Our News & Views 2018

20 Dec 2018

10 years have flown by... thank you Clariant

Looking back over the past decade of supporting Clariant’s reputation building, we’ve seen quite some development in its approach to media relations. 

6 Dec 2018

Podcasting is a great communication tool - what are you waiting for?

People love stories and being in the know and this is what podcasts are all about. And they are growing hugely in popularity. The ever-present smartphone is home base for this content and more and more people are downloading podcast apps and listening to all kinds of specialist content.

26 Nov 2018

Visit to Green Chemistry Campus

Instead of having our usual monthly meeting, we’ve visited the Green Chemistry Campus last week: just a kilometre down the road from EMG, at the heart of the Biobased Delta. 

21 Nov 2018

Keeping fake news in check

Fake news is a phenomenon that is influencing public opinion and - you could even say - has a negative impact on the reputation of the media. However, it is not the legitimate media that spread fake news. 

14 Nov 2018

Media Intelligence = Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence supports better decision making. The technology-driven process of collecting, storing and analysing data is something PR professionals have been embracing for years – through media monitoring and evaluation.

9 Nov 2018

Do they really want to know this?

Creating communications content that will strike a chord with your audience is the obvious approach to marketing. But it only truly works if you look at things from “the outside-in” rather than “inside-out”. 

18 Oct 2018

Clearly defined goals & chemistry...it takes two to tango

After more than 10 years of working with SABIC’s plastics and polymers business units, in 2018 we were delighted to extend our support and welcome SABIC’s Specialties SBU as a new EMG Group client. 

16 Oct 2018

Stand up & be counted, before the K Show

Our pre-K event features a series of compact press conferences and networking opportunities, all in one location, that enable individual companies to meet with key members of influential trade media outlets to deliver their K Show news well before the event.

11 Sep 2018

New website: what else is new?

Announcing a new website is something you’d do in the 00’s. Nowadays, people are used to a long list of weekly upgrades on their mobile phones, which are installed automatically and are probably not even noticed. Websites are following that trend – some sites even become apps. 

6 Sep 2018

Creating physical touchpoints that strengthen your (online) marketing

It’s a cliché story. A couple shares a table at a restaurant – each holding a smartphone, each fully engrossed in their respective digital worlds. Suddenly, one of their phones pings – a message – from the other: “pass the salt please”. Let’s face it, some things are better done in person.

30 Aug 2018

Social Selling: Not just Millennials Mingling Online

During your last workday, how many times did you sneak a peek at your LinkedIn page, your Twitter feed or your Facebook timeline? Probably a little more often than you would like to admit. Staying in touch with friends is a basic human craving social media can temporarily satisfy. We all want to be social, stay in touch with our friends. But what if you could use this to also stay in touch with your customers?

23 Jul 2018

World Cup Football – the best ever (depending who you ask)

Some lost their interest when their favourites had to leave the tournament (and some lost interest a little while earlier: when their favourites didn’t manage to qualify), but up until a week ago there was a fierce competition within EMG's World Cup 2018 Football Contest.

16 Jul 2018

Telling your story and positioning your brand in Africa

Africa is a fast-growing market, one that offers immense growth opportunities for its local and international investors. The last ten years has seen an upswing in the number of investors that are making Africa their next investment bet.

9 Jul 2018

Communicator Summit 2018

They came from all over Europe. 14 communication professionals joined the EMG team at the end of June for EMG's 3rd annual Communicator Summit. This year's theme was “The Connected Customer”. 

21 Jun 2018

Running out of reporters - what journalism's decline means for PR

In the midst of mass layoffs at Singapore Press Holdings and an increasingly bleak traditional media landscape, it's time for PR professionals to start growing a new skill set.

14 Jun 2018

Technologies may change the face of communications but not the core

At EMG, we’re welcoming the digital revolution in marketing. New technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are changing how many of our clients are reaching out to customers. We see it first-hand at tradeshows. 

7 Jun 2018

Executive Communications: Learning from Elon Musk’s Media Moment

When Elon Musk decided to take issue with reporters and their media coverage last month, we felt a collective wince across the PR industry and pangs of sympathy for his communications team. Some of our team felt his tirade might be part of a broader strategy to promote Musk’s conceptual ‘Pravda’ platform to rate media credibility. 

23 May 2018

Keep Calm!

You might have noticed the ‘Keep Calm and Communicate On’ logo that has appeared on our email signatures? If you click through you’ll find some great thinking from across the team that reflects on our latest customer survey.

15 May 2018

Fast charging is our future

Supporting and leading the PR and marketing activities of Tritium as their network of fast-charging infrastructure expands across Europe.

8 May 2018

WeChat, Chinaplas and all the rest...

