forumNordic operates “Visibility as a Service” (VaaS) for our Nordic Customers that includes companies, cities, startups, VCs, and public scientific bodies by writing articles as described above based on interviews and research. As a customer you pay a modest fee for articles written by us.
Articles can be freely used in our customers own existing communication channels with a forumNordic-logo and link to our website. VaaS articles published in our channels will also include quotations and links to specific pages on your website to highlight crucial facts about the company.
Contact christer.granlycke (at) forumnordic.com for an offer.
How Can Nordic Companies & Scientific Bodies Secure More International Visibility?
Big companies and scientific bodies from big countries get the most space in the international media and in their national markets. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand this. But what about innovations from small Nordic countries – do we receive the same visibility we deserve too?
Visibility is Essential for Success
Most people understand that visibility is the driver for profitable growth and the development of new innovative products. The big international companies like Apple and Tesla are two of the world’s most successful and innovative companies and NASA and DARPA are involved in groundbreaking research that has benefited companies like Apple and Tesla and many others!
Nordic innovations are important for our growth and well-being – they must be broadcasted to global audiences for exports, for foreign investment in our companies, and for partnerships with our scientific communities.
Press releases are important, they often get picked up by our national media and are important sources of information for investors, as well as being a legal requirement for quoted companies under stock exchange regulations.
Nordics Receive Limited Visibility Internationally
However, a report, to be published later this year, on the visibility of 33 of the largest Nordic companies in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Economist reveals that they receive on average around “half a press release” published annually over the past 5 years. Only a handful of small and medium-sized innovative Nordic companies are lucky to be noted once over the whole period of 5 years.
The above 3 media giants write articles in English that are widely read and get quoted by other media companies around the world. They are amongst the most important sources of information because they are reasonably objective and reliable sources of news. They are also readily translated into local national languages from English. Articles from other big media companies in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, etc., are seldom used as sources of news because there is less interest to follow these media when the 3 above mentioned media normally have articles of the few significant stories from these countries from their own journalists.
Most big companies and scientific bodies like Apple and Tesla and NASA and DARPA crave and receive visibility and get plenty from these 3 media giants when they develop new innovative activities. Visibility promotes Apple’s and Tesla’s new innovative products that enable them to sell to their millions of consumers and business partners, while NASA and DARPA benefit from visibility to secure public support for ever increasing R&D costs to send rockets into space and develop new technologies.
Press releases have a specific limited readership
It is unlikely that producing more press releases in English to get noticed is useful and certainly not profitable. Media companies who write press releases with communication departments are normally restricted to a single Nordic country.
Press releases are also an important source of information for analysts in banks and other financial institution that need to generate investment ideas. However, they are a relatively small community and seldom generate exports or FDI.
The press releases generally have a rather dry structure prescribed by regulation than may ignore various key factual points about innovations. Even though, the press releases are greeted with open arms by the national media, they are seldom acted on by the international media for the reasons given above.
Nordic Governments Communicate on National Priorities
Individual Nordic governments already publish many diverse channels exalting the strengths of their various national businesses, scientific and social prowess. However, it is challenging for individual Nordic governments to promote innovations to the above global community since they lack cost-efficiencies of having a single broad Nordic source in English devoted to innovation. Furthermore, governments do not always seek out business opportunities like entrepreneurs!
forumNordic Opens New Focused Channels on Nordic Innovation
New channels to a broader reader base in English are needed and this is the reason why forumNordic has been established.
- The Nordic region represents a very diverse group of innovators from many different business and scientific sectors and is thus a more attractive object of interest than the four individual countries.
- Our professional journalists write short factual articles in English about Nordic innovations from companies and scientific bodies.
- We publish these short informative articles on a single searchable site, without any paywall, and without advertisements.
- We also write articles of interest without customer fees on important topics related to Nordic innovations that we know are a good draw for more readers.
We have noted that here is a strong interest from business decision makers in the successful Nordic Model, which is evidenced by our high standard of living, where democracy, equality of opportunity, and functioning basic services are self-evident values.
The broadly based Nordic Model is an attractive starting point to attract our main target readers – business decision-makers from foreign companies and scientific bodies, skilled workers and students who are considering job and study opportunities in the Nordics.
In addition to the above direct readership traction, we encourage our customers to use all of our articles in their communication efforts to their stakeholders, thus increasing our own visibility, while also permitting the free use of articles in other media with proper reference to our site. forumNordic’s founders are seasoned entrepreneurs and communicators with extensive business networks in the Nordics, and we believe that the fees that we charge companies and scientific bodies are modest and produce cost-efficient results – more exports, more business partnerships, greater availability of skilled workers, and more demand for studying in our fine universities.
