Founded in November 2015, MTCM will celebrate its 5th birthday in 2020. On the heels of this anniversary, we sat down with founder and CEO Michael Tobias to talk about what makes MTCM unique as well as about the changing communication landscape and his own personal highlights over the last five years.
This year we are celebrating MTCM’s 5th anniversary! What thoughts and emotions come to mind when you think about that?
I’m overwhelmed with gratitude at having been able to experience these amazing first five years. From the beginning, we have been able to exceed our projections for each business year. According to the renowned Pfeffer’s ranking, we are among the seven top PR firms for the chemical industry in Germany. We have won the German Agency Award.
“We have formed an excellent team and established a consistent culture of training and professional development. We have insourced competencies such as film production and photography. This company is a great place to be and I’m very proud of our achievements.
If you had to name just one thing, what would you say has been the key success factor so far?
It’s all about the people. Our team makes the difference. Each and every team member knows how to tell great stories and how to transport consistently reliable, interesting and newsworthy contents to the target groups of our clients. This is our great asset and, with continuous people development, we are constantly strengthening this advantage.
How did MTCM come about? What inspired you to create the company?
I was fascinated by the thrilling communication tasks chemical and life science companies need to handle. And I wanted to create a communication agency that perfectly fits to the needs of clients from these companies. MTCM is the result. Today, our customers include two DAX-listed companies from the chemical and life science sector – an astounding achievement. This is one of the reasons why we are one of the top PR firms for the chemical industry, even though we are only a small company.
And yet the way in which people use media is undergoing great change. Would you say that the best days of PR firms are behind us?
By no means! The best is yet to come! The need for professional content is increasing. And our goal is to create and deliver content with impact. It’s not about the channel, it’s about the quality of the content itself. I admit that the ways of reaching a particular target group and the form of presentation is changing rapidly. Videos and photos are gaining ground, for instance. In some situations, they have already become more important than texts. To keep pace with this change, we have developed our skills in that direction.
And that is the key: PR firms that keep up with the times still have a bright future ahead of them. They have advantages over other communication agencies because of their ability to flexibly adapt and extend their skills in order to deliver reliable and inspiring content to various target groups. And so, I truly believe that the social media age is still very much the age of PR firms.
What was your own personal highlight over the last five years?
The last five years were a highlight as a whole. There were a lot of remarkable milestones and moments that I will never forget in my life. However, one very special moment was when our agency team was able to join a client’s world record attempt. Do you know a PR firm with seven employees holding a world record? I do. And I’m proud to be part of this team.
What comes next?
We will continue to cultivate our photography and film production skills and further enhance our technical equipment. This is a growing branch of our work and we will continue investing here. Our customers can rest assured that we will take all necessary steps to stay up to date. We are also further strengthening our digital skills. For instance, we have just established a digital proof platform for our clients, where they can communicate and exchange ideas with our photo and graphic colleagues. We will also enhance our skills as a partner in agile project structures. And we will always stay flexible in order to fulfil the requirements of our customers, allowing them to focus on their core competencies.
Info
Michael Tobias, born 1975, founded Michael Tobias Content Marketing (MTCM) in 2015. MTCM is an owner-managed PR agency with roots in Birmingham (UK) and Solingen (Germany). The agency is a full-service partner, providing reliable content for companies in the chemical and life science sector, both in German and English. Its customers include two DAX-listed companies, and the agency is one of the Top 9 PR firms in the chemical sector in Germany (according to Pfeffer’s PR Ranking 2019).
