Mirco Gluch 🐽

Piggyback

- Building team structures, strategies, and workflows for successful marketing and social media management
- Optimization of content output, engagements, reach and follower numbers through tried and tested tactics
Selected clients: Zalando, Trade Republic, N26, foodspring, Getsafe and many smaller brands

Agency Founder - Social Media Advisor, Consultant, Workshop Host, and Interim Head of Social Media

Getsafe

- 15,000 new followers, grew organic reach by 10x , and content pieces per week by 5x
- Team, workflow and strategy development for the social media presence of Getsafe
- Launch of TikTok as a new channel
- Development of over 10 regular content formats
- Campaign development and execution of the #failmoments campaign
- Main responsible and initiator of cross-functional 360° content marketing project

Interim Head of Social Media

Trade Republic

- 120,000 new followers across the different social media platforms
- Recruiting and setup of the social media team
- Launch of 3 new markets and their respective channels (Spain, Italy and Netherlands)

Interim Social Media Lead

foodspring

- Responsible for 400,000 new Instagram followers and 85,000 new YouTube subscribers
- Leading, building and developing a team of 12 social media and community managers
- Won 3rd most engaging FMCG food brand Instagram account award in Germany by socialbakers
- Managing the social media team and the channels through global pandemic and rebranding
- Conception, creating and managing of social first campaigns such as #mynewnormal
- Improving the team's content creation output in terms of quantity and quality
- Establishing a follower first and test&learn mindset among the team

(Interim) Head of Social Media

Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf

- Overseeing the organic social media channels, paid social advertising and display campaigns for Peek & Cloppenburg, Jake*s, Review and Ansons
- Content strategy updates for the individual brands and their channels, resulting in significantly better social metrics such as followers, reach, CPM and CPC
- Establishment of new marketing approaches such as influencer road trips and events, meet&greets, instore workouts, Instastories as a channel and Instastory-takeovers
- Budget allocation, budget controlling and budget planning for the year ahead
- Campaign analytics and media plan optimisation for future campaigns based on learnings

Head of Social Media

Zalando Media Solutions

- Executing successful launch, brand positioning and corporate design definition of Collabary - Zalando‘s influencer marketing platform, fast becoming Europe‘s number one workflow tool
- Social media and content marketing management of Collabary across various channels
- Leading the acquisition team towards signing up 2000 high quality social media influencers
- Driving influencer related tech-development, such as influencer categorisation, influencer-brand-fit definition, and influencer profile facelift

Sr. Influencer Marketing Strategist

imk, Institut für Marketing und Kommunikation

- Teaching brand strategy, brand positioning, brand management seminars
- Highly practical and hands on tutoring

Tutor for Brand Strategy

Multiple Clients

- Supervision of the corporate design relaunch of a footwear eCommerce
- Interim Head of Marketing for Mirapodo
- Art direction and photo production for campaigns across various online and offline media 
- Organisation of brand management, content and fashion inspiration workshops for various clients

Freelance Fashion Marketing Consultant

Zalando

-	Brand conceptualisation and brand positioning of Zalando Collection
-	Visual brand development – corporate design, corporate identity and 
	picture language
-	From strategy to market entry – launch event & pop up store in Berlin Mitte
-	Negotiation, planning and execution of marketing campaigns throughout online and offline Zalando channels
-	Marketing management of designer collaborations with Kaviar Gauche and Penkov
-	Creative lead and execution of seasonal campaign photo productions
-	Managerial responsibility for interns and some junior brand managers
-	Analysis of CRM data and market research results
-	Monthly representation of zLabels on Zalando‘s New Hire Day

Brand Manager - Zalando Collection

-	Collaborative effort in developing 20 private labels’ names, logos, corporate designs, and briefing of the individual product ranges
-	Negotiation, planning and execution of the entire marketing mix
-	Analysis of marketing relevant sales and customer data

Brand Performance Manager

-	Business development and calculation of cases for future potential private labels
-	Sales Controlling of the first private labels and the overall Zalando performance
-	Fashion trend forecasts for Zalando’s buying department
-	Website development for private labels

Project Manager Private Labels

envain

-	Created T-shirt brand whilst at university, including naming, creative, product, sourcing and trademarking

Founder of Fashion Label: Gamble for your t-shirt

💭 Imagine your brand's social media channels are growing with ease, your community is expanding and you’re even having fun doing it.
This is what collaborating with Piggyback looks like. 🐽

I’m Mirco, Founder of the Social Media Accelerator, Piggyback.

I’ve worked with some of the fastest growing companies and best marketing teams in the world including Zalando, Trade Republic, N26, foodspring, Wholey, vly, Getsafe, Nike, CLARK, and many startups.

