Berlin calls itself "poor but sexy", and it has a famously uneasy relationship with big money. When a global tech company began building a cultural space on its Berlin campus, the task was to be part of Germany's investment in tech growth without becoming the city's next cautionary tale about gentrification.
Work
Work
A Trend Trek for a global tech company in “poor but sexy” Berlin
Publisher
Global tech company
Markets
Agency
Four members of the company's agency team spent a week in Berlin, with me as their person on the ground. Across bespoke Trend Treks, they moved through the neighborhood where the campus is going up, the "Silicon Allee" cafés where Berlin's fabled startups began on a napkin, and the countercultural landmarks that shape how the city sees itself.
Alongside the Treks, I presented a strategic read of what the project needed to get right: Berlin's history as tech companies have experienced it, the political climate, what counts as credible social responsibility here, and how to attract smart, passionate young people, benchmarked against tech companies that had launched well in Germany.
That read of what Berlin asks of a company with big money and a new campus now informs the concept for the space, which is in development.