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Green Is Not Enough - Sven Pöllauer from ÖBB about what it takes to be a successful sustainable business
57 Plays15 days ago
Sven Pöllauer is a seasoned PR, Marketing, and Public Affairs professional with 20+ years of experience. His expertise spans internal and external communications, marketing, governmental affairs, and EU as well as international relations. In 2018 he joined Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB and is currently Head of PR, Marketing & Public Affairs at the ÖBB passenger branch.
Before joining the mobility sector he served as Advisor and Spokesperson to several members of the Austrian government from 2007 to 2017 and later worked as Senior Strategic Advisor for a PR & Marketing agency, advising clients from various sectors.
He holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and completed an MBA in Aviation Management at Emirates University in Dubai in February 2026.
About the FutureStrategies podcast and your host:
I’m Florian Schleicher, a marketing strategist. I help brands gain clarity, spark momentum, and turn strategy into something that actually moves people. In 2022, I started my marketing studio FUTURESTRATEGIES. to do exactly that. I currently work with corporate clients from 11 countries.
If you want more, check out my FutureStrategies newsletter – monthly inspiration on marketing, strategy and sustainability.
And if something’s blocking your brand from doing its best work, let’s talk.
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Transcript
Introduction to marketing and sustainability
00:00:00
Speaker
If you don't earn any money, you cannot be a successful, sustainable green company. That's an important lesson. And that's what I would say also to startups and other companies. It's very good to have a product which is good for the environment, but you also have to be successful when it comes to business.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to the Future Strategies Podcast. My name is Florian Schleicher. I'm a marketing strategist focused on sustainability. And I'm your host here. You can listen to my interviews with international experts. And together we will explore where marketing, strategies, and sustainability intersect. with great examples, insightful stories and a look behind the scenes of some amazing brands. If you are curious how to apply all of that for your own business, I do this for my clients from all around the world.
00:00:52
Speaker
But more on that at the end of this episode.
Introducing Sven Perlauer
00:00:55
Speaker
Now, let's jump into today's interview.
00:01:00
Speaker
Today I'm speaking with Sven Perlauer. He's a seasoned PR, marketing and public affairs professional with 20 plus years of experience. His experience spans international and external communications, marketing, governmental affairs and EU as well as international relations.
00:01:19
Speaker
In 2018, he joined the Austrian Federal Railways, ÖBB, and is currently Head of PR, Marketing and Public Affairs at their passenger branch.
00:01:30
Speaker
Before joining the mobility sector, he served as an advisor and spokesperson to several members of the Austrian government from 2007 to Later, he worked as a senior strategic advisor for a PR and marketing agency, advising clients from various sectors.
00:01:49
Speaker
He holds a master's in arts in international relations and completed an MBA in aviation management at Emirates University in Dubai in February, 2026.
What is Sven's view on multimodality?
00:02:00
Speaker
I'm very happy to have you with me here today, Sven.
00:02:05
Speaker
Thanks for having me, Florian. So you work for Austria's biggest climate protection company, basically, the ÖBB, Austrian Federal Railways. And your company thus has a huge impact on the public and the perception also of sustainability. And today I would like for us to dive a little bit deeper on what it means and how you're also so approaching the sustainability challenge.
00:02:30
Speaker
Let's start with a fun first question. What was your last trip and did you take a train or plane and why? Actually it it was a train but I'm honest ah of course I also take the plane or the car. I am a firm believer in multi-modality so if the train is the best choice when it comes to time and comfort so I take the train but there are a lot of destinations where the plane makes more sense or the car makes more sense. Actually I don't have an own car for the last 20 years um so I very often take the train or the subway or something like this but I'm the not saying that
00:03:15
Speaker
I have to take the train every time. So it's less of a dogma, but more of like what makes sense. It's not dogma. If I talk to colleagues of mine, for example, from the tobacco industry, a lot of them don't smoke, but they do their job. And it's important for me as well. I love my product.
