This implementation will be organised by local PR agencies. In Germany, achtung! will implement the new strategy itself to create a stronger perception of Kaldewei as a lifestyle and premium brand. Franz Kaldewei, who personally oversaw the pitch, commented, “The achtung! team won us over with its smart concept, its originality and, in particular, its identification with and enthusiasm for our brand. The agency scored highly with its intelligent approach for developing a flexible strategy that integrates international markets.”

Kaldewei, which was recently named “Brand of the Century”, stands for perfection and style. All products are defined by steel enamel and combine extraordinary levels of aesthetics, sumptuousness, quality and values. Its systematic style and design focus has resulted in Kaldewei products being present in numerous leading hotels around the world. This premium manufacturer based in Ahlen has already won more than 60 prestigious design awards, including the “interior innovation award 2011”, which was presented to two Kaldewei products this year: the “CONOFLAT” floor-level shower tray and the “BASSINO” floating bath.

STAEDTLER is one of Germany’s oldest industrial companies and one of the world’s leading suppliers of writing, painting, drawing and creative products. The World Kids Colouring Day was devised by the Nuremberg-based company in 2008. Since then, children around the world have eagerly put colouring pens to paper on May 6 each year and have been involved in a worthy cause through their joy of drawing. The young artists exchange their artworks for a donation from friends and family to a charitable organisation. In Germany, for example, the donations go to SOS Kinderdorf e.V’s projects.

“It was important for us to find an agency that understood STAEDTLER and that would support us with heart and mind in implementing and developing the World Kids Colouring Day. achtung! won us over in this respect with its personal involvement and excellent ideas,” stated Britta Olsen, Head of International Marketing, when justifying the decision for hiring achtung!

achtung! has designed the campaign and is rolling it out across Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands during March. In addition to using classic forms of advertising, such as out-of-home media and adverts in daily newspapers and online, the City Night Line offer is also being promoted at points of sale in train station ticket offices. The highlight of the campaign features a “sleeping couple” in a City Night Line bed being driven around major towns and cities in Germany in a glass-sided promotional van to create a spectacular “moving ad”.

With Patric Modey, achtung! continues to follow on the path of its own strategy: to position itself competitively in the advertising, PR, social media and direct marketing sectors and, at the same time, to combine these to create efficient, inspiring communications. “At achtung!, PR and social media motivate dialogue and trust, advertising is an eye-catcher and brings out emotions, and direct marketing then capitalises on these for our clients – all from a single source. Patric Modey has the experience and competence to move people with and for brands across all the relevant channels”, explains Mirko Kaminski, CEO and founder of achtung!.

Last year, achtung! was able to give a significant boost to its creative team by hiring Lars Joseph, previously creative director at Scholz & Friends, Hamburg. In addition, Christine Gilges also opted for achtung! after working for Tribal DDB, where she was in charge of clients like Ferrero, PAYBACK and Deutsche Telekom.

SCA made its decision following a PR and social media pitch for both brands. Three agencies were invited to participate. “With a sound strategy and the idea for a powerful communications platform, achtung! was able to persuade us”, says Katrin Boettger, Head of Marketing at SCA in Mannheim. In Germany and Austria, Zewa is well known for its sanitary products, such as Zewa Wisch & Weg (paper towels) and the toilet paper ranges Zewa Soft and Zewa Lind. Plenty paper towels gain huge popularity in Austria and Switzerland.

With several PR and social media activities, achtung! is now invited to charge the brand with emotion as well as to increase consumer loyalty. In addition, achtung! will also be responsible for special interest media relations.

Head of the achtung! creation team is Creative Director Lars Joseph, previously CD at Scholz & Friends and mainly in charge of Tchibo. Before Scholz & Friends, Lars Joseph was at Economia and worked on accounts such as Schwartau, Diebels, Volvo, Bayer and Deutsche Telekom. At achtung!, long-standing Senior Art Director Tanja Weichhold is at his side, having gained experience at Grey (G2) and red cell before coming to achtung!. In the past, her clients included Alfa Romeo, Vaillant, Campari, E.ON, British American Tobacco (Lucky Strike and Dunhill) and AUTO BILD, to name just a few.

This staffing clearly shows achtung!’s goal of creating a higher agency awareness as well as a stronger ad performance. Until today, achtung! has been the agency in charge for accounts like Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom and the Vitus Group, one of the largest german housing corporations.

Although at times still thought of as a PR specialist, achtung! has grown into a full-service agency with offices in Hamburg and Munich. And since January 1, 2010, achtung! has restructured its business by combining all five disciplines into a single company. Now, achtung! GmbH – formerly known as achtung! kommunikation GmbH –  offers services in five areas of specialization: achtung! werbung (advertising), achtung! pr, achtung! direkt, achtung! interaktiv and achtung! event.

