About Me

© MUNICH MARKETING WEEK/M. KROLL/P. JELEN

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Björn Ognibeni has more than 20 years of experience advising major brands, consultancies, and agencies on digital transformation, focusing on opportunities for business strategy, product development, and marketing & sales.

His goal is not only to constantly identify new relevant trends, but also to help clients in consulting projects figure out how to apply them to create real value - in the spirit of a true Practical Visionary.

His current work focuses on three main topics:

Re-Thinking Digital - What do we need to rethink in order to finally make progress with digital transformation?
Disruptive China - What can we learn about digital innovation from current trends in China, and how can we apply this to our work here in the West?
XR & Metaverse - How can companies & brands create real value in virtual worlds today? And what do recent trends like Spatial Computing mean for the industry?

On these topics, Björn regularly writes columns and op-eds for media outlets like FOCUS/DLDaily or Handelsblatt and is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and corporate events. As a lecturer, Björn teaches at the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA), the University of California, Davis, and the University of Münster, where he also serves as strategic director of the XR-Lab at the MCM (Marketing Center Münster).

Björn’s past work includes contributing to many high-profile digital cases, such as some of Germany's most successful viral campaigns or establishing the initial social media customer engagement programs for notable companies like Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bahn, and Volkswagen.

In 2012 Björn co-founded Buzzrank - a SaaS startup that provided innovative tools for Social Media Analytics and Content Curation. He headed the company as CEO until 2017, when it was acquired by dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur - Germany's leading news agency.

“Great expert and speaker on digitalization. A real China maven who is not only well-read, but also knows the reality on the ground.”

– Matthias Freiherr von Tettau, Managing Partner, DIH Deutsche Industrie-Holding

„Björns events are always very interactive and full of lively discussions from the very first minute. Moderated very competently thanks to his first-hand knowledge.“

– Ulrich Kramer, Geschäftsführer pilot Agenturgruppe

“An exchange with Björn about digital transformation guarantees new ideas, inspiration, and impulses! His Disruptive China workshop was great!”

– Franziska von Lewinski, CEO, SYZYGY AG

„I have known Björn for a long time now, but what never happened is, that conversations and projects got boring with him. He is a truly forward-thinking and inspirational person. It is always a pleasure to work with him.“

– Daniel Koennecke, Partner, Deloitte Digital

About my Work

We have been talking about digitization for 20+ years. But the pandemic has shown us that in many areas, we are still at the beginning of 2022. Projects often fail to meet their expectations or barely exploit their potential. Often because, we find it challenging to rethink things we are used to, which leaves many untapped opportunities.
I help my clients to master these challenges. Always based on clear goals and precise ways to evaluate success. As digital coach for executives or second opinion, but if necessary also directly responsible for a successful implementation - depending on the individual requirements of each project.
When I visited China for the first time in 2019, I realized two things: first, many innovations that we used to look for in Silicon Valley can now be found there. Second, many in the West are not aware of this. Companies with no business in China often don't know what has happened there in recent years and what they are missing when they ignore these developments.
I provide my clients with valuable insights about what is happening in Digital China to assess which trends & ideas from there are relevant for us here.
Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse keynote last year put the topic of virtual reality on the agenda everywhere. VR & AR seemed to be niche topics without much relevance for a long time. This has suddenly changed. But what is the real significance? Are there already use cases today that make business sense?
I deal with questions like these as part of my research at the XRLab-MCM of the University of Münster, while also advising companies to better assess the phenomenon of metaverse - e.g., with live tours through virtual worlds or ideation workshops in VR.