00:03:35
Speaker
I can identify very good with my product. But I don't have to use it every time. And as I said, I think multimodality is the future as well. So the connection of all modes of transport.
00:03:50
Speaker
And yeah, so I live this way.
How has public sentiment about climate protection shifted?
00:03:53
Speaker
Let's cut to the chase when we talk about sustainability. Has sustainability in communications currently lost its appeal or is it still on track?
00:04:01
Speaker
um Let me put it that way. ah In our case as ÖBB we have a big advantage. Our product itself is sustainable because choosing the train instead of car plane is automatically better for the climate.
00:04:16
Speaker
So our campaign leans on that. For example, three years ago we introduced a new song in our TV and radio spots with the key message, Wir fahren grün, we go green.
00:04:29
Speaker
But we also have to admit that the public mood, the public sentiment on climate protection has shifted in Europe during the past few years. A few years ago we had a momentum around movements like Friday for Future, Greater Thunberg and there were a lot of political initiatives such as the Green Deal by the European Commission on the national level which put climate action high on the agenda. And today, however, climate protection has fallen down many political agendas and is less often a deciding factor for voters and most important now for marketing colleagues, also not that deciding factor anymore for customers.
00:05:16
Speaker
So while we at UBB are ah proud to offer a green product, you said it before, we are a green company, but sustainability alone is no longer sufficient to sell a ticket.
00:05:30
Speaker
You must communicate other clear benefits as well. For example, faster travel times, modern trains, competitive prices, loyalty programs, comfort, etc., etc., And so long story short, I'm convinced that there remains a market for sustainable products. But effective marketing shows that sustainability is one of several tangible advantages customers gain from choosing your product, choosing your company. That definitely rings true also from what my experience is that it's no longer just enough to talk about sustainability, but you have to give other added values. And and I always, when I teach at the university, I bring this example of nobody wants to buy sustainable shoes. People want shoes that make them look good, that are comfortable, that they're durable.
00:06:22
Speaker
But if we just say, hey these are sustainable shoes, we will only reach 0.5% maybe of the whole population who wants sustainable shoes. And i I think what we can draw from that is really that sustainability can't be the main act of any kind of product. Yes, or at least only for a small target group. If you want to reach the broader public, you really have...
00:06:45
Speaker
to sell a lot of benefits and sustainability is one of them and I think if if we see the mobility sector and if we talk about aviation for example there are some customers who use the compensation of their CO2 emissions but it's not the majority, not at all and that's a sign for me that people want to to have sustainability in their life and and and and the care in somehow for climate protection, but not in that way it was six years ago, ten years ago maybe.
Discussing long-term infrastructure projects
00:07:25
Speaker
One of your biggest projects in the last couple of years has been the Koa-Almbahn, which opened in December last year. And it was what I read, 27 years of construction.
00:07:36
Speaker
yes um And I would be curious, how do you communicate a project like that on this scale as a climate win when people are also skeptical about the environmental cost of building something like that in the first place?
00:07:50
Speaker
It's a good question and as I work for the the passenger branch of ÖBB, ÖBB Personenverkehr, we use the infrastructure and make better products if you want to say that were possible. So faster travel times, more comfort, etc.
00:08:08
Speaker
um If we speak about the infrastructure itself, the colleagues from ÖBB infrastructure, I think they have a tough job in the beginning of such a big project. If you think back 27 years ago, I mean, we both have been very young 27 years ago, but if we try to think back, you know that a lot of people were against this project because um it it it We don't need it. It's a lot of money. It's a waste of money. And um um there are also and sustainability topics like a lot of of of special spiders or something like that. And we cannot build this huge infrastructure. right So what I want to say in the beginning of an infrastructure project all over Europe, there most times is protest.
00:09:01
Speaker
And when the infrastructure is open for the public and can be used by, like in our case, a railway company, ah people see the benefits. And that's, I think the the key takeaway is you have to build it, you have to do it. And it's a tough decision for politicians because the politicians who decided to build the Quorum tunnel, in in our case, are no longer in politics. Of course.
