OSK to open an office in Silicon Valley

Oliver Schrott Kommu­nika­tion cele­brates its 25th anniver­sary in 2018. At the begin­ning of the year, Germany’s second largest owner-managed PR agency employed more than 250 staff in Cologne, Stuttgart, Friedrichshafen and Berlin, where the tech unit OSK|Compuc­cino is located, as well as in New York and Beijing. The fee turnover increased to over 27M euros in 2017, a growth of around ten percent (prelim­i­nary values).

In partic­ular, the demand for internal and change commu­ni­ca­tion has grown. Michael Kemme, Managing Director Consulting: “Never before, the conse­quences of digital trans­for­ma­tion have become as evident as last year. Future topics are at the top of the agenda of all our clients – both in internal and external commu­ni­ca­tion. Digital tech­nolo­gies, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, e-mobility, autonomous driving, the Internet of things and Industry 4.0 were the focal points of our work in 2017.”

And industry clients are increas­ingly using popular instru­ments like motion graphics and design or influ­encer rela­tions for their tech­nical topics, in order to reach non-tradi­tional target groups. In both of these port­folio areas OSK regis­tered double-digit growth.

The Friedrichshafen office is the most recently estab­lished loca­tion of the Cologne agency. It started at the begin­ning of 2017 for agency client ZF, for whom OSK is working as lead agency after winning a respec­tive pitch. The work scope for the third-largest auto­mo­tive supplier world­wide reaches from PR and content creation, through internal, digital and marketing commu­ni­ca­tion, to concepts and real­iza­tions of the ZF pres­ences at the leading inter­na­tional fairs.

The Berlin tech unit OSK|Compuc­cino was very successful in 2017 too and could almost double its staff to 36. A plat­form for digital live PR, created for Daimler by Compuc­cino, had its debut at the Frank­furt Auto Show IAA. On “Mercedes me media” jour­nal­ists and multi­pliers can view PR events such as premieres, press confer­ences and product presen­ta­tions, comfort­ably online and process infor­ma­tion mate­rial jour­nal­is­ti­cally, even while the event is still running.

At the New York office, which is cele­brating its tenth anniver­sary in 2018, a new unit special­izing in Enter­tain­ment Commu­ni­ca­tion has taken up its work in December last year. The first client is the media and enter­tain­ment company NBCU­ni­versal. OSK is in charge of marketing, plan­ning and execu­tion of corpo­rate and public events at “Downton Abbey: The Exhi­bi­tion”. The exhi­bi­tion is situ­ated in a town house near Central Park, takes the visi­tors into the world of the TV block­buster series and has become a crowd puller right from the start. The exhi­bi­tion can be visited in New York until April and will then start on a tour of the USA.

“Expe­ri­ence formats like ‘Downton Abbey: The Exhi­bi­tion’ will gain in impor­tance signif­i­cantly in the coming years, due to their completely new user expe­ri­ence” comments Oliver Schrott. “They extend viewers’ and readers’ favorite stories into their everyday reality. Live and authentic, not only to look at, but hands-on, right in the middle of it instead of sitting on the couch. Young people in partic­ular are looking for such immer­sive expe­ri­ences, which they then share with their friends on the social web.

The 15-strong OSK Marketing & Commu­ni­ca­tions team, situ­ated at 42nd Street, Midtown Manhattan, primarily takes care of German clients from the auto­mo­tive and tech­nology indus­tries, but also provides US brands with PR activ­i­ties, live commu­ni­ca­tion and influ­encer rela­tions.