In the interview with Nicolai Goschin, CEO of the Frankfurt digital agency helllicht.
The advancing digitalization has fundamentally changed marketing in recent years. Companies are increasingly using digital channels and social media, search engine, email, and mobile marketing to promote their products and services. With the help of data analysis and artificial intelligence, companies can now better than ever address the needs and interests of their target groups. Personalized advertising is gaining in importance, and inbound marketing strategies—where companies create content that attracts potential leads and then converts them into customers—are becoming increasingly popular. Without professional support, it is hardly possible to develop and sustainably implement a good and long-term marketing strategy.
The Frankfurt-based digital agency helllicht has made a name for itself over the past few years far beyond the Rhine-Main region with successful marketing strategies, user experience design, and web technology. With effective, sustainable approaches in the digital marketing jungle, it supports numerous renowned customers on their “new” paths in the digital environment. The agency helllicht is one of Germany’s leading agencies and an official member of the GWA. In an interview with Nicolai Goschin, CEO of the Frankfurt-based digital agency helllicht, we talk today about digital positioning, digital strategy, the importance of corporate websites, tracking and analytics tools, social recruiting, and the growing importance of user experience and user interface design (UX/UI).
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Mr. Goschin, looking at the changes in marketing over the past few years, was there a decisive moment when you yourself consciously perceived the change?
Nicolai Goschin: I’d love to say there was one single moment, but it was a process. When I think back to the early years of the agency, we “simply created corporate websites.” Maybe a bit like opening a shop on a busy street in the past and customers just walked in. The website went live, users came, and it worked well. Today, the website is just one part of the big picture. We already plan the overarching digital strategy when designing the website. Before the first pixel of a website is placed, we know how users will reach the site, which channels are included in the mix, and why. I see this as one of the most significant changes in recent years—even more so than technical changes or other trends. The playing field has become so much larger that the challenge now is to manage the complexity and know where the players need to be on the field, whereas in the past everyone just “shot at the goal.”
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: From Steve Jobs, we learned that the “why” of a brand is crucial. What does this have to do with digital positioning and a subsequently developed digital strategy?
Nicolai Goschin: The “why” is the core of everything. When we, as an agency, develop positioning or strategy for a customer, the first question is “why?”. Why the project? Why the product? Why the service? Why the brand?
I believe only those who understand the “why” behind something are able to draw the right conclusions based on it. According to Simon Sinek, we move from the why to the how and then to the what. In words, this may sound very trivial, but it is a crucial point. We often see that “something is done” because that’s just how it’s done or because others are doing it the same way. In the end, the disappointment is great because, despite doing a lot, little comes of it. That’s why it’s crucial to question and first clarify the why or the “why.” Based on this, a further strategy can be derived, from which tactics and then measures follow. If you follow this model, you’ll notice that the measures suddenly work because they are targeted and contribute to the same goal.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Where is the crucial difference between a digital strategy and a marketing strategy?
Nicolai Goschin: The boundaries here are fluid, and the same terms are used differently by different people. To make it even more complicated, we would have to bring the term digitalization strategy into the race. But let’s keep it simple. A marketing strategy includes marketing tactics and marketing measures, regardless of the channel. The channels could therefore be completely analog and offline, for example, if that fits the target group. A digital marketing strategy considers the digital part of marketing but thinks cross-media, i.e., all the way into the analog world. A digital strategy considers digital marketing but also other digital touchpoints such as software, digital products, etc. I believe that at this point, the terminology is not so crucial. In my opinion, what is crucial for a company today is to understand the digital environment as the field in which users and customers are present. And I need a strategy on how I want to meet them there, today and tomorrow. That’s why we also talk about digital positioning, and that is much more than just the corporate website, even if it is an essential part.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Why is a corporate website so incredibly important today, and how do customers manage to design an optimal site for their target group?
Nicolai Goschin: We need to think of the digital environment today as a large, complex system in which everything is interconnected. That’s why we also like to talk about the digital ecosystem. And the corporate website is the center of this system. The point where everything converges. A user journey can start at any point—LinkedIn, a QR code, an email, a Google search. The list is endless. And at each of these points, we need to be able to “pick up” users and guide them to a place where we can convey our message, emotion, etc. That place is the corporate website, where all channels converge. Even if it’s often not the first touchpoint in the journey, it is the last. This is where an action must be triggered that prompts users to take action. It doesn’t matter whether the action is a purchase, contacting us, or sending an application—it’s always about taking action. And we need to be able to measure that action.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: So if I understand you correctly, the constant goal is to monitor user behavior through tracking and analytics in order to build optimal websites. Is that correct?