00:09:31
Speaker
But they have to believe in the project and have to go through all the tough time. And if you allow me, i want you to make a comparison with other parts of the world.
00:09:46
Speaker
because as you mentioned I did an MBA in Dubai and had a lot um of of colleagues from from China for example from India and that this is what I said before is a European problem because ah The one country who's building the most railway infrastructure and high-speed infrastructure at the moment is China. And they are doing it at high speed, high speed for high speed. Because in the past 10 years, they built 15,000 kilometers of high-speed rail infrastructure, which wouldn't be possible in Europe because, as you mentioned, we...
00:10:25
Speaker
it took us 27 years to build one tunnel. So what I want to say, it's a European problem because we have a lot of laws which protect people's rights, sustainability, etc., which is good. But I think we can maybe think about becoming faster when it comes to vital infrastructure projects.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah. One, it's fascinating how fast things can happen in other countries. And it also, like the thing that you mentioned is 27 years of of basically building this tunnel and in this route reminds me of this concept of cathedral thinking. Have you heard of that?
00:11:07
Speaker
Not really. Help me. This is actually from our history where lots of times when people started building cathedrals, they were not the ones finishing it.
00:11:18
Speaker
yeah So you had to get started. If you think of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, still not finished. And when Gaudi first planned it, he he knew he would not be there to finish it.
00:11:29
Speaker
and And I think this very much applies to also fixing our climate problem at the moment, as we have to be the ones who start working on it. maybe not the ones who finish it then. That's I think is is a good reminder of perspectives that sometimes a long-term approach or a long-term thinking has to be necessary in order to actually achieve the thing that you want to achieve.
00:11:53
Speaker
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, but I think it is... getting harder and harder. We are living in a time of populism. ah We're living in a time where people take so less time to really make up their mind about things and decide very quick and the one day different to the next day. So yeah, I couldn't agree more about this this picture.
What is the impact of Austria's Klima Ticket?
00:12:23
Speaker
So another big project that you did was the Klima Ticket, which is like a ticket where you get, um for a rather good price, access to the whole of the Austrian railway system. And it even inspired a German ah Deutschland ticket then.
00:12:42
Speaker
What was the main marketing lesson for you from that rollout and what made it resonate so strongly also in the population? um It's hard for me to say because it's not our product. It's a product by the ministry, it's a product by the the Austrian government. So we do not do any marketing for it and we do not sell it.
00:13:05
Speaker
But if you ask me if the Klima ticket itself is a success, I would say absolutely yes. um Because you have some deciding factor which brings people into trains. it's first travel time, comfort, it's am I close to a train station but it's also now I'm coming to the Klima ticket it's the price and the flexibility and the if you compare the Austrian Klima ticket to the the Swiss Generalabo which more is more or less the same the the Swiss counterpart costs four times
00:13:48
Speaker
what climate ticket costs, around 1,400 euros, and you get all modes of transport, public transport with the climate ticket. So I think price is a very important factor to bring more people to public transport, and the climate ticket is a very important tool to bring people to public transport.
00:14:11
Speaker
So how did it actually work? The the government then ah funded this basically, and then you were one of the providers to service the people who bought that? Yeah, there is a known company founded by the state. It's called One Mobility. And this company gives the climate ticket, was the host of the climate ticket. And there several mobility provider providers.
00:14:38
Speaker
We are one of them, a very big one, but only one of them, um which accepts the Klima ticket from our customers. And yeah, that's that's the the system.
Balancing commercial growth and sustainability at ÖBB
00:14:50
Speaker
Now you are in a company that also has to deliver on revenue goals, probably. And I would be curious, what is the tension that currently exists when you have sustainability goals on the one side, which are, as we talked about, more long-term goals also, and you need to invest and on the other side commercial growth targets at ÖBB.
00:15:14
Speaker
How is the tension there and how do you deal with that? As said before, we have a big advantage because our product itself is sustainable. So ah all investments in new trains, for example, are sustainable.
