Our News & Views - Industry Trends

14 Sept 2023

Continental Shift: Navigating the Industrial B2B media landscapes of China and Europe

In the dynamic world of B2B industrial sectors, effective media relations and journalist interactions play a pivotal role in shaping brand perception and industry influence. When it comes to engaging with the media, China, and Europe present some similarities but also distinct cultural, communication, and strategic differences.

10 Aug 2023

Behind the scenes - 5 steps to a professional podcast

With the right preparation, a manufacturing sector podcast can be a great addition to your content strategy. Around 464 million people globally listen to podcasts, with 40 million of these tuning in between 2022 to 2023 alone, so there’s a good chance that the audience you want to reach is ready to be engaged!

1 Aug 2023

Reporting Excellence: Combining Analytics and Insights to Empower Clients in Meeting Their KPIs

In today's digital age, marketers have access to an overwhelming amount of data and tools that can provide valuable insights into their communications and marketing efforts for clients. However, amidst this abundance of information, it's crucial not to lose sight of the importance of quantitative insights in our reporting.

13 Jul 2023

Messaging: have you nailed yours?

Don’t assume that because you are operating in a deep industrial technology sector, marketing messaging doesn’t apply to you. The power of storytelling to convince and connect with audiences should not be underestimated, and carefully constructed messaging is the backbone of any successful B2B marketing programme.

30 Jun 2023

Unlocking the value of AI requires honoring human connections

Earlier this month, my EMG-colleague Adriana Arezza and I had the opportunity to deliver a keynote presentation at our client OQ’s Leadership Workshop. The main topic of the event was customer centricity and our presentation focused on the role of the media in telling customer centric stories.

9 Jun 2023

Effective spokesperson training: Navigating message delivery for B2B industrial players

Modern media training has evolved to meet the demands of today's digital landscape. With the rapid growth of social media and online platforms, PR professionals must adapt their strategies to effectively communicate and manage their clients' reputations, including the training of spokespersons.

19 May 2023

Pitch Perfect: Giving journalists the stories they really want

EMG’s PR professionals reveal some of our trade secrets for building strong media relationships that result in top tier coverage for clients.

10 May 2023

Social engineering: get smart, get savvy, get strategic

Many businesses we come across in the industrial manufacturing sector find it difficult to strike the right balance between the different kinds of content that result in a unique social profile that reflects an authoritative brand, engages audiences sufficiently to create loyal followings and still be a strong sales tool as well.

24 Apr 2023

Conversations on the tradeshow floor are changing and so should our approaches to communicating them

Sustainability, environmental pressures, and digitalization are drastically changing the sales and business conversations our clients are having with their customers and suppliers on the tradeshow floor. Good communicators who want to go the distance must pivot to meet the challenges and opportunities of building brands in this environment.

10 Mar 2022

The shape of things to come: predictions for plastic packaging 2022

We are fortunate to represent a number of clients in the fast-paced plastics industry, which means we are right in the thick of the action. In this blog, we pull together the key trends that are shaping the future of plastic packaging.

15 Feb 2022

The top marketing and communication trends emerging in 2022

2022 may still be in its infancy, but some exciting trends have already begun to emerge—new platforms, new opportunities and new challenges. So how do we navigate this landscape for B2B sales? Is content still important? What about social media? Is metaverse marketing a thing? And what does AI adoption mean for marketing and communications?

9 Dec 2021

Linked out of China

In October 2021, Microsoft announced its decision to close its B2B social media network, LinkedIn, in China. As the dust starts to settle, we look at the implications of the shutdown for businesses looking to reach B2B audiences in China.

22 Sept 2021

When communicating on sustainability, actions shouldn’t speak louder than words; the two should be aligned

Today everyone is talking about sustainability – especially within the industrial markets where many of our clients are struggling to come up with a message that is unique and conveys what they are trying to do. This is because there is a whole spectrum of sustainability out there, ranging from the very weak to the very strong.

22 Apr 2021

Q&A with Candy Adams, aka The Booth Mom®

Are B2B tradeshows coming back in 2021? The answer is “sort of.” We are already seeing some shows returning, but in different forms. For example, well-known shows such as CES and SXSW returned - but in virtual forms. Others are coming back as hybrid forms with some in-person and some virtual options to support exhibitors and visitors who can’t attend.

