The slogan of 1000heads is« the Word of Mouth People«. What is the aim of 1000heads in Berlin?
At the moment our obvious aim is to do awesome work for our existing clients here in Germany but of course we’re also looking to expand business and find new clients that we can help out with our more than 11 year experience in WOM-marketing. 1000heads is a leader in Word of Mouth and social communication and we have a 90-strong team of talented thinkers, doers and sometime dreamers who bring social communication to life for brands around the world Explaining WOM thoroughly would go beyond the scope of this interview so I’ll try it really briefly in a couple of sentences: WOM is everywhere: it’s people talking to each other – offline and online. It’s everything we write, read, see, smell, taste and experience. It happens when we feel something: emotion is our social currency and passion drives us to share. This sharing happens more and more online nowadays with social networks and new possibilities to make oneself heard. We help brands to understand what people are saying about them and their products as well as foster advocacy when we meet people who passionately talk about certain products, topics or brands. All of this needs constant listening and innovating so we can find the right strategies for our clients in encouraging participation and collaboration with their audiences
1000heads helps brands to be more social. Do you use any specific strategies to promote the brands?
While a lot of regular activities happen online on social networks and blogs for instance there are also big events we organize offline in order to spread WOM in “both worlds”.
How do you like working in a co-working space »betahaus«? And how does it affect your work?
Not only were we able to start immediately with our work from Berlin thanks to the immediate availability of a comprehensive office infrastructure that betahaus offers – we also needed different helping hands on several projects almost immediately after I set up in betahaus. So far we have been working together with various betahaus members i.e. a video producer, a web developer, a graphic designer etc. As most of our work is project-based it’s important for us to be able to flexible commit someone to help out on a job. Betahaus is a great resource for this kind of work and I’m glad to see that this has always worked out perfectly.
You’ve worked with some well-known brands (Nokia, Pedigree, Skype, BBC, P&G...). How did you get in touch with them? What kind of approach do you use to help the brands?
I guess for once it’s our reputation of working on many very exciting projects for various clients. That and our man Rob Ford over at HQ in London who can do amazing things on the phone. ;) Most of the time it all comes down to building a reputation and being persistent as well as helping a (potential) client to see what they are missing or what helps them to build advocacy around their brand or products.
Do you have any goals for the future?
As 1000heads is half-way through the 12th year in London, we’re about to celebrate our 2nd birthday here in Berlin (and in betahaus). It’s still a challenge to be working remotely as one part of a bigger team in a different city of a different country but I’m gladly taking that challenge. For the future we’d like to grow the team here in Berlin with the help of an Account Manager. We’re actually looking for someone to work for us at the moment. Head to http://1000heads.com/recruitment/ to find out more.
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