00:15:28
Speaker
But on the other side, we also have to um earn the money back what we need for investments. To give you a number, Persona Verkehr will invest 6.1 billion euros in new trains till 2030.
00:15:47
Speaker
And so we have to have a good business case to invest such a lot of money in these trains. So we need to sell tickets and we need to innovate new products and to bring people from the car and the plane back in our trains. So the the economical side, the business side is very important also when we are proud to be a sustainable, a green company. If you don't
00:16:24
Speaker
earn any money, you cannot be a successful, sustainable, green company. That's an important lesson. And that's what I would say also to startups and other companies. It's very good to have a product which is good for the environment, but you also have to be successful when it comes to business.
00:16:44
Speaker
I feel like sadly, that's also what we see on the startup side of business at the moment with a lot of startups failing because they were not able to actually build a business case that works.
00:16:55
Speaker
And on the other hand, said there are companies like Patagonia, Oatly, Too Good To Go, where I worked at, that actually managed to get this proof of concept where it then works. And I feel like it's very important to more and more talk about companies like also ÖBB, who actually are able to bring it together. And to to come back to what you said, to my first question about your preferred mode of of transportation, I feel like whenever we talk about black and white, we won't be able to actually make progress. And yes the progress when it comes to sustainability has to be in the forefront, not being perfect, progress over perfection. Otherwise, we'll always look for the best solution and then we might never find it
00:17:41
Speaker
Yes, and I think I want to pick up this this this picture of black and white. If you divide society and if you have on the one side the people, the companies that say we have to protect our climate, we have to be sustainable.
00:18:02
Speaker
and every other mode of transport, for example, or every other way of life is bad, you bring people to more and more say, I want another way of life and sustainability becomes less important. So I think i would advise to make sustainability ah is is the basis, but it's it's not the whole product.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Marketing strategies for business vs. leisure travelers
00:18:34
Speaker
Now, as I understood it, you're both responsible for the business travelers as well as leisure travelers at UBP.
00:18:43
Speaker
Absolutely. yes Is there a difference on how you communicate sustainability to those two target audience or is it the same? Well, it's not really a difference when it comes to sustainability, but of course it is a difference how we communicate or we do marketing for different target groups.
00:19:05
Speaker
So um I believe it's important to speak with one voice and to have one core message and to have one product or just a few products, not the whole portfolio in in in your campaigns.
00:19:20
Speaker
But I think you have to tailor the messages to target groups or to tailor the campaigns and the channels for example to target groups. And so yes, if we do campaigns or PR ah work which addresses business customers, it's other channels like LinkedIn, it's the message is a little bit different and also the product is a little bit different because it would be more the first class or the business class which we have in our railchats for the business customers. And on the other side for the leisure travelers, it would be more the Sparschiene as we call it, which is a a very good um um and
00:20:04
Speaker
ticket price for um for people who do decide long in advance that they will travel or for example the UBB Nightjet which is the um the the biggest night train operator in Europe also very good for leisure traveller who want to go by train and not by plane.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Last time I took the night chat was actually, i was at ah at my cousin's wedding in Florence in Italy. Our flight back got canceled and we were looking, okay, so how do we actually get home? Because it was Saturday evening and I had ah a meeting, a business meeting on Monday. And I was like, I have to go go home. Now what's the option?
00:20:47
Speaker
What the airline company offered us was a flight through Munich, but with a transfer time of like half an hour between then going back to Vienna. And then we said, no, we're not going to do that. Then we looked at, can we rent a car and maybe just drive home? And then you have to pay the one time fee, but you will get it back. And then we're like, okay, now we're already exhausted. We won't be able to do that, my family and I. And then we found that there's actually a night chat from Bologna, which is like an hour train ride from Florence.
00:21:17
Speaker
which goes back to Vienna. And then we just took the train. We ah spent a couple of hours in a hotel just freshening up. I bought a neck pillow and some earplugs and a sleeping mask. And then we boarded the train. And in the morning, we were back in Vienna. And and this was like...
