30 years WORDUP – a Munich PR agency

It was a summer vacation in beautiful France – together with student friends in 1994 – that marked the beginning of the agency’s history. Contrary to expectations, it was only indirectly the famous song by the New York band Cameo that shaped the name of the company, but rather a piece of graffiti somewhere in the French provinces: WORDUP was written there in big, red letters on a transformer station in the middle of nowhere. Now one can certainly assume that the graffiti sprayers were referring to the world-famous song, which dominated the charts at the time and sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide on the LP of the same name – but that’s the whole story told.

From press office to PR agency

In fact, WORDUP has been issuing invoices for press and PR services since 1994 (initially as the “WORDUP press office”), primarily to computer magazines and later, in an exclusive contract lasting several years, to a subsidiary of Bayerischer Rundfunk, which was at that time with the was commissioned to introduce digital radio (DAB). It was only five years later, in 1999, that company founder Achim von Michel established the WORDUP Public Relations agency, which initially continued to operate primarily in the IT and broadcasting sectors. The first office on Theresienstrasse in Schwabing was moved into in 2000 (see photo in the article), the first employees were subsequently hired, and at this time at the latest the exciting journey of a boutique agency began with all the ups and downs of everyday company life. By the way, the WORDUP story provides a somewhat deeper insight, but as a historically grown text document it has no longer been updated since 2020. Instead, our news section provides further insights into projects, customers and activities.

Into the next decade with Public Relations Xcellence

Now in its 30th year, WORDUP continues to advise international customers (currently from the USA and Great Britain) as well as German medium-sized companies and organizations, and WORDUP managing director Achim von Michel continues to work as a political and press officer in the largest German medium-sized business association BVMW. Arriving in beautiful Nymphenburg directly on the Schlosskanal two years ago, the entire team – Clio, Hanna, Luca, Pauline and Achim – is now very happy about the anniversary and is more than confident that it will be able to inspire both customers and media representatives for another ten years with consistent “Public Relations Xcellence” – and then the “40th anniversary“ also to tear.

Early impressions