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SPRATS, SALTWATER, SAILING CITY: Anne and Ina
“If you don’t exist online, you won't be found offline either.”
We at Kiel-Marketing are closely connected to Kiel, the sea and our job. Here we tell you what we like best about our city on the Kiel Fjord.
A meeting at the construction site of the future: Anne Böhm and Ina Runge are driving digitalisation at Kiel-Marketing and in Kiel city centre, from AI in the office to multi-touch tables in the „future room“. And best of all: together we are working on an Ocean Race Europe Kiel song – with the help of AI, of course!
Digitalisation is a megatopic, also for Kiel-Marketing. In one sentence: What is digitalisation for you?
Ina: It depends on the context. In relation to my area of work, I would say that digitalisation is a useful addition for bricks-and-mortar retail and the city centre of tomorrow.
Anne: I'll use the buzzwords: making work easier and securing the future.
Digitalisation and AI can be found everywhere in our company, from the future room to our toilet facilities. Anne, you know what I'm referring to...
Anne: I'm sure you mean the AI keel songs that have just found their way into our sanitary facilities. It's funny how you can put a smile on people's faces with simple means, isn't it? The practice behind it is complex, but the result is very tangible and fortunately not yet so perfect that you realise after a few sung words at the latest that no human is singing it.
How did you come up with it in the first place?
Anne: It really started with the emergence of ChatGPT. I started looking into it out of personal interest and our managing director also found the topic exciting. He then immediately had the idea that I could do something on the subject of AI. As far as AI music was concerned, he then wanted us to present something here at a meeting. Then I started trying it out and then you know how it is ..
Anne Böhm
Project Manager Digitalisation of the local economy
Will there be more songs? How does it actually work, did you specify individual keywords and beats and the AI generated songs from them?
Anne: Well, I made an effort, if you don't brief the AI well, then it makes something up. In other words, the briefing for this text was intensive. I think there will only be more songs in the future if someone asks me to, like Ina, for example, who wanted one of the songs in a pop version. Apart from that, I'll be concentrating on the future room and our other projects for the time being.
Ina Runge
Project Lead Digitalisation of the local economy
From the ceramics department into the future. How did you come up with the idea of the Future Room?
Ina: The idea of the Future Room was born in 2022, shortly after the pandemic, when the aim was to offer retailers something and give them a perspective on how to position themselves digitally. To open the door a little and minimise the hurdles. In 2023 and 2024, we conducted extensive surveys in the retail and catering sectors to find out how they are positioned digitally. We then decided that we needed a corresponding space, which was also the result of the study behind it. We want to create a place that invites people to engage constructively and critically with the topic of digitalisation in retail. A space that shows different technologies in action without retailers having to visit any tech trade fairs. But we have actually set ourselves a much bigger hurdle, because we don't just want to have a space that shows the technologies in their theoretical function, but we want to directly involve a retailer here on site who integrates the technologies into their day-to-day business and benefits directly from them. They can try out how digital developments and technologies affect their operations, sales, brand, visibility and so on.
“Digitalisation starts with the fact that I can be found digitally at all.”
Ina Runge
My impression is that in many shops in Germany in particular, you can't even pay by card. How are local retailers reacting to your initiative?
Ina: We have noticed a certain lethargy towards digitalisation because the understanding of digitalisation is often not so clear. It has developed into a kind of buzzword. People are quick to say: oh no, I don't need it, I can't do it, I don't want it, I'm not interested. I think that's a bit German, that there's a fundamental lack of enthusiasm for innovation. But that may also be due to the fact that we've been plagued by various crises for years, that retailers and restaurateurs are facing major challenges, so naturally people aren't so quick to try out innovative things.
However, we want to show that digitalisation does not mean "online shop". Digitalisation starts with being digitally discoverable in the first place. Our survey has shown that 30 per cent of retailers and restaurateurs cannot be found online because they do not have a website or one that works well. The simplest thing is still a Google business listing. If you don't exist online, you won't be found offline either.
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We once realised that the Internet is uncharted territory. But lethargy, ignorance or fear are not enough of an explanation.
Ina: Various factors come together. There is no clear, immediately recognisable benefit that I can offset in monetary terms. Then technology is always associated with the fact that I also have to create the appropriate basis in the background, of course. We have a digital shopping assistant here in the future room, which I can use to order goods online that I can't find here in the future room. To do this, however, I need a digital merchandise management system, and this has not yet been implemented across the board in all areas.
Of course, the large chain stores are much further ahead because they simply have other resources.
I also understand that an owner-managed retail business can't do everything in the same way. But I would like to see the topic being addressed more intensively. Last year, we provided retailers with talks and digital checks. That you can have your digital status quo checked, from your Instagram entry to your Google entry to your website. But unfortunately, the offer was not as well received as it could have been, even though it was free of charge.
