The Achtung! family of agencies and Jan Pikull have together now founded Achtung! Happens – an agency for exceptional brand experiences. The new agency has already started up in Hamburg. Jan Pikull was managing partner of unite in the twelve years prior – an agency for entertaining cooperative marketing – and responsible for brands such as Geldermann, Mumm & Co., Bahlsen, and Lavazza Deutschland. With the idea of an agency which combines collaborations, events and communications platforms to make brands an experience in a remarkable way, Jan Pikull started up on the Achtung! Startup Platform. Here is where Babette Kemper (Achtung! Mary), Felicia Mutterer (Achtung! Broadcast), Christina Starke (Achtung! Neo), Tim Voigt (Achtung! Alive) and Simeon Atkinson (Achtung! InnoHealth) have already successfully founded their agencies together with Achtung!.
Three questions to the co-founder of Achtung! Happens:
Jan, you’ve just founded the Achtung! Happens agency with us. What made you choose Achtung! and our Startup Platform?
At the start, I thought about how I could contribute myself, my experience and my clients within a larger context, with the aim of reaching a whole new level. I got the tip from friends to take a look at the Achtung! Startup Platform. I did just that and was amazed. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Here at Achtung!, I can tap into so many competencies and skills for my clients. What’s more, I take advantage of the strong Achtung! brand and get support from departments such as HR, IT, bookkeeping, accounting, advertising … I can fully concentrate on the things that are the most fun to me and which I can do best. After the talk with CEO Mirko Kaminski and CFO Thorsten Beckmann, everything went extremely fast. The time between the final talk and the notary appointment was just over one week.
Achtung! Happens wants to create remarkable communications platforms for brands and bring these to life. Collaborations are to play a leading role. What is this about?
At Achtung! Happens, the focus is truly on the power of a strong collaboration. This can be brand-to-brand, a sponsoring or a strong entertainment topic from the area of music or film. The important thing is that we create a communications event that is exciting for the target group. This can be a limited edition, a joint product or a series of events.
A catchy example of his is the collaboration with the brand Geldermann at the Bayreuth Festival. What started as a brief to develop a new sponsoring strategy for Geldermann is today, six years later, an ongoing partnership with the Bayreuth Festival. The collaboration goes far beyond typical sponsoring and has developed into a partnership whereby Geldermann, in addition to their on-the-ground presence at a premium level, creates an exclusive Festival Cuvée for the annual new production, curates an own special broadcast for the Klassik Radio station or conceptualises special Bayreuth journeys of pleasure with Alexander Herrmann, to name just a few. Of course, a very special collaboration is once again planned for next year. Stay tuned!
What have the first reactions to your newly founded agency been?
The response has been overwhelming. Whether among friends, clients or business partners – they all are delighted about the founding of Achtung! Happens and think the concept is fascinating. And Achtung! naturally means something to them all. Many have already asked about the other offers within the Achtung! family.