COMPANY: Siemens Foundation
PR AGENCY: Dentsu Communications
BUDGET: $36,000 in fees for concert, $50,000 for expenses
TIMEFRAME: 2004
While researching student bios in order to write press releases about the finalists in 2002's Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology, Dentsu
Communications execs unearthed a fascinating thread: many of the winning math and science scholars also played musical instruments.
But what to do with this intriguing observation? What did it mean? And, ultimately, how could this help advance the image of its client, the Siemens Foundation? While well-
known in Europe, the company was less known in the States
According to James Miller, senior media strategist at Dentsu, "We'd been talking about it for over a year. And, through a series of meetings and brainstorming, we realized
that this was a fascinating news peg, so how to present that in a media event?"
The result was a hybrid involving a concert in which students were invited to play combined with forum that would address the connection between musical and science and math
abilities.
"It started out just a panel discussion," says Marie Gentile, institutional relations director, Siemens Foundation. "Then we thought, it would be nice if we had some of the
kids come and play." A colleague suggested having it in Carnegie Hall, which the Foundation supported.
"The Foundation has to stick to its mission of math and science," Gentile says. "We're not in the concert business, so it was important we work with university partners and
broaden outreach to Siemens' scholars as well as employees, the media, the NYC academic and scientific community, and they made up the bulk of the audience."
"Beautiful Minds, Beautiful Music," a concert and symposium exploring the music/science/math connection was held in June 2004. Budding math and science geniuses played solo
recitals as a panel of experts debated to a capacity crowd the connection between music and science and math.
While research showed there was little empirical evidence to explain this connection, it still made for delightful debate. "A lot of our research was homing in on who these
panelists would be," Miller says. "It was aimed at trying to discover why so many talented scientists and mathematicians are also musical. Is it chance? Is it nature? Is it
nurture?"
The panel, hosted by WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer, included a cognitive psychologist, a woman who was both a professional engineer, and a musician.
"What made for a great event was that the panelists did not all agree," Gentile says. "Some felt yes--there is something going on, others felt there was very little
connection; that it's just kids who happened to be in nurturing parental environments and are also exposed o musical opportunities."
By the end of the evening, the general consensus was that the connection with music was probably greater with math than with science.
Siemens didn't take a stand. "We were trying to put out an interesting idea and a potential trend," Gentile says. "The connection popped up over and over again, but no one
could explain it. Even experts disagreed, and we needed a balance of experts and researchers, as well as people who represented these ideals."
When Siemens first hired Dentsu in 2001 it wanted to improve its relations with the media and promote its scholarship programs, which total about $1 million a year.
The Foundation's signature program, the Westinghouse Competition, was launched in 1999 after Siemens purchased part of the old Westinghouse company.
At the time, it also wanted to acquire the competition. But, ironically, competitor Intel piped Siemens at the post by buying the competition from Westinghouse and
renaming it the Intel Science Talent Search. So Siemens launched its own competition.
The aim of Siemens' founder and then-chairman Albert Hoser -- who put up a prize of $100,000 -- was to have a similar kind of trophy for math and science, as there was for
sports.
"He wanted students to feel it's OK to be smart, you can be just as cool," says Anya Grottel-Brown, management supervisor at Dentsu. "It was a great level of achievement in
an area known for its geeky, nerdy image."
The Siemens competition consists of six regional and three national events. "What we do is go insane literally," says Grottel-Brown. "We write bios for 70-80 finalists. We do
print, broadcast and a ton of radio. Our goal is to get at least one interview for every student. We always get it."
Adds Miller: "There are millions of scholarship awards in math and science, and to get an education, metro or science reporter to do the story about your student and your
competition requires a real full-on PR effort."
Previous competitions did well -- getting both regional and national coverage in a range of broadcast and print, including USA Today and NPR -- this was a new
program, and Dentsu and Siemens needed to educate the media better, and get in front of certain editors.
"The competition was a very good way to brand Siemens in a positive sense," Gentile says, adding that the biggest challenge for Dentsu was how to keep Siemens as part of the
story.
"When you've got the math/science/music connection, and brilliant young math and science whizzes playing at Carnegie Hall, how do we make sure our client is front and center
in this story?" Miller says. The key was the students themselves. "In every communication with the press we always stressed these were Siemens Westinghouse winners playing at
Carnegie Hall," Miller says.
Coverage included pieces the very next day in the Wall Street Journal by Science Journal columnist Sharon Begley and the New York Times focusing on the music
and science connection.
The concert/forum was picked up by an additional 35 daily newspapers. Follow-up stories ran in AM New York, Boston Globe, Newsday, San Francisco
Chronicle and leading science magazine Discover, among others. The event also introduced the Foundation to media that had not previously covered it.
"The goal was not to get hits in tomorrow's papers," Grottel-Brown says, "which we did; it was one of long-term relationship building. There's a constant pool of story ideas
from this. For example, one student made her own violin."
"We were very happy with the coverage we got," Gentile says. "Dentsu did a phenomenal job. It got us where we needed to be--in front of the right people. The relationship we
started with these reporters could carry us over for the long term and that was the point. Everybody who came had a really good time, one reporter brought his son. We could not
have asked for better."
So what do they do for an encore? Another concert with a different format is in the works, but probably won't include another panel discussion--unless some compelling new
research emerges.
"We are leaning towards doing something on auditory cognition -how brain responds to music," Gentile says, adding that it might feature an ensemble and/or a chamber
orchestra.
The Foundation also is trying to broaden its exposure to students nationally. "We want to encourage learning and get more students engaged in the scientific research
process," Gentile says. "If music is one way to do it, fine."
As to whether it helped improve Siemens' image, "It's part of an ongoing national branding campaign for both Siemens and the Foundation," Gentile adds. "It did help publicize
the Foundation and its work in front of the Siemens' employees, and was very important in helping them understand what the Foundation does, and what its goals are."
Contact: Anya Grottel-Brown, 212.660.6781, [email protected]
Preparation Makes Perfect
The "Beautiful Minds, Beautiful Music" concert/symposium hit the right note because of the importance placed on preparation. "We all put in a tremendous amount of work and we
understood the background and where we were in terms of speaking to the media about this connection," says Anya Grottel-Brown, management supervisor at Dentsu Communications. "We
had experts lined up and they were well-rehearsed in how to speak to media. And that resulted in a well-produced event which translated in to a good media story."