Marco Spies studied German, English, Philosophy and Media Studies at the Universities of Trier and Stirling/UK. From 2000-2010 he worked in renown agencies as a UX designer and creative director (Pixelpark, Neue Digitale, Peter Schmidt Group) and as a freelance digital consultant. In 2010, he founded the design and innovation agency think moto in Berlin together with Katja Wenger. There he is responsible for strategy and innovation. Consulting projects for Audi, Continental, Lufthansa, Miele, bulthaup, Continental, the City of Freiburg, Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation Abu Dhabi, TÜV Rheinland, Volkswagen and many more.
Marco Spies is the author of the standard work on digital brand management Branded Interactions – Creating the Digital Experience (Thames & Hudson, 2015) and co-author of Branded Interactions – Marketing through Design in the Digital Age (2020, with Katja Wenger), which has been published in several languages. Branded Interactions combines methods from design thinking, UX design and brand strategy to create a framework for the development of brand-specific digital products and services.
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Marco Spies regularly gives lectures and courses in German and English. Teaching assignments include the substitute professorship for interface design at the HTWG Konstanz (2009) and the honorary professorship for flexible identities at the HAWK Hildesheim (2017-2020).
Main areas of activity: Advising companies and organizations on strategic positioning, digital transformation, brand management, innovation, agile design management, design process definition, cultural change and the use of artificial intelligence to improve dialogue with stakeholders.
Research areas: Post-growth economy and economy for the common good, futures thinking/speculative futures, the influence of artificial intelligence on the world of work and everyday life, linking digital and socio-ecological transformation. In 2022 Development of Spherical Branding, an approach to branding in the post-growth economy, which he presented for the first time in February 2023 as a keynote speaker at the Kundenopplevelsdagen in Oslo. Planned publication in 2024: Spherical Brands – Brand management in the post-growth economy (Hermann Schmidt Verlag, Mainz)
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