As a freelance Brand Strategist based in Bali today I am helping companies, founders, and creative teams develop strong brand strategies, craft distinctive brand identities, and shape effective brand marketing. Collaborating closely with clients in Germany / Europe, and the Middle East, I work through my Overnight Alchemy approach – advancing strategic thinking, creative direction, and content development while my clients’ teams wind down.

As Head of Brand Strategy & Brand Management, my goal at Telefónica was to further develop our B2C brands with a particular focus on O2

• Led a team of approx. 15 strategists, data analysts, and brand managers, while working closely with Telefónica's C-suite and Global HQ to rally the entire organisation behind one strong brand idea

• Developed the „O2 can do" brand platform, following a long-term Superbrand approach (relevance, distinctiveness, salience)

• Management of various brand tracking and KPI activities, including brand perception and reputation, ESG, customer insights and experience, brand scorecard, sighting of pop cultural trends, etc.

• Budget responsibility in the 7-8 figure range for the Brand division

• Results: O2 Telefónica grew faster and stronger than the market, taking over #2 in Germany for the first time, according to both, relevant brand and sales KPIs

As a Brand Strategist at Telefónica O2, I collaborated with our specialists from Go2Market, Customer Experience, and UX to create new products, services, and campaigns – based on customer insights, first-party data, and strategic surprise.

• Developed product propositions, message-media-connections, and creative briefs as launching pads for the campaigns team

• Analysed data points of almost 40 million customers and derived drivers for brand choice and retention across the customer journey

• Results: Following insights and derived strategies, a network campaign emerged that tremendously changed brand and product perception while eliminating old prejudices towards O2. Apart from clicks and likes, the campaign increased network perception by 28% YoY and image dimensions like "unique brand" by 55%, while free trial SIM cards increased the willingness to switch to O2 by 45%,
  and 91% of the new customers came from direct competitors

Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic iglo, the largest and best-known frozen food brand in Germany, wanted to tap into the field of direct-to-consumer (DTC) business to establish its own e-commerce platform.

• Defined the basics: Analysed markets and competition, defined consumer types, messaging architectures, etc.

• Created the product portfolio and bundles based on customer segmentation and use cases

• Iterated the user journey of the DTC website and shop incl. several landing pages and performance ads

• Results: Achieved to go from strategy and ideation to a running MVP prototype within just ten weeks to quickly test hypotheses and the viability of the platform under real market conditions

In view of the global pandemic, Audi was foregoing face-to-face training and had to completely virtualise its dealer events.

• Created an interactive platform for live and on-demand online training to educate dealers in their local language, while taking into Audi’s legal, IT, and security guidelines.

• Connected software developers, content producers, and corporate stakeholders, and was responsible for the overall user journey of the platform including its architecture and gamification features.

• Results: Rolled out the digital platform successfully in 42 markets with events being attended by 400-7,500 users from 94 countries. In doing so, Audi was capable of maintaining the important training of dealers in the most challenging times

The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) wanted to transform the IAA car show into a comprehensive mobility platform. With a fundamentally renewed concept, a call for tenders had been launched in which almost all major cities of Germany participated. I consulted Messe München in their efforts to become the new hub of the IAA.

• Developed an integrated concept that unites all important stakeholders such as the city and its marketing organisations, political actors, local authorities, such as city planners and traffic experts, plus leading tech companies located in Bavaria

• Prepared the pitch deck including concept trailers as well as a 300-page fact-packed booklet that portrayed Munich as an industry- and mobility powerhouse and thus ideal city to host the IAA

• Results: After a 4 months extensive pitch, the city of Munich prevailed against all competing cities in the race for the IAA, bringing the IAA to town in 2021 and 2023

IAA Conference & New Mobility World are one of the most important dialogue platforms on future mobility in the world.

• Curated, planned, and executed the top-notch conference to host and connect automotive players like Daimler, Volkswagen, and Continental with digital leaders such as Google, Facebook, and IBM

• Besides the run-of-show, I was in charge of creating all digital stage designs and implemented a tool for seamless audience interaction

• Results: United 400+ organisations, and 240+ speakers to present the most interesting tech to 500,000+ visitors during 50 hours of programming and created a staggering 567 million of digital media reach for the whole IAA combined

With the ID.3 as the successor of the legendary Beetle & Golf, Volkswagen was entering a new automotive era. Prior to the market introduction, a pre-booking campaign for the ID.3 started in 29 European markets, another novelty in the history of VW.

• Supported DDB's planning team as part of the I.D. Launch House,
  a cross-functional, multi-agency hub in the heart of Berlin

• Acted as point of contact for the UEFA regarding Volkswagen's sport-sponsoring activities in the course of the launch, including perimeter ads in soccer stadiums and pre-rolls on TV

• Worked out the roadmap for the I.D. pre-booking phase including influencer campaigns, CRM measures, branded and editorial content

• Results: Less than a week after the start of pre-booking for the ID.3, there were more than 15,000 registrations for the first model of the new ID. Family – more than half of the total pre-booking contingent

The Mercedes-Benz Brand Ambassador Camp in Oslo was part of the central launch platform to introduce the all-new Mercedes-Benz EQC.

• Delivered a wide range of individualised content in real-time to 50 Brand Ambassadors for immediate publishing on their social media channels as well as on MB market and HQ channels

• Guided and directed a content production unit of 55+ coworkers, to create more than 300 pieces of live content plus a full-flex magazine shoot in 48 hours, with 23 cars at 4 different venues.

