From target group analysis to founder film series
A new communication concept and a campaign for the Ruhr Innovation Centers are making founders aware of a wide range of innovative offers
Innovations mean progress, competitiveness and future viability for companies and entire regions. The Ruhr area has undergone an astonishing structural change in the last few decades and reinvented itself as a business location. During the transformation of the metropolis, an innovation network was created to promote start-ups and ensure sustainable transfer to the economy: around 30 technology, innovation and start-up centers were created. In order to make their offers visible to potential founders, we commissioned Business metropolis Ruhr developed a cross-media communication strategy. The special thing about it: the creation process was carried out in a participatory manner.
Whether office and conference rooms, large factory halls or fully equipped laboratories - innovation centers rent out to young entrepreneurs: suitable premises in the scientific landscape and at the same time support them with process support, know-how and connections to business: a good place to start a business. But how does the target group become aware of the offer, which communication channels do founders use and what expectations do they have of the location where they were founded? When developing a successful communication strategy, the focus is on the analysis of the target group and their needs. That is why we carried out a quantitative survey of current tenants for the Business Metropolis Ruhr and identified the specific needs of the target group. Additional expert interviews provided an additional perspective and a comprehensive impression. Important topics in the industry, successful event formats and factors for leasing could be identified here.
We always implemented the individual steps in the project in a participatory manner and involved the experts, the target group and the management level of the centers in co-creative workshops. Our many years of experience show that communication strategies always find a particularly high level of acceptance when they are created in co-creation with the target group itself. We developed our marketing and communication concept accordingly as a multi-level Design thinking process.
“Modern marketing communication always takes place in dialogue with a changing target group. It has to continuously develop its own products, processes and services with the help of feedback from the target group, ”explains Arne Klauke, who managed the project at matrix. The goal was therefore clear: a flexible, action-oriented and agile guide, a prototype of a communication strategy, so to speak.
On the basis of the knowledge gained, personae were developed that help to produce and distribute content in a targeted and precisely tailored manner. The needs of the individual personae could be compared with the actual offers using a value proposition canvas. On this basis, a deeper understanding of the target group emerged, which enabled concrete recommendations for action and the development of communication measures - from the selection of channels to individual formats with recognition value.
YouTube, for example, is one of the most important media for founders; in general, the platform offers a high level of sustainability and good content will bring reach and interaction for years to come. For the start-up unicorns and zebras, both informative articles and authentic success stories from like-minded people are of interest. “It is particularly helpful for us to now have a sound insight into our target group and their communication behavior. In addition to the concrete recommendations for action, we have gained a flexible strategy that can be adapted to our future ideas and activities, ”reports Markus Querfurt, project manager of the Business Metropole Ruhr.
Based on the strategy, the matrix media creation a film format designed and implemented: The BMR Founders Stories. In the first six films for social media, start-ups from different cities in the Ruhr area have their say: They let the followers open YouTube, Facebook and Instagram participate in their founding story, tell about their love of the Ruhr area and how they were able to realize their idea in the innovation center. They also give potential founders valuable tips: What experiences did you have in the start-up phase and what advice would you have liked at the beginning? This creates good content marketing that makes the founding locations and innovation centers in the Ruhr Metropolis visible and at the same time offers the target group real added value.
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