S C H E B A N K W I T H Z E R O S & O N E S & A D V A N T O 

D 

eutsche Bank’s motto is Passion to 

Perform. Performance, for Deutsche, 

includes demonstrating social 

responsibility. As a leading global player, 

the bank is aware of its special responsibility 

and tries to live up to it. Deutsche views 

corporate social responsibility as an integral 

part of its work – of mutual benefit 

both to the bank and to society at large. 

Deutsche Bank’s goal as a responsible corporate 

citizen is to build social capital. To 

spread its corporate social responsibility 

message, the bank follows an integrated 

approach. 

Having substantially increased the 

reach among relevant audiences in 

2009/2010, 2011 was to mark the next 

step in terms of engaging Deutsche’s 

stakeholders. For the first time ever, the 

offer extended to social media and mobile 

devices. At its General Annual Meeting on 

May 26, 2011, Deutsche Bank presented its 

global Corporate Social Responsibility Report 

2010 that represented the take-off for 

an integrated multi-channel campaign. 

This campaign led to an easy-to-access web 

special (including a mobile version) that 

presented the key protagonists of the report, 

via personal statements and a short 

film about their respective project and 

commitment. Tablet PC users were automatically 

redirected to an iPad special 

Deutsche Bank aims 

to position its corporate 

social responsibility 

as a credible 

contribution to the 

ongoing public debate 

about the roles 

of banks in society. 

that provided background information on 

Deutsche Bank’s corporate social responsibility 

strategy and also featured stories 

and films about flagship projects around 

65

66 


Branded QR codes bridge the gap between printed and animated content 

the world. The digital versions built on the 

printed report’s striking visuals and engaging 

stories and were customised to meet 

the high expectations of the online audiences. 

Branded Quick Response codes 

bridged the gap between static (print) 

and animated (digital) formats and made 

the short films accessible that were especially 

produced for the online and social 

media applications. Web special and iPad 

special both provided for download and 

order functions. That further increased 

the readership of Deutsche Bank’s Corporate 

Social Responsibility Report. For the 

first time ever, the printed report was out 

of stock after just one month. 

The objectives: Deutsche Bank aims to 

position its corporate social responsibility 


commitment as a credible contribution to 

the ongoing public debate about corporate 

responsibility and about the role of banks 

in society at large. The bank also wants to 

encourage stakeholders to become ambassadors 

of its social commitment. In short: 

to lead by example, to inspire others with 

a “passion to perform” and invite them to 

pass on their passion to others – in business 

and beyond. 

Details of implementation News 

about the report, as well as the web and 

iPad specials was communicated widely 

via Deutsche Bank’s major websites, including 

the corporate homepage, the 

corporate social responsibility portal, 

over 40 country sites and 20 business websites 

– totalling over 20 million page views



First-ever: Deutsche’s CSR Report goes iPad Promotion of the report and web specials on more than 120 

per month. Over 20 major intranet websites 

and 126 brand screens in more than 

31 key locations also featured the report 

and its flagship projects. The campaign 

was complemented by push-communication 

towards corporate social responsibility 

contacts, community partners and 

the press. Social bookmarking within the 

web and iPad specials further boosted the 

awareness of Deutsche Bank’s corporate 

social responsibility commitment. 

Evaluation of achieved results On 

top of the high demand for the print version, 

the results of the online tracking 

show that the traffic on the corporate 

social responsibility sites increased significantly. 

New audiences were effectively 

reached via emerging media. Especially 

online sites and print channels 

the percentage of iPad users was doubled. 

Overall, the web special has been 

viewed more than 60,000 times and the 

iPad special reached 11,326 page impressions. 

This very successful online communication 

concept has created substantial 

momentum for Deutsche Bank’s global 

corporate social responsibility message. 

Antje Kopyciok is part 

of Deutsche Bank AG’s 

Corporate Citizenship 

Communications team. 

67

68 

PROVIDING THE RIGHT 

ANSWERS 

M 


S I E M E N S W I T H V I R T U A L I D E N T I T Y 

edia opportunities and challenges 

are changing rapidly nowadays. 

This was a fundamental reason for 

Siemens AG to adjust to this trend and reflect 

accordingly on new paths in brand 

communication. The brand’s core essence, 

“The technology pioneer that helps 

people change their world for the better”, 

should be conveyed as a central focus in 

a completely novel way. The digital multichannel 

magazine ‘/answers’ was created 

for this purpose: the magazine explores 

the possibilities of digital and social communication 

with partially user-generated 

content and thereby tries to surprise Siemen’s 

target groups in their respective social 

contexts. 

Siemens had already introduced a 

completely new web design for its corporate 

website in 2007. Even then the website 

offered considerable space for feature 

for so-called feature-media content. As of 

February 2011 / answers provides a new 

digital multi-channel magazine space 

(http://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/ 

de/). In order to stay tuned in matters 

of social media, two determining factors 

stand out: contents must be created for 

both the classic desktop-based and mobile-based 

internet, which are so exciting 

DIGITAL/PRINT: WEB MAGAZINE 

and relevant that they make their way “on 

their own” into the social web, keyword 

“sharing”. The second determining factor: 

to sensibly link the contents via multiple 

digital channels to mobile devices. 

Objective: Digital storytelling But 

how can we tell stories from all over the 

world and remain entertaining in the long 

run? In order to achieve this, the idea 

was to create a long-term storytelling format 

and thereby create an open dialogue 

Technology and 

product advertising 

recedes deliberately 

and very clearly into 

the background on 

the /answers 

platform. 

with the target group. Said target group 

consists mainly of business to business 

decision makers, but also journalists, jobseekers, 

multipliers and other influencers



Siemens has the answers 

like bloggers and networkers. The focus of 

storytelling is real-life stories. Technology 

and product advertising recedes deliberately 

and very clearly into the background 

on the /answers platform. The brand is 

thereby emotionalised and the usuallyhidden 

contribution by Siemens is rendered 

visible. 

The agency Virtual Identity has for a 

long time been a trusted partner for the 

strategic development of our digital presence: 

it therefore goes without saying that 

Virtual Identity was the first choice for 

the implementation of this project. The 

agency coordinates the production of individual 

stories and supports Siemens in 

linking the contents across all channels. 

“We, the agency, don’t write one single 

story but concentrate instead on establishing 

a word-wide network of renowned authors 

and film directors”, says Ralf Heller, 

founder and CEO of Virtual Identity. “And 

the authors keep the creative responsibility. 

They find the protagonists and recount 

the story from their perspective.” 

Implementation: Social Media and 

Crowdsourcing The stories featured on 

/answers therefore stem exclusively from 

renowned and independent film directors 

and authors. They portray people from all 

over the world whose daily lives have been 

improved by Siemens technology (though 

Siemens is nothing but the hidden hero 

behind the protagonists’ personal story, 

who often are completely unaware of 

Siemens’ contribution). The technology 

thus recedes into the background and the 

human being becomes the central focus. 

Take the example of Bruce Callaghan: 

Durban’s beach was a dark place, just like 

Bruce’s life, but along the new brightly- 

69

70 


lit sea promenade he found his way back 

into the light, on a skateboard. Siemens 

only appears textually at the end and in 

a brief reference to its contribution. It is 

not important on which channel those 

stories are seen but that they are linked 

with one another across all digital media. 

This includes the Siemens’ website, Facebook, 

YouTube and Twitter accounts, as 

well as mobile apps. And since the mobile 

internet is no longer confined to browserbased 

web, Siemens and Virtual Identity 

have also devised a version of /answers for 

iPad and iPhone. A version for Android 

is already under way. In order to organise 

the international roll-out efficiently, an 

individual “Siemens Story-Player” was designed 

for the Siemens-TLD’s and as an 

app for mobile devices. 

Integrating the voice of the 

crowd It was important for us to establish 

relevant digital channels alongside 

our corporate website Siemens.com and 

accord them the same importance. Crowdsourcing, 

content curation and lean publishing 

are concepts that concern us in our 

development of the still-young magazine, 

in order to attract attention in the long 

run in the diverse digital world. As such, 

a crowdsourcing concept has already been 

implemented and thereby clearly directs 

the focus on user-generated content. Usergenerated 

contents spread very fast and 

increasingly become a driving force in a 

changing communication world. We have 

launched a competition together with the 

crowdsourcing platform Zooopa, where 

creatives can create their own advertising 

campaigns and videos. Under the slogan 


“Changing your city for the better”, more 

than 100 creative film contributions were 

handed in, providing inspirational, fresh 

perspective on urban life in the twentyfirst 

century. The winning contribution – 

“We Can Do Better” – was already featured 

on /answers in November 2011. And the 

second crowdsourcing video has already 

gone live: in “Abuja: My City” the Nigerian 

Idamiebi tells us about the problematic 

and insufficient electricity supply in Nigeria 

and puts all his hopes in renewable 

energies. The voice of the crowd is also to 

be integrated on /answers in the future as 

a recurrent element. The Financial Times 

and Bowen Craggs have assessed the Siemens.com 

site and rank it as the best corporate 

website worldwide in the context of 

their corporate website ranking conducted 

in April 2011. 

Since its launch in March 2011, the 

magazine reaches approximately 1.6 million 

users a month across all digital channels, 

a trend that we are happy to see is 

increasing. 

Tobias Dennehy is editor 

in chief of corporate 

communications at 

Siemens AG, the German 

multinational conglome- 

rate company headquar- 

tered in Munich. It is the 

largest Europe-based electronics and electrical 

engineering company. Before joining Siemens 

in 2001 as online editor, Dennehy was content 

manager at Tribal DDB, the worldwide network of 

interactive agencies.


DIGITAL/PRINT: ONLINE NEWSLETTER 

IS 100 PER CENT 

READERSHIP ACHIEVABLE? 

P W C P O R T U G A L 

F 

ive years ago, PwC Portugal had 

no specific channel with which to 

communicate exclusively with our 

staff. It was clear to our marketing and 

communications department, as well as 

to our leadership, that we needed to create 

a new channel. We concluded that 

improving our internal communications, 

thereby facilitating the information flow 

across all lines of service and staff levels, 

was critical for our success. After analysing 

best practices in internal communications 

from other PwC member firms, we 

decided upon the creation of a printed 

four-page monthly internal newsletter. 

Because its content consists of news and 

updates from the previous month, we selected 

the name Hits of the Month. 

Our internal communications survey 

in 2009 produced a number of suggestions 

asking for a more environmentallyconscious 

solution for our newsletter. 

We also felt the need to have a quicker 

process between content editing, design 

and distributing the newsletter to all staff. 

Soon afterwards, the digital format was 

born: the internal newsletter moved from 

a paper version to a digital one in pdf. A 

year later, following the rebranding of 

the PwC, we took the chance to not only 

apply the new visual identity, but also to 

take it one step further and make it an 

interactive pdf, in order to provide our 

colleagues with a better reading and navigational 

experience. 

Our internal survey 

produced a number 

of suggestions asking 

for a more environmentally-conscious 

solution. 

Easy navigation An interactive pdf allows 

for an easy navigation between sections; 

buttons (links that act as shortcuts) 

ensure easy reference and quick access 

to the different content, giving an experience 

almost like a microsite. The fact 

that it is a form of digital communication 

allows us to reach all staff in a very simple 

way: Hits of the Month is lodged in 

our intranet and is distributed via email. 

The email provides the titles of the main 

news items and provides a link to the lat- 

71

72 


The traditional internal newsletter is reborn in digital format 

est issue. All previous issues are online 

and available for consultation. Hits of the 

Month has become a project that involves 

no printing or distribution costs and is accessible 

to staff whether or not they are at 

the office. 

15 minute news Our newsletter includes 

three main sections: firm, markets 

and people. News items can range 

from the awards PwC has won on a local 

or global level, to information about 

projects that are being developed by the 

various business areas. All major events 

and news are available via a 15 minute 

read or watch, as short films can also be 

part of the newsletter. It also includes a 

Clippings ‘best of’, including articles writ- 


ten by colleagues or news about PwC that 

have been published in the press. Items 

on thought leadership are included, information 

about major publications that 

have been released across the network, 

and there is also a list of upcoming and 

recent events. The aim is to ensure that 

our people are sufficiently informed so 

that they can share interesting information 

with clients and other stakeholders, 

acting as brand ambassadors. 

Our newsletter has also proven to be 

a success in terms of our global network 

of PwC member firms and some territories 

have used our newsletter model as a 

best practice. Hits of the Month has taken 

first place in the ranking of the best 

brand application gallery (which was be-



An interactive pdf allows for easy access 

gun following the rebranding), a ranking 

compiled of votes by staff from the entire 

PwC network. In era of social collaboration 

it is not easy to make prognostics, but 

a ‘simple’ digital newsletter still brings 

some advantages metrics wise. The email 

announcement is a quick means to check 

the general level of interest and we also 

closely follow the number of our intranet 

accesses. 

Ultimate aim All in all, it has been a 

very positive project, but there‘s always 

something more we can do. Crossing digital 

with face-to-face, raising awareness 

about the content of the newsletter, using 

surveys to feel the pulse of the audience, 

including new technologies like video or 

flash, whilst taking into considering a cost 

optimisation perspective, means that it’s 

a constant challenge, but one we’re ready 

to take on. Our aim is to achieve a 100 

per cent readership among partners and 

staff in Portugal. However, this begs the 

question: were we to achieve this, would 

anyone believe us? 

Based in Lisbon, Ana Por- 

tugal was Marketing and 

Communication Manager 

at PwC Portugal, before 

assuming a new role last 

July as member of Global 

Tax Marketing. 

73

74 


HITS OF THE MONTH 

H E N K E L S C H W A R Z K O P F 

L 

et’s be honest: most brand 

homepages are boring as hell. 

They are flashy product catalogues 

(and often programmed with Flash so 

you can’t even see them on your iPad or 

iPhone) where only once in a while something 

new and interesting shows up. How 

much do consumers truyl appreciate such 

sites? In my oppinion, not at all. More often 

than not, they take one look and never 

return. In truth, every midsize blog puts 

big brand names to shame in terms of 

visitors and page impressions. Companies 

just don’t give people a reason to dwell on 

their site, or to even come back. 

That was exactly how our Schwarzkopf 

homepage was like until early 2011. It was 

driven by products and campaigns, it did 

not link to the outside world and it was not 

linked to by other sites. We did not think 

that this was a healthy situation. Whenever 

people in the twenty-first century look for 

information, help or entertainment, they 

first go online. But our online presence 

did not mirror our vision of Professional 

Hair Care For You. Our goal was to show 

how much competence there is behind 

our brand. We wanted to have a homepage 

that people love to dive into and which is 

found in their moment of need – on a Friday 

afternoon, say, when you’re thinking 

about dressing up for a night on the town. 

WEBSITES: CORPORATE WEBSITE 

Or the second you see your first grey hair 

and want to do something about it. Or the 

moment where you wonder how on earth 

to recreate the latest hairstyle worn by 

your favourite pop star currently lip-synching 

on the MTV Awards. 

A digital home of hair Our goal was 

to create a digital home of hair. And we 

did it with a success that overwhelmed 

our own expectations. Our first step was 

a keyword analysis focused on our home 

market, Germany. The results were stunning. 

Every month, there are 16 million 

hair-related searches on Google in Germany 

alone. But in less than five per cent 

of these searches will you find a product 

name. Which means people don’t look for 

brands, they look for solutions. 

Surprisingly, it turned out that they 

find these solutions in the strangest places. 

For example, Chefkoch.de, the biggest 

recipe community in Germany, is one of 

the top 10 domains for hair content. That’s 

because people have no place for expert 

information on hair topics and so they ask 

their questions in a place where they know 

that the mass of users will provide a decent 

answer. This gave us the feeling that we 

were on to something. We wanted to create 

a site with a constant flow of high-quality 

content that actively links to other sites



Building a digital home of hair 

and that is search engine optimised. Pretty 

soon it became clear to us that we could 

not leave this project in the hands of a big 

advertising agency. First, they tend to like 

to sell what is best for them and not best 

for the client. Many big agencies acquired 

brilliant Flash programmers over the years, 

so they sell their clients Flash solutions. 

But we wanted a site where every function 

could be used with any device, which excluded 

Flash and left HTML5 as the only 

weapon of choice. Furthermore these big 

agencies could not deliver the journalistquality 

content that we were looking for, 

especially not in the long run. So first we 

searched for an agency that would design 

a clear but stylish site, and we found such 

an agency in our hometown Düsseldorf: 

Elaika is a small creative team that managed 

to beat the (much bigger) competition. 

Next up was the search for a content 

management system. We went for Day 

Communique 5 because we found it flexible 

and easy to manage with a constant 

flow of multimedia content. Our partner 

in the installation process was Namics. 

We put all these companies together 

with the project management specialists 

of Charax and our strategy consultant 

Kpunktnull. Because every one of these 

companies is an expert in its field, we were 

able to launch the new site from scratch 

75

76 


within just three months. Of course, 

Schwarzkopf always had the lead, but you 

can only make a project like this happen 

in such a short time if you have a deep and 

trustworthy relationship with your partners. 

Most important was the search for a 

content provider. Condé Nast, publisher 

of world class magazines such as Vogue, 

GQ and Architectural Digest, won the 

pitch. Their editorial staff delivers at least 

three new articles per week on the subject 

of hair care, hair styling and stars and hair. 

Topics could be styling short hair, winter 

hair cosmetics or Katie Holmes’ beautiful 

long curls. 

Content is king This content is also 

the fundament of our social web activities. 

The social web is about communication 

with the consumers. But no matter 

whether it is Facebook or a dinner party, 

you need something to get the conversation 

going. So besides what our customers 

want to talk about with us, we deliver 

topics that are related to articles on our 

homepage. Furthermore we wanted to 

strengthen our relationship to the blogosphere. 

Once a month we feature a blog 

trend update which of course links to all 

the blogs mentioned. Yes, we send our 

readers away, but we can do that safe in 

the knowledge that they will return if they 

like the sites we recommend. As a reward 

for our trust, we have seen an increased 

number of links from the social web. As a 

next step, we invite bloggers as paid guest 

authors to our homepage. 

Pre-launch feedback The launch of our 

“home of hair” was also the start of a social 


media relations initiative. We invited marketing 

and media bloggers and podcasters 

and showed them our new homepage 

ahead of the launch. The response was 

overwhelmingly positive so on day one we 

immediately received feedback and links. 

The second we flipped the switch for takeoff 

we saw the number of readers rising. 

And even better: the number of pages per 

visitor skyrocketed. Some weeks after the 

site went online usage was up fifteenfold, 

people stayed longer, read more and came 

back more often. And around one year 

later, the numbers are still going up. 

We have witnessed a similar result on 

Google. Without any magician’s-hat search 

engine optimisation tricks Schwarzkopf. 

de shot up in search results even on very 

broad search words. For example, “haarfarbe” 

(hair colour): before the launch, 

our site was not even in the top 200 for this 

word; now it is number one, ahead even 

of Wikipedia. We are now rolling out this 

concept to all Schwarzkopf markets. And 

we are seeing the same results in every 

country, no matter if the language is English, 

French or Russian. 

Frank Horn was 

previously marketing 

director international 

digital at Henkel, the glo- 

bal company with brands 

and technologies for 

consumer and industrial 

businesses, headquartered in Düsseldorf, North 

Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Among its brands are 

Schwarzkopf, Persil and Loctite.


WEBSITES: INTRANET 

RANDSTAD 50 CLUB GOLD 

R A N D S T A D W I T H M S L A M S T E R D A M 

R 

andstad specialises in flexible work 

solutions and human resources 

services. Our services range from 

regular temporary staffing and permanent 

placement to inhouse, professionals, search 

& selection, and human resources solutions. 

In 2008, Randstad closed its merger 

with Vedior, becoming the world’s second 

largest human resources services provider 

in the world with currently 28,000 employees 

in 40 countries. This merger has been 

the largest in the history of the industry to 

date. Integration and rebranding activities 

took place in all business areas through the 

course of 2008 and 2009. By that time the 

market faced a severe downturn and Randstad 

and its peers experienced a very steep 

and fast decline of revenues in the scope 

of a few quarters. In the summer of 2009 

we started to think about the celebrations 

of Randstad’s 50th anniversary, planned 

for October 2010. That we would organise 

something memorable was clear from 

the start, but exactly how was not. We were 

initially unsure that throwing a big party, as 

Randstad did in 2005, was justified given the 

ongoing cost management measures. Not 

only had the world of Randstad changed 

dramatically, so had the world around us. 

Going for gold However, at the same 

time, the act of celebrating ‘Randstad 50’ 

presented a unique opportunity to unify, 

connect, inspire and engage the global 

workforce. It could bring our Shaping 

the World of Work mission and our core 

values to life, and would make our colleagues 

feel part of a truly global organisation 

– colleagues who surely deserved 

a compliment for their contribution and 

hard work in a challenging and changing 

environment. 

So the decision was made to create a 

truly connective experience out of both 

the Randstad 50 event itself in October 

and the months leading up to it. We chose 

a gold theme to illustrate the value of our 

employees and 50 years of global success. 

Parallel to planning and organising the 

party (which would occur simultaneously 

on one day in 19 countries worldwide), 

online channels were used to launch the 

so-called Warming Up phase. 

We created Randstad 50 Club Gold 

within the existing global intranet and 

made it available in 10 different languages 

to accommodate (most) of our worldwide 

colleagues. This innovative site was designed 

to get employees excited about the 

50th anniversary, share insights and best 

practices, engage employees in the company’s 

history and core values in a fun and 

interactive way and make them feel they 

belong to the global Randstad family (and 

77

78 

Creating a truly connective experience 


increasing the company’s intranet activity 

along the way). Randstad 50 Club Gold allowed 

employees to experience a virtual 

party that would eventually mirror all aspects 

of the real-life event on October 2, 

2010. 

Hey Mr DJ The Warming Up kicked off 

in January 2010 with an email and a video 

message from CEO Ben Noteboom announcing 

the arrival of Randstad 50 Club 

Gold and encouraging employees to go 

online. Each month, employees received 

an email introducing them to the theme 

of the month, resonating Randstad’s values. 

Also each month, another section 

(or Club Room) opened online, inviting 

employees to participate in contests, win 

prizes, and create and share content with 

colleagues all around the world. 

For the duration of Randstad 50, 

a special section was created on the intranet 

that nobody wanted to miss: eve- 


rything you wanted to know about the 

celebrations leading up to the big party 

in October. Employees could become 

Gold members and add an icon to their 

profile, showing they were connected to 

the online experience. Several different 

Club Rooms were launched in the virtual 

Randstad 50 Club Gold, including a 

special guest blog, launched by founding 

father Frits Goldschmeding; a brand quiz 

on Randstad history, to playfully learn 

more about the company; the True Value 

Challenge, which demonstrated the relationship 

between consultants, clients and 

candidates; the DJ Booth featuring unique 

podcasts by comedian Greg Shapiro and a 

playlist for the party created by employees; 

the Dance Floor with integrated YouTube 

channel where employees could upload local 

videos (the official Randstad 50 dance 

moves were based on I Gotta Feeling by 

The Black Eyed Peas and would ultimately 

be performed at the party); the Cocktail



Bar where employees could upload recipes 

and vote for a Randstad party drink; 

the Style Room with styling tips on what to 

wear to the party; and an after-party room 

featuring memories from the event including 

a photo gallery where all party locations 

could upload their party pictures. 

The winners of the various contests were 

announced during the Warming-Up and 

after the party on the Randstad 50 Club 

Gold online platform. Prizes included a 

visit with NGO partner VSO to Namibia, 

a cruise on Randstad’s Clipper (tallship) 

Stad Amsterdam, a trip to the Williams 

Formula One centre in the UK, as well as 

iPods and iPads. The stories of the prize 

winners who got to travel abroad were 

reported in the regular Randstad online 

newsletter e-link. 