• Results: 333 content pieces for social media channels led to an engagement (comments, likes & shares) of 900k plus 700k video views and a total reach of 13.2 million across all channels

As part of the IAA Commercial Vehicles the New Mobility World (NMW) entered its next round as the innovation platform within the IAA. Across industries, exhibitors present innovative mobility, transport, and logistics solutions.

• Curated the programming of the conference and acquired international top speakers from the industry

• Planned the event setup, including stage design, floor plans, and sponsor integrations, and managed the run-of-show on-site

• Developed sales collaterals to advertise the NMW and drive traffic to the trade show in general by making it even more relevant

• Results: The 67th IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover closed its doors with record figures: 2,174 exhibitors, from 48 countries were present and the number of visitors increased to around 250,000

SXSW 2018 once again brought creatives and innovators to Austin, Texas, and smart, together with Mercedes-Benz was right in the middle of it all – treating festival attendees to inspiration and entertainment across the whole city for a full week.

• Created a go-to spot and festival-like program to make visitors interactively experience smart's vision of urban mobility

• Developed a talk-of-town PR stunt that boosted brand awareness on-site and reached smart fans all over the world via social media

• Curated several brand activations across town in collaboration with other Daimler brands, local vendors, SXSW, and city authorities

• Results: Besides millions of event and media impressions, smart was able to sign up tons of people on-site via its hand-raising app to arrange test drives at local dealerships. Especially in the US, where still „big cars“ dominate the scene, smart used the opportunity to put people in the driver’s seat for the first time

smart was celebrating its 20th anniversary and, with it, a vision that gradually became a reality. It has been a long journey from the initial design, to the first smart that hit the roads, to how people regard the brand as an icon of urban mobility.

• Development of an integrated campaign for smart’s 20th anniversary with two native hero contents:
  (1) The smart fortomorrow: the car of the future, for the drivers of the future, and a vision of an all-electric vehicle with a wink.
  (2) „20 Yeahs“: a progressive piece of pop-cultural art in the form of a smart music video (before everybody else did it in 2023)

• Results: Achieved overall positive campaign KPIs (awareness, reach, ad recall, search uplift, earned media impressions, and SoV) and Brand KPIs (specific image attributes that represent how the brand wants to be perceived)

The New Mobility World (NMW) is the IAA`s event for automation, connectivity, clean power, urban mobility, and mobility services.

• Created a platform for discussing the mobility of the future by bringing together technology firms, and the automobile industry as well as startups and non-automotive disruptors

• Curated parts of the program, especially keynotes and panel talks

• Organised the rundown of the show on the main stage

• Results: For the first time the IAA bridged the gap to the big IT and tech companies, including Facebook, Google, SAP, and Qualcomm, attracting 7,000 conference visitors

In 2017, music streaming market leader Spotify launched its first major brand campaign in Germany. The focus of the campaign was on giant billboards and digital city-light posters in nine major cities. On the motifs, Spotify humorously played with the titles of user-generated playlists, transforming them into advertising messages with local relevance.

• Created a hyper-local campaign that generated buzz, while proving that Spotify is the #1 for discovery and self-expression in music

• Managed the content production of the campaign, consisting of more than 90 programmatic OOH ads, plus a series of entertaining videos to be showcased at music festivals and on social media

• Connected the dots between Spotify marketing teams, agency creatives, and external production units

• Results: on the upper funnel Spotify successfully increased the mental availability of the brand, while tactics on the lower funnel allowed a high conversion from Spotify Free to Premium users

If you visited the SXSW in Austin in 2017 you had the chance to meet up with music lovers, tech heads, and urban futurists at the house of smart: a pop-up filled with inspiring talks, trendsetting demos, live music gigs, and multi-sensory experiences around the future of urban living and mobility.

• Developed the overall concept for the "house of smart" at SXSW

• Handled the programming and content creation before the event

• Executed the overall program and managed local suppliers, top-tier keynote speakers such as Guy Kawasaki and Dieter Zetsche, and music artists such as Bishop Briggs

Worked as Account Director for agency K-MB and Daimler brand smart. As part of K-MB’s brand experience team, the role included the creative development of various BTL campaigns and product launches, and the initiation of cooperations with other forward-thinking brands and artists, such as JBL and Jeremy Scott.

BILD, Europe’s biggest daily news is closer to the action. Produced in Berlin with a wealth of exclusive reports, Bild keeps its readers informed and determines the topics of the day – in a clear, concise style, with the best photos.

• Created an integrated campaign to launch the new claim “Das bringt nur BILD“ by visualising the typical attitude of BILD, which is direct, bold, loud, surprisingly unique, and greatly polarising. So, no matter if you are a lover or a hater you have to admit: „Only Bild dares to do that“

• Aligned an interdisciplinary team of 20 comms. experts to collectively develop and execute all launch activities, such as editorial stunts in and on BILD, pop cultural print and OOH ads, radio and TV commercials, and online video

In 2015, the sales operations of Generali Insurances and Volksfürsorge were merged under one brand umbrella. During a central merger event, the 5,000 sales representatives of both companies were united for the first time to be informed about the organisation’s new strategy.

As a Creative Producer, I creatively staged the opening ceremony of the event and produced all films for the multimedia show, including concepts for all storyboards and overall handling production.