00:21:35
Speaker
We planned to land at like 10 p.m. And actually then the train arrived at 6, 7 in the morning. But I had some time to sleep and I was so happy to just arrive. And this was for me the last time that I really had this thank you, UBB experience for actually getting home. to hear.
00:21:53
Speaker
Very happy to hear. It's cool. Nice story. hope Hope to have you back sometimes. and the Yeah. ah i Whenever I travel ah within Austria or also sometimes to Germany, I take UBB.
00:22:08
Speaker
Internationally, it's more complicated and it always depends on. ah This is also something that I think is very important to consider when we talk about sustainability, that everybody has a breaking point. where it becomes too complicated to take the most sustainable option. I once had a chat with a um with another marketing expert at a conference. The conference was in Lisbon and he traveled there from London.
00:22:32
Speaker
And he told me he always takes the train, always, but it would have taken him two and a half days. yeah Whereas the flight was just two and a half hours. And that was his breaking point where he said, okay, I can't do this.
00:22:46
Speaker
I have to take the plane. And this is, I think, what we constantly need to weigh. What makes most sense for us and for everybody, that breaking point is different. Yeah. And and maybe some words about this um this topic of cross-border international train rides, because I hear hear it a lot that it's not so easy to go from I say, let's say Vienna to Porto with the train and it's true and that has a very good reason because the most advantage of train still is in the in the national in the short connections let's say.
00:23:26
Speaker
Just to give you a number we have around 300 million passengers a year in our trains and from these 300 millions it's only 1.5 million who go by night train, cross-border night train and it's about 30 million who go with the long distance trains like railjet, intercity, other city etc.
00:23:54
Speaker
So what I want to say is that most of our customers go in the S-Bahn or the regional trains, daily commuters go to work e etc.
The role of daily commuter services in sustainability
00:24:07
Speaker
So that is where the real advantage of train is and by the way if we speak about sustainability where the train is so important because if you substitute a car, a daily car commuter from let's say some suburb of Vienna to Vienna and he or she chooses the train and not the car, they maybe don't need a car anymore.
00:24:34
Speaker
So I think that's the real backbone of rail is the daily commuters and that's also very important when it comes to sustainability and climate protection.
00:24:45
Speaker
that's so true to to always also consider, so what is the actual problem that I'm solving for the biggest chunk of my audience? And that's just getting from a to B on a daily basis and not these cross-border connections that you might need to take once a month or maybe every couple of months.
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, and there's such a small target group who really wants to go from Vienna to Portugal or to to cross many, many countries. I think it's a little bit different when it comes to ah neighbor countries, like Austria is in the heart of Europe. So the connections to, for example, Munich, also Venice, Trieste, Budapest, Prague, Zurich,
00:25:31
Speaker
These are very important connections for us as well because travel times by train are very comparable ah to plane or car. So if you have an advantage in travel times, you have a very good argument for train customers.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Sven, this has been delightful so far Before we go to the three final questions that I ask everybody here, do you have any questions for me? Actually, I wanted to ask you what was your best train travel experience lately, but you already told me. But maybe can you tell me, you speak to so many marketing colleagues,
00:26:12
Speaker
What are your one or two most important takeaways so far from how do you do good marketing for sustainable products? One or two, Jess?
00:26:23
Speaker
I think number one, the thing that we already talked about, this communicating in an actual benefit before we talk about sustainability. One example that I that i love recently is ah Red Wing Shoes. So this is an American company. They produce leather boots.
00:26:42
Speaker
And the company that has been in business since 1905. So they have definitely proven their business case. And when I bought a pair of their shoes last year, the salesperson said to me, you have a lifelong warranty on these shoes.
00:26:59
Speaker
And in about 10 to 15 years, the sole might crack. And then you can go to any store worldwide and you will get a replacement on your sole. So that interaction didn't once mention sustainability.
00:27:13
Speaker
But producing a shoe that you can wear for the rest of your life is actually the most sustainable thing that you can do. And this is, I feel very much translates to the thing that we talked about this actual benefits before sustainability. Right.
