German Business Awards 2017

6 EU BUSINESS NEWS / 2017 German Business Awards , Best Full-Service Destination Marketing Agency 2017 The Destination Office is a boutique-size destinationmarketing agency representing Destination Canada, Visit Finland, Visit Estonia and TourismToronto. Barbara Ackermann gives us an insight into the workings of the company and the services it offers. The Destination Office employs a diverse range of employees, leading to a very varied team, consisting of tourism experts, media and PR-pros, as well as digital natives. PR and content marketing are something all staff specialise in and where the company feels comfortable. Content amplification is their passion, and under one roof the firm develops a variety of products and solutions; starting with content in text, photo, audio and video, as well as PR and social media strategies. Barbara explains how it feels for the agency to have earned this award, and acknowledges that the clients of the company play a big part in its success. “Here at The Destination Office, we are simply thrilled, and deeply honoured. Thank you so much for this fantastic award. We are lucky to have clients who are very progressive, open-minded and at the same time trusting. All of our successes we really owe to our clients as well as all the passionate on-, and offline media we work with.” Operating within the marketing and PR industry, The Destination Office team encounter many exciting opportunities and events that increase the business of the firm and naturally, its success. Barbara recognizes the importance of high-profile clients that the team has worked with, as well noting its experience and knowledge. “Due to the Olympics, FIFA and other world cups, and the visit of William and Kate, we have had the great pleasure to work with a huge variety of media and influencers covering a wide variety of topics, which go well beyond travel. For Canada, we have been awarded as the only long-distance destination for the best PR-services for the past seven years, as voted by media. We were also very early with influencer marketing and combining influencers with brands. That helped us to differentiate ourselves from the rest.” Being a small team is something Barbara sees as positive for the company, particularly in relation to communication. She notes that communication is easier, and the size of the company enables each member of staff to learn from each other. “Positively, we are a small team which makes the lines of communication easy. Additionally, we complement each other, so we continuously need to talk and learn from each other all the time. Curiosity, innovation, learning and sharing are the best words to describe our culture.” Germany is a curious and exciting place. Barbara comments on what the main benefits are of being based in the country, citing the fact that Germans are always keen to travel. However, in this day and age it really does not matter where the agency is based, as Barbara alludes to the fact that the team meet clients wherever they want, whether it be in Berlin, Hamburg or Munich. “Basically, integral to the success of our agency, the Germans compete with the Chinese as the world’s travel champions. The desire to travel continues unabated for most Germans. Although drawn to exotic countries, holidaymakers in Germany have also been won over by destinations closer to home. However, there is also a market potential of 15.4M long- haul pleasure travellers aged 18 or more. Besides being an attractive market, the benefit of an agency in Germany is that it can cater to all German-speaking markets. Overall, Germany is a very decentralised country. We are based close to Düsseldorf and Essen, home of Germany’s biggest publishing house, Funke Mediengruppe, but we will travel to most places in order to work with our clients.” In her concluding comments, Barbara lists what developments she foresees within the marketing sector inside Germany, and how The Destination Office will adapt around this. Barbara signs off by talking about the huge impact that social media has across Germany and in the media sector. “Moving forward, for Germany, credibility, fake news and independency are currently regarded as the biggest media challenges, robot journalism is the latest item on the list. Social topics rank the highest. Media have to produce more, faster, and in different versions: e.g. for mobile, shareable content for social media etc. They have to work stronger from a visual perspective and have to write shorter texts. Journalistic content therefore, needs to be produced so that it is shareable. It is particularly interesting that a press release which was doomed to die out as per latest research is again showing a high appreciation among German media. Social media continues to be mostly a research tool. German media rank Facebook first and Twitter second, even for research in Germany.” GBA17004