Industry 4.0 and the challenge for communication

How does PR for Industry 4.0 work?

The term Industry 4.0 was presented to the public for the first time in 2011 at the Hannover Messe. Gabler’s Business Encyclopedia defines: “Industry 4.0 is a marketing term that is also used in science communication and stands for a future project of the German Federal Government. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the individualization or hybridization of products and the integration of customers and business partners into business processes”.

Ultimately, Industry 4.0 is the digitalization of production. The Internet of Things (IoT) also goes hand in hand with this.

When machines communicate with each other

The era of communicating machines has already begun. Everything is being networked more and more. Entire production cycles are being rethought and linked thanks to digitalization. By using Big Data, it is possible to use large amounts of data, which enable increasingly complex communication between the individual economic players – be they people or machines. In this way, the limits of productivity can be shifted and competitive advantages can be generated. This creates new fields of business.

How to communicate Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 means something different for each company when it comes to concrete implementation. For communication, it makes most sense to take a concrete look at individual projects. Through a PR strategy tailored to the needs of the company and its individual “industrial revolution”, Industry 4.0 is made understandable and brought to the right target groups. The successful communicative “Road to 4.0” can look like this for a company:

1. Creation of a communication concept for existing 4.0 projects
2. Presentation of the communicative objectives of the projects
3. Communicative implementation of the projects, e.g. through:
   • Technical articles and case studies
   • Visualization of the projects (photos, graphics)
   • Addressing the target media (usually specialist media at national and international level, but also business media can be the target)
   • For trade fair appearances: Invitation of target media to the stand in order to present the projects to journalists in individual discussions (a written press release is also offered).
   • For media that cannot attend the trade fair: Interview offers by telephone to find out about the background to the projects

In general, it is important to adapt the presentation to the respective professional level of the media. For business and daily media in particular, it is relevant to take subliminal fears about the topic seriously and to respond to them. Ignorance is often the trigger for fears that can be dispelled by good information.

Ultimately, it is a matter of bringing the Industry 4.0 issue to objectivity on the basis of concrete examples.