During the Ranstad 50 Club Gold live 

event on October 2, parties were held in 

26 locations in 19 countries, creating a 

24-hour celebration from Australia to the 

west coast of the USA. A special semi-live 

Randstad 50 Channel was created, including 

input, photos and videos of the online 

event as well as photos, Twitter messages 

and video clips of the parties. Each party 

location had a cameraman and a photographer 

sending through material that was 

broadcast worldwide in a 35-hour span. 

Surveys and evaluation The online 

platform inspired and supported local operating 

companies to organise local Randstad 

50 activities, online as well as offline. 

Randstad 50 Club Gold has led to an increase 

in active intranet users from 8,000 

in January 2010 to 21,000 in under nine 

months. 8,700 people participated in the 

brand quiz; 1,748 songs and videos were 

uploaded and 3,330 votes were cast in the 

DJ booth; the dance moves instruction 

video garnered 18,648 views and another 

74,000 views went to the 42 videos created 

by employees and uploaded onto YouTube. 

Following the event itself, the party continued 

online: the After Party room received 

1.6 million page views in the first few days 

after the event and employees could continue 

to email and download photos from 

the festivities. Over 90 videos and 5,000 

pictures were edited and posted, including 

1,000 Tweets. 

An extensive internal evaluation 

showed that 84 per cent of the employees 

believed that the online activities raised 

awareness of the company background 

and history and 100 per cent had a better 

understanding of the company’s core values. 

In addition, the annual employee engagement 

survey (People Survey) showed 

better results than 2009: participation rose 

from 66.8 per cent (2009) to 74.7 per cent 

(2010) and the overall level of engagement 

increased from 7.1 (2009) to 7.4 

(2010), outperforming the benchmark. 

79 

Machteld Merens is mana- 

ger group communicati- 

ons at Randstad Holding, 

based in the Netherlands. 

Before joining Randstad 

in 2007, she worked 

as a consultant, first at 

Coebergh Communicatie & PR in Amsterdam, and 

then as a financial communications consultant at 

Hill & Knowlton.

80 


THE WHITE ROOM 

B O E H R I N G E R I N G E L H E I M 

W I T H O G I L V Y H E A L T H W O R L D A N D I N F I L L 

A 

s a newcomer in the field of cancer 

research, Boehringer Ingelheim was 

eager to be seen as different and to 

have a unique approach to communication. 

It wanted to demonstrate the innovative 

cancer therapies under its development, 

whilst at the same time provide practical, 

appealing and educational resources for 

journalists. Given the magnitude of information 

on cancer available, the challenge 

was to engage journalists by providing 

them with a platform full of useful and 

engaging content. Oncology, the study of 

cancer, is arguably one of the most complicated 

areas in medicine: according to 

Cancer Research UK there are more than 

200 different types of cancer, and according 

to the BBC there are over 100 currently 

approved treatments in the UK. Adding to 

the challenge is a confusing array of disparate 

online resources: for example, typing 

‘cancer’ into Google generates 790 million 

web pages. The daily workload of journalists 

does not allow them time to sift through 

reams of paper or navigate numerous complicated 

websites to get to the information 

they need. Consequently, it is important to 

present information in a visual and bitesized 

format by using graphics, facts and 

figures and short video statements. Our 

website strategy is based on four guiding 

principles know as The Four C’s: 

WEBSITES: ONLINE NEWSROOM 

1. Clear: visualise, visualise, visualise! Journalists 

need simple, visual information 

2. Credible: third party expert opinions are 

crucial to demonstrate transparency 

3. Clever: information available on a mobile 

device, and fast and simple to navigate 

4. Comprehensive: facts, numbers and figures 

provided to build context to the 

story 

Thus the White Room was born: an innovative 

and educational online information 

‘shop’ and a continuously-updated download 

centre where journalists could find the 

latest, up-to-date, and reliable information 

about cancer, in line with what medical journalists 

are actually looking for. The name 

‘The White Room’ reflects the overarching 

branding and theme of Boehringer Ingelheim 

Oncology, which signifies the clarity 

and transparency of the company, the professional 

and white-coat environment in 

cancer medicine, and should also make the 

visitor think of a blank sheet of paper, representing 

a fresh start for Boehringer Ingelheim 

in the field of oncology. Due to the 

simplicity of its features, The White Room 

is also appropriate for anybody who would 

like to find out more about cancer. The following 

demonstrates how The White Room 

implemented its unique strategy:



The four Cs: clear, credible, clever and comprehensive 

1. Clear All materials on The White 

Room are highly visual and present complex 

information on cancer in an engaging 

way: an example of this is the use of infographics 

which present visual and bite-sized 

information to journalists. As well as static 

infographics, The White Room also houses 

interactive and animated infographics designed 

to bring the information to life and 

tell a more compelling story. 

2. Credible Additionally, short video clips 

of internationally-renowned expert oncologists 

are provided on The White Room to 

demonstrate an openness to provide external 

judgement and expert opinions. 

3. Clever The design of the website allows 

for all the different pieces of information 

on a particular news story to be grouped 

together, so that a journalist has all the information 

they could possibly need at their 

fingertips. The Learn More facility aims to 

speed up the search process by indicating 

other related content that they may be interested 

in. What is also unique about The 

White Room is that everything that can be 

found there is downloadable, ready for 

journalists to use whenever and wherever 

needed, even when they are travelling. 

4. Comprehensive All materials include 

comprehensive and up-to-date facts, num- 

81

82 


bers and figures necessary in order to write 

stories on oncology. The White Room is 

regularly updated with new materials: we 

plan ahead and think strategically about 

capitalising on news opportunities, creating 

new and useful material for journalists 

with up to the minute and relevant information. 

During cancer awareness months 

in 2011, highly visual e-mails announcing 

new disease awareness content were distributed 

to journalists with a link to guide 

them to the website. 

Reaction The uptake of the materials in 

the media is proof that the concept of providing 

materials following the principle of 

The Four Cs is of value for journalists. An 

ever increasing number of materials have 

been downloaded from The White Room. 

The number of visitors to the site 

speaks volumes and also has been growing 

in response to an search engine optimisation 

strategy, and our direct promotion 

of the website to the target audience. As 

of September 2011, results have shown a 

23 per cent increase in download volume 

from July to September, compared to April 

to June; and over 40,000 new visits since 

May 2011. Since September 2011 we have 

also experienced over 1,700 views of the 

interactive infographics, launched during 

the cancer awareness months. Apart from 

the facts and figures, we have also received 

feedback that illustrates media approval of 

the White Room. Ben Adams, a reporter at 

Pharmafocus, told us that “it was very refreshing 

to have an in-depth resource for 

cancer. It is far more useful than many other 

pharma sites on the same topic, I liked 

the use of stats and the clear presentation 


of the site.” Kevin Grogan of Pharma 

Times said: “Many companies throw sites 

together but the White Room is the real 

thing, it is easy to navigate and extremely 

informative.” Susan Viney of Cancer Drug 

News wrote: “I like that fact that while obviously 

focusing on Boehringer Ingelheim‘s 

products and giving clear, detailed information 

on these, it also seeks to provide a 

background on the wider issues, while also 

looking in more detail at cancer pathways 

etc. Plus it‘s easy to use: really important 

when you are working to tight deadlines.” 

One tweet summed it up best: “LOVE what 

you have done there! EXACTLY what journalists 

and HCPs will want. Gr8 job”. 

In 2012, The White Room is developed 

further with the implementation of a 

variety of new modules, including increasing 

the search-ability of the site on search 

engines and updating the site regularly 

with useful resources. The White Room 

will soon be available in a number of other 

languages, including French, Czech and 

Spanish. 

A molecular biologist and 

journalist by training, Julia 

Meyer-Kleinmann is now 

director of corporate 


Boehringer Ingelheim, 

where she is head of the 

Launch Products CORE Communications group 

since 2008, responsible for global research and 

development communication strategy as well as 

global pipeline and licensing communications and 

global launch product communications.


WEBSITES: CORPORATE WEBLOG 

THE RTE BLOG: PROVIDING 

INFORMATION AND DEBATE 

R T E 

W 

hat sort of power grid is needed to 

support the expansion of renewable 

energies? Just what is a smart 

grid? Spaces beneath high voltage lines 

can act as corridors for biodiversity – but 

how? These topical issues are all important 

questions not only for the energy industry 

itself but also for the general public. To 

provide some answers, RTE, the company 

responsible for operating France‘s 

electricity transmission system, launched 

its very own blog in January 2010, called 

Au-delà des lignes (‘Beyond the Lines’). It 

is an interactive web media aimed at the 

widest possible audience. Here is what it‘s 

all about. 

A lack of knowledge According to an 

external survey carried out by LH2 on behalf 

of RTE, 60 per cent of the public believe 

that high voltage power lines are dangerous 

for several reasons, including the 

effects on health, aesthetic impact, falling 

cables, and disturbances caused by noise 

or magnetic fields. A century after it was 

created, the power grid is no longer seen 

as the modern symbol of industrial development. 

It is a fixture of modern life, and 

needs to adapt to expectations of contemporary 

society. It is also worth remember- 

ing that two-thirds of the public claim not 

to have enough information about high 

voltage lines, and just three per cent are 

familiar with RTE. This may be partly because 

RTE is a young company, founded in 

2000 with the deregulation of the electricity 

market, which was initiated by the EU 

Commission. Also, the RTE network links 

electricity producers and distributors. The 

company therefore has little in the way of 

direct dealings with end consumers. As a 

result, few people readily identify RTE as a 

player in the energy chain. 

Finally, electricity transmission is a 

little-known business, seen as complex or 

even remote by the general public. And 

besides this general lack of knowledge, 

there are questions about the way the grid 

itself is perceived and what it stands for. 

A new direction With all this in mind, 

RTE opted to embark on a new path in its 

external communications in 2010, seeking 

to engage with the wider public. The company‘s 

strategy focused heavily on the internet, 

with an extensive overhaul of RTE‘s 

corporate website and the creation of Audelà 

des lignes. In addition, in mid-2011, 

a new website was launched, dedicated to 

the issue of magnetic fields. Meanwhile, 

83

84 

Answering fears and misconceptions 


social networks (Facebook, Twitter) which 

had been around since 2009 were used as 

a crucial new relay in the company‘s updated 

digital ecosystem. 

Au-delà des lignes went online on January 

18, 2010. It was intended as a lively 

and educational means of explaining the 

role and importance of power grids, in 

France and across Europe, to the public 

at large. This is a pioneering and experimental 

web media, launched by an industrial 

public utility. While its activities are 

in the general public interest, RTE seeks 

to familiarise citizens with what it does by 

providing them with access to information 

and critical debatse. Au-delà des lignes 

looks to move beyond the preconceptions, 

dispelling the mystery about RTE‘s activities 

and answering questions. 

A mass of information A corporate 

blog but also an expert blog, Au-delà des 


lignes’ subject matter is very extensive. 

First, it explains the basics of electricity 

transmission: how the electricity network 

and the wider power system work. It also 

offers an insight into other aspects of a 

little-known world: unique places, innovations 

and jobs, major projects or surprising 

details. And, as its names suggest, the 

blog goes beyond the lines, explaining 

what electricity transmission means for 

biodiversity, the landscape, health, innovation, 

Europe, renewable energies, energy 

use and energy savings and so on. It not 

only sheds light on the workings of power 

transmission, but invites readers to find 

out more, by focusing on some of the issues 

most important to the public. 

This vision of electricity transmission 

is all the more vivid as it is told by different 

voices. The blog regularly features guest 

contributors: experts, members of the 

public, and people from both inside and



outside RTE. Visitors to the blog can also 

leave comments, ask questions or share 

their views online. This panoramic view is 

both lively and useful for those looking to 

get information and form an opinion. 

Finally, although it talks about subjects 

that are often very complex, the blog 

seeks to use language that is at once educational, 

practical and reader-friendly. Scientific 

concepts are described in simpler 

terms for greater accessibility, and the tone 

is designed to pique the reader‘s curiosity. 

The blog is about clarity and simplicity, 

with an emphasis on rich media. Similar 

to a web magazine format, the blog is published 

twice or three times a week, with a 

weekly newsletter (with over 4000 subscribers). 

The information is completed by episodes, 

so readers can take everything on 

board easily. 

A developing relationship The blog‘s 

story is written in tandem with its visitors. 

Their comments help to guide the editorial 

line. The blog needs to engage with 

them, keep their attention and bring them 

together, acting as a community forum. In 

the era of horizontal communication, Audelà 

des lignes attracts the public‘s attention 

through four interactive events every 

year, including games, competitions and 

quizzes. They offer a fun way for visitors to 

take their first steps into the world of electricity 

transmission. Writing competitions 

on the power grids of the future, a treasure 

hunt across the European electricity 

market or a quiz on The Paris International 

Agricultural Show: every online event 

is targeted at a particular community, to 

widen the blog‘s audience. Another ad- 

vantage: these events enliven the blog and 

support its readership. Since 2012, there 

has been synergy between the on- and offline 

events. The relationship developing 

between the blog and its audience will be 

strengthened by initiatives across the two 

channels. After more than two years online, 

the blog is gradually winning over its 

audience (a rise by 177 per cent in hits between 

2010 and 2012, with a firm base of 

15,000 hits per month). This is not down 

to any commercial advertising but sustained 

editorial investment, regular and 

attractive interactive events, and relays on 

RTE‘s social media. 

With over 300 articles published, including 

52 per cent personal accounts, 

with 750 comments and 100 videos in two 

years, the blog features increasingly prominently 

in search engine results (over 50 

per cent of its current traffic). Twenty-first 

century internet users now have a reference 

online source of information and 

debate about electricity transmission, in 

France and Europe. 

Michel Derdevet is 

currently director of 

communications and 

public affairs at RTE. A 

senior lecturer at the 

Paris Institute of Political 

Studies, he is the author 

of a number of publications. He began his career 

holding several posts in the offices of government 

ministers, and spent the majority of his career 

from 1985 onwards working for EDF, before 

moving to RTE upon its creation in 2000. 

85

86 


or many owners of modern smartphones, 

televised news reports of 

the latest decisions of the national 

parliament of the Federal Republic of 

Germany – the Bundestag – are already 

history. The media behaviour of the public 

has changed dramatically over recent 

years and even in traditional institutions 

there is now a need and a desire not to 

miss out on this change in social communication. 

The media transformation over 

the past few years has generated plenty of 

opportunities for creativity as well as substantial 

benefits. 

As a logical expansion of its online 

presence, the German Bundestag initiated 

the provision of internet access for 

mobile devices. In addition to this mobile 

internet service, the German Bundestag 

was the first European parliament to create 

an app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod 

to enable even easier access to its mobile 

content. One obvious challenge facing 

such an app was the wealth of information 

already available on the German 

Bundestag’s website, comprising around 

150,000 documents and 50,000 videos. 

It was important to tailor the data to the 

requirements of mobile devices and their 

individual menu navigation systems. Consideration 

was also given to the increased 

importance of real-time information since 

VIDEO & GAMES: MOBILE AND APPS 

WELCOME TO POLITICS 2.0 

D E U T S C H E R B U N D E S T A G W I T H B A B I E L 

F 

several target groups – journalists and 

members of parliament in particular – rely 

on having up-to-the-minute information. 

However, they are not the app’s only target 

groups: it was clear that interested members 

of the public and tourists should also 

have access to the significant added value 

provided by the app. In collaboration with 

Düsseldorf-based agency Babiel GmbH, 

the German Bundestag has succeeded in 

designing an app that optimally responds 

to the demands of all target groups. To 

quote Norbert Lammert, President of the 

Bundestag: “Mobile services make our 

pages even more accessible. It is becoming 

ever easier for citizens to keep up to date 

with the work of the parliament.” 

Rapid access In order to enable compatibility 

with other operating systems, the 

app was also designed to be platform-independent. 

In December 2011, we launched 

not only of an updated version of the 

iPhone app, but also made the German 

Bundestag app availiable for Android devices 

(smartphones and tablets). 

To begin with, the app was initially divided 

into four areas: Aktuell (News), MdB 

(members of parliament), Plenum (Plenary 

Assembly) and Ausschüsse (Committees). 

The option was kept to add further 

areas and the app’s version 2.0 included



“The unfiltered provision of political information” 

the implementation of a Besucher (Visitors) 

area and also saw the expansion of 

the Plenum area to Plenum/TV. 

The Bundestag app opens on the 

Aktuell (“current”) page with editorially 

updated articles and background information 

on the most important current topics 

in the Bundestag. The news here is updated 

several times a day allowing all users 

rapid access to the most vital information. 

The Plenum/TV area gives live coverage 

of the Plenary Chamber while it is in session: 

here the user can discover which 

topics are currently being debated, who 

is currently speaking and what they are 

talking about. Debates are broadcast via a 

live audio stream and (as of the latest version, 

2.2) via a live video stream. When the 

Plenary Chamber is not in session, past debates 

and other committee meetings are 

repeated on the video stream. 

The Ausschüsse page describes the 

tasks of the 22 standing committees, which 

members of parliament are on these committees 

and who chairs each one. The 

committees represent an important component 

of the German Bundestag and, 

according to the Standing Orders of the 

Bundestag, act as “preparatory decisionmaking 

bodies of the Bundestag” (“vorbereitende 

Beschlussorgane des Bundestages”). 

They tackle important topics 

and prepare the drafts of legislation. The 

app offers reports on the various topics under 

discussion and the results of the work 

of the committees. As of version 2.0, the 

87

88 

Politics at the press of a button 


Besucher page offers information of specific 

relevance to tourists about the Bundestag 

Visitor Service. For anyone wanting 

to witness a plenary session from the Visitor‘s 

Gallery, attend lectures or take part 

in a guided tour of the parliament building, 

this area gives all the relevant information 

on the Visitor Service and explains 

the registration process. 

Information about members of parliament, 

background information on committees 

and relevant information material 

for visiting the Bundestag are constantly 

available offline. At the press of a button 

users can decide for themselves when to 

update data, e.g. when a WiFi hotspot becomes 

available. 

The app was first launched in September 

2010 and met with an outstandingly 

positive response. Just 24 hours after its 

launch, the Deutscher Bundestag app was 

listed as the most-downloaded app in the 

German Apple App Store. The app also 

spent several weeks at number one in the 

News category. To date, the app has been 

downloaded more than 340,000 times, 

with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 


Unfiltered information The app is 

continuously being optimised in order to 

further increase its added value. A series 

of updates have not only resulted in improvements 

- such as the introduction of a 

higher resolution for retina displays - but 

also in major innovations, such as the implementation 

of the additional Besucher 

area and the expansion of the Plenum/TV 

area. 

Overall the Deutscher Bundestag 

app makes a significant contribution towards 

transparency in politics. The political 

fortunes of Germany are moulded in 

the Bundestag and, as the legislative body 

elected by the German people, the greatest 

priority of the German Bundestag is 

to ensure the independence and direct 

transparency of political decision-making. 

Through the unfiltered provision of 

political information, thinking and arguments, 

the app supports the democratic 

basis for participation in political life and 

promotes politically independent opinion 

formation. 

Since 2011, Dominik 

Schmidt has worked in 

the marketing and distri- 

bution section of Babiel 

GmbH, an agency and 

consultancy for online 

communications with 

offices in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Amongst other 

tasks, Dominik is responsible for the preparation 

and writing of articles, press releases and booklets. 

Some other clients of Babiel are BNP Paribas and 

Demag Cranes.


VIDEO & GAMES: ONLINE EVENT 

ALPINE APPS 

AND PEAK PROJECTS 

M A M M U T 

M 

ammut is the leading manufacturer 

of high-quality clothing 

and equipment for alpine sports, 

whose roots go back to a ropery founded 

in 1862. To celebrate the 150th anniversary 

of this date in 2012, Mammut wanted to 

create a campaign based on user involvement. 

A fan page on Facebook was already 

in use and had 3,500 fans at the beginning 

of our project. 

Objectives & aims Within the framework 

of the 150th anniversary celebrations, 

our main objective was to create a two-year 

long integrated campaign and a global 

(viral) hype within the core target group, 

online as well as offline. Because the company 

aimed to celebrate the anniversary 

together with its fans all over the world, a 

special focus had to be on interaction and 

buzz within the social community of alpinists. 

Therefore Mammut had been planning 

activities and celebrations to mark 

this major event since 2010. 

We decided that the campaign had to 

focus on the following goals: an increased 

awareness of the brand; a quantitative 

boost in sales growth and media contacts; 

improved communication of the brand 

values; qualitatively increased public re- 

lations awareness and experience of the 

brand identity; and the creation of a new 

milestone in the mountaineering sector 

Considerations and evaluation As a 

first step we thought about which channels 

we wanted to implement. As the request 

was for an integrated campaign, the communications 

across the chosen channels 

had to be aligned. In order to increase 

awareness and to address an international 

target group, we chose online channels 

such as banner ads, Facebook, a microsite 

and YouTube to activate trailers. To also 

increase awareness and give the users the 

chance to experience the brand identity we 

also initially wanted to integrate an offline 

event. The next step was to look at the core 

values of the brand which for us are solidarity, 

community and innovation, and linking 

these to the company’s focus on sports. 

So we then knew we wanted to bring alpine 

enthusiasts together in a sports event. 

Soon after agreeing on the basic idea, we 

conceptualised an interactive campaign 

in three stages which playfully integrated 

the communicative reason: the 150th anniversary 

of Mammut. The campaign linked 

online and offline channels by giving users 

the chance to apply online for one of 150 

89

90 


To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Mammut launched the biggest peak project in history 

tours of various mountain peaks around 

the world. We then separated this into an 

application stage, a team building stage 

and the actual event stage. Thus, the biggest 

peak project in history was born. 

Backpack branding To make people 

aware of this event, we started a Facebook 

raffle to generate the critical mass of 

fans needed for this campaign. We then 

launched the microsite and extended all 

content on the brand blog, Facebook, banner 

ads and newsletters to reach the people. 

Every stage was accompanied by an 

activating trailer that explained the campaign 

and aroused the interest in the big- 


gest peak project in history. Facebook fans 

were able to tag themselves on one of 150 

backpacks. Every day one gift was opened 

and the content of the bag was raffled out 

to every tagged user. The prizes were thematically 

linked to mountaineering and 

many also had a historical background 

connected to the brand (e.g. one of the 

first ropes made by Mammut) 

Several stages During the first stage, Recruitment, 

users were able to create a virtual 

3D mountain in order to apply as a team 

leader. Then the participants were able to 

look for supporters among friends and in 

the community to help his mountain grow



Online mountains 

to dizzying heights, true to the motto: “The 

higher the mountain, the better the chances!” 

To get an edge in the competition we 

also actively advised the participants to 

share their mountain on their social networks 

to find more friends. 

The most successful team leaders 

were invited to the second stage, selection, 

where they had to present the tour they 

want to climb and create a team of from 

two to six people. Therefore we built the 

Climbers Board, a place where users had 

the chance to register and apply as team 

members. During the decision phase the 

teams had to present their peak projects to 

a jury of mountaineering experts. 

The selected teams went on to the 

third stage, the ultimate test event where 

they will climb 150 mountain peaks worldwide. 

For their tours, each team was presented 

with Mammut’s anniversary collection 

of mountaineering clothing and 

a mountain guide to accompany them, as 

well as a GoBandit helmet camera with GPS 

Module in order to film and track their 

tour. The documentations of their tours 

were published on the campaign site and 

the participants spread them through their 

social networks. Selected tours were shown 

on television channels in Switzerland. 

Fundraising and success To create 

further awareness for the brand we also 

supported the social commitment of Mammut 

with our work. Mammut raises funds 

for the IFMGA (International Federation 

of Mountain Guides Associations) which 

helps alpinists in emerging countries such 

as Kyrgyzstan or Peru. 

