November 19, 2019
We are Pioneers, a creative agency for retail transformation. Set up in 2014 as a one-stop-shop for all things retail, we continually deliver inspiring customer experience and outstanding services to brands. From four founding project managers we have grown into a multidisciplinary team of 70 people. Let us quickly walk you through our history, who we are, and what we do—that seems like an appropriate way to begin our relationship.
Martin Baumdicker had been an experienced and award-winning marketing creative before setting out to conquer the retail world. He began his journey into entrepreneurship with a €3250 budget. A credit of €30k made the room he worked from look like an office, turned a table into a computer desk, and an old couch into a bed for what turned out to be many sleepless nights. There had been no clear strategy, no real structure, just the ambition to get rid of boring shops once and for all.
We started out with Nike as our first client, a brand whose vision we share to this day. The work with Nike allowed us to build a team in less than a year, diversify our services, and, most importantly, build confidence in our strength as a team.
It was a memorable year with unbelievable amounts of hard work and risks. We attracted new people and brought new skills to the team. Some of them are still with us—looking at you, Clarissa and Lukas. Thank you for making it all the way!
And then there were 13.
When all of them sat at the table, they would discuss weather, politics, work, and what the name of the company should be. Trying to grasp our DNA in a cool brand name, we visited the whole spectrum of weird names: from Tree House Marketing to Solid Rocks Marketing to The Fulfillers; to Maximise Marketing to Space-Time Pilots to Point of Action.
--> Given people’s enthusiasm and energy to change things around in the retail world, they wanted to call themselves Pioneers. <--
2016 was an excellent year for the company. All the hard work landed us an MVB Start-up of the Year prize, which was a significant boost for us. That year, we also won The North Face as client and have been creating and executing great concepts together ever since.
