Rosetta Stone and Ruder Finn Tag Team Europe’s Language Barrier

Leading PR firm Ruder Finn has been tagged by Rosetta Stone to support their PR effort in Europe. According to news from PR Week UK, RF is to target influencers in the corporate, education, and public sector to expand the educational platform’s brand. Considering the convergence of digital business strategies in Europe these days, leading language solutions in collaboration with leading PR communications, would seem to make perfect sense.

Ruder Finn is to support Rosetta Stone’s UK marketing team to more effectively extend the language learning company’s positioning in Europe. According to the news, Ruder Finn’s German partner Fink & Fuchs will implement campaigns in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

Just last week Rosetta Stone’s Lexia Learning® announced having won a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Literacy Courseware Challenge for creating a testing and writing aspect for the next upgrade of their Lexia Reading Core5(TM) program.

The global company headed by CEO Stephen Swad (top left) is unrivaled at reducing the impact the language barrier has on International business. This recent Forbes study shines a spotlight on just how critical bridging language and cultural barriers are for emerging businesses around the world. And nowhere is language and culture more fragmented than in Europe.  While the study showed foreign nationals were far more multilingual than their American counterparts, anyone who operates in the European theater understands language is THE major hurdle to efficient business process.

At the human level, the power of learning systems such as Rosetta Stone offers can best be encapsulated by stories like this one. According to the AP story of young Maria Menendez form Spain, the clarity of pain Spain’s youth are experiencing since the so-called “Great Recession” began reflects the overall dynamic of business barriers on the continent. For this instance, a Spanish speaker, no matter how skilled, has insurmountable barriers to working in Germany, for an instance. While the plight of Europe’s youth seeking gainful employment is acute, so is the reality that Germany, France, and to a huge extent Russia present wide-scale business hurdles related to communications.

The Ruder Finn news, from what we know of Kathy Bloomgarden’s (above right) company, makes perfect sense for Rosetta Stone in Europe. RF is one of the world’s largest independent PR firms with offices in the UK and Switzerland in Europe. It will be interesting to see how Rosetta Stone expands with this new team of skilled evangelists and creatives in support.