With the campaign we created a new 

social media platform for the target group 

to interact, share tours and find fellow alpinists. 

The figures also show that our concept 

was a huge success and overcame the 

clients expectations. We had participants 

from over 100 countries; more than 3000 

people created their own mountains; more 

than 35,000 friends supported the peak 

founders; the first trailer received over 

140,000 views on YouTube; the Facebook 

fan base grew from 3,500 to over 57,000; 

more than 700 people registered for the 

Climbers Board; conversion to the company 

website increased unique visits by over 

300 per cent. 

Roland Völkel is a junior 

copywriter at Munich- 

based agency webgue- 

rillas GmbH. In this 

position, he works for 

several clients including 

Mammut Sports Group 

AG, Orange SA and Zott GmbH & Co. KG. 

91

92 


nyone who has followed the global 

science-based company DSM in recent 

years will know how much the 

company has changed. For DSM, however, 

change is nothing new: from its modest beginnings 

as a mining company at the start 

of the twentieth century, it became a bulkchemicals 

and then a specialty-chemicals 

company. Following its most recent transformation 

DSM is today a fully fledged life 

sciences and materials sciences company 

active in health, nutrition and materials. 

A new corporate brand identity 

With this latest transformation of DSM 

complete, it became clear that a gap had 

emerged between how the company was 

viewed – both internally and externally 

– and how it wanted and indeed felt it 

should be viewed. To change this perception, 

DSM needed a more compelling and 

unified identity to reflect its leadership position 

in both life sciences and materials 

sciences. It needed a new corporate brand 

identity that would demonstrate very 

clearly – to employees, customers, suppliers, 

shareholders and other stakeholders 

– that DSM had turned a new page. The 

new brand would symbolise the company’s 

transition to “the new DSM”. It would 

VIDEO & GAMES: IMAGE FILM 

COMMUNICATING THROUGH 

THE POWER OF MOVIES 

D S M W I T H G R O U P . I E 

A 

underline the work that had already been 

done and would help people understand 

the company’s vision for the future. DSM’s 

new corporate brand identity and brand 

promise, Bright Science, Brighter Living, 

was launched in February 2011. 

The challenge was to find the most 

compelling and inspiring way to launch 

this new brand. This would need to go beyond 

the new logo and visual identity and 

bring meaning to DSM’s new positioning 

of Bright Science, Brighter Living. It 

should bring across the message that DSM 

uses its science and innovation in partnership 

with its customers to create products 

and solutions that make a positive difference 

to people’s lives. 

Movie magic DSM certainly didn’t 

want an exclusive head office or management-only 

event. It wanted the occasion 

to be as inclusive as possible, and to 

have everyone feel equally involved, with 

no distinction made between different 

groups of employees. It also wanted to 

reveal the new brand to everyone in the 

company, at over 170 different locations 

in almost 50 countries, at more or less 

the same moment. How could this all be 

done with real and meaningful impact?



Forthcoming attractions 

DSM decided that the best way to do 

this would be via a cinema movie called 

Bright Now. 

A journey of transformation Bright 

Now would tell the story of DSM as it is today 

and where it wants to be in the future. 

It would recount one person’s discovery of 

DSM and show how “bright science” and 

“brighter living” is reflected through the 

company’s activities. Just as DSM had gone 

through a journey of transformation, so 

would the movie’s protagonist, Jack Wang. 

He would undertake a whirlwind global 

tour of DSM during which his perceptions 

of the company and its new brand would 

be transformed to total enthusiasm. But at 

the start of this project there was one huge 

practical and technological challenge: to 

meet the deadline for the brand launch, 

the movie would need to be made in almost 

record-breaking time 

DSM and the production company 

needed to move fast. The first script was 

written in just one and a half weeks. In the 

meantime, online video-casting started 

in New Zealand, Singapore, London and 

South Africa to find actors to play Jack 

Wang and his family. After about 70 global 

auditions, the right people were finally 

found. The filming began. A core team 

of six people, thirty on-location staff, and 

a cast of actors was put together within 

days. This cast included not only professional 

actors but also DSM employees, 

from blue-collar workers to the CEO, as 

well as customers and partners, giving the 

movie authenticity, emotional impact, 

narrative power, credibility and creating 

buy-in. The filming took place (at times 

simultaneously) in Cape Town, London, 

Shanghai, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg, 

New York and Heerlen in the Netherlands, 

where DSM is headquartered. 

Accelerated pace A cinematic project 

of this scale would normally take at least 

six months to complete. Bright Now was 

completed in only two! To whet the appetite 

and build up a sense of anticipation 

for the new brand, promotional posters 

were displayed at DSM locations around 

the world, and employees were shown a 

teaser trailer in the weeks preceding the 

launch. In February 2011, over a period 

93

94 

Stills from DSM’s movie Bright Now 


of only two days and at 134 different local 

cinemas, 94 per cent of DSM’s 22,000 

employees saw the 45 -minute Bright Now 

movie. Local DSM management hosted 

the events and spoke afterwards about 

how the new brand positioning related to 

their part of the business. 

Straight after the screenings, employees 

were handed a copy of the Global 

Times, the newspaper written by Jack 

Wang in the movie itself. This served not 

only as an aide-memoire of Bright Now 

but also reinforced the brand message 

through its stories and articles. Employees 

were also given a DVD copy of the 

movie subtitled in 10 languages to cater 

for the linguistic variation in DSM’s workforce. 

Critical plaudits Bright Now was extremely 

well-received: over 96 per cent of 

those who saw it rated it between four and 

five, with five being the highest score. The 

movie has had a lasting effect and marked 

the start of an ongoing implementation 

and engagement process owned by each 

DSM business group and business unit. 

Later in the year, over 19,800 employees 

completed an employment engagement 

survey which showed an increase in com- 


pany pride. It also demonstrated that the 

overwhelming majority now knew the new 

mission statement and believed that DSM 

has a bright future. For DSM, there is no 

doubt about the positive contribution 

that Bright Now made to these results. 

As the primary vehicle to launch the new 

brand, Bright Now certainly achieved the 

impact that DSM desired, and got its new 

corporate brand identity moving firmly 

in the right direction. 

Jos van Haastrecht is 

the director of global 

branding and integrated 

communications at DSM. 

After holding several 

positions in the interna- 

tional publishing industry, 

Jos started his communications career in 1998 as 

head of global communications at Gistbrocades 

Food Specialties, a Dutch biotech company. This 

was followed by several positions in global digital 

communications and internal communications at 

DSM. He took up his current role in 2008.


VIDEO & GAMES: WEB TV 

“THE WORLD’S ONLY 

TV STATION WITH 

ITS VERY OWN BANK” 

J Y S K E B A N K . T V 

D 

enmark’s most modern television 

station is neither DR nor TV2 [the 

two largest, national television stations 

in Denmark]. It is Jyskebank.tv.” 

Those were the words of Ulrik Haagerup, 

head of news at DR, the Danish broadcasting 

corporation, during a December 2008 

episode of Denmark’s most reputable radio 

programme on the media, Mennesker 

& Medier [People & Media]. At that 

point, Jyskebank.tv was just two months 

old, but Haagerup’s words – delivered 

on DR’s very own flagship talk radio programme 

- made it clear that the old guard 

of Danish broadcasting was awakening to 

a new reality: they were no longer the only 

show in town. Today, Jyskebank.tv could 

be called a full-fledged broadcasting unit 

of Denmark’s second largest bank: or, as 

we say “the only television station in the 

world, with its very own bank!” 

In place of a traditional communications 

department, we have hired an editorial 

staff of around 15 professional journalists, 

cameramen and editors – most 

of whom have experience in traditional 

news agencies - to produce the best possible 

television stories in finance, ideas 

and culture. Their hands are not tied by 

key messages nor the bank’s positions, 

and their only mandate is to be accurate 

and honest and to tell good stories, even 

when that requires being critical about 

the bank itself. The results have not only 

challenged the traditional media, but also 

the way many of us think about the modern 

role of corporate communication. 

But why would a bank rely so heavily 

on television as its primary form of communication? 

And how dare it be so brazen as 

to think of itself as a media company? The 

short answer is to be found in Jyske Bank’s 

set of core values. Jyske Bank thinks and 

acts differently and communicates in an 

open an honest way. This is a central theme 

in all that we do. Therefore it was no coincidence 

that Jyske Bank was the first bank 

- perhaps even the first company - in the 

world to decide to move completely from 

the printed word to television as its primary 

means of internal and external communication. 

The longer answer is probably 

best explained by going back to early 2008, 

just a few months before Ulrik Haagerup 

anointed our small staff the most modern 

television station in Denmark. 

95

96 


Jyskebank.tv went on-air for the first time on September 30, 2008 

A Trip to The Old Gray Lady The 

ideas behind the concept of Jyskebank.tv 

began to form in New York City during 

a few warm spring days in 2008. Because 

we could not find any other companies 

in the world that had travelled down 

the path that we were embarking on, 

we chose to find inspiration in the ‘old’ 

media. We visited the world’s largest and 

most prestigious media group, The New 

York Times, in its brand new building 

on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan in the 

hopes of seeing the latest and greatest. 

The visit to the Times turned out to be 

an eye opener, though in a different way 

than we had expected. What we had seen 


before at traditional television stations 

was only confirmed to us on Eighth Avenue. 

The media world, and not least the 

world of television, was very much a slave 

to routines and traditions, resulting in 

expensive and inflexible production and 

trapped by its own slavish focus on mainstream 

productions offering the potential 

of high viewership figures. It was evident 

to us that we had to forge a new path. 

Meatpacking and the Master Plan 

Therefore we turned our backs on Midtown 

and went to the Meatpacking District, 

where we camped out in a bar and 

freed our thoughts of the dogmas of the



old media world. In the course of a few 

hectic hours, we drew up – on napkins and 

a tablecloth – the master plan for Jyskebank.tv. 

It should be kept in mind that 

We are not able to 

compete head-tohead 

with the old 

media’s much larger 

budgets, therefore we 

choose to aim for the 

niche. 

in the spring of 2008, smartphones were 

still in the making, the iPhone had been 

launched only the year before, Facebook 

had not yet grown to its current size, and 

the iPad and Twitter were not yet a part of 

the media vernacular. But we tried to look 

as clearly as possible into the foggy future 

of the media and boiled our thoughts and 

visions down to five strategic benchmarks: 

1. Content is king: our viewers will judge 

us in the same way they judge the content 

of traditional television stations. Therefore 

we must produce quality, in content 

and in form, on a par with the best broadcasting 

television stations. 

2. Distribution is queen: contrary to traditional 

media and media websites, it is not 

crucial to us whether or not our content 

is viewed on our own site because we do 

not depend on advertising. Instead, our 

very content is our advertising. Therefore 

we build an open site where all content is 

embeddable and shareable. Our target is 

that 80 per cent of our content is viewed 

on sites or platforms other than on Jyskebank.tv, 

our own domain. 

3. We are not a web television station, 

rather an online one. All content is produced 

in broadcast quality. We have a 

multi-screen strategy so that our content 

can be viewed on all possible platforms, 

including on flat screens at home in your 

living room. 

4. We are narrowcasters, not broadcasters. 

We are not able to compete head-tohead 

with the old media’s much larger 

budgets, therefore we choose to aim for 

the niche. We intend to produce content 

beyond the radar of traditional media, 

either because it is too narrow (some of 

our target groups consist of no more than 

three to five people), or because it is different, 

innovative television. We do not 

want to make more of the same: we want 

to produce a new kind of television, applying 

a novel approach. 

5. Jyskebank.tv is a development and developing 

project. To say that the media 

world (and the surrounding technology) 

is developing by leaps and bounds would 

be an understatement. We want to exploit 

the most recent possibilities, in form as 

well as in content. 

Communication during crises On 

September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers 

97

98 


went bankrupt, and 15 days later Jyskebank.tv 

went on-air for the first time. Because 

the launch took place in the middle 

of the worst financial crisis since the 

1930s, we were thrown smack into the 

hornets’ nest, producing 27 live broadcasts 

a day from our newly built financial 

studio located right in the middle of the 

financial trading floor at Jyske Bank. And 

from day one Jyskebank.tv demonstrated 

its value as a strong medium by enabling 

Jyske Bank’s financial experts to communicate 

directly with clients, investors and 

shareholders, bypassing the gatekeepers 

Jyskebank.tv demonstrated 

its worth as 

a tool for our own 

crisis communications 

when Jyske 

Bank had to slash 

jobs. 

of the traditional media. In Jyskebank.tv, 

we built a communication freeway that 

runs directly from the bank to its clients 

and other stakeholders. 

What we learned on several occasions 

in the months and years that followed was 

that there is an enormous value for a publicly 

listed company such as Jyske Bank 

to be able to communicate directly and 

precisely with all stakeholders– including 

the press - when clarification, elaboration 

or other comments are needed. In this 


respect, television is more engaging, effective, 

faster and accessible than print. 

And social media has only enhanced this 

effectiveness, making video content easier 

than ever to share, embed and view on 

a number of platforms. 

And indeed, in the autumn of 2011, 

Jyskebank.tv demonstrated its worth as a 

power tool for our own crisis communications 

when Jyske Bank, for the first time 

ever in its history, had to slash jobs. Jyske 

Bank’s employees are spread over more 

than 120 locations in Denmark and five 

international destinations outside the 

country, and its headquarters are located 

in Silkeborg, far away from the media 

newsdesks in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. 

For these reasons, it was of the 

essence that on this sad day Jyskebank.tv 

was able to deliver direct communication 

to its employees and the outside world in 

a timely, unedited manner. 

Over the first four hours after the 

publication of the stock market announcement, 

we sent an internal live interview 

with our CEO for all employees; 

an external live interview for Jyskebank. 

tv and distributed live and live-on-tape 

interviews for all media houses and TV 

stations in Denmark. And all of this took 

place without the CEO having to leave 

Jyske Bank’s headquarters in Silkeborg. 

“We don’t make TV; we make TV 

history” In the course of the three years 

that Jyskebank.tv has been in existence, 

new opportunities have arisen that we 

could never have imagined back in the 

spring of 2008. Technology plays a big 

part in this, but so, too, do new ideas



that are based on much older ones. For 

instance, we have transformed traditional 

sponsorships into media partnerships, as 

was the case in our live coverage of one 

of the largest music festivals in Denmark. 

We also became a media partner for the 

UEFA European Under-21 championship 

in 2011, activating our sponsorship 

in a way that allowed us to communicate 

directly with football fans. Today we produce 

television with some of the best 

journalists in Denmark, including the 

chairman of the committee of the prestigious 

Danish journalism award, the Cavling 

Prize (the Danish equivalent of The 

Pulitzer Prize): truly a seal of approval for 

our journalistic project. We also develop 

and produce branded content for Danish 

national broadcasters. Recently, for 

instance, we have developed the concept 

of and produced a brand new prime time 

format for Denmark’s TV3. 

In 2011, we were honoured with a 

Sabre Award and named Best Web TV in 

Europe at the Digital Communications 

Awards. In 2012, we were nominated for 

an IAWTV Award, which is granted by 

The International Academy of Web Television 

in Las Vegas. And, in addition to 

our external television escapades, we still 

produce an internal magazine, INSIDE, 

which is sent to all employees the first Friday 

of each month. 

Facing a fragmented future 

And so the long version of this story is 

still being written, and at Jyskebank.tv we 

still believe that the media of the future 

will be more fragmented than ever, and 

that niche on-line TV-stations like ours 

will be given easier access to our existing 

and our potential stakeholders via Smart 

televisions, smartphones and tablets. A 

current mantra among television futurists 

is “television everywhere”, and YouTube 

recently announced that it will pay USD 

100 million to redefine and revolutionise 

television so that “television everywhere” 

will become reality, for viewers as well 

as producers. For us, this does not only 

mean that viewers will be able to watch 

television no matter where they are, but 

also that the time of the traditional stations 

and cable networks as gatekeepers is 

over. Maybe that is what Ulrik Haagerup 

really meant when he called us Denmark’s 

most modern television station. 

When Lars von Trier studied at the 

National Film School of Denmark, he 

wrote on the door of his cutting room, 

“We don‘t make films; we make film history!” 

With equal parts self-irony and 

ambition, we paraphrased his quote and, 

on the wall of our editorial office at Jyskebank.tv, 

have written, “We don’t make television; 

we make television history!” 

99 

Based in Silkeborg, central 

Denmark, Lasse Høgfeldt 

is head of communication 

at Jyske Bank, the third 

largest Danish bank in 

terms of market share. As 

part of his responsibilities, 

Lasse is also editor-in-chief of jyskebank.tv.

100 


MONOPOLY POLSKA – 

VOTE FOR YOUR CITY 

H A S B R O P O L A N D W I T H W E B E R S H A N D W I C K 

T 

oy, game and action figure company 

Hasbro entertains children 

and families around the world with 

products from its famous brands, including 

Transformers, Play-Doh, Littlest Pet 

Shop, Nerf, Twister, Playskool and My 

Little Pony. It also produces versions of 

its classic board game Monopoly customised 

for different markets, and in 2011 it 

wanted to revamp its Polish edition. So it 

asked Weber Shandwick and interactive 

agency OS3 multimedia to engage the 

Polish people in choosing the cities that 

would feature on the board. The media 

relations, social media and advocacy campaign 

galvanised local mayors, councils, 

officials and the public to promote their 

home towns. An astonishing 1.5 million 

online votes were cast by patriotic Poles 

(only 14 million of whom have an internet 

connection) eager to see their city 

featured on the famous game of chance. 

In this digital-led campaign, members of 

the Polish public would be encouraged to 

vote online at www.monopoly.pl for their 

home towns and cities to be included on 

the board for a new Polish edition. 

The objectives of the campaign were: 

to tell the Polish people they have a chance 

to contribute to something special; to 

VIDEO & GAMES: ONLINE COMPETITION 

show why the project is worth engaging 

with; to target local patriots aged 14 and 

up; and to encourage local communities 

to unite to win their city’s place on the 

board. Similar Monopoly national voting 

projects have been conducted in the past 

in such countries as France, Italy, Russia, 

Turkey and the USA but this was the first 

time that Poles could vote for their cities 

for the Polish edition of Monopoly. 

Implementation The strategic approach 

was to take advantage of Poles’ local patriotism: 

the campaign was presented as an 

opportunity for all patriotic Poles (not just 

Monopoly fans) aged over 14 to promote 

their city. The aim was to go beyond media 

relations and genuinely engage communities 

in the voting process and the creation 

of the new game. 

The campaign was due to start just after 

a local election, so the core idea was to 

involve local mayors and officials to show 

how much they care for their cities by using 

a free promotional tool from Hasbro. City 

councils were given tools to conduct local 

campaigns to encourage their communities 

to vote for their city to be featured on 

the Monopoly board. The key messages of 

the campaign included “Don’t waste your



Spreading the Monopoly message 

Chance card: create the national Polish 

Monopoly game”. An initial 60 cities were 

selected by Hasbro, 20 of which would be 

included on the new board, plus two places 

were available from a Wild Cards list, 

for which anyone could register, even the 

smallest village. 

The team unearthed a Monopoly superfan, 

Albert C. Velhuis, who calls himself 

“the Monopologist”. He has a vast 

knowledge of the game and its history, and 

his involvement meant the team was able 

to include many previously unknown facts 

in a media pack titled ‘Monopoly: The 

Most Wanted Game in the World’. This 

was crammed with history, records, and 

anecdotes, and was sent to a wide range 

of press, broadcast and online outlets. 

101 

Weekly media alerts and press releases 

summarised voting progress and called 

voters to action. Journalists received a special 

Monopoly cup with the message: “Having 

your morning coffee? Don’t forget to 

click on your city”. The voting ran for 

one month from February 20, 2011. Voters 

could register on Facebook, and many 

who joined the fan page became advocates, 

spontaneously creating graphics and 

videos to drum up votes for their cities. To 

make voting as easy as possible, the team 

ensured Poles could vote by logging in 

through their existing Facebook account. 

The team’s outreach to local councils and 

politicians meant the campaign even won 

a place on Poland’s political agenda. Local 

politicians visited schools and companies

102 

Harnessing the power of play 


to urge them to vote. Interest in www.monopoly.pl 

was so great that the site had to 

be moved to bigger servers to cope with 

the traffic. Weber Shandwick produced a 

certificate which was sent to every participating 

city to thank them for their involvement. 

Results The campaign captured the 

imagination, patriotism and pride of the 

Polish people, politicians and the media. 

Hasbro initially suggested 60 cities; by the 

end of the campaign the list had grown to 

2,260 locations. Voting levels were high: 1.5 

million individual online votes were cast 

during the campaign. This is particularly 

impressive in a country of only 14 million 

internet users. The city of Bialystok had 

the most votes (53,507 votes, which was 

seven per cent of all votes). The first wild 

card winner was Bełchatów with 28,714 

votes and the second was Świętochłowice 

with 25,007. In just one month, the campaign 

yielded 1,800 pieces of coverage: 


1,325 online, 25 on television (including 

TVP1, TVP Info, SuperStacja), 50 on the 

radio and 400 in the press (including daily 

newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita 

and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, and 

weekly review publications Newsweek and 

Angora). For the purposes of comparison, 

a similar campaign in Italy resulted in 400 

pieces of coverage, and the Irish version of 

the campaign yielded 105 pieces of coverage. 

The Vote for Your City campaign also 

received 39,535 ‘likes’ on the dedicated 

Facebook page. 

Harnessing the power of advocacy 

and tapping into Poles’ pride in their 

hometowns meant this was an extremely 

cost-effective campaign. The new edition 

of Monopoly for Poland was launched in 

autumn 2011. From January to April 2011 

(i.e., the period of the campaign) sales 

of the existing Polish Monopoly game increased, 

making it one of the best-selling 

games in the entire Polish games market. 

Dominika Telega leads 

the brand communi- 

cation team at Weber 

Shandwick in Warsaw 

with responsibilities 

including strategy and 

campaign development 

for a range of clients in the FMCG, healthcare and 

entertainment sectors. Dominika led the Mono- 

poly Polska project delivered for Hasbro. Before 

joining the agency, Dominika’s prior client experi- 

ence includes Diageo, Pepsi, Nestle and Unilever. 

She also spent two years working on EU-financed 

projects aimed at promoting Polish tourism.


VIDEO & GAMES: CORPORATE GAME 

FREERICE 

W O R L D F O O D P R O G R A M M E 

W 

hat is Freerice.com? Freerice is not 

your average online trivia game. It 

is a free online education tool and 

social network, that is helping the United 

Nations World Food Programme to feed 

millions of the worlds hungriest. In addition 

to being an essential fundraising tool, 

as a non-profit without access to an advertising 

budget, Freerice has become central 

to raising brand awareness of the World 

Food Programme online and offline. 

How does it work? For every correct 

answer you choose, 10 grains of rice are 

raised and donated through the World 

Food Programme. It costs you nothing; the 

rice is paid for by sponsored adverts displayed 

with each correct answer. The concept 

is simple, but powerful. And it means 

that everyone can be a part of the solution. 

You can choose from a range of subjects including 

vocabulary, grammar, geography, 

human anatomy, literature, languages and 

much more. The site is used by teachers, 

in schools and universities with students 

who are the leaders of the future, by stayat-home 

moms, homeschooling moms, 

and anyone looking for a fun activity online 

that also helps others. The underlying 

premise is: if we each do a little, we can 

achieve great things! So far, we have raised 

enough to provide meals to over 10 million 

people. And we’re just starting. 

103 

From one to many The site was built 

by John Breen, a Harvard professor and 

philanthropist in 2007 as a learning tool 

for his children. In 2009, he donated it to 

the World Food Programme. Although 

Professor Breen donated a game that was 

already successful and enjoyed by many 

around the world, it was a single-player 

game where players raised rice in obscurity 

or anonymously without being able to 

see the good that others were achieving 

around the world. Additionally, 100 per 

cent of the rice raised on Freerice is donated 

to feeding the people who need it 

most. This means we have a very limited 

budget and no marketing budget at all. We 

rely entirely on word-of-mouth marketing 

from people who have discovered Freerice 

and appreciate being able to help. 

