#TalkMarTechToMe – Interview with Maximilian Steudel from Dr. Oetker
How do you establish a MarTech unit within a corporate? Maximilian Steudel tackles this challenging task as MarTech & Digital Engagement Lead at Dr. Oetker.…
he past few years have been a real challenge for AIDA Cruises. The entire marketing was put to the test: previous strategies and approaches were questioned, and goals and projects were defined to become the most popular holiday brand in Germany – truly ambitious!
As Senior Vice President, Alexander Ewig is responsible for marketing and sales at AIDA Cruises. His remit has been significantly expanded, because as part of the current transformation process the company has also restructured technologically in marketing and sales. René Kühn spoke with Alexander Ewig about a topic that has probably occupied him like hardly any other during this time: MarTech.
René Kühn: Dear Alex, we’ve been talking for a very long time about emerging marketing trends, creative campaigns or best-practice examples in communication – and of course the best football club in the world. The fact that the two of us are taking dedicated time today to talk about technologies and software is something I would never have expected three years ago! What happened?
Alexander Ewig: Dear René, who would have thought that after the near-relegation last season, we’d be able to accompany FC to Europe this year? Everything has its moments. That’s why it’s also important to me, at the beginning of a conversation about technology, to emphasize that creativity and communication should still remain the focus. Technology and software “only” give us new ways to deliver creative communication to customers more efficiently and effectively. In part, it also creates new forms of creativity, but at its core it is – an important – a means to an end. All of this is, of course, driven by the ongoing digitalization – technology is inherent to that system.
René Kühn: Building on this development, the new edition of the MarTech Landscape can be cited. More than 10,000 MarTech providers are continuously analyzed by Scott Brinker & Co. How do you at AIDA keep track of the market and this rapid MarTech evolution?
Alexander Ewig: We don’t actually aim to keep track of the market or to get an overview in the first place. We have clear communication and sales goals and then, together with our agency and our technology partners, we specifically look for the solutions that are right for us. In addition, we made a strategic decision not to follow a “best-of-breed” approach, but to rely on platforms. That also makes things a bit clearer.
René Kühn: How were you able to build up your personal competencies in MarTech? Have you always been interested in it, or was it due to the new projects and challenges?
Alexander Ewig: I’m a “digital” person at heart, even if by now an experienced/older one – you automatically develop a technical affinity. In the early/mid-90s, like some others, I made my first attempts on the internet. Back then you were everything: strategist, designer, programmer. And I then maintained that interest even within more established agency structures, such as as managing director at denkwerk or at Ogilvy. Over the years I built up my communication know-how in traditional media; the knowledge and interest in and around technology has always remained. That pays off in many places today, even if, of course, I can’t compete with experts in the details. But I have enough basic understanding and up-to-date knowledge to ask the right questions.
René Kühn: You were one of the first marketers in Germany to tell me about optimizing your internal MarTech Stack. That was at the beginning of 2020 in the course of your technological realignment. How does such a process work? Did the impulse come from IT?
Alexander Ewig: Corona played a very big role here—and a constructive one as well. AIDA is a company that, on the one hand, grew very quickly, but that also, at least in Germany, more or less invented a market. That meant we had to build almost all solutions ourselves, and mostly in a very pragmatic way. By now, we are a company with 16,000 employees and complex communication and sales structures. Coming from marketing and sales, we already had a clear ambition at the end of 2019/2020 to future-proof our infrastructure and to digitize all customer processes along the funnel—including internal processes. So the impetus came from the business side, but IT supported us very well. Because of Corona, we paradoxically had the opportunity to focus on it—and at the same time we had a real POC for how important digital communication with the customer is.
René Kühn: Which MarTech area is most important for you and offers you a decisive competitive advantage or the greatest possible benefit?
Alexander Ewig: After we achieved relatively quick wins through attribution, we started with the foundation first: CMS and DAM. At first glance, that’s not quite as sexy, but it’s the basis for everything that comes afterward. Also for the CDP, which will certainly have the biggest business impact in the medium term. But the overall benefit comes from the interaction of the components.
René Kühn: Single-vendor or best-of-breed stack? What do you think will be the dominant practice in the future?
Alexander Ewig: As mentioned above, we made a clear decision here: platform over best-of-breed. Although we do have multiple systems across the entire MarTech area, within a use case we want to use as much as possible just one platform. But there’s no right or wrong here—it’s more a question of IT strategy. For us, the reasons were maintenance, training, complexity, and interfaces.
René Kühn: Has an existing technology ever helped you solve a new challenge?
Alexander Ewig: We wouldn’t have made it through the pandemic without our marketing automation software. Unfortunately, at the beginning we had many very individual cancellations that we had to send to our guests. Then, during the restart, we in turn had to send very individualized information to guests: What applies where, when, for whom?! Neither would have been possible without a largely automated system.
If you could solve three things in the current processes in AIDA’s MarTech area with a snap of your fingers, what would they be?
Alexander Ewig:
René Kühn: Finally, one thing that struck me among all these technological future topics at your company. You launched an AIDA radio station. Radio. At first glance, that’s not very 2022 and not exactly food for your CDP!? Why did you take this step?
Alexander Ewig: There are several reasons for that. We have hundreds of thousands of loyal AIDA fans who engage a lot with us as a brand. Of course, a lot happens on SoM, but it’s always very sporadic; with AIDAradio we integrate the brand even more easily into everyday life, very relaxed and “lean back.” This also allows us to inform in a more comprehensive and broader way and to give guests an AIDA feeling 365 days a year. We do collect data here as well, though. The program is completely digital via DAB+, stream as well as Alexa & Co. In addition, we offer all relevant content for replay as a podcast. So it’s absolutely 2022—content, context, digital, and data.
René Kühn: With the many away trips with 1. FC Köln across Europe, you’ll have plenty of time in the coming months to continue your education while traveling. Let’s assume you have the opportunity to fully understand a certain software and be able to operate it completely yourself. In which area will you be one of the most competent marketers in the future?
Alexander Ewig: I’d like to fully understand CDPs—how they work in detail, so you can then get the best benefit out of them. But I’m sure that on the FC’s Europe tours I’ll do many things, but “CDP for Dummies” won’t be one of them …
René Kühn: Dear Alex, thank you very much for your time and for sharing your insights. I’m definitely joining you on the Europe tour!
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Alexander Ewig has been SVP Marketing & Sales at AIDA Cruises since 2021. In 2019, he joined the cruise company as Managing Director Marketing for MediaMarkt and Saturn Germany/International. Prior to that, he held leadership positions including at MRM Germany, KlickTel AG/Telegate AG, OgilvyOne and Denkwerk.
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