We Are Era

We sent one of our colleagues to Stockholm. Not for business. 👀 That colleague? Aaron M. from our DRM and Music Partnerships team at We Are Era Nederland. How did he get there? Earlier this year, during the FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States, 150+ colleagues from across all ERA markets joined our ERA of Champions prediction game – guessing scores, climbing (and falling 🙈) on the leaderboard and competing for one pretty great prize. The winner got to choose an ERA location for a weekend trip and bring a +1, with travel and hotel included. Aaron came out on top with 249 points and chose Stockholm. So last week, he packed his bags, brought his girlfriend and spent three days exploring the city. 🙈 Congratulations to Aaron and a big shout-out to all colleagues across ERA who played along! 👏 #EraOfChampions #Stockholm #Belonging #Culture

Yesterday, 30 colleagues from our #Berlin team took on 5.7 kilometres at B2Run by Infront B2Run GmbH with the finish line waiting inside the iconic Olympiastadion. And after Cologne set the pace last week, Berlin had some pretty fast answers. 👀 Our fastest men: 🥇 Tobias Binkert, 25:56m 🥈 Daniel Böhme, 26:42m 🥉 Antonino Tumminelli, 28:42m Our fastest women: 🥇 Henrike Hein, 29:01m 🥈 simone hudson, 31:54m 🥉 Nina Götting, 32:18m There is, however, one important footnote to the official results: Our colleague Alassan is missing. Not because he didn't finish – quite the opposite. He accidentally (?) went for TWO laps. 😱🫠 We are assuming the timing chip simply wasn't prepared for that level of commitment. Huge thanks to everyone who ran, cheered and made both races such a fun team moment. Not a bad first ERA running season. ❤️ #EraOfRunning #B2Run #TeamSpirit #Berlin #Belonging

Don’t fall in love with the first idea! Meet Salina. As a Pitch Manager in our Berlin team, Salina brings people and structure together to guide ambitious briefs from concept to pitch. Working across different teams and perspectives, she helps create the conditions for ideas to evolve and become stronger. We caught up with Salina to learn more about the world behind the pitches, and what keeps her curious beyond work. 😊 💬 Salina, you get to see ideas before the rest of the world does. What have you learned from watching great ideas take shape? 💁♀️ I've learned that great ideas rarely arrive fully formed. They usually start with a strong instinct, then get challenged, sharpened and sometimes completely rethought. The magic is not in protecting the first idea, it's in understanding what made it interesting in the first place and being willing to evolve everything around it. 💬 What's the most underrated ingredient of a great pitch that has nothing to do with the idea itself? 💁♀️ I think one of the most underrated ingredients is the team dynamic. You can have a brilliant idea and a beautiful deck, but if the people presenting it don't feel connected to each other or to the audience, it shows. The best pitches have a certain energy: people build on each other, know when to step in or step back, and are able to read the room together. That creates trust – and makes the idea feel much more alive. 💬 Has a pitch ever changed completely along the way and ended up stronger because of it? What made the difference? 💁♀️ Definitely. I think pitches often get stronger when the team is open enough to challenge the original route instead of just polishing it. Sometimes one new perspective, one piece of feedback or one better insight changes the whole direction. What usually makes the difference is not being too attached to the first version and being willing to rebuild parts of it if that gets you closer to the strongest idea. 💬 What's something completely unrelated to your job that actually makes you better at what you do? 💁♀️ Talking to people who have absolutely nothing to do with my industry. It’s very easy to live in a marketing and media bubble where everyone knows the same references and uses the same language. Conversations outside of that bubble are a good reminder of what people actually notice, care about and talk about. #ERAofSalina #LifeAtERA #Culture #PitchManagement #ProjectManagement

Staying neutral isn't always neutral. 💁 Tomorrow at Kommunikationskongress in #Berlin, our team from MESH Collective will take the question of whether brands need to have an opinion to the stage ...and get a little uncomfortable with it. In a hands-on workshop, Amanda Brennan, Julia Althoff and content creator Blessed will explore how companies can navigate polarised times without sounding forced or out of touch. Expect interactive reflection, honest discussion and perspectives from the creator world on what credible, strategic and human communication can look like. If you’re there tomorrow: come by at 11:00 a.m. on Track 4, join the discussion and challenge us. 👀 #Kommunikationskongress #BrandCommunication #SocialMedia #Responsibility

The best conversations at #DMEXCO this year might happen before DMEXCO even begins. 🙊 Next Tuesday, the night before DMEXCO - Digital Marketing Expo & Conference, we are bringing creators, brands, platforms, agencies and partners together for SIP & SOCIAL, an evening built around something our industry could always use more of: time to properly connect. Expect cold drinks at Bredouille Weinbar in #Cologne, good people, unhurried conversations and the best and freshest ice cream creations from the one and only DJ Ice Rolls (490k+ on TikTok). 🥂🍦 We have kept a small number of places open for people from across the industry who would love to join. If you are interested, request a spot here: 👉 https://luma.com/vjhnvqim Be quick! There's only a handful of spots left. Are we seeing you in Cologne? 🙈 #DMEXCO26 #SipAndSocial #CreatorEconomy #CommunityEconomy #Event

