Customer magazines are old hat – BPW launches new online portal motionist.com dedicated to transport and logistics

• motionist.com is meant to engage and inspire professionals in the transport and logistics industry
• The focus of the platform is on digitisation, electric vehicles, smart cities and everyday logistics heroes
• The agile portal design includes editorial content and social media interactions
• Katrin Köster considers the new portal an ‘important milestone in BPW's brand strategy’

Wiehl, 6 August 2019 – With the digitalisation of running gear technologies, adding digital connectivity to commercial vehicles and logistics processes as well as innovative electric drive systems, BPW is increasingly positioning itself as a trendsetter and innovation leader in the industry. Now BPW is also restructuring its corporate communications – its new online portal motionist.com centres on future-oriented topics and interaction with readers.

With motionist.com, BPW is not simply replacing its printed customer magazine trailer world with an online edition: ‘We have completely restructured the way we approach and present topics from across the industry,’ explains Katrin Köster, head of corporate communications. ‘We want the new platform to be open instead of exclusive, interactive instead of representative, and updated on an ongoing basis instead of published according to a fixed schedule. motionist.com is an important milestone in our brand strategy of positioning BPW as an open, innovative, 21st-century company.’

The name ‘motionist’ says it all. Nadine Simon, BPW spokeswoman, and social media manager Till Homrighausen jointly developed the concept of the interactive portal: ‘With motionist.com, our goal is to appeal to everyone who wants to make an impact in the industry – from senior executives to drivers – simply anyone who is enthusiastic about innovation in transport and logistics,’ explains Nadine Simon. When selecting topics to cover on the site, the team deliberately looks beyond its own company boundaries – digitisation, electric vehicles and smart cities are among the more future-oriented categories, while profiles of drivers and other people driving progress in the industry on a daily basis ensure that motionist.com is firmly rooted in the here and now of day-to-day business in the transport industry.

The team has also intelligently integrated the company’s existing Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter profiles into the new transport-themed portal and regularly publishes new articles (using the hashtag #motionist) on these platforms as well as on Xing and LinkedIn. In addition, readers can comment on all of the articles: ‘With motionist.com, we do not just want to unilaterally broadcast our message out across the industry, we also want to listen, learn and constantly improve,’ says Till Homrighausen, who is responsible for the editorial content published on motionist.com and BPW’s social media profiles. ‘This approach, which focuses on interaction, reflects the spirit of partnership that we are committed to here at BPW – and not just towards our customers. This is why expanding our readership to include other audiences is extremely important to us’. 

In developing the motionist.com platform, the Communications team used its experience with social media and presenting printed media online – BPW has been publishing its annual report and sustainability report online for two years, and the Newsroom section on its website contains press releases, photos, videos and all of the company group’s social media activities in a single location.