Revival of a European defence engine program

How a European engine consortium was able to avert a reputational risk during a multi-year scaling phase.

CLIENT & INDUSTRY

European Aero Engine Consortium,
Defence Industry, Aerospace Industry

SERVICES

Marketing Communications

Rebuilding Identity, Trust, and Global Visibility

Image Improvement

Transformation

Four European manufacturers of aero engines have formed a consortium to design and produce a twin engine for the TIGER light combat helicopter.
In addition to the agreed purchase of a defined number of engines for the army aviation forces of the participating nations via OCCAR, the engine was also to be sold to other nations. Therefore, the consortium launched a corresponding scaling phase.
However, there were years of delays in the development and commissioning of the aircraft itself, as well as in the further development of the twin engine MTR390-E.

Social & Emotional Aspects

During the deployment of German soldiers in Afghanistan, they urgently needed their own air support from the TIGER. However, the fact that it had not been delivered 25 years after the order was placed outraged the public, the soldiers, politicians, and OCCAR.
The image of the TIGER helicopter, which had been portrayed so gloriously in the 1995 James Bond movie “Golden Eye” (prototype PT3) began to crack. This also had an impact on the engine consortium.
During the scaling phase in particular, it would have been necessary to secure the buy-in of the employees of the participating engine companies and to attract highly specialized professionals with a strong brand. However, due to the problems, they identified less with the product.
Instead, there was a risk of an emotionally motivated downward spiral from a negative image to declining performance, falling quality, even deeper disappointment, and ultimately damage to reputation and the premature end of the entire program.

viadoo's Contribution to Success

In this situation, the European engine consortium commissioned viadoo Change Guides with marketing communications. This primarily served to build trust, manage stakeholders, and ensure long-term positioning.
To support the extremely long sales cycle, we first developed a completely new corporate design. This included a company logo, which had been missing until then. In addition to the initials, it consists of four stylized turbine blades, which we arranged in a staggered pattern.
To establish the digital presence of the state-of-the-art propulsion system and its predecessor model, we also designed and implemented a twin website. In addition, we created analog advertising materials for international marketing.
To raise further national and international awareness of the propulsion system and improve the consortium’s image, we created a change communication plan. This included multilingual press releases and editorial articles for national and international trade media in the military aviation sector.
We also communicated positive feedback from the troops about the engine consortium’s on-site trainings.
In this way, we helped to ensure that the Bundeswehr, politicians, and the specialist public were able to distinguish more clearly between the TIGER helicopter and the engines produced for it by four other companies.
This also made it easier for employees to finally identify with their product again.
In the end, we were able to make a key contribution to revitalizing development and production and to warding off reputational damage through international marketing communications.

Facts & Figures about the TIGER

The legendary Ludwig Bölkow played a leading role in developing the Bo 105 in the 1960s. For a long time, this MBB helicopter was considered one of the most innovative and successful in the world. It was the first ever to have a main rotor with a rigid rotor head. The highly safe, twin-engine rotary wing aircraft was also the first of its kind to be capable of flying loops. It was mainly used by police forces, the military, civil defense and disaster control, and air rescue services. The German Armed Forces used it as an anti-tank helicopter (PAH).

In the 1980s, France’s Aerospatiale and Germany’s Messerschmitt Bölkow Blohm (MBB) were tasked with developing a successor model to this successful design: the Tiger. This was a major task not only for the binational manufacturing consortium (later EADS subsidiary Eurocopter, now Airbus Helicopters), but also for engine manufacturers.

In 1984, MTU Aero Engines founded a joint venture with the French company Turbomeca (now Safran Helicopter Engines) to develop a suitable engine. In 1989, the British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce joined the venture. From then on, the European consortium was responsible for the development, production, and maintenance of the twin engine for the Tiger as a program organization. More than 230 units of the basic version, the MTR390-2C, were delivered. Most went to Germany, followed by France, Australia, and Spain.

Later, another European consortium launched the modified Tiger helicopter engine MTR390-E. This program organization consisted of the three previous partners and the Spanish company ITP.