1. Who were the first IC clients?

Beiersdorf and the Danish industrial vacuum cleaner maker Nlifisk


2. What was your biggest challenge?

A roadshow for Beiersdorf through East Germany in spring 1990. We were supposed to introduce GDR doctors to the West German health system and advise them on how to go into private practice. It was a meeting of two worlds with same language but two totally different mentalities. This is why the project was so amazingly educational for all involved.

3. What was the most thrilling IC project?

The Baltic Energy Conference in Danzig in 1993 for our client PreussenElektra. We had to transport special computer equipment to Poland for this conference because we could not rent it there. We were stopped at the border and accused of smuggling goods. We began a wild telephone conference with our contact in Danzig, but it was all in vain because we could not produce an acceptable customs stock list. After being held up for three hours we were saved by the custom officer’s weak bladder and just drove off, leaving the highway at the very next exit. Continuing on the back roads, we reached Danzig late but not too late. The conference, which the Polish Minister President and many ministers of the Baltic countries attended, was a huge success – especially for Vattenfall, as we now know.

4. What is our most visible achievement?

Introduction of the European license plate. We successfully finished this campaign in just two years.

5. What are the largest regular events we organize?

The annual meeting of shareholders of the Vereins- and Westbank with 1,200 to 1,600 shareholders.

6. Who was the most prominent guest at an event organized by IC?

Queen Silvia of Sweden at the Hanse Trade Days in Malmö.


7. What was our most travel-intensive job?

We organized colloquiums and fact-finding tours for journalists throughout Europe for dresdnerbank investment management and dit Deutscher Investment-Trust. Our action radius and the wealth of experience we gained from these events extended from Tallinn to Lisbon, from London to Warsaw, from Copenhagen to Rome.


8. What was your biggest job for a client?

Nearly all of the marketing of Euroway, a cruise ship line on the Baltic Sea. Journalists and several IC employees loved especially the fantastic press trips.


9. What makes PR work so intriguing?

Just one example. We organized a press conference at the construction industry trade fair Equip’ Baie in Paris for Becker-Antriebe, a German industrial client with ambitions on the French market. All the major trade media said they would come but no journalist had shown up at 11 a.m. when the press conference was supposed to begin. Our client was getting nervous. At 11:15 a.m. two journalists at least arrived. Our client still looked unhappy. At 11:30 a.m. suddenly all ten of the invited journalists were at the press center. Et voilá. Our client was happy, and we were, too.


10. What is the basis for IC’s success?

Creativity, enthusiasm and reliability, as confirmed by our client loyalty: Beiersdorf is our oldest client with 25 years, followed by 3M with 20 years and a good half-dozen industrial clients with over 10 years.

11. What about employee turnover at IC?

Once again we’re somewhat unique. Nine of the PR consultants on our 15-member team have already been with us for ten years and all the others for more than three years. The most experienced team members are Jürgen Klimke with 20 years, Sabine Harms-Karla with 18 years and Uwe Schmidt and Elli Hertz with 15 years each.

12. What services do IC clients use the most?

Media work takes up about 60 percent of our time. The rest is spread out evenly among consulting (from crisis PR to Public Affairs), events (from press conferences to congresses), Web projects (Internet and Intranet presentations, Webcare) and publications (from flyers to periodicals and even books). The IC-owned publishing company Germa Press publishes books in the fields of health and society.


13. Where are the challenges in the publishing business?

On the street. Imagine publishing a new book that is delivered fresh from the press and having the shipping company refuse to warehouse 12 pallets with thousands of books, leave the books at your doorstep and disappear. At the same time a storm front is brewing on the horizon. The whole IC Team instantly transforms itself into a team of book packers. In less than two hours all the books have been put into storage. Then the skies open up.


14. Which publication has the largest circulation?

The Gehwol Journal (subject: foot care) of our client Gerlach has a circulation of 1.5 million and appears 4 x annually. Gerlach’s new object “Fuß vital” for pharmacies has a circulation of 500,000.


15. What does IC dislike the most?

If we as a communications agency are prevented from communicating. That’s what happened when we changed our telephone provider from Telekom to Hansanet. For three days we could only communicate with the outside world via mobile networks.


16. How does IC manage to always come up with fresh ideas?

We don’t rest on our laurels and always want to improve ourselves. Our “Creative Hours” play a key role. These are staff meetings of mixed composition on different topics. In addition, we are active in the Marketing Club and exchange ideas and information with other friendly PR agencies in Germany and abroad.


17. What is IC’s answer to globalization?

Thanks to our now already 3 years’ membership in the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) we are constantly exchanging ideas and experience with nearly 32 North American and European agencies on development trends in PR. An invaluable enrichment of our own experience. More information on PRGN available at: www.prgn.com.


18. What is IC’s answer to the EU’s expansion into Eastern Europe?

Die PRGN-Partner verfügen auch in Osteuropa über Agenturkontakte.


19. Welche weiteren Ziele verfolgt IC international?

IC plant zusammen mit dem PRGN-Netzwerk den weiteren Ausbau in den Ländern Indien und Korea sowie Südamerika.


20. How has networking helped IC?

In the past three years we have been able to gain four international clients as well as assist three IC clients thanks to networking.


21. Why is IC incorporated?

We are a so-called “small” corporation, meaning not listed on the stock exchange, which is also not our goal. A big advantage of a corporation is the supervisory board to which we have to report periodically. This prevents blindness to our own weaknesses and a failure to be self-critical.

22. How does Jürgen Klimke reconcile his work as a member of parliament and his agency work?

DThe answer to this frequently asked question is very simple: He delegates his management duties to his partners. Uwe Schmidt is responsible for operations and Thomas Bartel for internal agency affairs. This arrangement works extremely well. After all, this team has been together for 13 years.


23. Are there any new strategic fields that IC would like to enter?

We would like to use our international networking to gain a foothold in the tourist industry and in this way extend our existing core business areas Medicine, Health, Cosmetics, Industry, Transportation, Logistics and Financial Services.


24. What does IC think PR will be like in the future?

Successful PR campaigns will become increasingly more narrative (story telling), visual, interdisciplinary and international.


25. What distinguishes IC from other agencies?

The sum of answers 1 to 24.