With the dawn of web 2.0, we knew 

that our loyal and vocal players almost certainly 

had existing communities that we 

could tap into, to spread the word about 

hunger and solutions to it. In 2010, we 

set out to leverage the site as a powerful 

awareness-raising and fundraising tool by 

transforming the site into a multi-player 

game and social network. Our strategy 

was centred on one priority: respect the 

existing Freerice community and online 

culture. By September 2011, we had developed 

and implemented Freerice 2.0, a

104 


100 per cent of the rice raised on Freerice is donated to feeding the people who need it most. 

social media integrated version of Professor 

Breen’s original game, building on his 

simple but powerful concept as a foundation. 

For example, players are now able to 

register, and along with this functionality 

comes the ability create a player profile, 

track totals by subject (providing a granulated 

visuals of learning and rice raised), 

create and join groups, follow and invite 

friends, share totals and scores on integrated 

social network streams, view the 

activities of other players, view rankings 

on the ranking tables, hold tournaments 

in schools or communities, and more. The 

ability to register had two additional and 

immediate benefits: it increased player 

loyalty and allowed us to communicate directly 

with them via email. It also presented 

the chance to message players as being 

active “hunger fighters”, part of a greater 

community striving for the same goal: an 

end to world hunger. 

To emphasise this role as part of the 

solution to world hunger: 


- We added opt-in for a World Food Programme 

newsletter during the registration 

process. 

- We added public service announcement 

banners on the incorrect answers, targeted 

for the Freerice audience, linking 

to hunger issues, hunger facts, and fundraising 

campaigns. 

- We introduced Freerice blog posts, in 

which we explored the complexities of 

world hunger and linking to key content 

on WFP.org 

- We added a “Latest in the Fight Against 

Hunger” feed, linking to key content on 

WFP.org 

- We established social media profiles on 

Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to share 

rich media covering hunger and linking 

to key World Food Programme content. 

While the majority of the technical development 

was completed by the end of 2010, 

leveraging Freerice to promote the World 

Food Programme and managing the fast



growing community is an ongoing task. 

It is maintained by a very small team: one 

part-time staff member responsible for 

managing the community, and one manager 

who maintains a range of World Food 

Programme portfolios. 

The Results Transforming Freerice into 

a social network was hugely successful. It 

allowed us to introduce our site and World 

Food Programme to our players’ social media 

communities. Additionally, creating an 

opt-in during registration on Freerice has 

been the single greatest contributor to the 

growing World Food Programme mailing 

list. In less than 12 months, the list grew by 

over 700,000 and it continues to increase 

dramatically as we are continually reaching 

out to new players through our existing 

players’ social networks. By the end of 

2011, we had over one million registered 

players on Freerice and at the time of writing 

this article, over 1.3 million registered 

players. And more than 30 per cent of referred 

traffic to World Food Programme is 

from Freerice (and this is qualified and organic 

traffic, in other words people already 

interested in learning about hunger). 

All of this would not exist without our 

community taking the time to play Freerice, 

raise rice, and tell other about it. While the 

results have been good for the Programme, 

the reaction from the established Freerice 

community would have been very different 

had we not respected the existing Freerice 

community. We ensured that we provided 

the community with useful tools (e.g. tracking 

totals, creating groups, ranking tables, 

and so on), and, following the launch of 

Freerice 2.0, we listen very carefully to the 

105 

Freerice community using social media, 

our Freerice inbox and a Freerice Feedback 

forum, using a free Uservoice account 

to the manage the process. The Feedback 

Forum has become an important area for 

players to make suggestions for improvements 

and to vote on each other’s suggestions. 

We can then table for consideration 

the most voted suggestions, giving us a very 

democratic approach to addressing our 

community’s needs. 

Perhaps the most dramatic and notable 

development planned during the 

next improvement round is the creation 

of a Freerice application programming 

interface. A Freerice application programming 

interface would allow us to embed 

the game in third-party websites, allow for 

young developers to create apps and other 

add-on programmes, allow for a Wikipedia 

approach to content creation, and an 

explosion of other exciting possibilities 

– increasing the scope of the game as a 

learning tool and fundraising tool, beyond 

anything that has been created previously. 

An application programming interface really 

represents the next logical step and 

development: Freerice 3.0! 

Ralf Südhoff is head of of- 

fice at the United Nations 

World Food Programme. 

Currently based in the 

Programme’s Berlin office, 

he originally graduated 

with a master’s degree 

in international studies from the Universities of 

Hamburg, Germany and Warwick, UK.

106 


s the leading telecommunication 

company (with over 34 million customers) 

in Turkey, Turkcell aimed 

to promote the usage of mobile internet 

in 2011. Committed to setting a strong 

presence in the field, Turkcell launched 

new smart phones bundled with mobile 

internet packages. And the brief was to 

create awareness among internet users. 

The competitors were also communicating 

heavily on the subject of mobile 

internet. Therefore, the goal was to stand 

out and grab the attention of the target 

group. With a population of 74 million, 

one out of three people in Turkey is on 

the internet. Due to a majority young 

population, Turkey is ranked as fourth in 

terms of Facebook users (after the United 

States, Indonesia and United Kingdom) 

with over 30 million users. In addition to 

that, there are around four million Twitter 

users in the country. Although there 

was high internet penetration in general, 

mobile internet usage was not very popular 

among general internet users. 

So we turned to the heavy users. Heavy 

users depend on the internet: they not 

only fanatically follow social media but are 

also eager to engage with people online. 

So we narrowed our target audience in or- 

VIDEO & GAMES: INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 

REACHING OUT TO PEOPLE 

ONE TWEET AT A TIME 

T U R K C E L L W I T H R A B A R B A 

A 

der to get the best results. Heavy internet 

users avoid standard online campaigns 

at all cost. Yet we wanted to engage them 

and if possible use them as our medium. 

So instead of trying to reach our target 

group with yet another banner campaign, 

we created a unique, real time live competition. 

The competition took place on 

Twitter, the home ground of our heavy internet 

user. It was the first of its kind. 

What’s in the box? The competition 

had smart phones at its core. The set-up 

was simple: first we created a gift box 

and placed smart phones in it. Then we 

covered the box with sticky notes. Users 

logged in to our mini site using Twitter 

Connect to take part in the competition. 

Using a live video feed, we asked the Twitter 

crowd to unpack the box by tweeting 

what was written on the sticky notes using 

a hashtag we created: #turkcelltweet. As 

the sticky notes unfolded, we wrote our 

campaign messages and the users voluntarily 

spread the word to their Twitter followers. 

We also played many games with them 

including Pictionary, Trivia and word puzzles. 

The winner of these games won minutes 

and mobile internet packages. On



The online box was unpacked by the Twitter crowd 

the last sticky notes we challenged them 

to get retweeted by a celebrity. The ones 

who completed this game won the very 

phones that were bundled with mobile internet. 

Through live Twitter competition, 

we gave out smart phones, mobile internet 

packages, numerous Turkcell services 

and minutes. We were on air three hours 

a day for seven days. 

The celebrity touch As a result, we 

topped the Twitter trending topic list on 

our first day and remained there for the 

next eight days, displaying turkcelltweet 

hashtag on the right side of every Twitter 

profile in Turkey for nine days without 

any paid advertising effort. We received 

almost 60,000 tweets under the #turkcelltweet 

hashtag. Travelling on to users’ Twit- 

107 

ter friends, the brand name Turkcell was 

exposed to 160,000 users’ lists. The finale 

of the competition, when we challenged 

participants to get their tweets mentioned 

by a celebrity with over 50,000 followers, 

helped to spread the campaign message 

through an entertaining medium. This 

attempt gave participants all the more 

reason to engage. They even tried to get 

retweeted by President Obama and Turkey’s 

president, proving how the audience 

can be even more daring and entertaining 

in social median than we could hope. 

Putting people at the centre As for 

the acclaim, the campaign received press 

recognition from major industry references 

such as Creativity Online, Contagious 

magazine, Adverblog and so on. It

108 


Sticky notes carried messages to be tweeted by the crowd 

also captured the imagination of mainstream 

bloggers worldwide. The campaign 

received several awards in major competitions 

for its use of media as well as interactive 

elements; a bronze in Eurobest and the 

first Golden Drum Grand Prix in Turkey. 

Finally, we are understandably proud 

that, armed with only a fairly small budget, 

we succeeded in reaching 4.2 million people 

online utilising a method that had never 

been tried before in the world. With this 

campaign, not only were we able to reach 

out to and connect with these people but 

we also succeeded in engaging them in a 

setting where they were at the centre of the 

activity. 


Nurkin Ozkan is head 

of digital channels and 


Turkcell. Prior to taking 

on this role in December 

2010, Nurkin headed 

the company’s brand 

communications and creative services (as of 

March 2007) and before that event marketing (as 

of March 2005). Before joining Turkcell, Nurkan 

was a brand communications senior specialist at 

Mercedes-Benz Turkey (2000 to 2005), a company 

she had joined in March 2003 as a market entry 

project manager.

109

INTEGRATION OF 

SOCIAL MEDIA IN 

COMMUNICATION 

MANAGEMENT 

C O M M U N I T Y P R E S E N C E 

T W I T T E R P R O F I L E 

Y O U T U B E C H A N N E L

112 

LEVERAGING LINKEDIN FOR 

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP 

P H I L I P S W I T H O N E V O I C E P O W E R E D B Y O M N I C O M 

H 

INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT 

ow does a global company build its 

reputation and influence among 

professionals in healthcare and 

lighting? For Philips, the answer was 

LinkedIn. 

In 2010, Philips established two LinkedIn 

groups – Innovations In Health and 

Innovations In Light – to drive thought 

leadership, stimulate discussion with 

target audiences and increase collaboration 

in the global healthcare and lighting 

industries. The Philips Innovations In 

Health and Innovations In Light groups 

have become bustling hubs for global 

medical and lighting professionals looking 

for news, insights and peer interaction. 

Indeed, through the groups Philips 

engages with more than 86,000 members 

and fosters tens of thousands of discussions. 

The daily participation of diverse 

experts makes it possible to have an easily 

accessible, industry-wide conversation 

around complex subject matters specific 

to each industry. 

The greatest success has been in the 

quality of engagement within the groups, 

representing Philips’ target audience discussing 

what matters to them. Philips’ 

LinkedIn presence has been a tremendous 

success. It is a case study LinkedIn 

COMMUNITY PRESENCE 

showcases as a best practice for groups 

and often reference by LinkedIn’s CEO, 

Jeff Weiner, who said: “Philips is building 

true engagement with an important 

customer base by creating meaningful 

communities on LinkedIn, communities 

which allow members to collaborate and 

share insights delivering real value. They 

have truly grasped the potential of what it 

means to be driving professional conversations 

in the right context as a way to increase 

brand equity and, as such, should 

The daily participation 

of diverse experts 

makes it possible 

to have an easily 

accessible, industrywide 

conversation 

around complex 

subject matters 

specific to each 

industry.



Driving thouht leadership online 

be recognsided as global thought leaders 

in this area.” 

Objectives At the start of the project, 

Philips defined two core objectives for the 

LinkedIn communities. The first was to 

position Philips at the centre of thoughtleadership 

in the health and lighting 

industries, driving innovation, collaboration 

and future development. The second 

core objective was to build credibility for 

Philips and engage in discussions with 

key audiences for its two main business 

to business offerings.From a strategic 

perspective, it was important for Philips 

to facilitate highly-clinical and technical 

conversations while remaining a source 

of inspiration for key opinion leaders, 

specialists, experts and enthusiasts. To accomplish 

this, Philips engaged its internal 

113 

subject matter experts to provide recommendations 

for discussion topics and also 

respond and facilitate conversation in the 

LinkedIn communities. 

Implementation As a first step in the 

implementation process, the team established 

two LinkedIn parent groups: 

Innovations In Health and Innovations 

In Light. In these core groups, the team 

developed an editorial strategy which 

defined content and topics that would 

resonate with both audiences. To further 

personalise the LinkedIn experience for 

our healthcare professionals, the team 

created four healthcare subgroups specifically 

focused on radiology, oncology, 

cardiology and women’s health. The 

groups were also customised with Twitter 

and RSS feeds, along with banners showcasing 

Philips’ relevant communities and 

content. Additionally, a mix of editorial 

content helps to spark engagement. This 

ranges from questions and statements on 

relevant current issues to polls. 

Training was also key to the project’s 

success. A team of eight Philips group

114 


leaders received full training on co-developing 

and publishing topics and responses 

to encourage group discussion. The team 

also flagged engagement opportunities as 

they arose and worked closely with legal, 

sales and marketing teams within Philips 

to ensure opportunities were properly resourced. 

The result? A highly engaged 

community, with some topics generating 

hundreds of comments. Membership was 

initially driven by LinkedIn InMail partner 

messages, promotional display and 

word-of-mouth activity. The InMail campaign 

was extremely effective in spurring 

community growth with open rates of up 

to 60 per cent and click-through rates as 

high as 37 per cent. 

To keep the groups relevant and engaging, 

the team actively monitors the 

communities and removes content that 

is promotional or off-topic. Philips maintains 

these groups as platforms for thought 

leadership and as such, does not promote 

products or the company, but rather, focuses 

on topics of interest to group members. 

Subject matter experts weigh in on 

discussion threads to keep topics alive 

and interesting. In addition to the activity 

in the community, the team also keeps the 

groups top of mind for members by distributing 

email digests which feature the 

top discussion topics for the month. 

Results As far as results are concerned, 

the LinkedIn thought leadership campaign 

has enabled Philips to break into 

the business-to-business social networking 

space and establish meaningful and authentic 

relationships with key audiences. 

Philips now owns two of the larg- 


est and most active discussion groups for 

lighting and medical professionals on 

LinkedIn with over 86,600 members contributing 

more than 15,500 discussions, 

29,000 comments and nearly 1.3 million 

page views. The groups also reach the 

right audience: more than 51 per cent 

are professionals above manager level and 

working in Philips’ target industry sectors. 

With 162 countries represented in 

the membership, experts return daily for 

easy access to industry-wide conversations 

around complex subject matters. Philips’ 

leadership of the groups has not gone unnoticed. 

As one group member stated: 

“[Philips] thanks for your leadership and 

allowing me to be active in advancing 

the importance of innovations in healthcare.” 

Joshua-Michéle Ross 

currently runs the global 

digital account for Philips 

on behalf of OneVoice 

(a joint partnership 

between Ketchum Pleon 

and Fleishman Hillard) and is director of digital 

strategy for EMEA with Fleishman Hillard. Prior to 

his role with OneVoice, Joshua was vice presi- 

dent with O‘Reilly Media (creators of the term 

Web 2.0) where he ran their Web 2.0 consulting 

practice. He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard 

University and a regular speaker at conferences 

related to technology and digital transformation. 

He is a regular columnist on Forbes.com and blog- 

ger on O’Reilly Radar and has appeared on NBC 

and CBS Evening News as a commentator on the 

impact digital technologies are having on business.


VIRAL COMMUNICATION 

BLOG CHOCOLATE 

A L F R E D R I T T E R W I T H E L B K I N D 

R 

itter Sport has been at the forefront 

of new trends and tastes for 

almost a hundred years. The company’s 

unique square chocolate 

bar, which started as a bold idea and soon 

became a favourite with chocoholics everyway, 

is a perfect example. 

We at elbkind were tasked with communicating 

Ritter Sport’s pioneering 

spirit to the social web and redefining the 

participative web for the loyal community 

of fans the brand has acquired over the 

years. Most companies venture onto the 

social web with the aim of attracting as 

many fans as possible by luring them with 

prizes and promotions. Ritter Sport wants 

to do things differently: to win friends, 

not fans. There’s a difference: becoming 

a fan means clicking one button. Making 

friends means talking to each other. Ritter 

Sport dispenses with advertising and incentives, 

counting on creative campaigns 

and all-round support instead. 

Finding new flavours Our challenge 

was to achieve this without spending 

money on advertising Ritter Sport’s social 

media platforms, and above all without 

permitting any exclusive contents – everything 

is visible to everyone. Nor did 

we want to use prizes and competitions 

to ‘buy’ contacts. Therefore, rather than 

115 

conventional brand platforms, we created 

meeting points for all lovers of Ritter 

Sport chocolate – on Facebook, YouTube, 

Flickr, Twitter and in the form of a dedicated 

blog. We were guided by clear-cut 

principles: every visitor was to be treated 

as a friend. Every question was to be answered 

individually. Every comment, no 

matter how inconvenient, was to be welcomed. 

This was how the idea for the blog 

chocolate was born – the first crowdsourcing 

campaign where the fans were 

completely in charge of developing a new 

product. The appeal to develop a new fla- 

Without any advertising 

budget whatsoever, 

the campaign 

created a massive viral 

buzz. Universally 

‘Liked’ by fans and 

friends, it resulted in 

numerous enthusiastic 

comments on all 

major platforms.

116 


Users were asked to submit their favourite creations via the Ritter Sport blog 

vour was launched in the winter of 2010 

under the slogan ‘By you, with you, for 

you.’ Fans were given free rein to create 

the chocolate of their dreams, without 

any stipulations, restrictions or conditions. 

Moving from the users’ wild ideas to 

producing and launching the blog chocolate 

took some time. Dividing the crowdsourcing 

project into several stages made 

it easier for us to structure the collaboration 

with users. During the initial stage, 

users were asked to submit their favourite 

creations via the Ritter Sport blog. Hundreds 

of imaginative, sophisticated, sometimes 

crazy and often promising flavours 


were invented – and were also discussed 

passionately on the web. A jury of Ritter 

Sport employees was spoilt for choice 

when they were asked to decide on the 20 

most flavoursome entries. Users then had 

the final vote between the top 20 winning 

entries. They were also asked to come 

up with a name for the new flavour. On 

March 1, 2010, the first-ever blog chocolate 

was announced: ‘Cookies & Cream’ 

had emerged as a favourite. 

Voting process There were no conditions 

or restrictions for designing a suitable 

packaging either. A large number of 

high-quality creative ideas were submit-



Fans were completely in charge of developing a new product 

ted. Once again, the Ritter Sport fans had 

the final vote. The most popular design 

was used to launch the largest batch, the 

two runners-up for slightly smaller batches. 

After the packaging had been decided 

by user vote, the new Ritter Sport bar went 

into production. True to the spirit of Web 

2.0, the blog chocolate was available exclusively 

from the Ritter Sport online shop. 

Dedicated widget The Ritter Sport 

blog served as a point of contact during 

all stages of the project’s planning and 

execution. Users were addressed directly 

and involved in an open dialogue to keep 

them up to date on the results of each 

individual stage and on the next steps. 

Editorial articles provided them with 

background information. A dedicated 

widget was used to add links to external 

sites and encourage other users to par- 

elbkind is a Hamburg 

agency which creates 

conversation. Our aim is 

to trigger discussions of 

117 

ticipate. Without any advertising budget 

whatsoever, the campaign created a massive 

viral buzz. Universally ‘Liked’ by fans 

and friends, it resulted in numerous enthusiastic 

comments on all major brand 

platforms. But the best result was the new 

flavour, which tasted so good that it was 

constantly sold out. 

and recommendations for 

brands, products and services.We conceive, create 

and produce word-of-mouth, buzz, viral and social 

media campaigns, seeding them professionally 

to make sure they are being talked about in the 

relevant target groups.

118 


TWITTER REPORTER 

D E U T S C H E T E L E K O M W I T H W E B E R S H A N D W I C K 

T 

elecommunications giant Deutsche 

Telekom wanted to transfer 

its brand promise Life is for 

Sharing into the real world with a campaign 

platform that would connect with 

young, digitally interested consumers on 

an emotional level. To that effect, Weber 

Shandwick created the Twitter Reporter 

campaign, giving consumers VIP entry to 

exclusive events where they share their 

favourite moments on Twitter. Media 

partners run competitions to select the 

Twitter Reporters for events ranging from 

Oktoberfest to a Katy Perry record release 

and the FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup. 

During 2010-11, the ongoing campaign 

resulted in a total ‘opportunity to see’ of 

140.8 million, successfully moving perceptions 

of Deutsche Telekom away from its 

state-owned past, creating brand advocates, 

and positioning the company as an 

innovative technical enabler. 

How do you change perceptions 

of a previously state-owned telecoms giant, 

and get consumers to see it as an 

exciting technology company that allows 

them to experience and share some of 

the best moments of their lives? This was 

the challenge that Deutsche Telekom set 

its retained agency Weber Shandwick in 

summer 2010, as it sought to translate its 

brand promise, “Life is for Sharing”, into 

TWITTER PROFILE 

the real world of consumers. Deutsche 

Telekom is one of the world‘s leading telecommunications 

companies, providing 

products and services in 50 countries. It 

tasked Weber Shandwick with developing 

a creative, integrated campaign, combining 

experiential, print, online and social 

media, to bring the brand promise to life 

for German consumers. 

It was crucial that the campaign demonstrated 

that Deutsche Telekom was 

more than an old-school telecoms monolith: 

it is an innovative enabler for the new 

mobile, digital and global society. 

Think creatively The objectives of the 

ongoing campaign were: to communicate 

effectively with young, digitally interested 

consumers; to reach this audience 

on an emotional level, encouraging and 

enabling them to share some of the most 

exciting moments of their lives; and to 

position Deutsche Telekom as a modern, 

innovative ITC company 

In planning the campaign, the team 

used social media monitoring tools and 

traditional strategic planning to identify 

suitable media partners to reach the target 

audience of young adults aged 18-35, 

especially those who were active on social 

media and who attend music and sports 

events. The campaign also targeted na-



The stage of Telekom Extreme Playgrounds 

tional and regional print and online journalists 

and social media experts. 

This campaign required the team to 

think creatively. Their challenge was to 

come up with an original platform that 

would turn young social media users into 

brand ambassadors for a company that 

wasn’t necessarily viewed as modern or 

innovative. The team knew that Twitter 

had to be at the heart of the campaign. 

The central creative idea of the campaign 

was that Deutsche Telekom gives consumers 

(selected by competitions with online, 

print, television and radio partners) a 

taste of the celebrity lifestyle, with VIP entry 

to exclusive events. The winners then 

share their favourite moments by tweeting 

as Twitter Reporters. The key message to 

be communicated via the Twitter Reporters 

and their followers was that Deutsche 

Telekom enables young consumers to 

share some of the coolest experiences of 

their lives. The team draws up a calendar 

119 

of suitable festivals, music and sporting 

events, which have so far included Oktoberfest, 

the Berlinale film festival, a Katy 

Perry record release, gigs by popular singers 

such as Robyn, the extreme sports 

showcase Extreme Playgrounds, and 

Gamescom, an event for computer games 

fans. New events are proposed quarterly. 

Hashtags and keywords Once each 

event has been approved by Deutsche 

Telekom, the media partner in each case 

announces a competition to win tickets 

to the event and the chance to be a Twitter 

Reporter for the day. The announcement 

is also made on www.twitter-reporter.net, 

the Twitter channel, and Twitter 

Reporter’s Facebook fanpage. Once the 

media partner has chosen the winners, 

the Twitter Reporters are equipped with 

smartphones (to underline Deutsche Telekom’s 

role as a technical enabler) and 

briefed on using the right hashtags and

120 

Committed Twitter Reporters 


keywords. A Weber Shandwick representative 

accompanies the Twitter Reporters to 

the events where they share their favourite 

moments in 140 characters via a dedicated 

Twitter-Reporter channel: www.twitter. 

com/t_reporter. The winners tweet about 

everything from what’s happening at the 

event to what the atmosphere is like. 

