René Seifert - Entrepreneur & Global Citizen

Its neutrality, order and cosiness alone make Switzerland a worthwhile place to visit again and again. Moreover, Zurich with its 380,000 inhabitants small by usual cosmopolitan standards has a flourishing cultural life. The ubiquitously visible wealth of the city is certainly not an impediment to it. Yesterday, it was Bryan Adams who had a sold-out concert in Zurich whereby his management accurately planned a PR-appearance beforehand. The venue, Puls 5, is a worn down industrial manufacturing hall with high ceilings and old steel structures all which creates an honest ambience for an exhibition.

The event “Hear the World” has been touring around various cities in the world for quite a while and is an initiative of Phonak, a Swiss manufacturer of hearing aids. From my own 15-year old experience in media, this concept definitely hails in the upper range of PR-formats. What most companies get wrong in PR is a too aggressive push of their company name or worse, its products. Phonak did well to put the emphasis on an issue which allegedly affects 15-20 % of global population: hearing problems, along with the stigma not really admitting to the problem or worse, not doing something about it.

As I write these lines, I realize how well this event platform was crafted: I never thought about the problem before, I even doubt that these numbers are in their severity as high or that this is one of the most daunting problems of this world today, but nevertheless the event left some sort of impact on me thinking and even blogging about the issue. That’s what you call successful agenda-setting which deserves at least professional respect.

The ingredients for the event could hardly be hand-picked any better:

1. Take an issue worth alleviating (see paragraph above).

2. Engage a VIP who is unsuspicious of being a sponsor-whore for everything: In this case Bryan Adams, a world-famous rock star who builds bridged between continents and generations alike and who – for his age of 48 years – looks extremely juvenile. Furthermore, what I was not aware of, Bryan Adams is also a highly talented photographer which brings us to the next point.

   

3. Make the issue tangible: Connect with the VIP, whereby keeping the message subtle: Bryan Adams has taken a series of pictures with musicians where he asked them if they would pose for something which reflects them hearing or listening. Apart from one (name undisclosed) all agreed and there you go with an exhibition of artistic big-sized black-and white photographs.

   

4. Deliver immediate remedy: As these photographs are unique, they are or have been already auctioned off with the income going directly to several schools and institutions in the third world dealing with children who have hearing problems.

5. Create an event-platform: The exhibition is open till Sunday, yet the gala-opening was clearly a highlight where Bryan Adams showed up himself, albeit with app. 10 minutes only very briefly, stating “no interview” and buggering off to his concert. Yet, if you have Bryan Adams for such an event, all the VIPs and wannabe VIPs will come all by themselves. Apparently, the hall must have been full with Swiss actors, models and celebrities (which I admittedly did not recognize). Food and drinks were excellent, too.

6. Roll out the red carpet, literally: The presence of these VIPs will in turn attract the press which will thankfully cover such an event with many, many nice pictures its audience wants to see. (No wonder, the day after 2 major Zurich tabloids had the event and Bryan Adams on the front-page).

   

7. Keep a low profile as the initiator: Phonak knows pretty well that 80 % of the people in this world long for its products as much as they long for Malaria. Yet, when they need it, they will notably improve their lives. Hence, the CEO of the company on stage was quite up-front to admit: “We want to create awareness for a problem that nobody wants to hear and talk about.”

That’s it. Good event, nice motives for pictures also from my side here on the Flickr-Set and myself last but not least looking at Amy and Amy looking at me.

And what I now do hear very loud and clear is my friends calling for another round of Oktoberfest :-)