Campaign Approach
Hello, my name is Marco.
I work as a freelance brand & creative strategist armed with a digital backbone.
As a hybrid mind, I tame wicked problems for businesses, I co-create the future of brands and I ultimately aspire to build a better tomorrow for people.
For more than ten years now, I have been tinkering with brands and communication. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing & Communications, a Master’s degree in Management of Media & Culture and I joined the Miami Ad School in Sydney to challenge my state of mind.
As a hybrid native, I collaborate with agencies like Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Jung von Matt, Interbrand, TBWA, Publicis, Serviceplan, Ogilvy, KMS Team, SYZYGY, KeKo, Peter Schmidt Group/BBDO, Scholz & Friends, and Hirschen Group etc. In various set-ups, I have had the pleasure of co-creating the future of quite a few nice brands globally. All in all, my experience spans 80+ brands across 20+ industries and 10+ countries. As an independent strategist, I am always on the hunt for courageous brands, exciting challenges, and enlightening collaborations. Happy to talk to you.
WHAT I DO
What Do I Do?
I call it Hybrid Thinking
Since I started working in this industry, I have been lucky to work with lots of inspiring minds and highly diverse agencies. I have also found myself in different roles: as a rookie, as a co-creator, as a leader. Moreover, I have had the pleasure of facing an incredible variety of brand challenges across nearly all categories. All these circumstances, combined with a versatile mind, have shaped me into some kind of ‘hybrid thinker’. Hybridity refers to a mixture of various ingredients that one believes will yield better characteristics in the end. This is the likeable nature of Hybridity. Hybrid Thinking is something that totally defines my professional identity and impacts my way of working. It allows me to immerse myself in very different scenarios and to adapt very different ways of thinking in order to tackle wicked business problems.
I tame wicked problems for businesses & brands.
To co-create a better tomorrow.
Wicked problems can be tamed through:
BRAND
STRATEGY
WHO & WHY.
Who is the brand?
And why does it exist at all?
Every brand needs to discover what it stands for. It has to give a clear answer to the question “Who am I?” And it has to state why it exists.
I CREATE BRAND STRATEGIES.
It’s about meaning.
DESIGN
STRATEGY
HOW.
How does the brand look, feel,
sound, smell, and taste like?
Every brand needs to identify how it can express its character in an appealing way across all the touchpoints it plays on.
I ENCOURAGE DESIGN STRATEGIES.
It’s about attitude.
CREATIVE
STRATEGY
WHAT.
What does the brand narrate?
What’s the story it shares with people?
Every brand needs constantly to reinvigorate itself by offering relevant content and inspiring stories.
I UNLEASH CREATIVE STRATEGIES.
It’s about narration.
EXPERIENCE
STRATEGY
WHERE & WHEN.
Where and when does the brand
connect with people?
Every brand needs to be perceptible – at the right place, at the right time. Ideally, it should even act responsively.
I CRAFT EXPERIENCE STRATEGIES.
It’s about interaction.
WHAT I DID
Some brands whose futures I’ve co-created
I’ve worked for rising start-ups, hidden champions and world leading companies.
What they all have in common: they aspire to shape the future.
During the past 10 years, I’ve had the pleasure of co-creating the future of 80+ brands in 20+ industries and 10+ markets. The spectrum of missions I’ve been asked to complete has been extremely multifaceted. Each business problem to tame and brand challenge to meet has been unlike the next. I’ve worked on both complex tasks with a global impact and ‘smoother’ jobs with a more local focus. No matter what kind of challenge I face, every single one means starting from zero – and to tackle each problem individually. Amongst others, I’ve worked for world-leading and iconic brands like Bayer, Bosch, BMW, Fanta, Garnier, Goodyear, Grohe, Hilti, LAMY, L’Oréal, Maggi, Marlboro, Merck, Milka, Porsche, Telekom, Tempo, Toyota, TUI, Vileda, Samsung, s.Oliver, and ZEISS. If you’re interested in learning more about things I’ve done, just drop me a line.
