Since 2011, Mattson Communications has been working with HANNOVER MESSE, the world’s most prominent industrial technology trade show and conference. In March 2015, Mattson Communications had the pleasure of pitching the news that the United States has been named partner country for HANNOVER MESSE 2016. In the past few years, HANNOVER MESSE has focused on integrated industry, a cooperative concept that could be called the “Internet of Things” of the manufacturing world, as well as Industry 4.0, also known as “advanced manufacturing” in the U.S. These steps forward are significant to manufacturers worldwide, but they require intense integration and communication across several platforms: data security, software compatibility, energy networks, and data flow analysis. Luckily, HANNOVER MESSE provides a space for such communication to take place.

The U.S. partnership with HANNOVER MESSE is extremely beneficial to both our client and U.S. manufacturing companies, especially small and medium enterprises. HANNOVER MESSE expects that increased U.S. business involvement will help create more American publicity for the event, which Mattson Communications is excited to facilitate and oversee. It has even been rumored that Obama will be opening the show alongside Angela Merkel, so we expect significant U.S. press coverage of HANNOVER MESSE 2016.

The HANNOVER MESSE partnership with the U.S. seamlessly aligns with President Obama’s commitment to digitizing U.S. manufacturing. Obama has allocated over $70 million for solving the challenges faced by modern manufacturers. The president’s goal in doing so is that American factories will be able to remain competitive worldwide. By attending HANNOVER MESSE, U.S. manufacturers will gain insight into the latest industrial technology innovations, as well as hear from leaders in the Industry 4.0 field as to how to adapt to the digital factory landscape.

Mattson Communications is excited to continue working with HANNOVER MESSE as we approach April 2016. We will be conducting a national press tour with the director of HANNOVER MESSE, including a late-September Chicago-based press conference to outline the benefits of securing the U.S. as partner country. Because of well-nurtured, long-term relationships with energy, technology, and manufacturing industry trade and business press, we look forward to abundant media coverage surrounding the 2016 event.

Since late 2006, Cohen Financial has been working with Mattson Communications to publicize the company’s mortgage banking transactions and services. In 2009, the company asked Mattson Communications to launch its new debt advisory services. We faced a fixed PR budget with no room to expand. Mattson would have to continue to promote Cohen Financial’s core transactions while launching the new services. With limited staff and funds, we could only create a few materials and conduct an extremely targeted outreach to quickly produce visible marketing metrics.

Solution Fortunately, Mattson had built and nurtured long-term relationships with key commercial real estate (CRE) focused editors and bloggers. Relationships spanned outlets across the company’s core markets – Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Newport Beach, Phoenix, Portland and San Francisco. We held conversations with key contacts at the leading CRE publications, such as Globest.com, National Real Estate Investor and Mortgage Banking Magazine to determine interest in hearing from Cohen Financial’s debt advisory services experts. Many were very interested in hearing about these new services as other firm’s were not actively discussing their debt advisory efforts.

Our strategy: Position the newly appointed Managing Director of Debt Advisory Services as the most experienced and knowledgeable advisor in this new field, capitalizing on his extensive capital markets background. Our goal: Convince both CRE borrowers and lenders to engage Cohen Financial for debt restructuring and asset evaluation, driving assignments and increasing fees.

Additionally, we would utilize the PR materials we created and positive media stories we secured in Cohen Financial’s monthly e-newsletter issued to about 5500 clients and potential clients. And, we would share this information on Facebook and LinkedIn.

We established program objectives we could measure:
• Generate media coverage, featuring advisory services messages and positioning Mr. Franzetti as the expert.
• Educate all current and potential clients about the new offerings.
• Generate awareness of looming loan maturities and lower CRE property values.
• Offer strategies for loan workouts.
• Create a sense of urgency to act.
• Help secure at least 10 new debt advisory services assignments by year’s end.
• Build Cohen Financial’s sales force confidence via loan workout success stories.
• Differentiate and brand Cohen Financial debt advisory services knowledge leader.

Results We secured feature stories tied directly to our objectives and utilized these articles and blog posts in Cohen Financial’s e-newsletters, garnering significant reader clickthroughs of more than 17.6 percent on average. Mattson Communications created case studies of the new services, which Cohen Financial features on its Web site, in regional sales collateral and shared across its social media efforts. The company secured 15 completed projects with 5 ongoing in 2009 and as of Q1 2010 had 17 additional assignments.

Awards The debt advisory services PR program was awarded the 2010 Publicity Club of Chicago’s Silver Trumpet for distinguished achievement in public relations planning, creativity and execution in the marketing category.

Mattson Communications worked with FP Mailing Solutions (FP) www.fp-usa.com, the smallest of the four U.S. postage meter manufacturers, from 2000 to 2007. Our main PR goal – position FP as a technology innovator and postage meter alternative to the market share leader that controls 80 percent of the postage meter space.

Solution

Mattson Communications cultivated ongoing relationships with all of the leading postage technology, business, advertising and marketing print and online publication editors. We also developed long-standing relationships with editors focused on the office management, small office home office, houses of worship and banking technology markets.

As they appreciated our news pitch, press release and case study writing style, many editors gave Mattson an open invitation to submit FP byline articles and news stories. We also actively promoted and secured speaking opportunities for FP’s CEO at forums, conferences and trade shows. Many shows were sponsored by the leading publications in FP’s vertical markets.

In 2004, our research indicated that office product and mail technology focused trade publications were not writing about the USPS Postage Technology Management program, a recently established joint venture with U.S. meter manufacturers. Because FP played a major role in the program, we knew we could brand FP as a digital meter product innovator. We worked closely with the manager of Postage Technology Management at the USPS to develop an in-depth byline article. The story detailed FP’s role in advancing encryption technology in the new digital meter infrastructure to improve and secure postage download capabilities.

We scheduled a phone conversation with Dan O’Rourke, Mailing System Technology’s editor, to discuss the publication’s 2005 editorial calendar and to present our idea for a securitization trend article bylined by FP. We knew MST reached the largest audience of mail center managers and was known for its technology focused features, a perfect fit for the byline’s objectives. We also inserted a meter migration table into the story to alert mail center managers that the USPS was retiring older meters.

Our goal was twofold:

1. prompt managers to upgrade to the latest digital meters
2. driving them to FP’s digital meter products.

Results

Dan O’Rourke, the senior editor of Mailing Systems Technology, published the story in the March 2005 print issue. According to Dan, his readers liked both the concise presentation of the story (managers have limited time for educational research) and the message (security is paramount in today’s business world). Mattson also placed a revised version of the article in another one of FP’s top-tier publications, Office Solutions, in the September 2005 issue. We bylined this version under the new CEO’s name to generate press for him and to introduce the topic into a different vertical market. We also utilized information gleaned from researching the article and select content for other FP marcom platforms. For example, we pitched this topic in speaker abstracts to secure speaking engagements for the new CEO.

Awards

Security & Your Meter byline awarded 2006 Publicity Club of Chicago’s Silver Trumpet for distinguished achievement in public relations planning, creativity and execution.