16 Dec 2020

The Five Things We Learnt in 2020

This year has been a crazy time to be in B2B communications. In fact, it’s just been a crazy time all in all. As we all did our Christmas shopping this time last year, nothing could have prepared us for what 2020 had in store.

19 Nov 2020

China outlook: Digital transformation on the rise both in manufacturing and communications

The global pandemic might still be lingering as a dark cloud over the manufacturing sector, but with the 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF), themed “Intelligence & Interconnection - Empowering New Industrial Development”, held as scheduled this past September, the industrial economy received an extra boost.

21 Nov 2019

A “circular economy” as the K 2019 mantra

Almost all K 2019 exhibitors highlighted their sustainability claims and goals. We spoke to several key industry journalists about the prevalence of this trend and how achievable the targets are.

7 Nov 2019

Understanding the Industrial Technology Influencer Niche

Influencers and thought leaders are a topic that sparks the interest of many B2B companies, but the question marketing communication professionals have is: how does it work? The answer is all about finding the right connection.

1 Oct 2019

When it comes to content marketing it’s the thought that counts

The changing face of marketing in the internet age has forced a rethink at both B2B and B2C marketing communications teams. There is a growing role for content marketing that educates rather than proactively sells a brand. In order to truly take advantage, you need to claim a thought leadership position within your field of industrial technology. 

25 Sept 2019

Using AI to add life to your next marketing communications campaign

Automated help chats, voice-activated devices and augmented reality are just some of the platforms where artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied in industrial technology marketing communications.

1 Aug 2019

Remaining relevant in a circular economy

The plastics segment is being challenged to change the dialog around waste and provide true solutions. At the recent EMG Pre K Press Event, there was a strong consensus that the focus on virgin materials should become ever smaller and the role for a mono material strategy, which allows for simpler recycling was also noted

27 Jun 2019

The Inside Track to the Latest K 2019 News

What’s the next big thing in plastics sustainability? Which product launch has the potential to transform the rubber and plastics industry?  Top international trade editors got an early preview of what seven industry leaders are planning for the big K Show in October during EMG’s 6th Pre K Press Event.  The exclusive invitation-only event was held June 25-27 in Antwerp. Its goal is to enable editors to get a head start on their media planning for K 2019 by providing leading companies in the plastics industry the opportunity to deliver their biggest and most impactful K 2019 show news months before the official show.

12 Jun 2019

Interview Petra Cullmann, Global Portfolio Director Plastics & Rubber at Messe Düsseldorf

The K Show maybe a few months away, but already the plastics industry is talking about what they’ll be launching and the best way to communicate their innovations. Petra Cullmann is the Messe Dusseldorf’s Global Portfolio Director of Plastics and Rubber.  We reached out to her to find out her thoughts and insights on K2019, the biggest (Plastics) Show on Earth. 

26 Nov 2018

Visit to Green Chemistry Campus

Instead of having our usual monthly meeting, we’ve visited the Green Chemistry Campus last week: just a kilometre down the road from EMG, at the heart of the Biobased Delta. 

9 Jul 2018

Communicator Summit 2018

They came from all over Europe. 14 communication professionals joined the EMG team at the end of June for EMG's 3rd annual Communicator Summit. This year's theme was “The Connected Customer”. 

14 Jun 2018

Technologies may change the face of communications but not the core

At EMG, we’re welcoming the digital revolution in marketing. New technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are changing how many of our clients are reaching out to customers. We see it first-hand at tradeshows. 

15 May 2018

Fast charging is our future

Supporting and leading the PR and marketing activities of Tritium as their network of fast-charging infrastructure expands across Europe.

8 May 2018

WeChat, Chinaplas and all the rest...

Since I last wrote about WeChat a few years back, the platform has moved on in strides and encompasses all aspects of life and work in China today. WeChat is the norm for messaging, voice calls, sharing videos/images; it is used to hail taxis; book food, and make payments from high street stores, person to person transfers, and paying street vendors. Cash is no longer king here. I have heard rumours of street beggars handing over QR codes to receive money by WeChat. It is becoming hard to image back life without WeChat in China.

29 Mar 2018

EMG goes USA: CU @ NPE & ACS

It’s that time again - time for the Sunshine State to briefly become the center of the plastics universe for one week. The NPE 2018 trade fair from May 7-11 will again collocate with the Society of Plastics Engineers' big ANTEC technical conference in Orlando, Florida.

