How much IT is in a bread roll? How many e-skills do carpenters need? How IT-fit are apprentices and pupils in Germany? E-skills are very important key qualifications in contemporary society. 61 per cent of Germans use a PC at work. E-skills are increasingly important for a successful career. However, in Germany there is a lack of substantial IT training: only 20 per cent of students use computers at school. Every other apprentice does not possess sufficient IT skills. To improve the e-skills of four million people in Germany till 2010 with free basic training, Microsoft Germany and eight partners launched the Initiative IT-Fitness. IT-Fitness is a public-private partnership and the German contribution to the European “Skills for Employability” alliance. At the heart of the diverse training is the IT-Fitness-Test launched by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The IT training, available in German and Turkish, teach fundamental basic knowledge about the Internet, applications & programs, networks, and security & data protection. More than 1.3 million people have benefited from IT-Fitness already. The integrated communications campaign was equally successful: More than 1,200 clippings in a limited set of print, online, TV and radio media reached millions of people in Germany.

To raise awareness of the importance of e-skills among the public as well as political and business decision makers, IT-Fitness developed a cross media strategy consisting of advertisements (TV spots), events (fairs, conferences), wide coverage online, in broadcast and print media (by-liners, interviews, webcasts) and a direct approach to government elites (events, newsletter). With this integrated communication campaign IT-Fitness aims to “win hearts and minds”. To inspire youngsters and meet them “on their own turf”. In February 2009 IT-Fitness started a special campaign for its new serious game containing communication in social communities and messenger platforms such as SchuelerVZ, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook and Youtube. The campaign was also launched on at a highly unusual press conference. This was all part of our campaign which was focused on starting viral word-of-mouth strategies that would be implemented by cooperating with young influencers. Since the story takes place in a special agent world of 007, selected editors were invited for a special “mission briefing” and received a top-secret “agent file”.

By now, more than 1.3 million people have improved their e-skills with IT-Fitness training. The new serious game “Agent Attack IT” attracted approx. 10,000 kids in three weeks time (Feb 16- March 8, 2009). In the first two years of the IT-Fitness campaign approx. 250 political decision makers got first-hand information on the growing demand of e-skills and IT-Fitness’ training projects. With the integrated communications approach IT-Fitness generated more than 1,200 print and online clippings, and close to 100 TV and radio clippings in 350 Tier 1 media since March 2007. For an event with the German Minister of Labour, best practice digital PR was developed, aiming for maximum media coverage. A webcast with a download feature was integrated in a multimedia press release reaching 1,125 million page impressions and 569 million visits (unique users: 33 million). The webcast was published 33 times. With print, online and TV coverage on its recent projects IT-Fitness has reached more than 180 million readers and visitors since November 2008. Special features in leading youth media such as Bravo, MSN, Youtube and Giga TV have drawn a unique awareness of the new serious game “Agent Attack IT”.