Thuringian Arc: Students developed new region brand

In the summer semester of 2019, the regional management of the districts of Gotha and Ilm-Kreis had given 34 students the task of developing strategies for profiling the region and an associated umbrella brand. Thus, as part of the practical seminar "Berufsfeldorientierung PR", the students of the Applied Media and Communication Studies course competed against each other for four months in six competing up-and-coming agencies to come up with the best communication concept. They were supported by two lecturers from the Department of Public Relations and Technical Communication at Ilmenau University of Technology and by Ninette Pett, Managing Director of the PETT PR agency in Gotha.

In the final pitch, the six groups presented their PR concepts in short presentations. The winner was the up-and-coming agency "4iMAGE": Christoph Baecker, Leon Blonsky, Josua Cersovsky, Johanne Kramer and Lea Neumann. The creative consideration of the geographical location of the three regional core cities Gotha, Arnstadt and Ilmenau had inspired the students to create the regional brand "Thuringian Arc" and the corresponding logo. The new brand and the associated website https://thueringer-bogen.de are now the central communication medium for the regional management, which wants to position the region as an economic and living region. The aim is to attract companies and skilled workers and bind them to the region.

In addition to the "Thuringian Arc" regional brand, the five students, together with the other up-and-coming agencies, also provided valuable ideas for future PR campaigns, for their wording, i.e. for the language used in public relations, and for the design of the website. Christian Schmidt, regional manager in the Thuringian Arc, is pleased with the results:

We are very happy that we have a strong local cooperation partner in the Technical University of Ilmenau, which supported us in the branding process. The students demonstrated a great deal of creativity in an ideas competition and came up with the brilliant idea for the joint regional brand for the districts of Gotha and Ilm-Kreis.

The seminar "Berufsfeldorientierung PR" of the Group for Research in Public Relations and Communication of Technology is offered every year in the bachelor course of Applied Media and Communication Studies for students of the third and fourth semester. In the winter semester, students gain insight into the theory of PR campaigns, and in the summer semester they put what they have learned into practice by working for real clients. In recent years, students have gained an insight into professional practice at the global company Jenoptik, Erfurt/Weimar Airport and the Erfurt-based company SAE Schaltanlagenbau. In the process, the clients repeatedly implemented concepts of the students of TU Ilmenau or incorporated their ideas into their projects.