As Chief Growth Officer at the marketing agency Publicis Groupe in the DACH region and founder of the Creative Hive platform, Christoph Pietsch is very well connected in Düsseldorf's creative scene. He spoke to VIVID publisher Rainer Kunst about his favourite football club KFC Uerdingen, spectacular new business campaigns, the importance of a well-functioning city society and his deep roots in Düsseldorf.

Christoph, we are meeting at the Grotenburg Stadium in Krefeld because you were born here and KFC Uerdingen e.V. is your club. The club's most successful period was in the 1980s, when it won the DFB Cup and the legendary 7-3 win over Dynamo Dresden (the "Miracle of the Grotenburg"). Today, Uerdingen play in the 5th division. Why are you so fond of this club when its glory days were before you were even born?

It's true, I didn't witness any of those glory days. But there's this magic moment when you go to the stadium for the first time. Your dad takes you there and you have no idea what you're getting into. You get a grilled sausage, a large Coke and a scarf. There is noise all around you, you see the floodlights and lots of football-loving people. And that's when I was hooked. I also played for the youth team of KFC, then Bayer Uerdingen. A lot was done for identification in those days. When I was at primary school, it was always something special to wear the tracksuit with the big logo on the front. You were one of the cool kids. And that's how I grew up in "blue-red".

Why is that still the case today? What ties you to the club?

I did an internship at the club when I was at school. I worked in the club office and got to know a lot of people in the area. That's how I got more and more involved in the club. And when KFC went bankrupt for the first time, we helped with all the activities. We wanted to save the club. By selling "save-the-club jerseys" and organising various fundraising activities. I helped in the office and in the stadium catering. It was the centre of my life for many years. After I started my apprenticeship, my priorities and then my place of residence changed. Since then, I've spent much less time at the stadium than I used to. But I have stayed true to the cause, my heart still beats for KFC.

Now I want to talk about you as a person. You started your apprenticeship in advertising in 2006, and at a very early stage you came to the public's attention with spectacular new business campaigns: undercover trainee at a client during a pitch phase, skydiving for Vodafone or personalised letters to win new business. Tell us why do you do these campaigns and what do they achieve?

We use them to try to convince the client's decision-makers not only rationally, but also emotionally. Because, believe it or not, every customer is also a human being. To do this, we first tried to learn as much as possible about the decision-makers, their backgrounds, what drives them and, above all, what helps them. The aim was to attract attention, but in a "clever" way, so that we would have a chance to talk to them personally after the initial activities. The personal letters were always an important building block. Especially to hide my young age behind using clever words. To do this, we looked in the leading and specialist media to see what issues and challenges the potential new customer was currently dealing with, and then addressed these in a personal letter. This worked really well in combination with the other sales activities. We were invited to more pitches than we could handle.

You started at Grey, then moved to DDB. Now you're at Publicis Groupe. And in all three cases you managed to bring a lot of new business to these big network agencies and reposition the brands. Does it really matter which agency you work for? What is your recipe for success?

I think you can be successful in agencies if the environment is right - especially the people you work with. If you trust in the abilities of these people, that they are the best in their respective fields, then a true superpower emerges. And of course there is a bit of luck involved. I don’t believe in personality cults, but I do believe firmly in the importance of the team and the people involved. Sounds like a simple recipe, and sometimes it is.

What does an agency model look like that could be successful in the future?

First, the good news: there is no such thing as a single agency model or agency. Brands and companies are as individual as their marketing organisations. Rather, it is about the tailor-made capabilities of a partner. How does the business model work? What is the role of marketing in the business? Is the organisation centralised or decentralised? What tasks should a marketing partner take on? And how can this be done in the most efficient way and with the highest possible quality of work? And once we have found our model in terms of infrastructure, processes and content, the solutions must also fit the business. In other words, they have to be highly individual - the answer can then also be holistic and thus correspond to our working claim "Power of one" - an agency that brings together all topics such as creativity, use of technology, consulting competence and media. But it doesn't have to be that way. Just as often, we find that there are clients who just need someone to come up with good ideas and make really good advertising. There is no single model for success.

With Creative Hive, you have created your own independent company, which is a network of creatives, innovators and entrepreneurs. With this community you want to create the “Davos“ of creativity. There are dinners, networking events with speakers as well as panel discussions. Why do we need these formats?

I've been involved in the Marketing Club for a long time and that's where the idea for this format came from. I find it incredibly enriching to talk to people outside my bubble. It's really exciting when you don't just work with the person in charge of marketing, but also with other people who are creative in a different way - for example, entrepreneurs, people from the cultural sector, product developers or scientists. So it's a real collaboration. Because the marketing club has a different role, we created our own space - Creative Hive. It's going very well and in six years we've grown to almost 3,500 community members. We are united by the belief that only creatives can save the world. And of course we want this format to grow even bigger in the future. By joining forces, Creative Hive has enormous potential that can also be valuable for our urban society.

You get around a lot and could probably work in other places as well. Why Düsseldorf?

Because I feel at home here. This is my second home. My family lives here, many friends live here, the KFC is close by and this is where I grew up professionally. The city has everything I need. There is a wide range of cultural activities, a varied culinary landscape and a fantastic recreational area - the Rhine and its meadows- right on the doorstep. At the same time, I have alternative scenes if I ever need them, and there is a huge range of sports on offer. And of course I like the people and their Rhenish way of life. You never feel like a stranger, you're always welcome, and given the size of the city, you tend to frequently run into each other. That's just great. And that's why it's always been Düsseldorf. •

ABOUT CHRISTOPH PIETSCH

• 2006: Joined GREY Group Germany: Training in marketing communications + subsequent scholarship programme for future managers
• 2009 - 2015: Various roles within GREY Group Germany
• 2015: Became the youngest CMO on the board of a European WPP agency
• 2017: Move to Omnicom agency group DDB as Group CMO
• 2021: Board member of Publicis Groupe DACH as Chief Growth Officer
• Involvement in committees such as GWA (German Association of Communication Agencies), Marketing-Club Düsseldorf, New Business Circle Germany, Beyond Gender Agenda and the "Enkelfähigkeit" initiative
• Since 2018 member of the advisory board of the NRW State Chancellery "Media-Digital-Land NRW" and since 2023 mentor in the start-up programme Scale up NRW
• Awards: e.g. TOP 100 of the industry (Werben & Verkaufen), CREA Award for special commitment in the field of agency marketing and communication, TOP 100 Watchlist (Business Punk), Young Elite - 40 under 40 (Capital), Werben & Verkaufen : voted "Agency of the Year 2019" with the DDB Group agency as well as "Agency of the Year 2022" with the Publicis Groupe agency + voted "Agency Personality of the Year" several times, TOP 40 under 40 (HORIZONT)
• In addition: Development and maintenance of the community platform "Creative Hive" (www.creative-hive.de) and support of the startups O.C. Hairsystems, Beyond, DISAYA and the art buying platform "Meet Pablo" as investor and member of the advisory board

Interview: Rainer Kunst
Text: Tom Corrinth
Pictures: Mimo Khair

"There is no single model for success" - Kunst meets Christoph Pietsch