00:27:27
Speaker
Because I feel the term sustainability has now become very heavy and whenever we mention it, people are like, oh, this is exhausting. So that's number one. And number two, I think what a lot of experts also mention is the importance on bringing everyone within the company on board when it comes to sustainability.
00:27:48
Speaker
Because there was an interesting study by Bain Consulting last year where they found that 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions can actually be abated with a positive ROI.
00:27:58
Speaker
So you can make more money if you switch to a more sustainable business for 25% of your business. But in order to achieve that, everyone in your organization needs to know, not just marketing or HR or compliance, why sustainability is so important. Because everybody can look out for more sustainable options.
00:28:19
Speaker
Maybe a train driver has an amazing idea how to save just 0.5% on something. And this is so important that we really not just spread it externally, but also internally and make people internally feel why sustainability matters for us as a company and why it also matters to them. Great.
00:28:42
Speaker
Very good examples. Thank you. So that being said, let's go to the three final questions. Okay. Number one, what is good marketing to you in three words?
00:28:56
Speaker
Well, if I must pick three words only, it would be clarity, product-centric and efficiency. First, clarity, which means to me, be concrete, not abstract. Say what the news is in PR or what the product is in marketing. And don't hide the product behind wake storytelling.
00:29:21
Speaker
Make the offer benefits and price clear. Customers know they are being advertised to, so don't make advertising which is hiding and and has a bad feeling that the the company has to advertise. Customers know they are being advertised to, so be transparent and direct.
00:29:40
Speaker
And this brings me also to the second point, product-centric. I would always advise prioritizing a strong product over a flattering corporate image. A great product builds reputation naturally. And I would focus on one or a few flagship products rather than the entire portfolio. I think that's a mistake many, many companies do. They try to advertise every month a new product. And people get mixed up and and don't know what what really is the product of the company. And one thing which is very important to me is when launching something new, a new product, or in our case, a new train, I love doing a staged big bang. So starting with PR work, organizing a customer preview event.
00:30:34
Speaker
doing influencer partnerships and then then starting a broad advertising campaign when the product is always already known. And last but not least, the third word, efficiency.
00:30:48
Speaker
I'm convinced that it is important to target the right audience on the right channels. So as said before, keep one core message and but tailor wording and format to each segment. Also pursue cooperative marketing, find partners who speak about your product. We at LBB, for example, we do a lot of cooperative campaigns with tourism organizations because you have to train and destination and this stretches budget and reach. I like that. I especially like the word of clarity because it's actually one of the things that i found that
00:31:27
Speaker
what I'm providing my clients with when I do marketing strategies for them or I help them with their strategies, always gaining clarity because there's just so much going on. And sometimes I know this from my own experience working for McDonald's or Too Good to Go, you get kind of a tunnel vision.
00:31:43
Speaker
You don't see left or right and you don't know why am I exactly doing it? How am I doing it and what am I doing? And so this word of clarity, I think we could all use that far more often in our daily lives.
How might AI impact marketing jobs?
00:31:55
Speaker
Cool. What do you think is the future of marketing? It's a very tough question because um if I would have the answer, i might would be a very successful marketing manager in the US or something like this. No. um If we speak about the future, I think we have really to wait what the AI really brings and how AI can changes the world of marketing. um I think speaking from today, ai can be an important tool to support us, but you always need the creative side.
00:32:42
Speaker
So AI, I think will never be as creative as a human being. And you need somebody who prompts AI very good.
00:32:53
Speaker
So I think yes, maybe AI will substitute some junior colleagues in marketing divisions. But...
00:33:07
Speaker
compared to other segments of a company like maybe the legal department, finance, etc. I think you always will need humans in PR and marketing who um have a broader view about the messages and how to connect dots from product, target group and messages.
00:33:32
Speaker
So AI, in my view, will be a changing factor um and we have to to see where it leads us.