Some thinking I’ve picked up
I’ve worked with agencies from all major advertising networks (Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic and Dentsu)
as well as with leading independent agencies such as Serviceplan, Jung von Matt and Hirschen Group.
During my work with various agencies, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with very different, but always gifted, astute, and inspiring minds. This is always a great experience that influences my own way of thinking. Moreover, it’s my ambition to absorb each agency’s distinct philosophy and adopt it within the project we’re together working on. I strongly believe that merging all of these different perspectives has turned me into a much better strategist. I feel very grateful to absorb this variety of thinking. Thanks to all those I’ve worked with so far. I look forward to adding some more chapters to this lovely collection.
WHAT I BELIEVE
Raison d’Être
Why are you here?
At Saatchi & Saatchi I once learned that everything starts with purpose. Almost at the same time, Simon Simek became globally famous with his Golden Circle of Questions and the purpose-driven thinking at its core. Likewise, John P. Strelecky reflects on the question “Why are you here?” in his delightfully written book The Why Cafe. Others still might call it ‘reason for being’ or ‘raison d’être’. Anyway, the idea is as simple as it is fundamental: the purpose answers the question of why you are doing what you do. So, everything should start with purpose. Here is mine.
PURPOSE
TO REVEAL A BRAND'S TRUE RELEVANCE TO PEOPLE
And to ultimately co-create a better tomorrow.
SKILLS
HYBRID THINKING
I tame wicked problems.
I CREATE
BRAND
STRATEGIES
TO BUILD
SIGNIFICANT BONDS
BETWEEN PEOPLE & BRANDS
I ENCOURAGE
DESIGN
STRATEGIES
TO BUILD
APPEALING BONDS
BETWEEN PEOPLE & BRANDS
I UNLEASH
CREATIVE
STRATEGIES
TO BUILD
COMPELLING BONDS
BETWEEN PEOPLE & BRANDS
I CRAFT
EXPERIENCE
STRATEGIES
TO BUILD
ENGAGING BONDS
BETWEEN PEOPLE & BRANDS
WHAT ELSE
Besides my work as a strategist,
I occasionally do some other things.
I WRITE
TO REFLECT
Telling stories is a passion of mine. That’s why I’ve already set up various blogs. Back in 2012, the first project I launched was called Mad Men of the World. The blog dealt with the “mad men” of today’s advertising industry and shared their insights from behind the scenes. The second project was my blog Plannatical in 2016. This was a daily documentary that reflected on my sabbatical at the Miami Ad School in Sydney. Some pieces have been mentioned by Campaign Brief, Miami Ad School, and Business Punk. My latest release is a book chapter in a textbook titled Beyond Storytelling. My contribution deals with narrative brand management and its impact on the relationship between people and brands.
I SPEAK
TO DEBATE
Back in 2009, I had the chance to speak to marketeers at German marketing clubs for the very first time. At this early stage, it was a great experience to outline the impact of digitization on brand management and discuss opportunities and risks. Nearly 10 years later, I’ve discovered a true passion for speaking and moderating. At the Beyond Storytelling conference, I’ve set up a workshop about narrative brand management. At the Gravity conference, I’ve talked about the phenomenon of a corporation’s shared identity and the power it can evolve. And at Plot18, I will have the pleasure of taking part in a fruitful discussion of the origins of good stories with some dedicated storytelling people.
I LECTURE
TO LEARN
Transferring knowledge is something I really enjoy doing because I strongly believe that the vivid exchange of perspectives stimulates new thinking and functions as our industry’s engine. That’s why I lecture on occasion. So far, I’ve given lectures at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) about cultural branding and at the European Academy of Media and Business (EMBA) about branding in sports. During the winter quarter of 2018, I’m going to teach digital strategy at the Hochschule der Medien (HdM). Besides these lectureships, I also mentored a team of students pitching the GWA Junior Agency Award in 2015. I was impressed by the great work the students delivered on a real case study.
HOW I THINK.
My intellectual features
CURIOUS
HOLISTIC
HOW I FEEL.
My emotional features
RESTLESS
CAPTIVATING
HOW I ACT.
My hands-on features
COLLECTIVE
COURAGEOUS