Creativity & Innovation

It is likely that most communications agencies claim to be creative and innovative. However, not many agencies really live and breathe these two words every day, constantly challenging themselves and their clients to achieve new things. The Cologne-based digital and communications experts at antwerpes do just this – and have done so for 26 years. The mission of the antwerpes team: to develop new and surprising concepts for the client and implement these ideas as high quality communications solutions.

“The fact that after more than 25 years in the healthcare market we still manage to surprise and excite our clients with fresh ideas is due to many factors,” emphasises Nicole Tappée, head of the PR and Social Media unit and member of board of antwerpes. “First of all, we closely follow the diverse trends and latest innovations in the market. This way we gain inspiration and stimulus to develop new communications solutions that suit the individual needs of our clients.”

Thilo Kölzer, head of the Digital, Mobile & Internet of Things unit and also member of the board, added that antwerpes does more than simply react to trends. “We endeavour to anticipate trends and always stay one step ahead in our thinking,” he says. The antwerpes team conduct trend monitoring and consider at an early stage what may be useful for clients in the future. Typically antwerpes simply try things out for themselves and then present the client with solutions from their internal research lab. Or as Nicole Tappée describes this approach: “Inquisitiveness is an intrinsic feature of our team.” Kölzer adds that “when we are developing ideas, we are not satisfied with the first solution that comes to mind. We always go one step further, in order to discover the truly best result.” According to Tappée, the antwerpes team is above all characterised by “the fact that we not only willing to discover new ways, we also derive a lot of fun doing it.”

Two examples illustrate how the agency consistently provide new stimulus in healthcare communications. The first is the social media expertise that antwer­pes has acquired with its Social Media Lab. “In our Social Media Lab we analyse trends in the social web and match these to the needs of the healthcare industry,” elaborates Tappée. This is achieved through, for example, sentiment analyses, community management, content development and data-driven marketing and videos. “As social media plays an increasingly important role in addressing target groups of patients, journalists and professional groups, we consider in the Lab, together with the client, how we can best leverage social media.” In addition to being a hub for running projects, field testing is also undertaken for new approaches. “Our aim is to identify new possibilities for healthcare topics that we can integrate into the client’s strategy,” says Tappée.

The second example to provide an example of antwerpes’ innovation and creativity is the development of “speaking organs”. The antwerpes team developed a high-tech model of a heart, which can be presented at events, trade fairs and conferences. “The model is connected to a computer and can tell with its sensors how it is being held and touched by the user, and then converts that into spoken or displayed educational material”, describes Kölzer. It is also useful in Medical Education, where a current trend is the move towards more fun, engaging educational content. “We want to create things that have never been seen or heard of before,” says the digital expert Kölzer. The proven expertise of antwerpes in creating such innovation is substantiated, for example, by this year’s Comprix win for a blended learning training concept.

The reason why antwerpes has for so long been at the forefront of creativity and innovation is, according to board members Tappée and Kölzer, above all due to the excellent contribution of their employees, who work in interdisciplinary teams and constantly strive for the best results. “And last, but not least, our clients,” says Tappée, “who are prepared to try out something new together with us.”

Published in “Pharma Relations 06/2016”

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