00:33:42
Speaker
The one aspect that you mentioned, I think, is very important, this it might substitute some juniors because both you and I are in the fortunate position that we build our careers without AI. we were able to be juniors in order to become seniors then.
00:33:58
Speaker
But the challenge is then if you substitute the juniors for AI, how will you have seniors in 15, 20 years? Yeah, very good point. Very good point. yeah So we'll see how that turns out.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah. And what makes me a little bit afraid is how fast this all develops. I mean, nobody knew chatGDP a few years ago. and now I hardly know anybody who doesn't use it, for example, and in other tools like Copilot, etc, etc.
00:34:32
Speaker
And yeah, it's very fast. Final question, Sven. Do you have a book that you would like to recommend here? ah Yeah, maybe i would choose Digital Empires by Anup Redford. I don't know if you know it. No, I haven't read it I really can recommend it because this book, it's inspired me because it explains how dominant digital platforms shape markets, but also politics and public discourse.
00:34:58
Speaker
And these insights were vital for me because um as we spoke about ai before, also all digital platforms are
00:35:10
Speaker
shaped the way we as PR and marketing professionals worked. And this book shows also how regulation are reshaping the digital landscape and is affecting our channel strategy, our message control, our audience reach. And it reminded me in my professional life to build resilient platform-aware communication plans, to s think strategically about partnerships, data use, reputation in a world where a few tech giants can
00:35:49
Speaker
really limit your voice and how important these platforms have become um can also be seen from the media share of all Austrian companies because I don't know if you know but last year more than 50% I believe it was 58% of all media spendings of all the money Austrian companies are spending for media went to us companies like google meta amazon and others and we at obb we also advertise on these platforms because they are very efficient way to reach customers but we must be aware that doing so weakens austrian and european media outlets and when we spoke about ai it's the same for the the media platforms um
00:36:41
Speaker
we really have to take care is Europe that um we stay, we are not really now a playing factor for social media, that we not let US tech giants decide what way of life and thinking Europeans have to do.
Media spending shift to US platforms and its implications
00:37:02
Speaker
And it's more important, frankly, saying with the kind of politicians and politics which we see now in the US and in other parts of the world.
00:37:14
Speaker
Yeah. And the important thing is if we move our marketing budget to us where ah US-based companies, whereas before it was going to our like national or European ah news media corporations.
00:37:35
Speaker
This also becomes a threat for democracy then because we can't sustain our own media m but companies anymore. And then they won't be able to hire enough journalists to actually take care of all the things that are happening here, which means we get more news from the US, which at the moment is also a little bit biased. And this, I think, is is a big challenge. And as of beginning of this year, I'm a member of the board of the International Advertising Association here in Austria.
00:38:07
Speaker
And one of the projects that I want to tackle with my board, with my colleagues also, is what can we actually do about this? Is there anything we can do about this? Because I think this is one of the biggest challenges that we face in our current media ecosystem at the moment.
00:38:23
Speaker
Absolutely. And especially when we speak about the the younger generation, so to say it makes us so old if you speak about the younger generation. But if we speak about young people who have um these platforms as their only source of information,
00:38:43
Speaker
They don't watch the news on TV, they don't read newspapers. If these platforms are the only sources of information, this really makes something with democracy.
00:38:55
Speaker
And there are some political parties who use these platforms very, very efficient, very, very good. And so that might could be a problem in the coming years and decades.
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like we've opened Pandora's box now because this we could talk for another hour, i think about the both of us, but we'll wrap it up here. And I just want to say again, Sven, thank you so much for coming on the show. Maybe we can have a separate discussion or conversation over a cup of coffee about this media democracy thing. yeah Thank you so so much for taking time. I really appreciate it.
00:39:34
Speaker
Thank you, Florian. It was really nice talking to you. Have a good rest of your day and see you soon. You too, bye. And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode, please forward it to a friend or a colleague. This would mean the world to me as I pour my heart and a lot of energy into producing this podcast with all the brilliant minds that share their perspective here.
00:39:58
Speaker
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00:40:10
Speaker
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00:40:21
Speaker
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