Media partners amplify coverage using 

their own Twitter channels. Separate 

channels have been created for bigger 

events such as the FIFA Women’s World 

Cup www.twitter.com\herzrasen11, where 

some of the Twitter Reporters had the 

chance to meet the soccer stars. After each 

event, the Twitter-Reporters tweet a thank 

you to Deutsche Telekom and are given 

their own brand new smartphone, and 

the media partners publish a review. This 

original, integrated campaign is meeting 

Deutsche Telekom’s objective of creating 

a new platform to communicate with 

young, digitally interested consumers and 

enabling them to share some of the most 

exciting moments in their lives. The figures 

speak for themselves. The campaign 

generated 141 million ‘opportunities to 

see’ in 2010-11: 138 million in traditional 

media and more than 2.5 million in so- 


cial media. The Berlinale on 16 February 

2011 had a traditional media ‘opportunity 

to see’ of 91,500 plus 59,132 for social media. 

The Telekom Street Gig with singer 

Robyn on March 15 2011 in Hamburg 

had a traditional media ‘opportunity to 

see’ of over 1.1 million and a social media 

‘opportunity to see’ of 162,615. The FIFA 

Women’s World Cup in summer 2011 had 

a traditional media ‘opportunity to see’ 

of 87,043,228 and a social media ‘opportunity 

to see’ of 1,477,160. Between June 

2010 and September 2011 the dedicated 

www.twitter-reporter.net website received 

8,833 visits. 

By engaging a young audience 

through their preferred channels and giving 

them a taste of VIP experiences, this 

ongoing campaign is successfully moving 

perceptions of Deutsche Telekom from 

a hulking giant of a former state-owned 

institution, to an innovative, exciting enabler 

of technology. The project has advocacy 

at its heart, and has made “Life is for 

Sharing” tangible. 

Robert Koch is an asso- 

ciate director at Weber 

Shandwick in Cologne 

where his responsibilities 

include the management 

of key client account 

Deutsche Telekom. Du- 

ring his 12-year career in public relations he has 

been responsible for the delivery of a number of 

high profile campaigns for international companies 

and has established several new product offerings 

for Weber Shandwick Germany.


YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

DISNEY YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

T H E W A L T D I S N E Y C O M P A N Y 

W I T H P R O N T O C O M M U N I C A T I O N 

A 

fter its appearance on the world 

wide web in 2005, YouTube has 

been significant for both private 

and commercial users. Knowledge of 

YouTube has spread largely due to wordof-mouth 

and the possibility of sharing 

YouTube clips on other social sites such as 

Facebook and Twitter.Businesses and corporations 

are constantly improving and 

enhancing their presence on YouTube, 

something that we as digital professionals 

can see is resulting in an increase in 

demand for YouTube strategies. YouTube 

channels are also used more prominently 

by television networks to generate interest 

and engaging content. 

In June 2010, Disney Channel approached 

Swedish digital communication 

agency Pronto. They were facing a challenge 

with how to approach and work with 

their own, branded YouTube channel. 

There were many unofficial channels that 

were very active and had high credibility in 

the target group, so the question was how 

could Disney Channel advance their position 

and become the number one provider 

of Disney Channel content, increase the 

number of viewers as well as create a credible 

and natural convergence point for fans 

and discussions regarding Disney Channel? 

Together with Disney Channel we defined 

121 

the assignment to develop a comprehensive 

YouTube strategy, including a content 

management plan and the implementation 

thereof. The goal was to provide a 

branded, relevant and proactive presence 

that would enable dialogue with the target 

group, in turn resulting in qualitative relationships 

with Disney Channel fans as well 

as casual visitors. The ambition was also to 

increase search engine optimisation effects 

and encourage channel transitions, i.e. 

drive traffic to Disneychannel.se 

Insights & Execution We initiated 

the project by mapping out the activity of 

people already posting and sharing Disney 

Channel’s content on YouTube in Sweden, 

and analysed what caused these channels 

and video clips to be successful. Our main 

insights were that it is very important for 

Disney Channel to keep their YouTube 

channel up to date and relevant on a daily 

basis, and that local content – providing 

something unique that can’t be found 

elsewhere on YouTube – is key to maintain 

the interest of the viewers. The channel 

should also be available as a conversation 

platform, where viewers can ask questions 

about Disney and its productions, as well 

as interact with each other. We also found 

that many YouTube views come from ‘out-

122 


Relevant tags and keywords were used to optimise Disney’s YouTube channel 

side’ of YouTube. Therefore it is important 

to engage influential bloggers in order to 

drive traffic to the channel and boost social 

search engine optimisation effects. Also, 

YouTube users tend to ‘rub each others 

backs’, so building relationships with other 

users is imperative. Based on our insights 

and the given assignment, we formulated 

an overall three-part strategy: to develop 

attractive and exclusive content, to work 

with systematic and long term social search 

engine optimisation, and to develop relationships 

within the target group and its 

influencers, both within the YouTube platform 

and external, with bloggers. 

Implementation In order to stay relevant 

for our audience we made daily updates on 

the channel. Efforts were made to provide 

local and unique content that cannot be 

found elsewhere such as “My Camp Rock 

2”. Also, a weekly content schedule for video 

posting was made to secure relevance and 


to ensure an interesting mix of published 

content. In order to optimise the channel 

and to ensure that our videos ranked highly 

on YouTube and other search engines, we 

added relevant titles, tags and descriptions 

to all videos. We optimised keywords and 

video annotations for all videos and organised 

them into playlists, as it makes them 

easier to find and generates search engine 

optimisation-synergies thanks to parallel 

video and playlist descriptions. The HTML 

code was optimised for the channel and 

videos. Furthermore, to increase engagement 

and traffic to the channel, and also 

to improve the search engine optimisation 

effects further, we focused on reaching 

out to key influentials on and outside of 

YouTube. In order to build relationships 

with other YouTube users, we reached out 

to brand loyals (friends and subscribers) 

with recommendations for each new video 

we posted on the Disney channel. We also 

wanted to establish relationships with users



that weren’t already loyal to Disney Channel, 

and therefore we reached out to the 

key influentials within these groups. We 

started out by sending personal messages 

to these influential users, implementing a 

listening approach: we first asked questions 

about their clips or opinions about Disney 

Channel, and then started to share clips or 

movies with them that was in their field of 

interest. Next we sent them friend requests 

and invited them to subscribe to our channel 

and weekly newsletter. This newsletter 

included news, activities and competitions. 

And, of course, we answered questions and 

replied to comments every day. Running 

parallel with this, we wanted users outside 

of YouTube to share content from the site 

to ensure a high search engine rank on 

Google, YouTube and Facebook. As well as 

providing us with beneficial search engine 

optimisation-synergy effects, this would 

also generate word-of-mouth among the 

target group. 

Our main focus was to engage influential 

bloggers. To achieve this we initiated 

an ambassador programme with selected 

blogs: these were identified as key bloggers 

for the Disney Channel’s target group. We 

contacted bloggers matching these criteria 

with a request to join our ambassador 

programme and receive exclusive clips 

and news from Disney Channel. Additionally, 

we offered to host competitions to encourage 

engagement among their existing 

readers. This not only increased their perceived 

value as bloggers but also provided a 

reason for the ambassadors to get more involved 

with the channel.The ambassadors 

were supplied with continuous updates 

about what’s going on at Disney Channel, 

123 

along with pre-prepared information and 

exclusive invitations. 

Summary Thanks to a correct assessment 

of the Disney Channel‘s position, 

challenge and goal, we were able to create 

a comprehensive strategy that enabled our 

client to greatly strengthen their position 

as YouTube‘s number one Swedish provider 

of Disney content. By building relationships 

with existing and potential fans and 

viewers, both on and outside of YouTube, 

we were able to not only generate word-ofmouth 

about the Disney Channel, but also 

– through dialogue with the target group 

– to understand what kind of content was 

most appreciated. Additionally, to ensure 

a constant influx of new viewers to the 

channel, we optimised all content from a 

social SEO perspective. To end with a few 

statistics: our work for the Disney Channel 

resulted in a 3045 per cent increase in 

video views, a 505 per cent increase in the 

number of subscribers, and a 685 per cent 

increase in friends, as well as a 4015 per 

cent increase in channel views. 

Karin Bill is the CEO of 

Swedish digital communi- 

cation agency Pronto. Pre- 

viously, she was head of 

corporate communication 

at Prime, one of Swedens 

largest communication 

agencies. She has also been head of marketing 

communication at the telecommunication compa- 

ny 3. Karin has worked with companies like SCA, 

Electrolux, Telia and Arla among others.

ONLINE 

CAMPAIGNS IN PR 


O N L I N E C A M P A I G N S – I N S T I T U T I O N S 

O N L I N E C A M P A I G N S – N G O S 

O N L I N E C A M P A I G N S – C O M P A N I E S

126 

ONLINE CAMPAIGNS IN 

PUBLIC RELATIONS 

S E R R A G Ö R P E 

T 

he digital revolution has transformed 

many aspects of our lives 

including the public relations and 

communication profession: its impact has 

been discussed by practitioners and academics 

from the perspectives of both theory 

and application. With the latest digital 

developments, public relations has been 

equipped with new and more efficient ways 

in which messages can be created, shared, 

modified and kept. How the new channels 

of communication available are used, 

their effect and very nature are the questions 

that need to be explored. The digital 

revolution has made corporations more 

transparent than ever and has also empowered 

individuals and public groups. It has 

created new communities and influencers 

and reminds us daily that strategies at every 

level have to take into consideration the 

social and behavioural changes brought by 

the internet. 

Online public relations campaigns of 

any type – whether for institution, nongovernmental 

organisation or corporations 

– should encompass an intentional 

communication which has a purpose, a 

guiding plan, and decisions to carry out. 

At the same time all these dimensions have 

to be justified by research. It is expected 

ONLINE CAMPAIGNS IN PR 


to be accountable for the chosen strategy, 

the tactics guided by the strategy, and the 

resources spent on realising the campaign 

with a creative component. Whatever the 

specific objective of any comunications 

campaign may be, the fundamental goal 

of public relations is to build relationships 

with the organisation’s key constituencies. 

Therefore, developing and maintaining relationships 

is important for strategic management. 

An organisation may have multiple 

publics with multiple needs: therefore, 

it is essential to listen and talk to them. 

Defining strategy Strategy is the core 

component of any public relations campaign. 

It is a torch lamp which looks at the 

issues, analyses them and then uses this to 

build the rest of the campaign. What does 

it mean to be strategic? It means that public 

relations efforts are designed to affect business 

outcomes consistent with the goals 

of the organisation. Stated very simply, in 

strategic public relations you identify and 

prioritise your publics with whom you want 

to establish relationships. Strategy is not a 

tactical issue and it needs policy-based commitment 

from the organisation. Online 

campaigns are usually related to a specific 

issue that needs to be addressed, and used



when the communication objectives need 

to be met within a set time frame. However, 

online campaigns are not linear, therefore 

public relations managers should continually 

monitor and carry out situational 

analyses and, if necessary, reconsider their 

initial campaign objectives. 

Even when designed strategically, online 

campaigns should not be solely concerned 

with the specifics, with what type of 

messages they should send and how they 

will reach their target and through which 

selected channels. An online campaign is 

‘there’ forever: it will exist in perpetuity in 

the digital afterlife. Whatever the specific 

reasons for carrying them out, the ultimate 

goal of online campaigns is to build relationships. 

However, the nature of creating 

relationships has changed: today, any type 

of institution should have an organisational 

internet strategy, and communication 

strategies should be revisited to accommodate 

a variety of communication platforms 

and channels. How these platforms and 

channels are used affects the strategies. 

The public of each type of institution 

has an influence on the company’s success 

or failure. Therefore, it is important 

to have their consent. Also each public 

group may have different concerns: they 

have different informational needs and 

different reasons for engaging (or not) 

with the organisation. The effect that public 

relations managers want to create with 

the messaging is not easy to achieve. For 

example, some public relations practitioners 

believe that, once carried out, the 

campaign will have a ‘domino’ effect: once 

you send the message, it will topple into 

knowledge, then attitude, and finally into 

127 

behaviour. However, this model assumes a 

passivity of the receiver, but today, in addition 

to planned communication coming 

from the institution, company, NGO and 

so on, we have user-generated information 

which shifts power to the individual. Blogs 

and social media are impacting several traditional 

models and theories, such as the 

two-step flow theory, agenda setting, the 

spiral silence theory, and the excellence 

theory. Although it is possible on the internet 

to apply all the Grunig and Hunt 

public relations models (1984), campaigns 

that utilise one-way communication messaging 

may not be effective in that type of 

environment. Trying to establish two-way 

relationships has always been idealised in 

public relations models because a two-way 

symmetric model with the purpose of mutual 

understanding provides an opportunity 

to talk to publics directly and get direct 

feedback. However, talking, feedback 

and monitoring activities do not equate 

dialogue. Genuine dialogue does not demand 

that parties come to an agreement 

but that they should stimulate more open 

discussion and thereby try to reach mutually 

satisfying positions. 

New technologies offer opportunities 

for dialogic public relations. In the first 

work on dialogic communication, Kent 

and Taylor (1998) identified five dialogic 

principles for organisations when they are 

building relationships through webbed 

communication: these are creating a dialogic 

loop, providing useful information, 

conservation of visitors, ease of interface, 

and increasing return visits. Although online 

dialogic communication has expanded 

since then, these principles are still valid.

128 

Maintaining relationships Creating 

an environment for dialogic communication 

is an ethical way of practicing public 

relations and can be very effective under 

certain conditions, such as controversial issues 

or educational campaigns. Non-profit 

organisations use online mainly for educating 

and communicating with constituents, 

strengthening existing relations, fostering 

collaborations, empowering grassroots 

In the new communication 

landscape, as 

individuals use these 

tools to share their 

experiences, observations, 

opinions, 

expectations and 

intentions. 

activities, and fundraising. Scholars have 

advocated virtual strategies for online relationship 

development. Of the several 

strategies suggested, three of them that 

are particularly helpful for cultivating relations 

are disclosure, the usefulness of social 

networking sites and interactivity. Very 

briefly, disclosure demands transparency 

in online communication activities, which 

is especially in demand following scandals 

and crises in non-profit-organisations, governments, 

and so on. Technologies create 

dynamic platforms where online communities 

can express themselves, participate, 



define and use them for their gratification. 

On the other hand, technology affects 

campaign productivity while interactivity 

has an important role in developing online 

relationships. Relationship maintenance 

strategies also apply to online communication. 

Stafford and Canary (1991) mention 

positivity, (making relationship enjoyable) 

openness and disclosure, access, sharing of 

tasks (taking responsibility together) and 

networking (having friends in common). 

Exerting influence The Arthur W. Page 

Society recently suggested a ‘new model’ 

for corporate communications. As stated 

in their report, the new model differs from 

older versions in at least two important 

ways. Firstly, “it is aimed at how an enterprise 

engages individuals, in addition to 

publics, or segments of populations. Secondly, 

its goal is not to shape opinion, sentiments 

or perception of these individuals, 

but to spur them into action, continuing 

behavior and advocacy” (Building Belief: 

A New Model For Activating Corporate 

Character & Authentic Advocacy, 2012). In 

the new communication landscape, as individuals 

use these tools to share their experiences, 

observations, opinions, expectations 

and intentions, they are also exerting 

influence. They are declaring who they are 

as unique individuals. Communication is 

moving from mass communication aimed 

at segments and publics which heavily relied 

on intermediaries such as media analysts, 

to engagement with people based on 

an understanding of them as individuals. 

Also, organisations of all types have access 

to this broader spectrum of tools for 

information production and distribution.



Producing information is not at the hands 

of the corporations: everyone has something 

to say. What it implies is that active 

and aware publics are not the only information 

seeking publics and therefore organisations 

should target their efforts to all 

types because all individuals matter in this 

environment. Publics are not receivers but 

producers, and ‘silent’ publics can also be 

empowered by organisations. 

Excellent communication and public 

relations serve to facilitate the relationship 

between an organisation and its strategic 

publics: the internet can have a powerful 

function in that respect. The principles 

are the same, but on the internet you can 

customise information for separate audiences: 

in other words, it is a medium which 

narrowcasts messages to diverse audiences. 

Technology, indeed, unites publics which 

may be isolated. The direct communication 

between organisations and publics 

bypass gatekeepers, and it is no longer a 

top-down management because the power 

of the organisations has shifted to stakeholders 

and is shared with them. 

Public relations goals come from organisational 

goals and these goals should 

be translated into strategies. There are 

several strategies that can be employed 

such as informative, facilitative, persuasive, 

promise and reward, threat and punishment, 

bargaining and cooperative problem 

solving. These strategies have unique characteristics 

and the use and effectiveness of 

these strategies depend on the attributes 

of the publics targeted (it was found that 

persuasive and informative strategies were 

more frequently used). Bargaining and 

cooperative problem-solving reflects the 

129 

two-way asymmetrical and the two-way 

symmetrical model of Grunig (1992) (for 

a detailed explanation of these strategies 

refer to Werder, 2006). Two-way communication 

demands research, which is also associated 

with the managerial role of public 

relations. Linear communication may be 

preferable, but there are other situations 

because of the complexity which requires 

more participative conversation. For example, 

institutions that claim to work for the 

public interest may be easily challenged 

despite their efforts to prove otherwise. 

Channels and strategies When developing 

a strategy, it is important to learn 

what your audiences are consuming and 

what their needs are, as well as to use 

whichever technologies are available to 

them. They may have many other alternatives 

to switch their attention to, but the 

online campaign has to be able to attract 

the audiences. The reasons why individuals 

turn to the internet and the satisfactions 

they receive from each channel or 

platform is different. Therefore, it is important 

that you discover where your community 

can be reached, what is being said 

about your organisation and competitors, 

where they are spending time and why and 

what content is most appealing to them. 

Demographics as well as psychographics of 

your communities are equally important. 

Although online campaigns, as with all 

campaigns, have priorities and priority target 

audiences, whatever the organisation 

does online can be accessed by all public 

groups. Therefore, the online strategy 

should be carefully established. The campaigns 

stay forever and have a transpar-

130 

ent nature. A smart strategy incorporates 

measurable objectives and ties them with 

the business objectives. “Aims and objectives 

for online activity have to be part of a 

strategic multi-participant, multi-media approach 

and if the aims are short term, one 

needs to be very explicit about duration” 

(Phillips and Young, 2009: 180). If the campaign 

lack strategy, then it is not possible to 

talk about differentiation and or impact. In 

any campaign process, you have to ask the 

right questions and seek answers for them 

at each step. For example, you have to define 

the goals by asking what do you want to 

achieve: increased sales, brand awareness, 

to position yourself as an expert, collaborate 

with the online community or repair 

your reputation? Whom do you want to talk 

and where do want this interaction to lead 

to? You have to formulate the reasons for 

online activity. The objectives state where 

you want to be: they act as a benchmark for 

evaluation. Strategies will direct you to how 

you will achieve your objectives. You have 

to establish smart objectives that are measurable, 

attainable, realistic and timely. You 

should be able to attain the objectives with 

the resources you have and timely means to 

set up deadlines for you objective. 

Tactics used by public relations managers 

are broadly the same, but what differentiates 

it is the creativity and mix. Of the 

many tactics, channels and platforms available 

today, the choice will vary depending 

on the characteristics of the campaign and 

your target audience. Each special field 

of public relations – such as non-profit or 

corporate – has specific groups of publics 

with similar characteristics, issues and opportunities 

to deal with. You have to find 



out about this, then determine how your 

target audience is using each platform and 

what their expectations are from this indulgence? 

Online campaigns should be built using 

a mixture of different online channels 

appropriate to the challenge, problem or 

opportunity. From this extensive menu of 

tactics, they should be carefully selected 

considering their limitations and advantages 

and used together to complement and 

supplement each other. Online strategies 

should be part of a mixture of activities for 

both new and old media. Online communities 

may carry the campaign to other platforms. 

Although digital media is rich with 

many channel alternatives, your presence 

here should have good content, backed 

up by messages and integrated messages 

online. Content and message consistency 

should be achieved on these multiple platforms 

as well. Today it is possible to reach 

highly targeted audiences with customised 

messages. However, the communities and 

their interests should be studied continuously. 

Strategy is adaptable. The conversations 

that take place online can be a form 

of strategic development without initiative 

and you can re-evaluate your strategy. Also 

when you formulate your strategy, it could 

face a backlash. That is, any engagement 

represents a substantial time commitment 

and so your strategy should accommodate 

revisions if necessary. Professor Anne Gregory 

has stated that, in order to achieve 

a communicative relationship with any 

group, the public relations professional 

has to satisfy three prerequisites which are 

strategy (overall approach to the topic), 

resources (the tools/funds/personnel



for implementation) and control (overall 

management and implementation). They 

are all linked to one another. For example, 

if you do not conduct research, you will not 

have correct information to establish your 

strategy and this will lead to poorly stated 

objectives and objectives leading to ineffective 

tactics. All implementation techniques 

need to take into consideration four essential 

requirements which are: message 

(content and tone); production (physical 

presentation, specification and design); 

delivery (distribution method, extent, and 

timing); and impact (assessment of inputs, 

outputs and outcomes and feedback). 

These are categories of measurement and 

after choosing what needs to be measured, 

you can see the impact of your online efforts. 

Perhaps information dissemination 

and communication outputs could still be 

favoured, but, depending on the nature of 

the campaign, the focus might switch to 

measuring communication outcomes. Unless 

you set smart objectives at the beginning, 

you might not be able to show the 

value of the online campaign. 

Conclusion Today, two-way communication 

is facilitated by digital communication 

platforms, but control of the message can 

easily be lost now. You have to provide the 

publics with new and different messages 

and you have to research your prospective 

audience. You have to explore the tools 

they frequently use, the contents they want 

to see. Be online, find out what they think 

about and feel towards your business, your 

product, your cause, your competitors, and 

so on. Online public relations campaigns 

are about real relationships, just like face- 

Professor Dr. Serra Gör- 

pe teaches communicati- 

ons at Istanbul University, 

Prior to the start of her 

career in academia, she 

worked as a public rela- 

tions professional (1988- 

1999) and received her PhD degree in public 

relations and advertising from Istanbul University. 

She is a member of several associations including 

the Turkish Public Relations Association and of the 

European Public Relations Education and Research 

Association (EUPRERA). 

131 

to-face ones. It is not about dictating but 

listening to, responding to and engaging 

with constituents. Categorising the conversations 

will help you with your strategy, but 

you also need to participate in these conversations. 

A digital communication strategy 

should be formulated and conducted 

as part of an overall integrated approach 

so that you can understand the relationship 

between digital and traditional media 

along with other communication channels. 

The need for carrying an online campaign, 

for a company, non-governmental organisation 

or an institution, may be different. 

There may be similarities in goals and or 

objectives, but each campaign is unique. 

For example, the context of the organisation, 

social, or cultural climate all have an 

influence on the strategy chosen. Best practices 

serve as a valuable benchmark, but the 

core strategic management and planning 

concepts should be mastered in order be 

produce good online campaigns. 


132 

s the regulatory body for teaching, 

the General Teaching Council for 

England (GTCE) was an ‘unloved’ 

organisation struggling to operate in a 

negative and hostile stakeholder environment. 

Teachers refused to register with us, 

pay the registration fee or respond to offers 

of engagement. Few read our publications; 

fewer visited the website. Teachers saw the 

organisation as ‘irrelevant’. The long term 

credibility of the organisation was at stake. 

Rejuvenation and reconstruction 

In 2009 the public relations team took a 

critical strategic decision to focus its effort 

for stakeholder engagement not on 

the 450,000 teachers registered to work 

in schools but on the 25,000 new graduate 

teachers entering the profession every 

year. Why? Because they are younger, not 

yet exposed to the GTCE’s ‘tainted’ brand, 

and more amenable to direct offers of engagement 

including face-to-face events, 

new and social media. 

