And the winner is ...
Like their showbiz counterparts, the winners of trade fair prizes reap benefit from their technology Oscars. Media packages are helpful but not offered by all prize-givers.
Michael Marhofer is not a person who enjoys the limelight. "Being at the centre of attention is not exactly something I enjoy", the owner and managing director of Ifm Electronic in Essen says. And it's an attitude that is in keeping with the position of this medium-sized electronics business. "We are a little reserved when it comes to communication". But that suddenly changed last April when Marhofer found himself standing next to Lower Saxony's Minister-President Christian Wulff and Germany's Education and Research Minister of the time Edelgard Bulmahn: Marhofer was the recipient of the Hermes Award worth EUR 100,000.
The award ceremony took place during the opening of the Hanover Fair - an event closely scrutinised and reported on by members of the international press. So naturally, Marhofer was the subject of countless interviews during the next few days. Not only did the whole gamut of trade publications suddenly want to know about the company's award-winning product, radio stations, "Handelsblatt", "Süddeutsche Zeitung", "WAZ" and similar high-circulation publications also carried reports on the company. The NTV news channel even broadcast the award ceremony live.
Marhofer admits that dealing with journalists "does take some getting used to" but he has now recognised the advantages of PR. "Even before the fair started we had decided to open up more", the company's boss says. Why? Because the company is bursting at the seams - every year he recruits 250 new employees. The problem: "We are not finding enough people". Small and medium-sized companies complain about a lack of qualified engineers while companies such as BMW, Siemens benefit from the star appeal of their global brands. "In this respect, the prize has really helped us to become better known", says Marhofer.
But the award and knock-on press interest was not only important for the publicity of a company deprived of talent. Media interest in the tool that goes by the name of O1D has also benefited sales talks for the product which only entered series production last September. And this media interest is for the most part due to the Hermes Award. After all, when does the general press report on innovations in optical sensors? Without events that generate a large amount of publicity, the general public pays little attention to the world innovations of small German companies.
It is thanks to the Hermes award that a wider audience now knows that Marhofer's engineers were the first to integrate a time-of-flight measuring system onto a chip. They will also know that this procedure simplifies all types of distance measurements. And many newspaper readers will also know that the Essen company has already sold their chip to major airport London Heathrow, which is using the chip to optimise their baggage conveyors. And even without all these benefits: "For our employees, the prize also serves as recognition of their work and is responsible for a noticeable and lasting boost in motivation", says Marhofer.
Christopher Rubin, head of product marketing at the Swiss food company Bühler, can look forward to similar effects in the coming weeks: He has recently won the Food-Tech-Award's gold medal. The prize was presented this April at Anuga Food Tec in Cologne by the German Agricultural Society (DLG) in cooperation with a handful of trade publications. And when magazines are included in the list of cooperation partners, you can be sure of one thing: media coverage and more media coverage.
This coverage will focus on something called "reconstituted rice". Again a topic that does not often make the headlines - the unappetising ring to the term will put furrows in PR experts brows. But the good publicity from the prize will be some consolation.
The rice that comes out of an extruder is made of waste products. Until recently the flour produced when the rice is husked was used almost entirely as animal fodder. "But our process turns the waste into rice again", explains Rubin. The only difference really is in the way it looks: "the grains are all very regular, but this is really only noticeable to experts".
But for all that, the reconstituted rice is rich in vitamins: "The most valuable constituents are lost when the rice is husked", says the marketing specialist: "because the goodness is directly under the husk. And it's precisely out of these left-over products that Bühler rice is made."
But Rubin goes one step further: He enriches his rice with additional minerals and vitamins. He has just commissioned a production plant in China. This choice of location is no accident: "Our target group is in countries where vitamin deficiency is a problem."
Rubin is convinced that the Food-Tech-Award will help get the new product off the ground. "But this prize really only has a high profile in Europe", the marketing expert warns. "Whether it will have the desired effect on our customers abroad is hard to tell." But Rubin is determined to broadcast their win: He intends to include it in brochures. Rubin also wants to advertise the fact on the Cologne fair stand, publish reports in the company's customer magazine "Diagram", and employees e-mail signatures are to include the adjunct "Winner of the Food-Tech-Award". But advertisements will not bear the logo: "Product-specific advertising is not our policy and this is no exception."
The media package given to winners by the awarding body is very useful and includes a digital logo. Not all trade fair prizes provide such a service. Frauke Fughe, marketing head at optics and laser specialists Polytec in Waldbronn, was proud to receive the innovation prize awarded by the AMA Association for Sensor Technology, even though the package did not include a digital logo or anything like that. However the prize, which was awarded during the Nuremberg Sensor+Test 2005 fair, did include a cup "which now has pride of place in our glass cabinet", says Fughe. She had to design the logo that now graces her advertisements herself, but the EUR 10,000 prize money will certainly be some consolation for that fiddly task.
And the PR and marketing efforts seem to have been worth it, too: "The entire trade press reported on the award", says Fughe, although the press release does make tough reading. The award was presented for a "confocal, stroboscopic measuring microscope with integrated scanning vibrometer". Of course, specialists know this is a device for monitoring the vibrations of microscopic components. Fughe: "The technology is brilliant - with or without a prize!"
Small companies in Germany have now understood that it is not enough to produce good quality if you don't talk about it exhaustively and publicly. Ifm-Electronic boss Marhofer reacted immediately after the prize was awarded: "That same night we stuck labels on our stand and put the prize in a display cabinet." Marhofer took a gamble and got the labels printed in advance - after all no fewer than five companies were nominated for the prize. Right until the end nobody knew who would win. "They kept very quiet about it. It was just like the Oscars." Markus Ridder
m+a report Nr.3 / 2006 vom 28.04.2006
m+a report vom 28. April 2006