Nicolai Goschin: Yes, that’s correct. When designing a corporate website or other websites, we always make certain assumptions. We design user journeys and define how we want to guide users through the site, where we pick them up, and where we lead them. Tracking then allows us to verify in practice whether these concepts work and where adjustments are needed. Even if the concept is 100% accurate, user habits change due to new platforms and devices. This requires continuous optimization. A particular challenge right now is the issue of data privacy in connection with user tracking. We’re all familiar with cookie banners from our own internet use. We must be aware that for most websites, a “no” to cookies means the website becomes a black box. Users’ movements are barely visible anymore. Fortunately, there are now new tracking methods that work without cookies and give us the insights we need to achieve optimal results.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The shortage of skilled workers is already being felt everywhere. Marketing and the measures discussed above are therefore increasingly being used in the area of social recruiting. How does marketing for products differ from marketing for new employees?
Nicolai Goschin: What's interesting is that the difference isn't actually that big. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked. In recruiting, or the acquisition of new skilled workers, we need to understand employers, i.e., companies, as brands in this context as well. This is why we also refer to them as employer brands. A brand – very simply put – is a sum of kept promises combined with an emotion. And this is what we need to convey in recruiting as well. We need to emotionally charge employers; they need to stand for something. And this is what we, as agencies, need to communicate. In social recruiting, for example, we use social media channels to attract new skilled workers. If we do this correctly, we don't just post job advertisements, but convey the positive aspects of employers. This approach works much better than a blunt "Hey, here's a job, are you looking right now?". The major difference between marketing for a product and marketing for employers lies in the fact that it is much more difficult to highlight the differences. Everyone offers career opportunities, flexible working hours, great teams, purpose, work-life balance, etc. So why is one company a better employer than another? The challenge is to identify these differences and present them in a way that is communicable, credible, and memorable. That's the great art of (social) recruiting.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Websites that are not easy to use and require explanation today will not deliver the desired results in the medium to long term. User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) therefore also play a crucial role in SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings. Please briefly explain the difference between the two and why these two elements will become increasingly important in the future.
Nicolai Goschin: That’s a very good question. I think it’s currently one of the most important questions of all. UX/UI has long been neglected and “somehow” done. In the early days of digitalization, anything was better than a fax machine. And yet – and I can’t emphasize this enough – UX/UI will become the decisive competitive advantage in the coming years. Those who don’t respond to this today will have a hard time in the future.
I’d like to explain why this is the case. On the one hand, the pace of digitalization, especially in software, will increase dramatically. The time to market for software products will shorten as processes and tools benefit from a higher degree of standardization. As a result, we will see more software products due to faster pace and lower entry barriers. The new generations of browsers allow software to be delivered largely browser-based today. This goes hand in hand with subscription models, moving away from one-time license fees towards monthly payment plans. This in turn makes switching easier. I can test many Software as a Service products for free for 14 days and then cancel them monthly. If I don’t like a product, I switch.
And now it gets interesting. “Liking” is usually not a question of countless features, but of a positive user experience. That is, User Experience. And this in turn is linked to User Interface Design. Companies that fail in the SaaS environment to design User Experience so that it is at least as good as the competition – and we need to consider this internationally – will disappear from the market in the long term, even if their technology behind the interface is far superior to that of the competition.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Let’s take a final look into the future together at the end of this interview. Facebook Reels are getting shorter and the actual information content for users is losing importance. Where do you think this will lead, and do you see a counter-movement?
Nicolai Goschin: Yes, a counter-movement will come, but it will take a little while. Currently, the AI trend is pushing the topic in a different direction, which I believe is wrong. The quality in the area of content will initially decline. AI will ensure that content becomes more trivial and thus has less informational value. Some boast about being able to write a whitepaper in a few minutes using ChatGPT, while others boast about no longer having to read whitepapers because ChatGPT summarizes the content for them. This will continue for a while until users are fed up. Fed up with fast, trivial content that has no relevance. When we reach that point, users will once again make more conscious decisions about what they consume digitally and what they don’t. Then, high-quality content will regain importance, and we will slow down digitally. Until then, everything will become faster and more irrelevant – and that will be a challenge for companies that want to stand out.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Thank you for the impressive conversation.