We started with a series of live faceto-face 

debates and discussion forums at 

universities and colleges in England where 

teachers are being trained. We wanted 

to engage them in debates which helped 

them to better understand not only their 


ONLINE CAMPAIGNS OF INSTITUTIONS 

NEWTEACHERSTALK: 

SPREADING THE WORD 

G E N E R A L T E A C H I N G C O U N C I L F O R E N G L A N D 

A 

profession and their professional role as 

teachers but the role of a professional organisation 

like the GTCE in leading and 

regulating professionalism in the public interest. 

If the organisation was to be sustainable 

in the long term, its core stakeholders 

had to understand, endorse and advocate 

its role. They had to be engaged in a process, 

a personal and professional narrative 

that helped them understand how professional 

status is constructed, acquired and 

maintained. Through this engagement 

and understanding by a core group of 

stakeholders, we believed the organisation 

could gradually be rejuvenated and its image 

re-constructed. 

In the last year alone, we hosted 120 

debate and discussion style presentations 

to student audiences of between 50 – 500. 

We challenged students and new teachers 

with a variety of thought-provoking ethical 

dilemmas relating to the nature of professionalism 

such as ‘What is a profession?’ 

and ‘Why are professions different?’ We 

asked them to consider questions like: ‘Are 

teachers role-models?’ ‘Does the public 

expect something special of them?’ ‘Does 

your conduct as a teacher matter as much 

to your clients as your competence and 

skill?’ and ‘If you are a good teacher, why



is it anyone else’s business what you do in 

your private life?’. Through a variety of scenarios 

we tested their various ethical positions 

and value judgements. For example, 

we got them to discuss whether you can 

you be a good teacher if you: regularly get 

drunk or exceed the speed limit; if you use 

recreational drugs in the privacy of your 

own home or engage in flirtatious and 

sexualised banter with colleagues; or if you 

become active in an extreme political party 

or network with pupils and students using 

Facebook, even on educational matters. 

These live debating presentations 

quickly became very highly regarded. They 

were lively, interactive and discursive: exactly 

the kind of thing that students, particularly 

teaching students, like to get involved 

in. The presentations soon became established 

at universities and colleges across 

the country receiving wide praise and appreciation 

by both students and university 

tutors for the way they were contributing 

to the emerging professional identity of 

new teachers. However, there was a major 

down-side. Resource limitations meant we 

could only reach about 50-60 per cent of 

the annual cohort of 25,000 new teachers 

entering teaching each year. 

The social media strategy Our social 

media strategy, launched in mid 2010, 

aimed to replicate the lively, interactive 

face-to-face debates and discussions on to 

social media platforms that could extend 

reach, depth and duration. 

Our social media public relations campaign 

objectives were thus three-fold. First, 

we wanted to engage new teachers in understanding 

the remit of the organisation, 

133 

endorse its role and re-construct its image. 

Secondly, we wanted to engage with new 

teachers – specifically using social media 

channels – to develop a socially-constructed 

narrative of their emerging professional 

identity, complementing the live, face-toface 

presentations. Finally, we wanted to 

However, the corporate 

leadership 

at the GTCE was 

nervous. For them, 

social media was 

a something they 

understood little or 

nothing about. 

access a wider audience of new teachers, 

to achieve greater depth of engagement 

and - through social media - extend the 

amount of time available for debate and 

discussion. 

However, the corporate leadership at 

the GTCE was nervous. For them, social 

media was a something they understood 

little or nothing about. What made it 

worse, the GTCE as the regulatory body 

for teaching was regularly disciplining 

teachers for inappropriate relationships 

with pupils and students, often using social 

media channels such as Facebook to 

do so. So a decision was taken to rebrand 

the social media arm of the engagement 

strategy enabling us to contain any fall-out

134 

should it appear we were advocating the 

use of social media on the one hand and 

yet disciplining teachers for using it (even 

inappropriately) on the other. 

Initially we launched a blog (newteachersblog/wordpress) 

and a Twitter feed 

(@newteacherstalk) to promote it. It is not 

a news-led blog, we publish ‘think-pieces’ 

that are intended to provoke thought and 

reflective responses to issues and dilemmas. 

We blog regularly, but not frequently 

(on average one every 10 days) as this allows 

time for readers to think, reflect, 

comment and respond to others. Excessive 

blogging might have the effect of introducing 

too many conversation topics at a dinner 

party without giving your guests time 

to think and discuss an issue satisfactorily. 

Too many topics can dilute and dissipate 

the conversations we want to take place on 

the blog through the comment streams. 

As the crowd-sourcing began to build 

to a critical mass, we could see the beginnings 

of the same degree of qualitative, 

considered and reflective debate of ethically 

contentious issues that we had going 

at ‘live’ presentations. However, we try to 

extend the social media debates and discussions 

in three ways: the blog and Twitter 

discussions enable us to reach a wider (po- 



tentially global) audience, drawing in new 

teachers from across the globe who share 

and compare perspectives and values; they 

enable discussion of issues over a longer 

period of time, not constrained by a time 

limited ‘live’ presentation; and they enable 

examination and exploration of the issues 

in greater depth and wider scope as contributors 

raise new issues and angles. 

Using Wordpress blogs and Twitter 

feeds to promote the debates has therefore 

created new opportunities to engage and 

created new avenues through which the 

perceptions and image of the organisation 

can be re-constituted. 

Creative implementation The debates, 

discussions and blog responses explore 

the tensions and dilemmas of how 

personal values meet professional ones. 

They include very frank and revealing 

anecdotes about private and professional 

boundaries. They enable extended levels 

of discussion and expressed opinion. 

Blogs raise issues that include discussion 

of the importance of responsibility, 

accountability, quality, team-work as well 

as problematising issues in personal be-



haviours and lifestyles such as casual dresscodes 

for teachers, the wearing of tattoos 

and the public perception of such things 

as overt political affiliations. However, we 

challenge lazy and complacent assumptions 

and test the ethical standpoints expressed 

by contributors. As the discussions 

unfold, a narrative emerges for new teachers 

as they reflect on how their professional 

values and identity begins to take shape. 

These questions, plus a wide variety 

of others, attract regular comment and 

debate both between the commentators 

and the blog author. Some of the most 

popular blogs and active comment strands 

have engaged new teachers in the personal 

and professional dilemmas of using social 

media itself, such as the ethical questions 

around teachers using Facebook and other 

social media for networking, even on educational 

matters, with pupils and students. 

Interestingly, a very wide variety of 

opinion is expressed. For example, the 

comments reflect huge diversity of social 

values such as a willingness to tolerate unorthodox 

dress codes or physical appearance 

on the one hand but a general intolerance 

of professional behaviours such 

as laziness or lack of commitment on the 

other. Some comment exchanges have led 

to acknowledged changes of mind. 

Through this dialogical process, new 

teachers not only fashion the initial shape 

of their professional identity but have the 

opportunity to have it challenged and 

made objective. The debates force them to 

reflect on and revise their previous assumptions 

and values. Through the interaction 

provided by the various social media channels, 

a socially constructed narrative of 

135 

professional identity as a new teacher begins 

to emerge for them. More than that, 

they recognise and praise the role of the 

blog and the other channels in the process. 

They give credence to the newteacherstalk 

social media channels by endorsing 

them to others through the ‘viral’ nature 

of the media. Thus, a brand begins to 

build. Later, we also launched a YouTube 

channel, Facebook group and a Linked-In 

group. Gradually and increasingly, the GT- 

CE’s association with the newteacherstalk 

social network, adds value, credence and 

credibility for itself with new teachers and 

as a by-product, the GTCE’s own image is 

gradually reconstructed. 

The results Our live events have achieved 

75 per cent reach this year to over 14,000 

students at 120 universities, 98 per cent rated 

them “very good or excellent”, 100 per 

cent were “willing to recommend”, 95 per 

cent moved from “knowing little or nothing” 

to “I now know what the GTCE does 

and why”. But the newteachersblog has 

taken this further, reaching 18,000 readers 

in one year including over 140 active comment 

subscribers, 400 comments strands 

across 50-odd blogs. Apart from winning at 

the Digital Communications Awards, it was 

reviewed as a “great blog for new teachers” 

by the UK’s Guardian newspaper (April 

2011) and won runner-up for the Most Influential 

Education Blog of the Year 2011 

and shortlisted for the UK public relations 

industry’s “Golden Hedgehog” awards. 

The Twitter feed @newteacherstalk has 

nearly 1300 followers – over 95 per cent of 

them are in the primary target audience. 

The feed has achieved over 400 retweets

136 

from just 2,000 tweets plus 100 favourited 

tweets and ‘follow Fridays’ (FFs) 

The newteacherstalk YouTube channel 

has over 1,000 views across 13 videos 

(filmed at the live events) demonstrating 

the interactivity and dynamism of the live 

debates. The videos are also embedded 

in to blog posts. The qualitative measures 

used for evaluating the campaign however 

are the most instructive. Blog, twitter and 

YouTube comments, regularly refer to “a 

brilliant blog” that “raises key issues” and 

“these blogs really make me think” or “this 

blog got me talking to my colleagues about 

this issue”. Many comments have a multi-dimensional 

element to them: for example, 

commenting on other comments or crossreferencing 

with a number of blog posts 

and giving a real character of a polyphonic 

conversation. All our social media channels 

are linked. The blogs, Facebook and 

Linked-in Group discussions are tweeted 

and reciprocally posted on status boards. 

We also link to a variety of Facebook and 

Linked-In teacher interest groups in the 

UK and world-wide which promote the 

blog and feed additional comment to it. 

One particularly interesting dimension 

to the blog has been how easily debate 

and discussion can be rejuvenated around 

related but peripheral content. While they 

are not led by news or current affairs agendas, 

topical issues such as the 2011 riots in 

English cities provided us with an opportunity 

to reinvigorate interest in a number 

of relevant blog posts that raised related issues. 

For example, blog posts dealing with a 

teacher’s responsibilities outside of school 

or examining the nature and extent of 

the role-model status became active again. 


ONLINE CAMPAIGN OF NGOS 

This is a good illustration of the opportunities 

created by social media channels to 

extend both the reach and the duration 

of a blog-led debates. While all of these issues 

could be explored through discussion 

at our live face-to-face events, none could 

be returned to and re-examined from different 

points of view in the way that social 

media allows. Once a live debate is over, it 

becomes history. Social media debates can 

be re-ignited and have the added value of 

the previous comments to inform and enrich 

the quality of discussion. 

After a year, our social media strategy 

has not only complemented and enhanced 

our general public relations strategy but 

confirmed the symbiotic relationship between 

face-to-face live events and social 

media. We now have hard evidence that 

this type of socially-constructed discursive 

engagement can change perception and 

reconstruct image. More than that, it has 

had verifiable impact on the interactivity 

and identity of stakeholders: in this case, 

arguably one of the most important in society 

– the next generation of teachers. 

Alan Newland, formerly 

public relations manager, 

at The General Teaching 

Council for England, was 

a teacher and lecturer 

for over 20 years, but for 

the last 12 years he has 

worked in communications and public relations 

for government agencies. He lives in London, is a 

fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and writes for 

The Guardian newspaper’s Teachers Network.



STATUS OF AFRICA 

A M R E F 

A 

MREF is Africa’s leading health 

charity. We were founded in 1957 

as the Flying Doctors Service of 

East Africa, and our vision is a healthy Africa 

where women and children, as the most 

vulnerable members of the community, 

in particular have access to safe, adequate 

health care facilities. We have made pregnancy 

safer by training over half a million 

community health workers who provide a 

lifeline to remote and poor communities 

in Africa. The skilled care they provide is 

the key to saving the lives of mothers and 

children. 

Our work has won high-profile international 

awards such the Bill & Melinda 

Gates Foundation Award for Global 

Health and the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian 

Award. As an African organisation we 

are based in Africa, and our work is widely 

known across the African continent. 

However, we are currently little-known 

in the United Kingdom. AMREF is not a 

household name despite having a significant 

history and story to tell. This is why 

we asked our pro-bono advertising agency, 

BBH, to make a noise for us in a crowded 

market. 

A key priority was raising our profile 

and awareness about our work on improving 

maternal health as widely as possible, 

albeit with a minimal budget. Our other 

137 

objective was to help reveal the truths and 

challenges linked to childbirth that are 

faced by African women on a daily basis 

to an online audience. An engaging, innovative 

digital application which showcased 

AMREF’s work in this area – hooked 

around Mother’s Day – seemed like the 

perfect method to do this. 

Real people, real lives We seem to be 

increasingly living our lives digitally – sharing 

information online about our days as 

we go about them. Chances are today that 

you got up, you had breakfast, went to 

work, perhaps you ate lunch with a friend, 

or caught up with your Mum in between 

your eight back-to-back meetings. You 

probably surfed the internet, and maybe 

posted a status update about your day on 

Facebook. But your day would be very different 

if you were a mother living in a remote 

or troubled part of Africa. Whereas in 

countries like the UK giving birth is on the 

whole a safe procedure, and mother and 

baby are cared for throughout the process 

with readily available healthcare on hand 

if required, in Africa it is one of the most 

dangerous things a woman can do. 

So we decided to use the Facebook 

status update as a platform to engage with 

people about AMREF and our work with 

women, revealing the truths of life for

138 

mothers in the poorest and most marginalised 

African communities. We created Status 

of Africa, a Facebook app that allows 

you to lend your status to one of six real 

mothers and midwives in Africa. Twice a 

day, your Facebook status is automatically 

updated, be it with news from the day of 

Maria Gasingo, a mother who has recently 

given birth, Masaai woman Tipaiya and 

her traditional birth attendant Pesi, or Esther 

Madudu, a hard-working midwife and 

mother. 

Status of Africa allowed social media 

users to experiences the lives of real people 

living in some of the most rural and 

under-developed countries in the world, 

through a medium that they use all day, 

every day. So amongst people’s Facebook 

updates about what they had for lunch, we 

showed that Tipaiya had to walk eight kilometres 

to the nearest health centre whilst 

in labour because the situation had become 

too complicated for her traditional 

birth attendant to deal with at home. 

Emotive and engaging These African 

updates let you get to know some extraordinary, 

wonderful and dignified people, 

and brought you closer to the subject and 

the reason for AMREF’s work. Every year, 

over 280,000 women die in childbirth in 

Africa, unnecessary deaths that could be 

prevented with basic medical care and the 

training of skilled midwives, which AMREF 

provides. To get people talking about the 

Facebook app and its cause we sent a parcel 

to bloggers, journalists and mothers: 

a simple matchbox containing the bare 

minimum needed for a midwife to deliver 

a baby safely in Africa - just a plastic sheet, 



some soap and cotton wool for hygiene, 

string to tie the umbilical cord and a razor 

blade to cut it, saving the life of both baby 

and mother. 

This emotive and engaging kit, together 

with the Status of Africa Facebook app, 

provided a virtual window into the realities 

of life for African women and mothers, and 

AMREF’s vitally important work with them 

to provide more midwives and health- 

The campaign had 

better results than 

we could have hoped 

for. Not only did it 

raise a huge amount 

of awareness, it also 

doubled traffic. 

care access. With this app, people could 

give themselves to a cause in a truly fresh, 

twenty-first century way, and it caught their 

imaginations over Mother’s Day, showing 

support for mothers worldwide. 

Lay viewers Status of Africa campaign 

had much better results than we could 

have hoped for. Not only did it raise a huge 

amount of awareness but it also doubled 

traffic for AMREF’s website. People were 

able to be generous and find their own 

gratification in the simple act of lending 

their status. Sentiment was overwhelmingly 

positive in terms of the Facebook and 

Twitter communitys’ reactions to those



who lent their status. The UK’s most popular 

tweeter – Stephen Fry – mentioned the 

app, along with several other influential 

tweeters broadcasting about it to their 

peers, which sent the effect rocketing. Twitter 

was by far the most influential source of 

downloads for Status of Africa: downloads 

originating from there, as well as third party 

Twitter and short URL sites, accounted 

for over 30 per cent of all downloads of the 

Facebook app. 

While not everyone who was aware of 

the campaign tweeted or even downloaded 

the app, a large group of ‘lay viewers’ still 

interacted with the campaign by commenting, 

discussing and liking the newsfeeds 

and status updates of those that did. In total 

there were close to 1,700 positive user 

interactions on the content generated by 

the campaign, which translated to a feedback 

rate of approximately 20 per cent. 

Additionally, there were many mentions 

on blogs about the campaign: bloggers 

were some of the most engaged members 

of the audience who propagated Status 

of Africa and its content, contributing to 

five per cent of all downloads. The web 

reporting ranged from influential marketing 

blogs like Creativity, to mummy blogs 

with favourable and heartfelt responses, 

as well as development sector blogs. Wider 

web interest in AMREF also soared via 

the campaign, with significant jumps in 

worldwide searches and over 14,000 links 

clicked through to reach the Facebook application. 

Emotive and engaging All this helped 

create appreciation and awareness for AM- 

REF: exactly what we set out to achieve. It 

139 

was a significant tool in engaging our corporate 

partners, and the matchbox birthing 

kit created for the campaign has now been 

used in a high value donor mailing raising 

almost £5,000. Esther Madudu, one of the 

women highlighted in Status of Africa, is 

now heading a global AMREF campaign 

Stand Up for African Mothers, aiming to 

create awareness of the issue of maternal 

health in developing Africa and train African 

midwives. Celebrities who supported 

the campaign have become ambassadors 

for AMREF, and those who shared details 

with AMREF via the app are now part of 

our individual donor mailing outreach. Social 

media has begun a conversation with 

them that we can now continue. 

We wanted to engage with an audience 

younger than our usual donor base, 

and now, through this campaign, we have 

a database which is much more reflective 

of this. Building upon this model, we are 

looking into developing an interactive 

Twitter-based campaign which will involve 

all AMREF offices, so that our online social 

media presence has a truly global reach. 

Shivonne Graham is 

director of fundraising 

and communications at 

AMREF UK. Voted in the 

top 50 most influential 

in Fundraising Magazine’s 

2011 Poll, she has pre- 

viously held leadership roles at Shelter, Maggie‘s 

Cancer Caring Centres and Comic Relief and led 

the inaugural Have a Heart Appeal on Heart radio.

140 

ince 2008, Lego GmbH has continuously 

expanded its digital media approach 

and campaigns with a strong 

focus on communicating with adults (primarily 

mums) within the Central European 

market and fully integrating this channel 

into the total marketing mix. Aimed at 

parents of kids aged between one and five, 

online has proven its success and generated 

excellent, above average results, particularly 

within preschool communication. 

At this early age, mums are still the key to 

toy purchase decisions and digital proved 

to be extremely efficient in reaching out 

to this target group. 

It emerged that a playful and creative 

approach worked out best, engaging 

mums in a world of play and fun and enabling 

them to experience our products 

in a new way by helping them to envision 

how much fun their child might experience 

with our product. The Lego Duplo 

online campaign for Easter 2011 was primarily 

aimed at raising awareness and attention 

for the new Lego Duplo police sets 

whilst also positioning these as an ideal 

Easter gift for preschool kids. An intensive 

engagement with the product and its 

features was one of the main targets. Additionally, 

fun and versatility were key in 


ONLINE CAMPAIGN OF COMPANIES 

EASTER CAMPAIGN – 

SO MANY WAYS TO PLAY 

L E G O 

S 

regards to the creative execution as they 

are two of the main Lego Duplo brand values. 

In order to keep up with the highly 

successful campaigns from previous years, 

the Easter campaign needed innovation in 

both content and media. 

Strategic considerations The target 

group and its online behaviour had already 

been verified from previous campaigns 

and various panel surveys. We knew 

that it is mainly mums who make the purchase 

decision for our preschool products 

and we also knew where to reach them in 

the online space. 

The pleasure shown by our target in 

digital interaction and play was a perfect 

precondition for translating the new claim 

“So many ways to play” into special digital 

play scenarios. Keeping in mind the 

brand-specific characteristics and features, 

the creative concept was based on previous 

experience. The creative team had to 

translate the values of fun and versatility 

into playful scenarios that primarily appeal 

to young mums. However, we also needed 

to look at possibilities for optimisation and 

explore new innovative approaches. How 

could we surpass our previous results? We 

decided to focus on the most important



Bringing a beloved children’s toy into the digital world 

recent changes in the daily life of the target 

group: mobile behaviour and the great 

new mobile devices. Simple mobile phones 

were increasingly being replaced by smart 

phones and tablet PCs had become part 

of the standard German household. The 

2010/2011 Christmas season in particular 

had strongly influenced this development. 

It seemed obvious that we needed to explore 

opportunities here, so we decided 

to integrate mobile into our thinking and 

offer mums a great brand experience by 

providing them with entertainment and 

learning opportunity for their youngsters: 

a new Lego Duplo play app that specifically 

catered for the needs and abilities 

141 

of very young kids and allowed for playful 

product engagement. 

Implementation The campaign was targeted 

at mums of children between the 

ages of one and five years within relevant 

environments, as well as gift givers such as 

grandparents and godparents. The media 

approach consisted of two components: 

online media and mobile media. Our use 

of online media combined special interest, 

broad reach portals (with very specific 

targeting), general interest with family 

content, as well as cost efficient reach; we 

used mobile media to promote a newly 

developed preschool game app that was

142 

Hand-held lego 

especially catered to the needs of mums 

(entertaining the kids in a fun way) by respecting 

both the existing skills and maximum 

complexity a very young child can 

handle and understand 

Creation From the beginning of the 

creative process we wanted to create a 

campaign that delivers on the promise “So 

many ways to play!”; and we wanted to go 

even further: “Play everywhere!” Three 

interactive special scenarios linking to 

the campaign microsite were developed, 

inviting people to get to know the ‘Lego 

Duplo ‘Police’ products in a playful way, 

and to generate interest for more. All of 

the scenarios were based on the storytelling 

element and narrated small anecdotes 

on police themes with which the user 

could discover and interact. Standard ban- 



ners, also using as many playful and fun 

elements as possible, completed the offer. 

One example of the creative approach is 

the story of Ron the Robber, who steals 

the rabbit that is part of the Lego Duplo 

logo, quickly abseils from the skyscraper 

on the website and disappears behind the 

website content. The Lego Duplo police 

officer asks the user to help the search by 

handling the police dog. Mouseover constructs 

a Lego Duplo landscape with numerous 

hiding places in front of the website 

content: depending on where the dog 

is directed to, other figures jump out from 

behind bushes and trees. After a while the 

dog discovers Ron the Robber, who is then 

immediately arrested by the brave policemen 

and escorted to the Lego Duplo police 

station. The stolen rabbit jumps out of 

the robber’s bag and back into the logo to 

provide a happy end to the story. In further 

scenarios, the user can help Ron the 

Robber to break out of prison by digging 

him a tunnel through the website content. 

In a third promotion, the user helps a 

tired police officer who would rather have 

a nap than do his job to take flash photos 

of speeding farmers, dogs and police 

colleagues. All scenarios offer playful engagement 

with various parts of the police 

product range whilst building on the well



known ‘cops and robbers’ game. In addition 

to these special online banners, we 

wanted something that lasts, something 

that people would not forget. That is why 

we presented the accompanying app, Duplo 

Minigames, a mobile app for parents 

and children that grows by several games 

with every campaign and, because it is 

not ugly advertising, one that parents and 

children willingly spend time with. Paul 

Schlichter, creative director from fuel new 

media, describes the app as “a present to 

parents and their children: an open-ended 

treat!” He explains: “This app guaranteed 

lasting and repeating engagement with 

the product, because after updating the 

app, or after a fresh installation, users will 

see the current products and corresponding 

games at the top of the main menu of 

the app. This ensures that the respective 

‘Hero’ product is the main focus of the 

campaign. To create synergies, all games 

are available both on the microsite and 

within the app. This not only increases 

awareness amongst the target group, but 

also saves around 50 per cent of development 

costs.” 

