Innovation with a public mission

Business

The WDR Innovation Hub is an interdisciplinary team that analyses future scenarios and develops innovation projects to keep ARD’s largest broadcaster fit for the future. Together with internal and external partners, the initiative researches trends, social developments and technological ecosystems that will be relevant for WDR in the near future. This requires support for innovations throughout the institution and lively exchange between departments.

With the new image of the WDR Innovation Hub, Stan Hema emphasises the strength and the role of the innovation unit beyond worn-out stereotypes. A fresh visual world, well-thought-out internal and external communication measures and a tone of voice that does without buzzwords … all this clearly stands out from the often predictable announcements of a public broadcaster that has taken up the cause of innovation.

Our strategy makes it clear that innovation is quite naturally anchored in WDR’s public service mission, almost a raison d’être in accordance with the state treaty on media. The focus of our work was on the balance between three aspects: the independent positioning of the Innovation Hub, its connection to the WDR umbrella brand, and the user-friendliness of the website. The latter was particularly challenging, as WDR has grown as an umbrella brand since 1956 and has correspondingly complex design guidelines.

The entire collaboration – from the first meeting to the final ‘Thank you, that was great!’ – took place online and yet was still close and productive. The teamwork with our partners from Honeypump was just as inspiring.