8 Feb 2018

Trade Associations & industry analysts: the “celebrities” of B2B Influencer Relations

Influencer Marketing is taking off. The concept of using influencers to seed the right message is relatively easy to grasp in consumer industries such as fashion and beauty. Here we’re regularly confronted with influencers either directly or indirectly helping to enhance a reputation. 

7 Dec 2017

Plenty of drive at SPS

Looking back at SPS IPC Drives 2017 we can say that we had a successful 10th year representing key clients at Europe’s leading trade fair for electric automation. During those 10 years, we have seen the digital revolution, Industry 4.0, transform from vision to reality. 

5 Dec 2017

Coming Soon: trends you need to consider for 2018

Rather than issue a loose list of predictions of what might be hot in 2018, we’ve decided to share an (not exhaustive) ‘A to Z’ of some communications projects we’ve been working on with our clients over the last three months.

12 Oct 2017

Additive Manufacturing: Formnext & Function

Since it launched early in the year, our additive manufacturing (AM) practice is going from strength to strength with a number of clients activity engaged in the 3D printing debate.  

4 Oct 2017

Waste no more

Packaging waste, what to do about it and who’s to blame keeps making headlines. Working with several global leaders in the materials and packaging industries, it has kept us increasingly busy the last decades. Sustainability, circular economy, food waste, use of renewable energies in the production, new biobased and compostable materials, are some of the hot topics that are leading the agendas. 

4 Jul 2017

Welcome the expanding international face of packaging: it’s here to stay

The international nature of today’s packaging industry is impossible to ignore; borne out by the record number of exhibitors and visitors who travelled to Düsseldorf from abroad for Interpack 2017. It talks to EMG’s strengths and deep understanding of the industry, with companies in the materials, application and equipment sectors looking for our help to gain a share of the voice.

16 Mar 2017

‘Made in Sheffield’: Best Practices in Reputation Management

My hometown Sheffield is on a roll at the moment with Boeing and McLaren recently announcing multi-million investment deals that will benefit the city.

18 Nov 2016

Bringing Clarity to Guardian’s museum campaign

When global glass manufacturer Guardian Glass decided to pursue the museum sector as an exciting new market for its Clarity™- anti-reflective glass, it was clear that they needed a different approach that would appeal to this specific audience.  

16 Jun 2016

#e-nough!

EMG client Jonathan Graham is passionate about sustainability and passionate about print. So much so, he chairs the Marketing Committee of NGO Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) Partnership.

14 Apr 2016

The future of plastics

Coinciding with the upcoming Chinaplas show is the fifth Plasticity Forum annual conference which takes place in Shanghai on April 27-28.  

21 Oct 2015

Getting your message across with video

When Clariant recently held its very first Sustainability Dialog Day, the event represented a very bold move, bringing together various partners right across the value chain. It would be very difficult to capture the spirit of the day in words alone.  So a video team was on hand to talk to participants and get their feedback.  

18 Mar 2015

Targeted business intelligence makes your communications smarter

Media monitoring and intelligence gathering can be even more effective if you apply a targeted approach. No matter in which company or environment you work, resources continue to be limited. So you will need to plan and allocate them carefully - where it matters most. Your success will be determined by your selection of communication channels that matter and the relevance of your messaging.

30 Jan 2015

Industry 4.0 and IIoT is gaining substance - bringing new editorial opportunities

Last year, we still questioned if Industry 4.0 was simply a trend or the new standard. Today, we are certain that the terminology and principles of Industry 4.0, which is also referred to as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), are here to stay.  In Automation & Control magazines, on websites and at events you will read and hear of the Industrial Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Everything. 

6 Oct 2014

Trend watching The EMG Way™

When it comes to running a successful business, most companies have no need for soothsayers and crystal balls. What they do need, however, is a clear view of current and future trends – because this may well influence management decisions today and drive success tomorrow.

20 May 2014

Industry 4.0 - Simply a trend or the new standard?

Recently Nancy van Heesewijk attended the Belden Industrial Ethernet Infrastructure Design Seminar. This event, which took place in Prague, brought together leading experts who provided insight into the latest Industrial Ethernet developments.