The campaign microsite offers various 

features that enable a more in-depth 

engagement with the product, such 

as: online-gaming fun plus links to our 

brand new iPhone app; hotspot animations, 

which visually represent the special 

features of our products; 3-D animations 

of the various ways the parts can be assembled; 

information about the entire 

spectrum of Lego Duplo online activities, 

such as the YouTube channel, the Lego 

Duplo mum‘s community (cooperation), 

a link to the website, the Lego Club page 

as well as screensavers, wallpapers, and so 

on; good reasons to purchase Lego Duplo; 

and last but not least a link to the online 

shop. 

Result We were most curious about the 

early results from the app downloads. This 

channel was still new to us and we were 

particularly excited about whether our 

concept would work. The initial result after 

a week was overwhelming: after one week, 

we already had downloads within the fivedigit 

area and a clear indication that there 

was more to come. We made it into the 

Top Ten charts after just a couple of days 

and our app even made it to first place. 

During the six-week campaign period we 

achieved almost 100,000 downloads. 

Equally outstanding was the performance 

of the campaign in terms of interaction 

time with our bespoke formats, click 

rates and the conversion to the shop. Over 

80,000 different users visited our website 

and engaged intensively with the product 

details presented there before going on to 

visit the official Lego shop. 

Karola Wetzel is senior 

manager of digital mar- 

keting at Lego Central 

Europe, in charge of 

digital strategy and online 

communication across 

brands. She previously 

worked as a brand manager within Lego. Before 

joining Lego, she worked in a digital agency for 

several years. 

143

ACADEMIC 

ENTRIES 

B A : F R E J A N Y B O E B A N G E & A N N E K A T H R I N E K J Æ R 

B A : K A L I N K A L I N O V 

M A : J E A N N E T T E G U S K O

146 

THE NERVE CENTER: 

A VIRTUAL TOOL TO 

SUPPORT CANCER PATIENTS 

F R E J A B A N G E N Y B O E & A N N E K A T H R I N E K J Æ R 

S 

tudies show that web-based tools can 

offer substantial support for cancer 

patients because they are not reliant 

on location or time. While virtual tools 

like those featured on web portal navigtaingcancer.com 

provide tools to support 

cancer patients all over the United States, 

in our thesis we investigated whether the 

needs of Danish cervical cancer patients 

could be met by similar solutions. Using 

an established user-driven design method, 

we sought user’s needs through interviews 

with patients, doctors and experts in the 

field. Furthermore, we examined Danish 

patients’ attitude towards already existing 

and non-existing web-based solutions. We 

found that patients and doctors expressed 

needs for better patient support as well as a 

positive attitude towards our design. Using 

the needs of Danish users as a foundation 

and the design ideas of Navigating Cancer 

as inspiration, we designed a Danish website 

that provides virtual tools to support 

Danish cancer patients. 

Problem field Being diagnosed with 

cancer is a turbulent and devastating event 

(Engholm, Kejs, & Christensen, 2011). 

ACADEMIC ENTRIES 

FREJA NYBOE BANGE & ANNE KATHRINE KJÆR 

The huge amount of new information 

and terminology can be overwhelming 

and the patient has to face a new identity 

as a sick rather than healthy person. To 

help with this transition, Danish patients 

are offered information about their illness 

through traditional methods such as flyers, 

brochures, informational websites, professionals 

(psychologists, counselors and 

so on) and organisations. Most patients 

also independently seek information and 

advice. A study conducted in 2008 shows 

that more than two thirds of all cancer patients 

in industrial countries use the internet 

when seeking information about their 

illness (Bender, O‘Grady, & Jadad, 2008). 

However, over time the internet has become 

more than just a source of concrete 

information. Interactive elements, such as 

communities and web based services, are 

used more and more in our everyday lives, 

both professionally and privately. This increasing 

use in relation to patients is an interesting 

field. In the US, innovations that 

combine web 2.0 and health have been under 

focus for several years, and terms like 

“patients’ empowerment” are seen as a 

way to support them through their illness.



With this in mind we sought to understand 

how a website that supports Danish cancer 

patients could be designed. Besides a paper 

mock-up of a portal, the goal of our 

research was to analyse the potential for 

a web portal for Danish cervical cancer 

patients. Inspired by an American website 

(navigatingcancer.com), we wanted 

to examine whether virtual tools could 

actually create and enable more support 

for Danish cancer patients. We created a 

study focusing on cervical cancer: we chose 

this specific target group because the patients 

are characterised by their young age 

(Poulsen, 2007). This is an advantage since 

the younger segment of the population is 

more familiar with web based tools and will 

be more likely to take use of our design 

(Danmarks Statistik, 2008). 

Method To identify the needs of potential 

users, we based our research on the userdriven 

design method MUST (Bødker, 

Simonsen, & Kensing, 2008). This theory 

contains a variety of methods for gaining 

information and how to map information 

for future use in designing the system. As 

part of our research, we held qualitative interviews 

with the managing director of navigatingcancer.com, 

two previous patients, 

and three doctors: the choice of interviewees 

was based on our desire to cover the 

field and patients’ needs from several angles. 

We chose to interview Navigating Cancer’s 

managing director because she was 

an expert within the field of virtual health 

tools; this interview was an attempt to understand 

what was happening within the 

field and learn from her experience and 

knowledge. We chose to interview previous 

147 

patients because our objective was to find 

out whether Danish patients could benefit 

from a web portal, and so it was natural for 

us to interview those who could share their 

personal experiences and opinions; we 

also chose them to gain knowledge of the 

whole course of the disease and to avoid 

causing any unnecessary distress for current 

patients. Finally, we chose to interview 

three doctors who had a more professional 

insight into both the technicality of the 

disease and the patients and their needs. 

Steinar Kvale inspired the structure of the 

interviews; the questions were divided into 

themes and with a focus on open questions 

(Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). 

After each interview, we wrote down 

the important points and quotations on 

post-its, which we then categorised into 

themes. After each interview the map became 

more complex but it also created a 

nuanced picture of the thoughts of our 

interviewees. This method, called ‘affinity 

diagram’, helped us recognise all aspects 

of the different needs. The categories of 

our affinity diagram gave us 13 user needs 

(see the “results” section below) which we 

again divided into five requirements for 

the Danish portal: supportive; communication; 

overview; inviting/intuitive design; 

and privacy. Our next step was to analyse 

whether virtual tools inspired by those on 

navigatingcancer.com could meet these requirements. 

Our design process began with 

creating an E/R diagram, which helped us 

achieve an overview of the technical features. 

This was necessary to proceed to the 

next step of our design process. We decided 

to test our design by creating a mock 

up, non-functioning but illustrating the

148 

design features. We asked an oncologist (a 

doctor specialising in cancer patients) to 

go through the design with us and give us 

instant feedback. We also tested the design 

on one of the previous patients. For this we 

used the ‘think-a-loud’ experiment from 

the MUST method (Bødker, Simonsen, & 

Kensing, 2008, s. 273). We gave the patient 

tasks to perform in our mock-up: this was 

to grade how intuitive the portal was, but 

also for her to give us instant feedback by 

thinking aloud and telling us everything 

she felt and thought about our design. We 

used this evaluation to improve our final 

design. This process resulted in not only a 

well-received design, but it also gave us a 

more nuanced idea on the pros and cons 

of a portal for cancer patients. 

User’s needs Through our interviews we 

found a number of needs that became the 

overall demands of the design. The first 

demand was support: we understood that 

there were different kinds of support needed 

by the patients, varying from emotional 

support (whether from social relations or 

fellow patients) to the patient’s need for 

help with everyday tasks (such as grocery 

shopping). We wanted our design to be able 

to have a supportive feature that enabled 

the patient to get the help that they needed. 

The second demand was communication: 

our informants needed an easy and 

hassle-free way to communicate with their 

next of kin. This demand also embraces 

the communication between patient and 

doctor, which at times could be challenged 

by varied factors. The third demand was 

overview: doctors and patients both explained 

how difficult it can be to accurate- 



ly remember the state of their well-being 

over time. This led to the doctors missing 

valuable information about the patient’s 

well being. Another demand on the design 

was for it to be inviting and intuitive: we 

knew that for the design to be successful, 

we had to make it intuitive to use and nice 

to look at as well (Moss, Gunn, & Heller, 

2006).The last demand was privacy: since 

the users of this website should be sharing 

highly personal statements, their privacy 

had to be ensured. Furthermore the users 

also explained that they would like to 

be able to correct and hide certain bits of 

information such as comments. Through 

our empirical research we found a number 

of user needs which our design had to support 

(see figure 1). In our design, there 

will be two types of user accounts: one for 

the patient and the other for the follower. 

The patients have control and they can invite 

followers to share information. 

The website is a gathering of four different 

virtual tools/features: 

1. A calendar This calendar contains information 

about the patient’s treatments, 

surgeries and tests and can be shared with 

friends and family. This could help family 

and friends to follow the patient’s treatment 

plan. This way, family and friends 

can use this to help and support the patient 

even further. In an ideal situation this 

calendar is updated through the hospital, 

so all the appointments are automatically 

updated. 

2. An ‘I need’ - and a micro-blog 

Many cancer patients are physically disabled, 

for example during chemotherapy,



Figure 1: How the functions meets the requirements and user needs 

therefore we designed a function where 

they could ask their social relations for 

help. This is a micro blog setup, but with a 

few aded features. The patient can write a 

blog, for example “Chemo on Tuesday, can 

anyone give me a ride?” Under this blog 

post, the patient can add a date or time if 

necessary and the follower can then tick a 

box to accept and fulfill the need. Furthermore 

this page also includes a micro blog 

where the patient can write messages that 

all the followers can see. Our interviewees 

told us how they found it stressful to 

call everyone in their network in order to 

update them on the latest test results and 

so on. Patients can use this blog to write 

149 

what the result was or what is on their mind 

and followers can then add comments and 

words of encouragement. 

3. A Daily Health Journal Inspired 

by Navigating Cancer and the knowledge 

that doctors are very busy people, we implemented 

a page where the patients could 

track their health. There is an easy smiley 

face template to fill out their well being 

and side effects. When the patient then 

has a consultation with the doctor they can 

print out or pdf a visualisation of their well 

being. This can work as a tool in the consultation 

that maintains the focus and illustrate 

the patient’s exact well being.

150 

4. A community Lastly we have added 

a community to the website: we chose not 

to design this since there are already many 

well functioning solutions in Denmark. 

The reason why we still thought it necessary 

to include is that patients need to talk 

to people that are not necessarily their 

loved ones: they might want to ask other 

patients abut symptoms, side effects and so 

on. Therefore the followers cannot see the 

community or the daily health journal. 

Conclusion The users’ needs were the 

foundation for a mock up which we tested 

to see if the needs were met. The informants 

were positive towards the idea and the 

design, which showed to us that it satisfied 

the users’ needs (Our test person expressed 

that she could have used a solution 

like ours when she was fighting cancer). 

The doctor who we interviewed also applauded 

the print-out version of the health 

journal. He emphasised that in many cases 

visualising data is an easier and faster way 

to understand and see how the treatment 

is going. The user-driven design method 

helped us through the design process by 

defining clear milestones. We made a realistic 

design by grounding it on users’ 

needs and evaluation, and the evaluation 

improved the design since we were made 

conscious of issues that had not been foreseen. 

However we also uncovered issues 

about the design that should be considered: 

if one wanted to implement the portal, 

one would have to be aware that not all 

cancer patients are comfortable with webbased 

solutions. We investigated younger 

women with cervical cancer, but this group 

is by far not the most common cancer in 

Denmark. The design is not limited by the 

disease and could be used by all types of 

cancer patients. Expanding the user group 

to include an older part of the population 

could lead to stress instead of support, 

since this part of the population might not 

be as comfortable with web-based tools. 

The portal also has a risk of causing stress 

because, although the survival rate of cervical 

cancer patients is very high, not all who 

are diagnosed survive. In other forms of 

cancer the survival rate is much lower. It 

would not be beneficial for the patient to 

be faced with a visualisation of his or her 

declining health. Furthermore it is important 

for the patient to think about other 

things in life and not become completely 

swamped by the disease. The portal can 

have the downside of giving the disease too 

much focus. 

These kinds of usage are not beneficial 

for anyone and they should be discouraged 

or terminated. However, the feedback 

we received was very positive. The 

design is a gathering of solutions to many 

of the needs that a cancer patient has, and 

it gives patients one safe place to communicate 

with their loved ones and with other 

patients, and to keep track of their own 

health. Thereby we help to empower the 

patient and support them through their 

tough fight against cancer. 

Freja Bange Nyboe and Anne Kathrine Kjær 

study at Roskilde University, Denmark 



FREJA NYBOE BANGE & ANNE KATHRINE KJÆR


KALIN KALINOV 

THE HEAT-SEAKING MODEL 

K A L I N K A L I N O V 

T 

he Heat-Seeking Model is a concept 

for the precise profiling and targeting 

of an audience based on their 

presence in social media outlets, and is 

applicable to use in all forms of integrated 

marketing communications. The basic 

idea is that people freely disclose information 

about themselves and their friends 

via different social media platforms (e.g. 

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and 

so on) and this information can be gathered 

and used in the creation and application 

of marketing and communication 

strategies by companies and individuals. 

The model does not stop at information 

gathering. It uses quantitative and qualitative 

research methodology to find out the 

opinion leaders in the audience and afterwards 

apply the results to a matrix in order 

to determine the outcome of the planned 

communication activities. It is named after 

heat-seeking missiles because of the possibility 

of a high success rate of the communication 

strategies after the completion of 

the matrix. 

With very little modification, the Heat- 

Seeking Model can be used to measure 

communication strategies that are currently 

in use and even the results of several different 

strategies over a period of time. The 

concept is loosely based upon the content 

analysis method of Dr. Klaus Krippendorff 

151 

but is modified to suit the needs of social 

media measurement and is combined with 

quantitative research, application of statistical 

data, case studies and updated version 

of phenomenography. Additionally, in 

creating the matrix, it draws on the practical 

aspects of game theory, some decision 

making theories and the marketing mix as 

described by Robert F. Lauterborn. 

The Heat-Seeking Model consists of 

three parts which together form the results 

of the model’s application: 

Part 1: Creating a general profile of the 

audience. It is a basic demographic profile 

based on the information gathered 

from a particular social platform. The basic 

sampling techniques are applied at the 

beginning of the research process; afterwards 

the data is stored and analysed in a 

fashion very similar to the content analysis 

described by Dr. Klaus Krippendorff. The 

objects of the analysis included text messages, 

pictures, videos or other forms of 

communication used by the consumers in 

the social network, and this naturally includes 

elements of the phenomenography 

since it investigates subjective opinions, 

preferences and desires. The particular 

data is chosen depending on the campaign 

which is about to take place: for some the 

uploaded multimedia will be more impor-

152 

tant while for others the user’s comments 

could be more useful. 

Part 2: Defining the opinion leaders. The 

second part of the method differs greatly, 

depending on the social platform. It could 

be the number of friends (Facebook), the 

number of followers (Twitter), the number 

of subscribers (YouTube) and so on. This is 

statistical data which is easy to collect and 

does not apply to a single multimedia object 

like the number of hits on a particular 

video. The Heat-Seeking Model takes into 

account not only the quantity of the leader’s 

following but its quality by considering 

two very important characteristics – the followers’ 

activity and frequency of presence. 

For example, the model does not accept 

that a certain number of Facebook friends 

makes one an opinion leader, and tries to 

define the Influence Factor (IF) of the particular 

individual as shown below: 

Here, Fq is the frequency of user presence 

(how often do they visit the particular profile 

or website?) and A is their activity (for 

example, how often do they take part in 

discussions?). It is up to the expert applying 

the model to decide which of the two 

is more important or if they are equally important, 

in which case x=y=1 and thus the 

formula can be simplified. 


KALIN KALINOV 

Part 3: Applying the gathered information 

to a matrix and thus precisely determining 

the outcome of the planned strategies. 

This is still a concept which is in the 

process of being modified. The idea is that 

the created matrix can be based upon preexisting 

theories regarding the decision 

making process (described in detail below); 

taking into account this already-gathered 

information on online opinion leaders, 

the matrix could lead to a very high 

success rate in the communication strategies 

to which it is applied. The theories 

considered are the leaders in the decisionmaking 

process. They all work in a similar 

way as illustrated in graphic 2. There is a 

goal and a set number of criteria against 

which we measure all of our options: each 

criterion is mathematically expressed as 

a number depending on its importance, 

and all the alternatives are graded depending 

on how well they correspond with the 

criteria. The problem is that all decisionmaking 

methods are analytically based and 

most of the customers’ decisions about 

marketing are emotional. 

The main idea behind the matrix is 

to compare and classify emotional motives 

as a leading force in the decision-making 

process through the use of analytical tools. 

The thesis focuses on five major social media 

platforms – YouTube (a channel-based, 

video exchange website), Facebook (the 

most popular social platform), Twitter 

(an outlet for short message exchange), 

LinkedIn (a social medium for information 

exchange by and between professionals 

of different fields) and blogs (by now 

a traditional part of a company’s communication). 

The Heat-Seeking Model differs


KALIN KALINOV 

Figure 2: Choosing a leader (Source: Wikipedia.org) 

depending on whether the analysis is conducted 

over single or multi-platform data 

and which platforms are in use. However, 

the modifications are mostly at the datagathering 

stage and barely influence the 

rest of the method’s application if at all. 

Depending on the conditions described 

above, the Heat-Seeking Model can be 

viewed as: 

– Client-to-Company Communication Research 

Technology: in which case the relationship 

between the active clients, the 

company’s online supporters or fans, and 

the company itself is investigated. Normally, 

this is communication initialised 

by the clients (e.g. fans of the company’s 

Facebook profile, users posting comments 

on the company’s blog, etc.) 

– Company –to-Target Audience Communication 

Research Technology: this is the 

153 

primary aspect of the Heat-Seeking Model 

which makes it possible for a company to 

define demographic characteristics and 

opinion leaders. It uses sampling techniques 

for the creation of the general audience 

profile. The definition of opinion 

leaders differs greatly depending on the 

platform in use. 

– Company and Media Resonance Effect 

Research Technology: defines the extent 

to which a certain campaign or communication 

strategy impacts the consumers 

in social media outlets (for example. the 

number of tweets regarding a certain event 

divided as positive, negative and neutral/ 

reference). 

The thesis is based on a solid theoretical 

foundation. Due to a lack of financial resources 

and a limited timeframe, the research 

includes a lot of statistical data gath-

154 

ered for other academic works. The author 

has managed to conduct several practical 

tests of the method, all of them with positive 

results and described in detail. 

Research questions 

Q: Is it possible to gather the data required 

by the Heat-Seeking Model via social 

media platforms only? 

A: The research has proven it possible 

but at the current moment there is still a 

minor problem, namely that the technology 

only profiles users of the social media 

platforms. Considering the percent of the 

younger demographic that uses these outlets, 

however, this problem will be statistically 

irrelevant in a few years’ time. 

Q: Is the technology applicable in a reallife 

environment? 

A: So far the results have been positive. 

Similar methods, even if partially applied, 

have been used in recent years to a reasonable 

success. Case-studies have indicated a 

high success rate. 

Q: Is it possible to create a matrix which 

can predict the success or failure of a given 

communication strategy based on data 

gathered from the social media platforms? 

A: Because of the limited financial capacity 

and timeframe, part of the matrix-related 

research is yet to be completed. The results 

are inconclusive at this point but on a theoretical 

scale, there is no argument which 

proves the matrix creation as impossible. 

Q: How precise is the prediction? 

A: Currently any number would be nothing 

more than scientifically based guess 


KALIN KALINOV 

which is why the author would prefer to 

restrain himself from making one. 

Q: Does the method correspond to the 

moral and ethical standards of society? 

A: The results of the theoretical research 

regarding ethics clearly marks the model 

as ‘amoral’ but it could only be ‘immoral’ 

in certain cases, just like marketing itself. 

Operation & methods The social 

media platforms are the object of the research. 

To be more precise – the opportunities 

for audience targeting and profiling 

which is based upon the information published 

by their users. The thesis is based on 

pre-existing theoretical models which are 

partly combined and together provide the 

needed foundation. The work begins with 

simple empirical research which includes 

observation and case studies of technological 

processes in the social media. After 

proving that the needed data can be 

gathered the research moves on to a more 

practical aspect which includes case studies 

(examples of successful implementation 

of similar methods even if partial), 

content analysis (of materials published by 

the users), slightly modified version of the 

phenomenography (subjective opinions 

are taken into account when forming the 

audience profile) and observation with 

and without participation (experimental 

testing of the technology). 

The creation of the matrix also starts 

with theoretical research (most notably 

decision-making theories such as game 

theory, grounded theory, analytic hierarchy 

process (AHP), weighted product 

model (WPM), the ELECTRE method, the


KALIN KALINOV 

TOPSIS method, PROMETHEE & GAIA 

methods, Grey rational analysis), all chosen 

based on theoretical sampling. Also taken 

into account are the neuroscience of free 

will, online deliberation, public choice and 

risk management theories. Attempts to create 

a functioning matrix continue with a 

more practical approach based on statistical 

data and mostly quantitative research of 

the social media outlets. Considering the 

question of morality and ethics, the author 

also researched the leading philosophical 

views in relation to the thesis’ subject. 

So far, the Heat-Seeking Model has 

three major flaws. The necessary financial 

and operational resources are considerable 

but this could be solved with the use of 

specially designed software in the not-toodistant 

future. The second main problem 

is the inability to access parts of the information, 

mainly the percentage of people 

without profiles on any social platform, but 

this problem is slowly but certainly coming 

to a resolution: it is expected that by 2014, 

over 65 per cent of internet users in the 

US will be on Facebook. The last problem 

facing the Model is the inaccurate information 

submitted by some users; this is a 

problem for any marketing and scientifically 

orientated research. However, it could 

be assumed that the bigger part of the 

population will present their real selves to 

their friends on the social platforms, some 

of which they have met in real life. Most 

of the initially planned research activities 

have been conducted accordingly with the 

exception of parts of the practical matrix 

research which was unfortunately slowed 

down due to lack of financial capacity and 

human resources. 

155 

Results The thesis proves it possible to 

gather the necessary data for the application 

of the Heat-Seeking Model solely from 

social platforms. Furthermore, it clearly 

shows that the technology is applicable in a 

real-life setting and its variations have been 

used successfully in recent years, although 

not outlined in theory. It proves that it is 

possible to use the model only partially 

(for example, just finding the opinion 

leaders and targeting them with classical 

means of communication), which would 

lessen the need for financial and operational 

resources and still provide substantial 

and scientifically proven results. The 

matrix which completes the Model is also 

applicable to real-life situations but is yet to 

be modified in order to improve its success 

rate. Unfortunately, because of the missing 

parts of the research, the matrix functionality 

can not be confirmed at 100 per cent. 

Yet the few empirical experiments conducted 

show positive results. On the philosophical 

question of morality and ethics, 

the Model was defined as “amoral” but not 

necessary “immoral”. Its ethical side can 

only be judged on a case-by-case basis. Science 

and marketing are both considered 

“amoral” as well. This research is only a 

starting point for a more detailed investigation 

in the future. Naturally the author has 

merely created a solid theoretical foundation 

with yet-to-be completely proven practical 

relevance; it is certainly an intriguing 

concept for the future of marketing. 