“This also gives the sales assistants more time and allows them to concentrate on personal customer contact on site.”
Ina Runge
In addition to the ten-strong Ocean Race Europe team, around 40 other employees work at Kiel-Marketing in the business areas of tourism, city and town centre management, city centre management, neighbourhood management and the sailing camp powered by Stadtwerke Kiel, where 3,000 children and young people sail every year.
Such a concept also brings many advantages for visitors to a shop. Where do the needs of companies and the needs of customers meet in the future space?
Anne: That's an interesting question. For example, if I as a customer can't find a T-shirt in S, but I really like it, I can order it via the digital assistant and have it sent directly to my home in S - but that only works if the retailer has stored its digital merchandise management system and can also show me that it still has it in stock somewhere.
What else is there in the future room?
Ina: The multi-touch table is also particularly cool, it's really a bit spaced out like in the crime films on TV ...
... or like in James Bond, when mega important virtual information is moved back and forth on a screen to save the world ..
Anne: ... exactly, the last time we used Vintage Fashion, they displayed their entire range in pictures so that you could make small groupings. For example, you found three waistcoats and you could then save them as a collection and look at them again later. And when you'd had enough browsing, you could play a round of digital air hockey afterwards.
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Ina: And we have much more. In addition to digital signage, i.e. moving images that can be constantly updated instead of printed posters, we also have sensor-based technologies: I have a product table with goods that are equipped with sensors, and when the customer interacts with these products, the information is added on a screen. With Helly Hansen, who will be coming in from May, we have already considered whether we can place maritime content there that then appears on the display to match the product. Or I can store which materials were used. Where the product was produced. Who the designers are. Which famous sailors own the product and so on. This also gives the sales staff more time and allows them to concentrate on personal customer contact on site, which is not possible online.
Respect for digitalisation lies with each individual, and that also applies in the corporate context. Anne, how can you easily start integrating AI into your day-to-day business?
Anne: Simple is always one of those things, because the mindset has to be right first. The onboarding of employees is important. Some are afraid that AI will take away jobs and that's where you have to start and say: AI helps you to structure your day-to-day work, relieves you of repetitive tasks and should primarily support you.
That's interesting because I had the same experience. We built a digital content platform here for the Ocean Race - the Storydeck, where this interview is being published. And content marketing is an example of how to break down silos and work together across departments on the basis of a narrative. This is simply new for many people.
Anne: This mindset has to be created in a company. Of course, data protection compliance in the company is also super important. What we do playfully in our private lives must then be done more securely in the company. You have to decide in the company which tools you want to work with and how. But then it can be something like text generation, for example. If I have customer enquiries, I can have my standardised answers pre-formulated. Or you can have some music generated for the shop.
© Kiel-Marketing/Copilot
© Kiel-Marketing/Copilot
“Think of something and the AI will make something out of it.”
Anne Böhm
AI can also be used to manage complex tasks, develop strategies, campaigns, texts and images. The decisive factor is the right prompting, i.e. the briefing to the AI so that the results are right. At the very least, a good momentum can be created that you can build on.
Anne: Yes, of course. You can do a lot with it. Let's say you go into research and have three documents and don't know which one to start with. Then you let the AI scroll through the three documents and ask it which one you should start with if the topic is XY. You can do so much with it, that's the great thing. Think of something and the AI will make something out of it. You just have to check whether it meets your expectations.
Have you ever noticed that every car licence plate in Kiel has "KI" on the front? That actually means that AI is in the genes of the people of Kiel. Maybe we should make a campaign out of it. But for now, the Ocean Race Europe is coming up here in Kiel in August. How do you think digitalisation and AI could be used at this event in Kiel?
Anne: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the KielGutschein, our digital means of payment for the local economy, which we use to keep the money locally in Kiel and the region. That would be something for the whole Ocean Live Park on the Kiellinie.
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“In the end, we all stand on the same Kiellinie!”
Anne Böhm
Ina: I think it would be really exciting if visitors could actually get on an Ocean Race boat via virtual reality. You've already seen in videos how little space there is on the boats. It would be cool to be able to experience this as a visitor, even though the boats will be right on the keel line. Or what it means to travel across the seas at this speed? I think many people simply lack the imagination.
I've saved the most important question until last. We're organising the whole event under the Kiel storyline "We all sail in the same boat". Anne, when are we going to make the AI-generated song for it?
Anne: We can start right away ..
Ina: ...in other languages too. How cool. The Ocean Race connects different European countries!
We'll keep at it, I'd say.
Ina: Yes - we're all really looking forward to the Ocean Race Europe, regardless of whether we're directly involved or not!
Anne: (laughs) In the end, we'll all be standing on the same Kiellinie!
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