Millhaus Our target groups are communities.
Millhaus supports business organisations in their efforts to add an emotional dimension to their brand strategy in this area and achieve brand identification, authenticity, relevance and, not least, a presence in the media.
Interest segments that place the accent on creativity and emotion, such as young people in general or the sports, music, fashion and arts communities, constitute our main areas of activity. We specialise in placing brands in these leisure and lifestyle-oriented sectors in an able and believable way. This involves creating a lasting impression designed to achieve long-term attachment to the brand.
Youth culture is a world that not everyone can “get”. The key to access is a heightened understanding and good contacts. We maintain close personal links with the people who create and develop the various cultural scenes, gaining their respect in the process. We make sure we are there at the birth of the trends that more often than not go on to become part of the mainstream.
Millhaus links its access to these cultural scenes with an outstanding strategic approach to the needs of the client concerned, designed to offer a full set of customer services that ranges from hard-hitting brand and market analysis to advice on strategies and the development of innovative and creative concepts, plus professional implementation. This unique combination of insider knowledge of the scene and strategic brand consultation forms the basis of success for our projects.
Oliver Glück
possesses wide-ranging experience in strategic marketing and communications for companies and consumer-goods brands both in Germany and elsewhere. After attending business school, he went on to gain experience in international advertising at BBDO Worldwide in New York and at Wunderman Cato Johnson in Frankfurt, before opting for a position at Fiat Auto.
His job at Fiat Auto included various roles in marketing and sales. He began by concentrating on the German market, from the Frankfurt office, followed by four years at group HQ in Turin (Italy) and work on corporate identity for the concern’s Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Fiat brands, development of below-the-line initiatives for the Fiat brand and, finally, his appointment as Head of Sponsoring (including activities relating to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin).
Just before becoming a partner at Millhaus, Oliver Glück was a manager at BBDO Consulting.
Jan Mikes
is a graduate in sports marketing management and a founder member of the snowboarding scene. Thanks to his background at Amer Sports Germany and Sporthouse.de, he also has an excellent front-line knowledge of the sports sector as a whole.
He and Alexander Schwan jointly founded Millhaus in 1999. As team manager, he was the driving force behind the success of the Ratiopharm Snowboarding Team – one of the most successful brand commitments to date for this young target group.
Starting in 2001, he successfully built up an international team for HEAD Snowboards, gaining ground in the marketing of winter-sports brands to new target groups in the process. From 2004 onwards and in collaboration with Oliver Glück, who was then still working on the customer side at Fiat Auto, he set up the ambitious Italian Fiat Freestyle Team – a key part of Fiat’s successful rejuvenation strategy. The high-point came with their strong presence at the 2006 Olympics, accompanied by an expansion of the project to cover the European market as a whole. Since 2006, Jan Mikes has been implementing the authentic First Steps for T-Mobile within the action sports field in Germany and Austria, which is of particular importance to young target groups.
Alexander Schwan
knows, as a trained professional in the hotel trade, what the term “customer-oriented services” means. He is now Eurosport’s resident expert in action sports and the presenter of Air & Style.
From 1999 to 2002, he was Head Judge and Chief Trainer at the International Snowboard Federation (ISF). When not in the presenter’s chair, he is in great demand as a competition judge at the major snowboarding events.
This passionate skating and snowboard enthusiast was a co-founder of Millhaus in 1999. In 2000 and 2001, he was one of the creative forces behind the Siemens Mobile Wave Tour, which brought surfing into city centres and created a worldwide sensation. Together with Jan “Pike” Mikes, he won the 2005 International Sponsorship Award for the “Safety First” initiative of the Ratiopharm snowboard team. He acts as a consultant to Air & Style, the world’s most important snowboard event. He has also designed and implemented creative concepts for various brands, including Yahoo. In 2006, he managed to engage the Munich (Germany) winter sports resort of Spitzing and the cult brand Burton in a joint snowboard and safety project.