Kalin Kalinov is a student at St. Kliment Ohridski 

University in Sofia, Bulgaria 


156 

THE IMAGE OF GERMAN 

CORPORATIONS ON 

WIKIPEDIA 

J E A N N E T T E G U S K O 

W 

ikipedia is challenging classical understandings 

of knowledge. The 

world’s information, collaboratively 

edited, published and discussed, is 

made available in over 18 million articles 

in more than 270 languages. According 

to web information company Alexa, as of 

2011 Wikipedia.org ranks as the seventh 

most popular website worldwide - far ahead 

of famous media brands like CNN or the 

New York Times. In 2010, nearly two thirds 

of Germans online searched for information 

in an online encyclopedia (Busemann/Gscheidle 

2010). Among teenagers 

aged 14 to 19 years old, this rate rises up to 

95 per cent. 

More than 50 per cent of college students 

trust Wikipedia as much as traditional 

knowledge institutions and assess displayed 

information as “reliable” to “mostly 

reliable” (Kleimann et al. 2008). In another 

survey with German journalists, more than 

a third name Wikipedia one of the most important 

sources in their daily research routines 

after Google and news outlet Spiegel. 

de (Machill et al. 2008). For many, Wikipedia 

is the first source to approach actively 

when looking into a new topic. Today, the 


JEANNETTE GUSKO 

Wikimedia Foundation is the legal person 

behind the project, hierarchical structures 

are inserted and rights of administrators enlarged. 

Eleven years after its launch in 2011, 

Wikipedia is an acknowledged institution, 

a hybrid medium that shows characteristics 

of social and mass media alike. Therefore it 

heavily influences public opinion. 

The end of corporate image as we 

know it? Images are increasingly relevant 

in complex social structures and organisations. 

Stakeholders lack experience and 

there are only limited opportunities to 

verify statements on complex issues (Bergler 

2008). Mediated images provide orientation, 

reduce complexity, fill knowledge 

gaps and build trust (Merten/Westerbarkey 

1994). The establishment of social media 

changes corporate communications by 

reversing traditional asymmetric structures 

of power accumulation and inequality 

(Benkler 2006:220). Communication management 

is in need of new competences to 

overcome the predominant ‘construction 

and control’ paradigm (Zerfaß/Buchele 

2008). Images differ by senders as shown in 

the conceptual framework (Fig. 1).Within



Figure 1: 

Wikipedia, a neutral point of view is established 

by integrating competing theories 

within one article to aim for objectivity 

(Hammwöhner 2007). Authors and administrators 

collaboratively constitute an 

image which merges single contributions. 

In Wikipedia images are created en passant 

by amateurs who select, emphasise and recombine 

knowledge. 

Wikipedia brings together a participatory 

user structure and minimal transparency 

with regards to the originator with the 

self-conception of being an objective online-encyclopedia. 

This approach transfers 

to the contents: an independent source of 

information that makes the world a better 

place. It comes to no surprise that the joint 

subject of public relations and Wikipedia is 

157 

mainly referred to in articles on manipulation 

(Hessel 2006). Only 17.2 per cent of 

European communication professionals 

rate wikis as “very important” to “important” 

in a public relations context (Zerfass 

et al. 2010). Accordingly, neither practitioners 

nor public relations academics have 

yet addressed Wikipedia. 

Method This thesis aimed to depict the 

challenges of corporate images under the 

influence of Wikipedia. A multi-dimensional 

cross-sectional study design was installed: 

the Wikipedia articles and corporate websites 

of the 110 biggest German companies 

(DAX 30, MDAX 50 and TecDAX 30) were 

inspected via comparative content analysis. 

In addition communication managers

158 

were questioned about competences and 

perspectives on Wikipedia in a quantitative 

questionnaire. The study took place in August 

2010. 

Encyclopedia of images – Selected 

results All of the analysed companies are 

portrayed in a Wikipedia article, and Google’s 

search algorithm favours Wikipedia articles. 

Therefore, when looked up by company 

name, Wikipedia articles are listed at 

the top of the ranking. The corporate websites 

of HDAX companies are always listed 

in front of their Wikipedia counterparts, 

but 61.8 per cent of all Wikipedia articles 

are to be found among the top five search 

results. Whereas corporate websites are the 

most important self-initiated source of information, 

Wikipedia is the central otherinitiated 

source for online research. 

The diversity of authors is an essential 

variable for nearly every formal characteristic 

of Wikipedia articles about companies. 

The number of authors correlates significantly 

high with the amount of text, the 

number of links, number of sources and 

Figure 2: 



diversity of presentation formats (e.g. texts, 

quotations, graphics, pictures). 

Large author communities can be 

found mainly (though not exclusively) in 

DAX articles. Authors can be divided into 

two groups: registered users and those 

who edit without declaring themselves. 

However, unregistered users and their edits 

are tracked via their IP address and can 

therefore be identified. Those community 

members that edit repetitively are especially 

relevant for the analysis as they can 

be viewed as image mediators analogous to 

core journalists. A third of all DAX Wikipedia 

articles are supervised by more than 250 

members. German carmaker BMW leads 

the field with a community of more than 

500 authors. In contrast 76.7 per cent of 

TecDAX Wikipedia articles are looked after 

by 50 ‘Wikipedians’, or considerably less. 

Considering the principle of corrective self 

organisation, a more diverse author community 

is a sign of higher quality standards 

of an article (Surowiecki 2004). In contrast, 

40 per cent of all TecDAX Wikipedia articles 

have only been viewed between 10,000



and 25,000 times per annum. Significant 

spikes in page impressions are directly connected 

to company news. For instance the 

take-over of German car maker Porsche 

by Volkswagen AG was followed by a near 

doubling of the monthly average of page 

impressions. 

Apart from these examples, Wikipedia 

could not appropriately be called a ‘realtime 

medium’. Updates within Wikipedia 

articles are largely index-related. 46.7 per 

cent of all TecDAX articles have not been 

edited for over a month, and quite a few 

of them have stayed the same for over six 

months. Looking at MDAX, 36 per cent of 

all articles feature out-of-date information. 

56.7 per cent of DAX Wikipedia articles 

have been updated regularly within a week. 

Eight companies out of the 110 HDAX 

sample have been edited daily or show the 

latest changes from the day before. 

In half of the 110 HDAX Wikipedia 

articles a maximum of 10 sources are declared. 

In 29 articles more than 20 sources 

are mentioned: the arithmetic average 

here actually is 43 sources. A wide base of 

sources subordinates a company-controlled 

source among many. As the number of 

sources is rising the influence of a company 

on their depiction is significantly diminishing 

(correlation r= -0,307; < 0,01). 

The study shows significant differences 

when comparing corporate images on 

Wikipedia and corporate websites. Wikipedia 

articles more intensely stress topics like 

history/tradition, finance, scandal/lawsuit 

and competition. Corporate websites 

emphasise topics such as corporate social 

responsibility, innovation/technology and 

performance (fig. 3). 

159 

The topic of history/tradition is the 

main interest of Wikipedians. It is featured 

in 96 out of 110 HDAX Wikipedia articles 

and usually makes up a major stake of the 

article. In more than two thirds of the cases 

the topic is rated as having a neutral tonality. 

This contradicts considerations that the 

involvement of German companies during 

the period of Third Reich would have 

a serious impact on the overall corporate 

image. The exploitation of forced labour 

is accompanied by descriptions of rehabilitation, 

glorified founding personalities or 

pioneering innovations. 

Diversity & transparency Nearly 

every Wikipedia article consists of topics 

that are likely to shape a company’s image. 

38 per cent of all HDAX Wikipedia 

articles include the scandal/law suit topic: 

analysed by index, it is not only mentioned 

most often within DAX Wikipedia articles 

(DAX = 76 per cent, MDAX = 26 per cent, 

TecDAX = 20 per cent) but also weighted 

the strongest; in 47 per cent of all DAX articles 

it is a noticeable matter that defines 

the article. Corporate social responsibility 

is one of the most prevalent topics of corporate 

communication in recent years, but 

this is not reflected on Wikipedia: MDAX 

articles name the topic in only14 per cent 

of all cases and 10 per cent of TecDAX articles 

feature it. Corporate social responsibility 

is mentioned in half of DAX Wikipedia 

articles. The Wikipedia article on German 

consumer goods manufacturer Henkel 

describes “sustainability” within a separate 

chapter of about 400 words. 

An overall neutral tonality is present in 

just fewer than 70 per cent of the articles.

Figure 3: 

scandal/ 

law suit 

corporate social 

responsibility 

competition 

innovation 

company 

(basic infos) 

finance 

This underlines a high objectivity in style 

within the majority of Wikipedia articles. 

Judging the tonality on a sentence level 

discloses that 27 per cent of DAX Wikipedia 

articles are written with negative linguistic 

assessments, MDAX (10 per cent) 

and TecDAX (one per cent) being clearly 

less affected. Strategic key words that were 

identified on the corporate website beforehand 

could be recognised in 36.4 per cent 

of all HDAX Wikipedia articles (DAX = 47 

per cent, MDAX = 34 per cent, TecDAX 

= 30 per cent). The Wikipedia article on 

German consumer goods manufacturer 

Henkel features the recent corporate strategy 

“Global Excellence”; the BASF article 

quotes the slogan, “The Chemical Company”. 

In nine articles, full text blocks from 

the corporate websites have been integrated, 

in some cases with about 500 words. 

products 

employees 

performance 

The higher the diversity of authors, the 

more transparent the depiction of the 

article. Transparency is elevated by comparatively 

higher negative tonality rates 

and higher occurrence of the scandal/law 

suit topic. There are no easy solutions to 

dealing with Wikipedia in communication 

management, especially when there is a 

potential conflict of interest among parties 

involved. The institutionalisation of 

Wikipedia is challenging the image communication 

of corporations and should be 

strongly considered. 

Jeannette Gusko is a student at the University of 

Leipzig, Germany. 


history / tradition 

Wikipedia 

Corporate Website

BIBLIOGRAPHY

164 

Arne Westermann (pages 4–9) 

Hafner, K, Lyon, M.: ARPA KADAB- 

RA. Die Geschichte des Internets, Heidelberg 

2000. 

Höflich, J.R. (1997): Zwischen massenmedialer 

und technisch vermittelter 

interpersonaler Kommunikation – der 

Computer als Hybridmedium und was 

die Menschen damit machen. In: Klaus 

Beck/Gerhard Vowe (Hrsg.): Computernetze 

– ein Medium öffentlicher Kommunikation? 

Berlin: Wissenschaftsverlag 

Volker Spiess. 

Schultz, Friederike (2011): Moralische 

und moralisierte Kommunikation 

im Wandel: Zur Entstehung von Corporate 

Social Responsibility. In: Juliana 

Raupp/Stefan Jarolimek/Friederike 

Schultz (Hrsg.): Handbuch CSR. Kommunikationswissenschaftliche 

Grundlagen, 

disziplinäre Zugänge und methodische 

Herausforderungen. Mit Glossar. Wiesbaden: 

VS-Verlag. S. 19-42. 

Michael Boenigk (pages 12–16) 

Andrejevic, M. (2002): The work of 

being watched: Interactive media and the 

exploitation of self-disclosure. In: Critical 

Studies in Media Communication, 19(2), 

230-248. 

Argenti, P., Barnes, C. (2009): Digital 

Strategies for powerful Corporate Communications. 

New York: McGraw-Hill. 

Argenti, P., Forman, J. (2002). The 

power of corporate communication: 

Crafting the voice and image of your business. 

New York: McGraw-Hill. 

Bekmeier-Feuerhahn, S./Eichenlaub, 

A. (2010): What makes for trusting relationships 

in online communication? In: 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Journal of Communication Management, 

14(4), 337-355. 

Benkler, Y. (2006): The Wealth of 

Networks: how social production transforms 

markets and freedom. New Haven: 

Yale University Press. 

Brooker, W. (2001): Living on Dawson’s 

Creek: Teen viewers, cultural convergence, 

and television overflow. In: International 

Journal of Cultural Studies, 

4(4), 456-472. 

Bruns, A. (2007). Produsage: Towards 

a broader framework for user-led content 

creation. Paper presented at Creativity & 

Cognition Conference, Washington, DC. 

From http://snurb.info/files/Produsage 

%20(Creativity%20and%20Cognition%2 

02007).pdf 

Cornelissen, J.P. (2008): Corporate 

Communication: A Guide to Theory and 

Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. 

Deuze, M. (2007): Convergence culture 

in the creative industries. In: International 

Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 

243-263. 

Duffy, B. E. (2010): Empowerment 

Through Endorsement? Polysemic Meaning 

in Dove`s User-Generated Advertising. 

In: Communication, Culture & Critique, 

3(1), 26-43. 

Evans, D., McKee J. (2010): Social 

Media Marketing. The Next Generation 

of Business Engagement. Indianapolis: 

Wiley Publishing. 

Ganim Barnes, N. (2008): Society for 

new communications research study: Exploring 

the link between customer care 

and Brand reputation in the age of social 

media. In: Journal of new Communica-

BIBLIOGRAPHY 165 

tions Research, 3(1), 86-91. 

Jenkins, H. (2006): Convergence culture: 

Where old and new media collide. 

New York: New York University Press. 

Johnson, D. (2007): Inviting audiences 

in. In: New Review of Film and Television 

Studies, 5(1), 61–80. 

Kaplan A. M., Haenlein M., (2010): 

Users of the world, unite! The challenges 

and opportunities of social media, Business 

Horizons, 53(1), 59-68. 

Kaul, V. (2012): Changing Paradigms 

of Media Landscape in the Digital Age. 

In: Journal of Mass Communication Journalism, 

2(2), 1-9. 

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., Mc 

Carthy, I. P., Silvestre, B. S. (2011): Social 

media? Get serious! Understanding the 

functional building blocks of social media. 

In: Business Horizons, 54(3), 241-251. 

Knight, A. (2008): Journalism in the 

age of blogging. In: Journalism Studies, 9 

(1), 117-124. 

Kreutzer, R. T., Hinz, J. (2010): Möglichkeiten 

und Grenzen von Social Media 

Marketing. Arbeitspapier Nr. 58, IMB Institute 

of Management Berlin, Hochschule 

für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin. Eds.: 

Gert Bruche, Christoph Dörrenbächer, 

Friedrich Nagel, Sven Ripsas, Berlin. 

Kreutzer, R. T., Merkle, W. (2008): 

Die neue Macht des Marketing: Wie Sie 

Ihr Unternehmen mit Emotion, Innovation 

und Präzision profilieren. Wiesbaden: 

Gabler. 

Li, C., Bernhoff, J. (2009): Facebook, 

YouTube, Xing & Co. Gewinnen mit Social 

Media Technologies. München: Carl 

Hanser. 

Mangold, G. W., Faulds, D. (2009): 

Social media: The new hybrid element 

of the promotion mix. In: Business Horizons, 

52(1), 357-365. 

Mast, C. (2010): Unternehmenskommunikation. 

Ein Leitfaden. 4. Aufl. Stuttgart: 

UTB. 

McPhillips, S. / Merlo, O. (2008) 

“Media Convergence and the Evolving 

Media Business Model: An Overview and 

Strategic Opportunities”, The Marketing 

Review, 8(3), 237-254. 

Publisuisse (2011): Medien der Zukunft 

2017. Erkenntnisse zu Medienlandschaft, 

Marketing und Kommunikation, 

Bern. 

Qualman, E. (2009): Socialnomics. 

How social media transforms the way we 

live and do business. Chicester: John Wiley. 

Riegner, C. (2007): Word of Mouth 

on the Web: The Impact of Web 2.0 on 

Consumer Purchase Decisions. In: Journal 

of Advertising Research, 47, 436-447. 

Schögel, M. (2011): Neue Anforderungen 

an das Marketing. Vortrag 

Mediavision 2011, Zürich. 

Shimpach, S. (2005): Working watching: 

The creative and cultural labor of the 

media audience. Social Semiotics, 15(3), 

343-360. 

Siano, A., Vollero, A. / Palazzo, M. 

(2011): Exploring the role of online consumer 

empowerment in reputation building: 

Research questions and hypotheses. 

In: Journal of Brand Management, 19(1), 

57-71. 

Solis, B. (2010): Engage! The Complete 

Guide for Brand and Businesses to 

Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in 

the New Web. New Jersey: John Wiley & 

Sons.

Terranova, T. (2000): Producing culture 

for the digital economy. In: Social 

Text, 63(18), 33-58. 

Van Riel, C., Fombrun, C. J. (2006): 

Essentials of Corporate Communication: 

Implementing practices for effective reputation 

management. New York: Routledge 

Taylor & Francis. 

Ralph Tench & Stuart Bruce 

(pages 28–33) 

Tom Foremski Silicon Valley Watcher 

http://sbpr.co/GGSMuF 

Katie Delahaye Paine Measure What 

Matters (Wiley 2011) 

Zerfass, A., Verhoeven, P., Tench, R., 

Moreno, A., & Vercic, D. (2011): European 

Communication Monitor 2011. Empirical 

Insights into Strategic Communication 

in Europe. Results of an Empirical 

Survey of 43 Countries. Brussels: EACD, 

EUPRERA 

IBM Social Computing Guidelines 

http://sbpr.co/GGVakU 

Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, 

Altimeter Group Social Strategy: Getting 

Your Company Ready http://sbpr.co/ 

GGX5Gd 

The American Red Cross Connect 

site provides links to blogs and Twitter accounts 

for local chapters across the USA 

http://sbpr.co/GGXF6O 

“Google+ the fastest-growing social 

network ever” The Independent (August 

3, 2011) http://sbpr.co/GGYqgd 

Chris Lake 35 social media KPIs to 

help measure engagement http://sbpr. 

co/GH1GIy 

Additional useful references: 

Chris Holloman (editor) The Social 

Media MBA (Wiley 2012) 

David Philips and Philip Young Online 

Public Relations (Kogan Page 2009) 

David Meerman Scott The New Rules 

of Marketing and PR (3rd ed Wiley 2011) 

Altimeter Group http://sbpr.co/ 

GGYIUl 

Forrester Group http://sbpr.co/ 

GGYJI0 

Econsultancy http://sbpr.co/ekCVJy 

Stuart Bruce A PR Guy’s Musings 

www.stuartbruce.biz 

Todd Defren PR-Squared www.prsquared.com 

Serra Görpe (pages 126–131) 

Building Belief: A New Model For 

Activating Corporate Character& Authentic 

Advocacy, (2012). Retrieved March, 

26, 2012 from http://www.awpagesociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ 

Building-Belief-New-Model-for-Corp- 

Comms-2012.pdf 

Gregory A. (2004). Scope and structure 

of public relations: a technology 

driven view. Public Relations Review 30, 

245-254. Retrieved Feb. 1, 2012 from 

http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined 

Ingenhoff, D., & Koelling, A.M. 

(2009). The potential websites as a relationship 

building tools for charitable 

fundarising NPOs. Public Relations Review, 

35(1), 66-73. 

Ki , E-J.& Hon, L.C. (2006): Relationship 

maintenance strategies on Fortune 

500 companies websites. Journal of Communication 

Management 14(1), 59-80. 

Phillips, D.,& Young, P.(2009): Online 

public relations. (2nd ed.) PR in Prac-

tice Series. CIPR. Kogan Page: London. 

Waters, R. D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., 

& Lucas J. (2009): Engaging stakeholders 

through social networking: how nonprofit 

organisations are using Facebook. Public 

Relations Review, 35(2), 102-106. 

Werder, K. P. (2006): Responding 

to activism: An experimental analysis of 

public relations strategy influence on attributes 

of publics. Journal of Public Relations 

Research 18(4), 335-356. 

Freja Bange Nyboe and Anne 

Katherine Kjær (pages 146–150) 

Bender, J., O’Grady, L., & Jadad, 

A. (2008): Supporting cancer patients 

through the continuum of care: a view 

from the age of social networks and computer-mediated 

communication. 42-47. 

Bødker, K., Simonsen, J., & Kensing, 

F. (2008): Professionel it-forundersøgelse 

grundlag for bruger- drevet innovation. 

Frederiksberg: Forlaget samfundslitteratur. 

Danmarks Statistik. (2008): Nyt fra 

Danmarks statistik - Alderen har stor betydning 

for brug af it . 

Engholm, G., Kejs, A. M., & Christensen, 

N. C. (22. marts 2011): Kræft 

i tal. Viewed on the 3rd of May 2011 

fra Cancer.dk: http://www.cancer. 

dk/Hjaelp+viden/fakta+om+kraeft/ 

kraeft+i+tal/kraeft+i+tal.htm 

Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009): 

InterView introduktion til et håndværk. 

København: Hans Reit- zels Forlag. 

Moss, G., Gunn, R., & Heller, J. (2006): 

Some men like it black, some women like 

it pink: consumer implications of differences 

in male and female website design. 

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 328-341. 

Poulsen, E. (17. Januar 2007): Fakta 

om livmoderhalskræft. Viewed on the 

15th of March 2011 fra netdoktor.dk: 

http://www.netdoktor.dk/sygdomme/ 

fakta/livmoderhalskraeft.htm 

Jeannette Gusko (pages 156–160) 

Alexa (2011): Online statistics, 

www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/DE, 

www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org, 

12.04.2011. 

Benkler, Y. (2006): The Wealth of Networks. 

How Social Production Transforms 

Markets and Freedom, New Haven/London: 

Yale University Press. 

Bergler, R. (2008): Identität und Image. 

In: Bentele, G., & Fröhlich, R., & 

Szyszka, P. (Eds.): Handbuch der Public 

Relations. Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen 

und berufliches Handeln. Mit Lexikon, 

2nd edition, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. 

Busemann, K., & Gscheidle, C. 

(2010): Web 2.0: Nutzung steigt, Interesse 

an aktiver Teilhabe sinkt. Ergebnisse der 

ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie. In: Media Perspektiven, 

Nr. 7-8, S. 359-368. 

Hammwöhner, R. (2007): Qualitätsaspekte 

in der Wikipedia, kommunikation 

@ gesellschaft, Jg. 8, Beitrag 3. 

Hessel, E. (2006): Shillipedia, Forbes 

Magazine, 19.06.2006. 

Kleimann, B., & Özkilic, M., & Göcks, 

M. (2008): Studieren im Web 2.0. Studienbezogene 

Web- und E-Learning-Dienste, 

HISBUS-Kurzinformation Nr. 21, HIS 

Projektbericht. 

Machill, M., & Beiler, M., & Zenker, 

M. (2008): Journalistische Recherche im 

Internet. 2nd edition, Berlin. Vistas.

Merten, K., & Westerbarkey, J. 

(1994): Public Opinion und Public Relations. 

In: Merten, K., & Schmidt, S.J., & 

Weischenberg, S. (Eds.): Die Wirklichkeit 

der Medien: Eine Einführung in die Kommunikationswissenschaft, 

Opladen: Westdeutscher 

Verlag. 

Surowiecki, James (2004): The Wisdom 

Of Crowds. Anchor. New York. 

Zerfaß, A., & Buchele, M.S. (2008): 

Strukturwandel der Kommunikation. 

In: Bentele G./Piwinger M./ 

Schönborn,G.(Hrsg.): Kommunikationsmanagement, 

Loseblattsammlung 2001ff., 

Beitrag 1.06, München. 

Zerfaß, A., & Sandhu, S. (2008): Interaktive 

Kommunikation, Social Web 

und Open Innovation: Herausforderungen 

und Wirkungen im Unternehmenskontext. 

In: Zerfaß, A., & Welker , A., & 

Schmidt , J.(Eds.): Kommunikation, Partizipation 

und Wirkungen im Social Web. 

Band 2: Strategien und Anwendungen: 

Perspektiven für Wirtschaft, Politik, Publizistik, 

Neue Schriften zur Online-Forschung 

3, Köln: Halem. 

Zerfass, A., & Tench, R., & Verhoeven, 

P., & Vercic, D., &, Moreno, A. 

(2010): European Communication Monitor 

2010. Results of an Empirical Survey 

in 46 Countries. Brussels.

Now availiable - Digital Communication Awards

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?