Uwe Gutschow describes himself as “the guy in the room who is probably the most curious-- always thinking about how we can do things better: new methods, interesting technology, smarter business solutions that lead to better results.” As a seasoned global digital thought-leader, he’s motivated to drive change and promote the kind of innovative thinking that inspires big ideas to solve problems for clients and consumers. He operates at the intersection of creativity, technology and strategy.
He admits, “The role of an agency is not only to move past typical advertising, but to create business solutions that will move the brand forward. So, I’m always pushing the limits of our understanding and ability.” Plus, he’s started a training Academy to inspire INNOCEAN teams with new way of thinking about product, service and marketing.
Uwe describes how Innovation for clients must come from three perspectives: Business, Marketing and Product. “Consumer behavior is changing really fast,” he says. “We’re seeing a shift away from ownership to access. Companies like Netflix, Uber, Tesla, AirBnB, and Amazon are disrupting industries that have for a very long time provided average service and products. With that disruption comes an expectation. Consumers are expecting far more from brands and companies. They want products and services from a company that have a point of view and stand for something. We look at these disruptions as a catalyst for change: an inspiration for a new way of doing business, for example, selling vehicles.”
Not only did he launch a digital agency in South Africa under the Saatchi umbrella, but I Uwe applied his knowledge when he came to the US by helping to pioneer digital and social integration at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. At INNOCEAN, he’s built digital, social and analytics practices and helped lead strategy for Hyundai's Walking Dead Chop Shop app—a zombie apocalypse survival car builder—which resulted in a 150% traffic increase to Hyundai.com in three months.
Additionally, Uwe led initiatives around Hyundai’s integration at FIFA World Cup 2014 with the #BecauseFutbol campaign, which asked fans to show each other the crazy things they do because of soccer. “By celebrating the real life passion of the fans and bringing them together to share in it, we were able to turn a hashtag into a pop culture moment, organically trending twice in the US on Twitter — and increase Hyundai’s brand recognition by 304% at the same time.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Uwe is a German native, but has not yet been to Germany. Today, he makes Los Angeles his home.