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).

Developments at achtung!

• Agency group achtung!, with offices in Hamburg and Munich, looks back on the most successful year in the agency’s history
• Gross income in 2008 increased by 89% to €6.53 million
• achtung! catapulted into the list of the 30 largest owner-managed advertising agencies in Germany for the first time
• The annual ranking is drawn up jointly by the trade publications “Horizont” and “Werben & Verkaufen”
• The driving force behind the success of last year was Deutsche Bahn in particular
• Most recent success story: The campaign for Deutsche Bahn’s City Night Line
• achtung! has no fears facing 2009, perceived as a year of crisis
• At the start of the year, eBay Deutschland entrusted the agency with further commissions
• In addition, achtung! has already acquired new customers in the early stages of the year, including the Arbeitgeberverband Nordernährung, Kalaschnikow Energy and Deutsche Zweitmarkt AG
• Staff numbers are also on the rise: achtung! now employs more than 130
• The most recent recruit is Thorsten Beckmann, achtung!’s new Commercial Manager
• Beckmann is a very familiar name in the industry — as Commercial Manager, he was in charge of the traditional Hamburg-based agency Economia’s finances for many years
• His most recent post was Chief Financial Officer at Avenso Holding AG in Berlin

PR Report Award

• In the Innovative PR Strategy category at last Thursday’s PR REPORT AWARDS in Berlin, achtung! kommunikation walked away with the prize for the Deutschlandauto campaign, designed for eBay and mobile.de, awarded by host Ulrich Wickert

Quote from Mirko Kaminski, Managing Director of achtung!

• “We have been working for Deutsche Bahn ever since achtung! was founded. The gross income from Deutsche Bahn at achtung! has increased considerably, primarily due to winning the Europe-wide accountfor BTL communications.”

Quote from Thorsten Beckmann, Commercial Manager at achtung!

• “We now have the structures, the size and the people needed to firmly establish achtung! as one of the most important owner-managed agencies in Germany.”

Quote from Robert Trenkel, Managing Director at achtung!

• “We now have the structures, the size and the people needed to firmly establish achtung! as one of the most important owner-managed agencies in Germany.”

Long Version:

Hamburg, April 9, 2009 – The agency group achtung!, with offices in Hamburg and Munich, can look back on the most successful year in the agency’s history. Gross income in 2008 grew by 89% to €6.53 million. This catapulted achtung! into the 30 largest owner-managed advertising agencies in Germany for the first time. The annual ranking is drawn up jointly by the trade publications “Horizont” and “Werben & Verkaufen.”

The driving force behind last year’s success was Deutsche Bahn in particular. “We have been working for Deutsche Bahn ever since achtung! was founded”, said Managing Director Mirko Kaminski. “The gross income from Deutsche Bahn at achtung! has increased considerably, primarily due to winning the Europe-wide account for BTL communications,” continued Kaminski. And achtung! has no worries going into 2009, perceived as a year of crisis. At the start of the year, eBay Deutschland entrusted the agency with additional commissions.

And achtung! continues to score hits with Deutsche Bahn. The most recent success is the campaign for Deutsche Bahn’s City Night Line. achtung! has also managed to acquire new customers even in the early stages of the year, including Arbeitgeberverband Nordernährung, Kalaschnikow Energy, Deutsche Zweitmarkt AG and 20th Century Fox. This has also led to achtung! leasing an additional 400 m2 of office space at its premises in Hamburg as the number of staff is also being increased. A total of more than 130 employees now work for achtung!.

The most recent new recruit is Thorsten Beckmann, achtung!’s new . Beckmann is a very familiar name in the industry: As Commercial Manager, he was in charge of the fortunes of the traditional Hamburg-based agency Economia’s finances for many years. His last post was Chief Financial Officer at Avenso Holding AG in Berlin. “achtung! is an incredible agency. I was won over by the people and the palpable energy from the moment I arrived. I look forward to my role and to making a contribution to the further development and growth of achtung!”, says Thorsten Beckmann.

“We now have the structures, the size and the people needed to firmly establish achtung! as one of the most important owner-run agencies in Germany” added Robert Trenkel, Managing Director at achtung!. The agency’s other managing directors include Claus Allkofer (achtung! lotsen), Peter Cramer (achtung! erlebnis), Björn Walter (achtung! interaktiv) and Claudia Sommer and Wolfgang Hildebrand (achtung! werbeagentur).

In the Innovative PR Strategy category at last Thursday’s PR REPORT AWARDS in Berlin, achtung! kommunikation walked away with the prize for the Deutschlandauto campaign, designed for eBay and mobile.de, awarded by host Ulrich Wickert

achtung! Kommunikation analyzed millions of search queries on the platforms for mobile.de and eBay Motors and identified the most sought-after vehicle features. On the basis of this, achtung! kommunikation constructed the Deutschlandauto, Germany’s most sought-after vehicle!

Facts:

• New subsidiary achtung! interaktiv updates the achtung! website as part of a public relaunch
• Anyone interested can follow the project live at www.achtung-relaunch.de and via the Twitter Account a_interaktiv. All twitter replies will be published chronologically with the tweets from a_interaktiv
• The achtung! interaktiv team intends to fill the project mosaic with relevant information until May 1 – for example, photos of the flipchart from the brainstorming session, videos of votes and first drafts of the design

Long version

March 24, 2009 – achtung! is updating its website – and everyone is invited to watch. New subsidiary achtung! interaktiv is presenting its expertise at www.achtung-relaunch.de and inviting you to follow the work on the new agency website live. The campaign page will provide new insights into the project on a daily basis.

Gradually, each individual field in the large project mosaic will be filled with relevant information until the target date of May 1 – for example, photos of the flipchart from the brainstorming session, videos of votes and first drafts of the design. The campaign page will let you know what’s happening and whether things are getting hectic.
In addition, Twitter Account a_interaktiv will provide short reports on the project. What mood the team is in, personal reactions and also hard nuts to crack will all be twittered here in a maximum of 140 characters. Anyone with a twitter account can also leave their own personal comments: All “replies” will be published chronologically with the tweets from a_interaktiv.

• achtung! has already been working successfully with eBay Motors, mobile.de and PayPal
• In addition to the eBay Group, the “Technical & Automotive” team also looks after other companies such as KEF, Shure, NAVTEQ Services and Faurecia, one of the leaders worldwide in automotive equipment
• At the start of the expanded collaboration, achtung! increased its team by another nine members

Quote from Nerses Chopurian, Director of Corporate Communications at eBay GmbH

• “Projects such as ‘Deutschlandauto’, nominated for the 2009 PR Report Award, have won us over,and we are delighted to now have achtung! on board for eBay also.”

Hamburg – After successful collaborations with eBay Motors, mobile.de and PayPal, the worldwide online marketplace eBay has put its Germany account for the areas of consumer PR, trust and safety in the hands of achtung! kommunikation. “Projects such as ‘Deutschlandauto’, nominated for the 2009 PR Report Award, have won us over, and we are delighted to now have achtung! on board for eBay also”, says Nerses Chopurian, Director of Corporate Communications at eBay GmbH.

In addition to the eBay Group, the “Technical & Automotive” team also looks after other companies such as KEF, Shure, NAVTEQ Services and Faurecia, one of the leaders worldwide in automotive equipment. At the start of the expanded collaboration, achtung! increased the team by another nine members .