Furthermore, achtung! has created a “holodeck”,  allowing clients to work with any or all of these five areas while keeping one and the same contact person. This way of doing business is a conscious decision to avoid a holding-type structure resulting in a series of independent subsidiaries. This is important because in the agency’s opinion, subcompanies working separately from one another run the risk of being motivated by self-interest, only recommending solutions that they happen to offer, which is counterproductive to objective cross-media consulting.

In addition to this unique service package, achtung! is an agency with a strong history in public relations that is now transferring its knowledge to other areas of communication. “Media presence used to be bought. In today’s world, however, where social networks are becoming more and more important, media presence is something that has to be earned. Sensitive communication and dialog based on respect are essential requirements for this new kind of reaching out. PR agencies have always fostered this kind of respectful dialog. This respect is the key component of our brand”, achtung! CEO Mirko Kaminski explains. The new “power of many” prominent in social networks must lead to a new way of thinking, resulting in monolog and persuasion making way for dialog and conviction.

Expert Know-How and Integrated Communication

achtung! will continue to offer its specialized expertise in cases where PR, advertising or online concepts and services are required on their own. At the same time, achtung! is offering integrated, interdisciplinary communication. To do this, the agency is tearing down barriers that can hinder or even prevent true cooperation. “Although integrated communication is not something people are asking for on a regular basis yet, agencies need to raise their awareness of this concept. And the only way to do that is by having employees work together interdepartmentally, learning from each other. That is why it’s important to unite all areas under one umbrella”, Mirko Kaminski explains.
The “holodeck” will guarantee that clients can work with individually assembled, interdisciplinary teams headed by one person. This will put an end to specialists loosely collaborating while reporting to separate department heads. Instead, the focus will be entirely on the client and their challenges and goals. Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway company, and the Vitus group are among the first achtung! clients the holodeck is looking after.

Social Media and Creation as Cross-Section Competence

At the same time, achtung! is offering competence creation and social media strategies as a cross-sectional service. “Creation and social media interweave all disciplines – especially integrated communication. They should not be impeded by any sort of barriers – which is why we are making them fixtures in all our service areas”, Mirko Kaminski says.

Today, Osborne is launching its new website at www.osborne.de – created and implemented by the communications agency achtung!. The new website is easy to navigate – two clicks is all you need to get to all the important information – and boasts comprehensive content featuring attractive Web 2.0 functions.
The product presentation is prominently featured on the new website. It is located in the “Osborne Knowledge” area, set up as a library and containing interesting information about brandy, sherry, wine and port wine. In addition, the “Torolounge” offers a photo competition with an attractive array of prizes – the first prize consisting of a trip for two to Andalusia. The news section offers information, photos and videos as well as Osborne wine ambassador Rocio Osborne’s Twitter feed. Twitter users may contact her directly via the micro-blogging platform to chat about the latest news from the world of wine. Visitors wishing to receive regular Osborne updates can simply subscribe to the RSS feed.
“The Osborne bull is one of the best-known trademarks in the world. We want to let everyone who visits our new website share in the typical Osborne spirit, offering bull fans a forum with lots of useful information and exciting content”, Jörg Herlyn, Osborne’s director for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, explains. The website was designed and created by achtung!’s online experts in Hamburg.

• Agency group achtung! manages product launch of ten new LEGO games
• This innovation in the field of board games is LEGO’s most important project this year
• The concept was pitched in mid-April
• Quote from Katharina Sutch, European PR Manager & Communications at LEGO GmbH: “We were won over by the strategic and interdisciplinary approach as well as the creative measures proposed by achtung!. We attach particular importance to the high level of communications know-how which is apparent in the concept.”
• The traditional range of LEGO games has been expanded

Long version:

Hamburg, June 10, 2009 – The achtung! agency group, with offices in Hamburg and Munich, has started playing with LEGO. The communications agency will be managing the product launch of ten new LEGO games.
This innovation in the field of board games is this year’s most important project for the toy manufacturer.

The agency was invited to pitch for the account in mid-April. “We were won over by the strategic and interdisciplinary approach as well as the creative measures proposed by achtung!”, is how Katharina Sutch, European PR & Communications Manager at LEGO GmbH, justified awarding the account to achtung!. “We attach particular importance to the high level of communications know-how which is apparent in the concept.”

With the development of these board games, LEGO GmbH is expanding its traditional range and bringing a new dimension of fun to families with children aged six upwards. All the games combine traditional LEGO elements with creative game formats and a patented “buildable” brick.. The toy manufacturer was supported by award-winning game inventor Dr. Reiner Knizia,. And the results have turned out very well indeed: The game “Ramses’ Pyramid” has already been awarded the “Toy Innovation Award 2009″ even before its official market launch.