We were really happy to be part of this year's Bertelsmann Party in #Berlin, together with some of our ERA talents and team members. Under the motto "The Opportunity Company", the evening brought together people from across media, entertainment, business, politics and culture. A great setting for new encounters, great conversations and, of course, a little red-carpet glamour. 📸 Thanks to Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA for an unforgettable evening! 🙏 📸 Laurenz Bostedt #BParty2026 #PlaceToB #RedCarpet #Event

We won! 🎉 Kokutekeleza Musebeni received the first prize of the journalism award by "Andere Zeiten" for "Zu früh erwachsen", a documentary we produced for ZDF's 37° Leben. We are incredibly happy about this recognition. The jury particularly praised the film's closeness, empathy and eye-level perspective in telling the stories of Rubina and Iva, two young women navigating life in and after youth welfare. The award also feels like a special milestone in our ongoing work with 37°: over the past years, our teams have produced stories across the 37° universe. From social-first and short-form documentaries to full-length 37° Leben films on TV. Huge congratulations to Kokutekeleza Musebeni. And a big shoutout to Maxi, Greta, Leska, Henriette and everyone else at ERA who made this possible! Very, very happy about this one! 🙏 #37Grad #ZDF #Documentary #Journalism #Award

Welcome to the ERA of Running 🏃 Yesterday, 25 colleagues from our #Cologne team took on our very first company run at B2Run by Infront B2Run GmbH. 5.3 kilometres around the city, with the finish line right inside Cologne's stadium. And yes, some people were very, very fast. 🤯 Special shout-out to our top three: 🥇 Dastan Mohamed (24m33s) 🥈 Denis Müller (25m54s) 🥉 Moritz Schubert (26m:12s) More colleagues were waiting at the finish line just to cheer. What a commitment! 🫶 Aaand the ERA of Running is only getting started. Next week, 35+ ERA people will line up in Berlin, with the finish line waiting inside the iconic Olympic Stadium. Thank you for setting the pace, Cologne! 💪 #EraOfRunning #B2Run #TeamERA #Belonging

Ba da ba ba ba… something big is cooking for 2027! 👀🍟 This week, we welcomed the McDonald's Deutschland team to our We Are Era HQ. It was great to spend some quality time together and get to know each other a little better outside of our usual calls. Since earlier this year, ERA has been the Lead Agency for Creator & Community Marketing for McDonald's Germany. So it was great to have Stijn Mentrop-Huliselan and the team with us in person to talk about what's ahead. We won't say too much just yet. But 2027? We're lovin' where this is going. ❤️ Thanks for stopping by, everyone! 🙏 #CreatorMarketing #CommunityMarketing #AgencyLife #BigMacBigPlans

Some of the most useful signals for marketers don't arrive as "marketing trends". 💁 They show up as teenagers farming aura in a park. As charms suddenly appearing on everything. As thousands of people forming an opinion about a phone they haven't even touched yet. Or as a 90s band reunion becoming one of the loudest conversations around a film festival. 👀 Because culture rarely announces where it’s going next. Communities do. Our trend and platform experts Patricia and Anushka pulled together four of this week’s biggest cultural signals and why they are worth paying attention to: 🌀 Aura Battles are taking brainrot IRL Born out of online culture in Latin America, people are now meeting in real life to battle it out with mewing, dabs, "6-7" and other viral moves while the crowd decides who farms the most aura. It might sound ridiculous. But that’s exactly why it matters. Internet language is becoming real-world behavior, rituals and community. ✨ The internet wants to feel whimsical again. After years of clean aesthetics and quiet luxury, feeds are filling up with charms, polka dots, colourful layering and unapologetic maximalism. But the interesting part is the debate underneath it: is whimsy about creativity and self-expression, or is the internet simply turning another mood into something to buy? 📱 The foldable iPhone is already a cultural object. Before launch. Apple is set to unveil its first foldable iPhone this week, and social media has already decided there is plenty to discuss. Excitement, scepticism, memes, comparisons, hot takes: product perception is increasingly being shaped in public and in real time. For brands, the launch moment is no longer where the story starts. 🎬 Venice is giving prestige culture, fandom and nostalgia all at once. Robert Pattinson arrived with Primetime, while Liam and Noel Gallagher brought Oasis reunion fever to the festival with their documentary. Different generations, different fandoms, same feed. It's another reminder that the old lines between “high culture”, entertainment and internet culture are getting very blurry. And for marketers, that's the point: Don't just watch what's trending. Watch what communities are turning into culture. #NowPopping #CraftingTheZeitgeist #CommunityEconomy #CultureMarketing