Strategy and Consulting

Clear positioning is a prerequisite for successful communication and reputation management.

Only those who stand out from their environment and are perceived as authentic and credible will have their messages heard. Together with our clients, we define the desired and appropriate positioning. In doing so, we use the Reputation Gap Analysis on request. Thus we can secure our clients’ reputation through targeted communication measures, develop it and make it work for them. Depending on the client's needs, we take over the entire implementation, including efficiency and success control, of all activities in addition to conception and planning.

Issue management – the right way to deal with complex and sensitive topics

When communicating on socially relevant issues, one is often confronted with two conflicting demands: on the one hand, it is important to attract as much attention as possible in order to secure thematic leadership; on the other hand, one must proceed with prudence and restraint in order to avoid potentially fatal mistakes.

Skills supports and develops strategic communication measures, creates understanding among the target group, monitors the issue in the media and also provides for a potential communicative "crisis". With our Frame Checker tool we find the right frame for your message even with complex issues.

Campaigns – with well thought-out dramatic composition

Preliminary phase and start, climax and conclusion – every campaign needs a well-thought-out dramatic composition to mobilise internal and external resources in the best possible way. The aim is to achieve a goal in a short time: for example, to support the formation of opinion on an issue, to increase participation in an election, or to correct the perceptions of a company's customers. Campaign management is a discipline of PR in its own right, requiring above all experience and creativity.

We have experience in developing and implementing:

  • Integrated PR and advertising campaigns (e.g. image campaigns, product campaigns)
  • Theme campaigns (e.g. information campaigns, education and awareness campaigns)
  • Mobilisation campaigns (e.g., voter turnout, voting)

Public affairs – strategic lobbying for long-term success

For us, lobbying means: creating understanding for concerns, finding dialogue partners and supporters for our clients, comprehensively informing decision makers, changing underlying conditions – and thus laying the foundation for long-term success.

Through a fair and cooperative approach, we create win-win situations that benefit not only our clients, but also public institutions and other partners.

With a network of decision makers from business and politics that has evolved over our 35-year agency history and is based on mutual respect and trust, we are able to establish optimal frameworks and contacts for our clients – across party and national borders.

Sustainability communication – credibly communicating social responsibility

The topics of sustainability and responsibility have arrived in society at large: customers demand transparency and social responsibility from brands and companies, major international corporations scrutinise their supply chains for sustainability, and the media and NGOs take a close look when companies talk about their commitment to climate protection and diversity.

Operational sustainability encompasses ecological, economic and social aspects and, as an instrument of strategic corporate management, helps to guarantee long-term corporate success. Communication – both internally and externally – is essential for a successful corporate sustainability process.

Since January 2017, large Austrian companies have been obliged to disclose the social, societal and environmental impacts of their business activities, in addition to financial reports. Increasingly, this also affects SMEs that want to work for large and international clients.

Our expertise

From sustainability reports to the communication of concrete projects, Skills supports and accompanies your company in the implementation of your sustainability strategy.

If desired, we can use our Reputation Gap Analysis to measure the discrepancy between the expectations of your company and the actual experience of your customers, and to plan and implement communication activities on a scientific basis. More information on the "Reputation Gap Analysis" can be found here.

Read more about our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.

  • Herrschaftliches Mehrstöckiges Palais in der Wiener Innenstadt

    Bank Gutmann

    Skills has been supporting Bank Gutmann in external and internal communications and as a strategic and conceptual partner since 2005. …

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  • Therme Wien und Therme Wien Med von außen

    The new Therme Wien

    Strategic communication for the transformation of the traditional “Kurbad Oberlaa” into Europe’s largest urban thermal spa, the new “Therme Wien” …

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  • Hands holding an info brochure in front of a laptop

    Skills honored at the PR State Award

    With the project “The Internet and my Fire Brigade” for the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association, Skills secured the victory in the category Internal PR & Employer Branding at State Prize for PR. …

    Read moreSkills honored at the PR State Award

  • Rendering des Hohen Hauses

    Project of the Century: Redevelopment of the Parliament

    The redevelopment of the Austrian Parliament is associated with numerous challenges due to the public interest, the large number of directly and indirectly affected stakeholders, the complexity and the costs of this project, also with regard to communication. …

    Read moreProject of the Century: Redevelopment of the Parliament

  • Survivors carrying the flag of the Mauthausen concentration camp followed by US Marines and thousands of people leaving the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial.

    Mauthausen Committee Austria

    Social commitment is lived daily by Skills – this also applies to the free support of the Mauthausen Committee Austria and its numerous projects. …

    Read moreMauthausen Committee Austria

  • Union members with campaign subjects

    younion: awareness and information campaign

    “We can’t afford more savings”: Skills draws attention to the cuts in “system-relevant professions” – applauded in Corona times – with an Austria-wide campaign. …

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