About the LEGO Group:
The headquarters of the LEGO Group is in Billund, Denmark and – measured by sales – the group is the sixth-largest toy manufacturer in the world. Apart from the traditional LEGO blocks, the range includes an additional 25 product lines sold in more than 130 countries. The name of the company, founded in 1932, is composed of the two Danish words “leg” and “godt”, which means “play well”.

About achtung!
achtung! encompasses the following agencies:
achtung! kommunikation (public relations)
achtung! werbeagentur (advertising and design)
achtung! lotsen (customer relationship marketing)
achtung! erlebnis (events and promotions)
achtung! interaktiv (online marketing)
achtung! employs over 130 staff. The achtung! group is ranked number 25 in the list of owner-managed advertising agencies. This annually published list is compiled by the trade publications “Werben & Verkaufen” and “Horizont.”

• achtung! is the winner of the 2009 Neptun cross-media award with the campaign “Im neuen Jahr besser pendeln!” [Better commuting in the new year] for Deutsche Bahn
• The award was conferred for the fourth time by the initiative Hamburg@work
• The finale featured the cream of the German advertising industry with campaigns such as “23 Tage. Das YouTube Fan-Tagebuch” (Kolle Rebbe), “Größer, breiter, schneller - mit der eBay Tuning Meisterschaft fett in der Tuningszene” (Initiative Media)
• Awarded for integrating different media channels in terms of both content and time
• “achtung! kommunikation has emerged as the winner among a very good group of participants”, explained Gunnar Brune, Managing Director of Lowe Deutschland GmbH and member of the specialist committee.
• “It’s one thing to have an effective and efficient campaign, but having to convince a big jury like this with a live presentation is something else altogether,” explained Mirko Kaminski, Managing Director of achtung!.
• “In terms of their complexity, cross-media campaigns are the supreme discipline in the field of advertising. The standard of the campaigns presented is proof of the high quality and creativity of German advertisers”, says Harald Kratel, spokesperson of the specialist cross-media group at Hamburg@work and COO of Parship.
• In addition to the specialist cross-media group at Hamburg@work, the expert committee, which had put forward the campaigns for the finale, comprised more than ten of the most important German advertisers and marketing experts. These included Frank-Michael Schmidt (CEO of the Scholz & Friends Group), Markus Goetze (Managing Director of Heye & Partner) and Michael Trautmann (Managing Director of kempertrautmann).

Long version

achtung! is the winner of the 2009 Neptun cross-media award which was conferred again this year for the fourth time by the initiative Hamburg@work. With the campaign “Im neuen Jahr besser pendeln!” [Better commuting in the New Year] for Deutsche Bahn, the agency emerged the victor in a thrilling finale against competition which included the campaigns “23 Tage. Das YouTube Fan-Tagebuch” by Kolle Rebbe and “Größer, breiter, schneller – mit der eBay Tuning-Meisterschaft fett in der Tuningszene” by Initiative Media.

The jury was impressed by the fact that a surprising partner had been brought on board for the campaign in the shape of the German automobile association ADAC. The latter calculated that commuting by train is 45% more cost effective than by car, that the motivating message had reached car commuters via several channels simultaneously and that a great deal of additional revenue had been generated with a reasonable budget. The campaigns in the finale had been selected beforehand by a well-known expert committee, based on inventiveness, effect and cost-effectiveness, from numerous entrants. “With achtung!, the best from a very good group of participants has triumphed. With this successful event, the Neptun cross-media award has finally become established as an important industry competition”, explained Gunnar Brune, Managing Director of Lowe Deutschland GmbH and a member of the expert committee.

In the finale, which took place the next09 conference in Hamburg, the nominees had to pitch to the “toughest jury in the world”. They presented their cross-media campaigns in front of around 300 experts from the fields of digital economy and media creation, but also in front of interested members of the public including boxing world champion Susi Kentikian, actress Julia Stinshoff and Benjamin Adrion of Viva con Agua. The winner was then determined by the audience, which cast their votes by way of text messaging. “It’s one thing to have an effective and efficient campaign, but having to convince a big jury like this with a live presentation is something else altogether. We are delighted that our campaign for Deutsche Bahn has also been awarded the Neptun cross-media Award”, says Mirko Kaminski, Managing Director of achtung!. “In terms of their complexity, cross-media campaigns are the supreme discipline in the field of advertising. The standard of the campaigns presented is proof of the high quality and creativity of German advertisers”, says Harald Kratel, spokesperson of the specialist cross-media group at Hamburg@work and COO of Parship.

In addition to the specialist cross-media group at Hamburg@work, the expert committee that had put forward the campaigns for the finale consisted of more than ten of the most important German advertisers and marketing professionals. These included Frank-Michael Schmidt (CEO of the Scholz & Friends Group), Markus Goetze (Managing Director of Heye & Partner) and Michael Trautmann (Managing Director of kempertrautmann).