Siemens Case Study
Challenge:
Siemens plc had a short-term need for additional public relations resource to supplement the in-house team in order to meet specific objectives within a defined timescale between September and December 2005. Specifically, Siemens wanted to secure media coverage, particularly in the national media to promote Siemens as leaders in innovation. In addition to this, Siemens wanted K+R to develop and promote a national competition to reach young people and engage them in the Siemens sponsored ‘Building to the Limits’ exhibition.
Strategy:
The approach taken was to use Siemens’ innovations as examples of the ways in which innovators are rising to challenges. In addition to this, K+R carried out original research and used the results to develop strong news angles that would attract national media coverage. Siemens had already produced a futurologist report called Horizons 2020 that looked at all aspects of society in the year 2020. As part of the strategy K+R would use this report to position Siemens as thought leaders in innovation. Finally, using strategic partners, K+R devised a competition that was fun, fast and captured the imaginations of young children. This again tied into the common theme and had a strong emphasis on innovation.
Tactics:
A media relations campaign was undertaken mainly targeting national print and broadcast media. Given the timescale of the campaign, K+R tactically focused on three distinct channels to ensure the ball was rolling at the earliest opportunity, comprising:
- To develop stories about future technologies that Siemens is developing that would add value to everyday life. Through careful monitoring of the media K+R placed these stories and subtly embedded Siemens’ key messages into the stories.
- A ‘Pythagoras or Paintbrush’ national survey was carried out amongst A-Level students to investigate why they chose ‘soft’ subjects over science, technology and engineering subjects.
- An on-line competition called ‘Imagine Beyond the Limits’ was developed whereby children were asked to design a gadget that could go into the house of the future in 2020. The qualifying questions were designed to tie into the curriculum thus encouraging take-up by schools and other third party organisations.
Results:
Between the periods September to December a total of 67 pieces of coverage appeared across all forms of media including 12 pieces of national coverage, double the original target set by Siemens. The national coverage alone meant that a total of 13,738,382 people were reached. The national competition ‘Imagine Beyond the Limits’ received a total of 1,635 hits and entries, again exceeding the original target of 1,010 set by Siemens. Five sales leads were also generated as a direct result of the media coverage achieved in support of Siemens’ future technologies.
