We still have somewhat less than a month to go in 2022, of course, but we at Wisse Kommunikatie have already been occupied with 2023 for quite a while.
And yet we also want to stop and consider the current year, with all its challenges. Such as the remains of COVID, with the unfortunate but inevitable staff absences, and a war, an energy crisis, and a conjuncture that compels companies and individuals to keep their hand on the purse strings a bit more…
But despite everything, 2022 was also a year with good things. And surprisingly often they resulted from the need or necessity for us to adjust to the challenges with which the world was presented.
Fine-tuned offer
So we have precisely fine-tuned our WHY, HOW and WHAT. Not that we were unclear about why we do what we do. But if you really want to excel, you have to make choices and communicate them with everyone. And that is what we’ve done.
Therefore we emphasize more than ever that good content is the basic component that connects all the services of Wisse. That was already true when it was founded in 1982, and it’s still true today.
In addition, during the WHY/HOW/WHAT exercise it became apparent that since our agency was founded we have ‘improved organisations, lives and society by stimulating the adoption and acceptance of innovations’. Just look at our portfolio. We have set out that fact in words and translated it into action more explicitly too.
HOW
In the context of our fine-tuned offer we have also developed a framework that offers our clients and us the relevant strategic insights and guidance, both in the beginning of every collaboration and during the process.
With this Wisse Strategic Insights Index we map out the following aspects:
- Prevailing and prospective societal and business insights that can affect the client’s innovation
- Experts and endorsers who can interpret the issues and topics
- Organisations, people or segments of society that are influenced by it
- Media, influencers and channels that have the most impact on the topic.
Using the findings from that index, that we update structurally, we ensure our clients and their innovations the authority, the impact and the acceptance they deserve.
From leads to customer
Once that basis exists, it turns out, the adoption of the innovation concerned immediately proceeds much more smoothly. Then you talk about leads with your client at once.
And to generate those leads and funnel them to the status of customer, we further developed the concept of Journalistic Content Automation (JCA) in 2022.
Meanwhile, we have used JCA for, among others, clients like software giant PinkRoccade Healthcare and for the supplier of a tool for voice-controlled reporting, Tell James. For ourselves, we have for example used JCA for our exhibit for the CES tech event in Las Vegas. We also used the method to promote our Benelux paper, in which we discuss the cultural differences between the Benelux countries, the differences in media landscapes, the ways in which you optimally distribute your content in Belgium and the Netherlands and communication trends in the Benelux.
Training courses
Crisis communication was another important pillar for Wisse in 2022. Many crisis contractors called on us for media training in addition to 24/7 support. In this process, we discovered that many of these parties don’t have their spokesperson structure and even their core messages 100% in order… And so two new training courses were created: messaging training and spokesperson training.
International crisis communication
Speaking of crisis communication, in 2022 Wisse was there at the inception of Salus, the crisis preparedness and protection service of our international Worldcom network. The official press release stated that ‘The Salus service is being launched in 19 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It is designed to protect brands in one or multiple countries by using the same preparation approach with support from local crisis experts who understand the local market context. It is the first Worldcom branded service to be launched.’
How’s that for innovation!
And in addition
The list of the aforementioned good things at Wisse for 2022 turns out to be longer than we thought… Because we also recorded a sizeable number of podcasts, both for clients and for our own enjoyment. And we have added webinars to our portfolio as a logical visual extension of our written and verbal content. Furthermore we have guided and conducted studies, made reviews possible, organised press briefings and devised and carried out other activities that a communications agency typically conducts.
And besides that
And then I haven’t yet mentioned the changes that clients usually don’t see. Such as those anticipated for the end of 2022/beginning of 2023:
- Theo Snijders, who is becoming a grandfather
- A new role for Peter Drent as managing partner
- A new building for Wisse Kommunikatie
- Siemon Bakker, who is retiring
Looking back
In retrospect, you can say that 2022 was challenging, but it has also laid a great foundation for 2023 and beyond.
In conclusion, we therefore let each employee reveal in a few words his or her high point in 2022 with regard to working at Wisse Kommunikatie.
And we wish everyone great days in advance!
High points
Theo Snijders:
“We have seen that integrated content campaigns based on a mix of journalistic content (free publicity), sponsored content and advertising generate a very high return in terms of visibility and leads.”
Remco Nieuwenbroek:
“We provided the PR for Delta Electronics for the opening of the new sustainable building on the Automotive Campus in Helmond, the Netherlands. And successfully: there was a lot of exposure on the day itself and a lot of articles and posts appeared in the media about this special location.”
Stefanie Koekman:
“I was able to contribute to the entire PR process for Schell in connection with the largest installation trade fair in the Netherlands, the VSK. Also the first (physical) fair in my career.”
Marlous Fortuin:
“While we started with marketing automation as a ‘tool with which we can probably do a lot’, JCA has now developed into an established concept. The unique combination of journalistic content, PR and marketing automation has rightly acquired its own place in our service offer.”
Serge Beckers:
“The fact that with 50 crisis contractors and the launch of our international crisis safety net Salus we have now become a major player in the area of crisis communication”
Siemon Bakker:
“Partly due to COVID we, like many other companies, were confronted with a number of employees who were ill. For me this was – fortunately – previously relatively unfamiliar territory, but suddenly we had to really get to work in the HR area. I am very proud that in all cases we provided solutions that really helped our colleagues.”
Peter Drent:
“With our tech clients we see more and more a shift from pure PR and text productions to broader support of marketing campaigns in, among other things, video and audio. An example of this that we’re very proud of is the SIDN podcast on 35 years of .nl.”
Sebastiaan Scheepers:
“Not so much a specific PR result for one of my clients (although of course we were able to celebrate enough great successes in the past year), but the return to normal is my high point of 2022. Finally to meet with clients face-to-face again instead of onscreen, events that could be held in real life again and running into your colleagues ‘in the wild’ at the office.”
