"We've been driving a holistic approach for years".
Starting Tuesday, the three-day Screenforce Academy will take place, virtually and free of charge. Malte Hildebrandt, Managing Director of Screenforce Germany, explains in an interview with Werbewoche.ch what visitors can experience at the event.
Advertisingweek.chMalte Hildebrandt, the Screenforce Academy is aimed at "students in the field of media and communications as well as young professionals and marketers who want to increase their career opportunities in the long term. What is offered to them, in brief?
Malte Hildebrandt: Our participants get an all-round look behind the scenes of TV and digital moving image offerings as well as the latest trends in advertising. All this is presented by real movers and shakers in our industry. What we present over the three days are not off-the-shelf lectures. All presentations are brand new and have been explicitly tailored to the needs of the young media generation. Moving image is a growth market. All doors are open to young talent.
What are the challenges of designing and delivering training programs like the Screenforce Academy "remotely"?
By now, we're all used to participating in events virtually. The rapid developments of the past year have naturally played into our hands. University seminars have long been held remotely, and much of our work is done via video conferencing. Although I'm very much looking forward to the time when we can once again have face-to-face exchanges at events, we'll be sticking to the virtual concept at our Academy in the future, too. It has the enormous advantage that we can put together a first-class program for our participants without limiting the number of guests. We now have just under 1000 registrations. That would have exceeded our capacities as an on-site event.
Your target group for the Academy is perhaps the first generation of junior communicators and junior marketers, whose youth has been shaped more by digital media than by TV. Does that change the approach Screenforce uses to address these people?
Not at all, because we've been taking a holistic approach for years. Just take the title of our Academy: "Backstage Total Video - Behind the Scenes of all the Screens". The decisive factor is not the transmission path, but the quality of the content.
Especially here in Switzerland, TV advertising has to deal with complex challenges, as it is much easier to skip commercials on replay TV than in Germany and Austria. Why should young communicators and marketers still rely on TV campaigns?
When advertising is done well, when products or services are advertised that offer people concrete added value, they stick with it. More and more advertisers are focusing on the topic of purpose, for example. Consumers are interested in what a company whose products they buy stands for. What was true 20 years ago is even more true today in a fragmented media landscape: TV makes brands - as countless studies have shown.
What program highlights are you personally looking forward to in particular?
Each program item is a highlight in itself. As with the structure of an orchestra with all its instrumental groups, our three-day event is also orchestrated according to a clear scheme. Every single contribution contributes to the success of the whole. What makes me particularly happy is how much heart and soul all the protagonists put into their work in the run-up to the event, and that we were able to win Viviane Geppert as an outstanding moderator for our Academy.
