GlobalCom’s market barometer: Denmark

Denmark - boats and people by the river

This week we talked to Mikael Baden, Communications Advisor at Jøp, Ove & Myrthu PR agency about the latest market trends in Denmark*.

1.Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Denmark?

There are interesting perspectives for companies exploring possibilities within markets driven by the public sector. Denmark has got one of the relative largest public sectors in the world, and about one third of the total demand is from the public sector. Energy efficiency, welfare technology (e.g. health services, elderly care, education technologies), public-private partnerships are seen to be some of the ways of kick-starting growth again in a country like Denmark, where productivity has been under pressure for some years.

The newly elected center-left wing government has stated an increased focus on these areas, setting very ambitious targets for e.g. renewable energy, giving room for sub-suppliers to the well-known energy industries to partner with public organizations in an environmentally very mature market like the Danish one.

2.What makes Denmark currently so interesting for these industries?

Denmark has become the ‘wind-hub‘ of the world creating not only jobs and an environmentally right profile (half of Denmark’s traditional electricity consumption must be from wind in 2020) –  the emergence of such a powerful business adventure has made the public as well as politicians very keen on finding the next ‚‘wind-adventure‘. Hence, incentives to test (and pay for) new areas of clean tech are accepted amongst consumers and the industry as a whole.

This gives room for developers of smart grids, electrical storage, green local partnerships with municipalities etc. Furthermore, the Danish EU-Presidency from January 2012 will put the spotlight on our nation, even though trying to solve the Euro crisis will probably be in focus.

 

3.Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Denmark?

The political agenda has been set, and the necessity to work smarter, more efficiently using less energy to secure Danish jobs and export in the tough times to come has been accepted almost everywhere in society. However foreign business players’ ability to tell their story and prove their business case in public-private partnerships is dependent upon a strong strategic Public Relations understanding combined with a Public Affairs focus. Add to this the importance of communicating and visualizing the individual and often very specialized ideas, services or products those businesses can provide within these new areas.

It takes time for consumers, the media, politicians and other key stakeholders to understand, accept and incorporate these new developments; therefore public affairs and public relations are important.

 

* The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

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