At Piggyback, we help you ditch average, upskill with cutting-edge tactics and escape the competition through workshops, mentoring and our hands-on team accelerator program.

How can I help your company?
🚀 Grow your brand's social media channels with powerful strategies for high reach and high engagement content.
🚀 Upskill your team and help them get processes in place that take them from overwhelm to success with ease.
🚀 Keep learning, innovating and growing with fresh industry best-practice and tools.

Want to work with me? 🤝
1. Bespoke workshops to drive instant results
2. Bespoke social media strategy to get you to your goals
3. Mentoring to supercharge and support your team 
4. Accelerator program where we roll our sleeves up and get your socials thriving

I’m passionate about fitness, healthy food & beverages, A.I., clean energy and climate, mindfulness, wellness, innovation and longevity.

Ready to take your social media channels to the next level?
⚡️ DM me with the word "CALL" to set up a chat and take the first step towards transforming your social media marketing.

Still reading? Wow! 
Make sure you’ve got the 7 day crash course to supercharge your social media.
⚡️ Link in bio to get free growth hacks, proven workflows, community boosting, free tools and much more.

I just woke up to the feeling of hard work paying off.

A very famous German company just bought 16 team tickets to my new AI for Social Media course.

And honestly, it’s a feeling like no other. 

Months of building course curriculum, endless video shoots, countless tweaks, and many late nights and weekends wondering, “Will we ever finish this?” all suddenly feel so worth it.

What’s even more rewarding is seeing brands put their trust in this course, so much so that they’re signing up their entire teams.

It’s a huge milestone for Matthias Fuchs and me, especially so early after launch, and it’s only the beginning.

Brands are already diving in and upskilling their teams with AI.

So the real question is… why isn’t yours?

We don't teach unnecessary or untested theory.

Just practical skills based on real-life work with our partners.

Find out more through the link in the comments!

Mirco Gluch

Social Media Accelerator for Startups to Unicorns ⚡️ Ditch average content, upskill your team & supercharge your social channels | AI & Social Media Workshops, Speaker, Strategy & Team Extension 🐽

We ended 2024 with a team of four, and now we’re set to finish 2025 with a team of nine.

Welcome to the team, our new Social Media Consultant – Paula Kubetzek!

Paula’s a familiar face, as we actually met years ago when we were both working at foodspring! 

Since then, she’s spent the past four years at Oceans Apart.

Here’s a picture of the current team (with me and Ayce definitely not being added in later and Eliza and a working student still missing...)

We’re so happy to have you with us, Paula, and can’t wait to see the amazing work we’ll create together! 🐽

I tried to beat LinkedIn. And lost.

A few months ago, I posted on here saying I wanted to offer something different.

Something I believed was real value:

Behind-the-scenes looks at our projects at Piggyback – the insights, learnings, successes, failures, and so on.

Real-life examples you could apply to your own work in social.

And it took effort gathering examples, getting approvals from brands, and pulling everything together.

The outcome?

The algorithm beat me.

Most of the posts with real insights got some decent traction and engagement, but nothing crazy.

Meanwhile, last week I posted a quick rant about social media managers, and it went a little viral.

That one post got more impressions than the entire first two months of my behind-the-scenes content.

Did it feel good seeing the likes and comments roll in?

Yep – I "cracked" the algorithm.

Did I get DMs or a huge spike in followers from it?

Nope.

Has it left me confused and a little frustrated?

Yes. 100%.

LinkedIn claims to prioritise posts that offer “value,” but honestly, I don’t really feel like that’s the case a lot of the time.

It feels like we’re becoming slaves to the algorithm and starting to believe that content offering genuine value is “bad” simply because it didn’t perform.

Is anyone else feeling the same? Yes or no?

Celebrating the grand finale of our Academy “kids takeover” series!

As part of our collaboration with Academy, the adults were officially fired while the kids took charge — running the socials and the entire Academy office.

And after an amazing 1 million+ views on the campaign, we were ready to wrap up their takeover and truly celebrate in style:

With a rented cinema, a red carpet, Oscar statues, and of course, the stars themselves: the kids, along with their parents, all there for the big moment...

The kids’ song and music video!

Thank you to all involved in the campaign and to those who joined us for the premiere night. It has been an absolute joy working with our amazing young actors and the entire Academy team, and I’m sad that it’s all over!

You can watch the video on YouTube here:  
https://lnkd.in/ec97Tzjg 

And stream it on Spotify here:
https://lnkd.in/eRX_ysd2

Here’s why the “give the social media managers a raise” comment still means so much:

Since launching our Kids Takeover campaign a few weeks back with Academy, we’ve had:

– 2M views
 – 25K engagements
 – and a follower growth of 3.000.