Since I last wrote about WeChat a few years back, the platform has moved on in strides and encompasses all aspects of life and work in China today. WeChat is the norm for messaging, voice calls, sharing videos/images; it is used to hail taxis; book food, and make payments from high street stores, person to person transfers, and paying street vendors. Cash is no longer king here. I have heard rumours of street beggars handing over QR codes to receive money by WeChat. It is becoming hard to image back life without WeChat in China.

3 May 2018

Integrated project management: Creating the new EMG office

When, in 2017, we evaluated our working practices, it became abundantly clear that EMG needed to adapt its working environment: more workstations, open and flexible work spaces provide easier interaction for our teams, more rooms to call clients and editors – and plenty of areas for formal and informal client and team meetings.

26 Apr 2018

New look EMG HQ

Today we mark the formal opening of the new look EMG headquarters in Bergen op Zoom. During the last 6 weeks, our team “camped out” in a temporary office next door, while builders and decorators refashioned the entire building. 

5 Apr 2018

Why we like podcasts

In recent years, we have seen a move away from the written word.  Photos, infographics, online presentations and videos now appear to dominate websites and information platforms. This is particularly true in a technical /engineering business-to-business environment. Why try to describe something in words, when a diagram can do the same thing more effectively.

29 Mar 2018

EMG goes USA: CU @ NPE & ACS

It’s that time again - time for the Sunshine State to briefly become the center of the plastics universe for one week. The NPE 2018 trade fair from May 7-11 will again collocate with the Society of Plastics Engineers' big ANTEC technical conference in Orlando, Florida.

27 Mar 2018

Keep calm and communicate on

As part of our annual voice of the customer survey, we spoke to 40 marketing and communications professionals. Digital transformation and disruption were front of everyone’s mind. Every respondent mentioned the increasingly faster pace of marketing and a lack of time. 

23 Mar 2018

Vanity or Valid: Are you measuring what matters?

It comes as no surprise that communications directors told us they are constantly being challenged to demonstrate the value of communications.

21 Mar 2018

Millenials and Social selling

If you're reading this article on the train, in the office or even at home... stop! Now look up, and see if you can spot a Millennial? They are everywhere. There might be one in your family, one on your team, two might have even written this article!

19 Mar 2018

Committing to CommsTech

The chances are that if you’re a marketing director and reading this story, you’re taking a quick break from a CRM implementation meeting! Almost half of the people we spoke with during our customer survey mentioned their company was striving for closer alignment of marketing and sales to drive more value and rolling out either a CRM or an ERP system.

15 Mar 2018

Has content become too vanilla?

Content came up, unprompted, in every single interview of our survey. While some customers already have established strategies in place, others are just dipping their toes for the first time. It seems though that content marketing has finally reached a tipping point with industrial technology communicators. That's great, but a word of caution – beware of vanilla-ization.

13 Mar 2018

Think like an air traffic controller

No one has any time, anymore. Sometimes even getting the reactive, day-to-day stuff done can be a challenge, leaving less time to focus on the proactive and creative work we all entered this profession to do.

6 Mar 2018

Light & Building Show: is your communications as smart as your product?

In a few weeks our 'Automation & Control' team will be descending on Frankfurt. We work many shows throughout the year, but when it comes around, one highlight is always Light & Building - for the sheer amount of innovation, fresh thinking and design that comes to market.

14 Feb 2018

Happy Chinese New Year

Our office in China will be closed February 15-21 as China celebrates its national New Year holiday, and welcomes in the Year of the Dog.

8 Feb 2018

Trade Associations & industry analysts: the “celebrities” of B2B Influencer Relations

Influencer Marketing is taking off. The concept of using influencers to seed the right message is relatively easy to grasp in consumer industries such as fashion and beauty. Here we’re regularly confronted with influencers either directly or indirectly helping to enhance a reputation. 

31 Jan 2018

Building a social media presence for Trelleborg Wheel Systems

Building a social media presence organically takes both time and commitment. So, when Nicole Kipping from Trelleborg Wheel Systems wanted to promote the Industrial & Construction Tires business as part of growing the company’s overall presence, she came to EMG.

24 Jan 2018

Chinaplas 2018 - bigger, better and more boisterous than ever

The countdown to this year’s Chinaplas event is well on its way with only 12 weeks to go before the show opens its doors at the new - and world’s largest expo centre- the NECC (National Exhibition and Convention Centre), close to Hongqiao airport.

18 Jan 2018

When it comes to trade shows, you can build on us

The decision to take part as an exhibitor in a trade fair is never taken lightly. There are so many aspects to consider. Why are we going, who are we going to meet, what are our messages? And then there is the cost, both direct (space, stand build, displays) and indirect (travel, accommodation, entertainment) as well as the often “hidden costs” of staff involved in attendance, organisation, coordination and communication.

8 Jan 2018

EMG forms strategic alliance with digital agency Digiti to extend service portfolio

We’re kicking off this year with some exciting news of a new strategic alliance with full-service digital agency, Digiti.