We face challenges and perform at a high level
Part 2 of our values series: why we love challenges and how we master them. An interview with Zeppelin founder Michael Mitterhofer.
Michael has been a leader of Zeppelin and Re:Guest for more than 20 years. Together with Denis Pellegrini and Stefan Plattner, he has led the digital growth marketing agency and its start-ups through the years and kept calm even when times weren’t that easy. In his opinion, there’s no problem too big to be solved. And he is convinced: “Those who do not accept challenges will not get ahead.“
You are one of the three Zeppelin owners. Are challenges part of your everyday life?
Since we are working in the digital sphere, a very fast-living and innovative area, constant challenges and quick actions and reactions are part of our daily reality.
What is trendy today, is out tomorrow. We constantly face the challenge of anticipating the needs of tomorrow and of driving them forward with innovations.
Basically, however, it’s precisely these challenges that motivate us and have brought us this far.
What was the biggest challenge last year?
I think 2020 has for all been a special, challenging year. Like many others, we stood still in March 2020, collected our thoughts and asked ourselves, what was going on.
To us it was clear from the very beginning: we were going to replan the year and to create a worst-case scenario that would definitely bring us into the new year, with all employees. This aspiration drove us and we took advantage of the less busy period.
In Zeppelin we developed a new digital marketing model for our clients: growth marketing.
In Re:Guest we changed our plan of development to respond at short notice to necessary requirements such as social distancing in the hotels. The result: online check-in, online check-out and our digital concierge.
Vinusta, our own e-commerce best practice, profited from the time invested in the conceptual web marketing strategy. We were able to double sales.
And we laid the foundation for our new ‘baby’, High Performance Sales for hotels.
And in your entire career?
Apart from the Corona crisis in 2020, the biggest challenge was probably in 2015 when we restructured Zeppelin from a revenue-growing agency to a consolidated, sustainable and innovation-driven agency with profitable emerging start-ups (Re:Guest, Vinusta, HPS).
“We perform at a high level“ is part of Zeppelin’s values. What does your high performance consist of?
High performance is part of our DNA. We live high performance for our clients: marketing budgets and consulting are used in a way to maximise the client’s revenue and with growth marketing, this concept is now being taken to the next level. Every employee works to maximise the performance of campaigns and landing pages.
Websites and online shops are trimmed to high performance, so that they convert better with existing visitor numbers and generate more revenue.
Re:Guest is the instrument for high performance sales in hotels. The goal is to get more bookings out of the offers, to generate more revenue from regular customers with the help of sales automation and to have more fun at work at the same time.
What is more our new start-up offers hotel clients the possibility to profit directly from high performance sales. Via telephone sales, even more concrete bookings are made from open requests.
And last but not least: following our value “Work hard, party harder“ we also celebrate “hard” when Corona allows it.
Your tip for successfully mastering challenges?
Sit back calmly, analyse the challenge, think about it, plan it. And carry out the plan! There is no goal too big to be achieved and no problem too big to be solved.
How would you complete this sentence: At Zeppelin, we like challenges because…?
…we grow with them.
A challenge you are looking forward to:
To the successful expansion of our High Performance Sales division in combination with Zeppelin and Re:Guest in one office.
I am also looking forward to the time when all Zeppelinos come together again on site to work with fun and commitment on the success of our customers.
Those who do not accept challenges…
…will not get ahead.
