livewelt, THE agency for live communication, celebrated its tenth birthday last Wednesday with a lavish party.
Agency founder and party beast Ole Ternes is best known in the cycling scene today as manager of Jan Ullrich. But his agency can certainly take up the cause of some cycling innovations. For example, the people from Gütersloh are the founders of the Alpecin team and can rightly consider themselves the fathers of two notable trends: Alpecin was the first professionally managed amateur team for which drivers were cast and with Jörg Ludewig an ex-professional as team boss had. On the other hand, this everyone's team and the enthusiasm for cycling at Alpecin sparked by Livewelt laid the foundation for Alpecin's current commitment to its own WorldTour team.
We at Velomotion and the Degen Mediahouse have had a long-standing and very good friendship with livewelt and Ole Ternes, which is why we take the opportunity to congratulate them on their birthday, “Keep it up!” and to express our regret at having missed the party (once again). … one night in the pool with tour devil Didi Senft – a dream!
Below is an interview with Ole Ternes about the ten eventful and moving years as an agency person.
The agency livewelt from Gütersloh is one of the top-selling agencies for live communication in Germany. There are also several awards – including the 'German Design Award Gold 2016'. On the occasion of the company's 10th anniversary, Managing Director Ole Ternes talks about the challenges in the market, the dangers of social media and the importance of corporate culture.
Straightforward and genuine. Ole Ternes welcomes customers and guests in the loft-like upper floor at Berliner Strasse 133 with a 360° view over Gütersloh. "An agency doesn't have to be in Hamburg or Berlin," says Ole, confirming the choice of location. Started in 2006 with three employees, he gradually formed a 24-strong and internationally active agency for live communication.
Ole Ternes: Today you can no longer say, "We can do everything." The issue of 'working in all directions' has been resolved. In my opinion, specialization is essential to stay in the market. That was crucial for us at the beginning, because with live marketing we had and still have a unique selling point.
To what extent is livewelt still specializing today? Apart from the live communication.
The digital age has changed a lot – also for our industry. It is important that we adapt to such changes in terms of personnel. This requires specialist knowledge. All-rounders tend to be less helpful in this development, which is why we want to continue investing in staff, because nothing is worse than not keeping up with the times.
Keyword 'social media'...
For live marketing, this sector has become incredibly important. Here we have the opportunity not only to use events for the locally present target group, but also to actively involve a much larger target group in the measure via live campaigns with distribution via social media. We need experts for that...
Especially because marketing in social media can often have the opposite effect. What is the art in such campaigns?
Marketing on social media is sometimes unpredictable. The reactions simply cannot be estimated and a small residual risk always remains. Nevertheless, the platforms are important. With a comparatively small budget and little effort, many possible end customers can be addressed there.
There is always a team behind the good campaigns. How important is a balanced corporate culture for an agency?
It is not only important for agencies, but for every company. We often eat here as a team and know each other outside of the office. Nobody has to work overtime here without end. But if a customer comes at short notice and needs something, then everyone pulls together and sometimes sits here for a whole weekend. But these are empirical values.
So have you had any setbacks?
Clear! Nobody makes it perfect from the start. I have found that it is incredibly important that there is constant exchange within the company and that problems are addressed openly and directly. Otherwise, everything builds up and this affects the productivity of the entire company.
With what goal in mind will livewelt continue to work in the next ten years?
I want to remain economically healthy and pay my employees fairly. I want my employees to benefit from the company's success. I will continue to make sure that I have all the personnel needed to implement a campaign in my company. Many agencies give the orders to external employees. I believe it is a wrong strategy. The advantage is simply that I can work faster and remain flexible and attractively priced, even for smaller clients.
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