We first had the idea for the takeover back in April but only began planning it a few months later, once we had all the right workflows in place.

And we’re incredibly proud of how that initial idea was brought to life over the following months and became what we have today.

The content looks slick, it’s entertaining, and most importantly, it’s engaging.

But here’s the thing: you can have all the views and likes in the world, and they’re great, but it’s the comments that really make everything worth it.

A comment shows that you’ve made your audience feel something so strongly that they had to respond.

We’ve had over 500 positive comments about the series so far and how much people are enjoying it. 

Here are the translations, if you don't speak German:

– “I have nothing to do with kids or bikes, but I still watched this ad several times because it was just so good!”

 – “I don’t have a child, but now I want a kids’ bike.”

 – “Advertising you enjoy watching! Excellent! 👍”

 – “Ok… at the latest NOW, the marketing department of this company deserves a raise. Or whoever it was. Awesome!!!”

 – “How cool did this video turn out! 😍”

That feedback is what reminds us why we do what we do, as there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing our work genuinely resonate with people.

So next time you’re hesitating about whether to comment or not, please, just do it.

You might not only make someone’s day but also remind them that their entire career is worth it.

P.S. This campaign was the result of an amazing team effort from the kids, the entire Academy team, Levi and Jan for their videography and editing, Tina and her team for the visuals, and Katharina Chen for the scripts and direction!

Taking content inspiration isn’t the problem. Doing it badly is. 
Here's how to fix that:

By attending my webinar next week.

On Wednesday, 5 November 2025, at 4:30 PM CET, I'll be coming to you live (from my apartment in Berlin) to bring you a webinar all about smart reverse engineering.

In this session, you'll learn how to use ChatGPT to quickly turn real-life posts from leading brands (from Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok) into actionable ideas: all customised for your own brand, tone of voice, and audience.

We'll also have a live Q&A, and I’ll share practical prompts so you can start applying everything to your work right away.

It's time to stop guessing what works, and start breaking it down.  

Sign up below!

Wolf M. Albrecht, Beata Bednarski and 19 other attendees

View event: AI for Social: Reverse Engineer What Works

AI for Social: Reverse Engineer What Works

Remember: you don’t actually need to keep asking ChatGPT to make your caption sound “less AI.”

Instead, you can train it to write in your own tone of voice and save yourself hours of time each week.

That’s just one of the things you’ll learn in my AI for Social Media course, which just launched last week.  

(And what I’m recording for in this pic!)

The course is built on my proven AI workflows and real-life examples I’ve used with project partners.  

You’ll learn practical approaches that improve both behind-the-scenes workflows and content creation—not untested tactics that just add more AI slop into the world.  

The best part? You only need ChatGPT Plus for the course, nothing else.  

Plus, you’ll get to see me on your screen throughout the entire course... what could be better!

The sign-up for the course is now live, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/e4cy8Jma

See you there!

P.S. My socks already got roasted. I’m ready for round two in the comments...

You don’t need another ChatGPT hack that only helps with a single caption.

You need a fully fleshed-out AI x social media workflow that supports you every step of the way.

From idea to creation to posting, my AI for Social Media course is designed to support social media managers in almost every area of their work, not just a one-off caption.

Built to be fun, fast, and easy to digest, the course is based on real-life work from my project partners at my social agency.

So you know it’s made for people who actually work in social media, not just talk about it.

Available now in both English and German – sign up here:

https://lnkd.in/e4cy8Jma

We’ve just passed 1 million combined views for our campaign with Academy, and here’s how we celebrated:

By releasing an official music video and song.

(Honestly, you’ve got to watch it, it speaks for itself!)

As part of our “Kids Takeover” campaign, the adults were fired and the kids became CEOs, and they’ve been running both the office and the Instagram account for the past 2 weeks.

Over this time, we've been uploading an episode of the series each day and adding them to Instagram's new reel-linking feature, and we've been blown away by the response so far.

(We’ll share a full end-of-campaign roundup soon, as there’s still more content to come next week.)

But for now, I want to say a huge well done to all the kids — they absolutely nailed it! 

It’s been so great to see them grow from initial nerves to complete confidence and excitement throughout the series.

A massive thank you to everyone else involved from start to finish — this has been one of my favourite campaigns ever to work on.

You can watch the video on YouTube here:  
https://lnkd.in/ec97Tzjg

Stream it on Spotify:
https://lnkd.in/eRX_ysd2

I know you're tired of hearing about hooks.
So am I... But here's the truth: 
You can spend hours perfecting a post and lose everything in the first second because your hook didn't land.

And the hook that works on TikTok? 
Doesn't work on LinkedIn.

The Instagram opener that goes through the roof? 
Completely wrong for YouTube.

Same content. 
Different platforms.
Totally different rules for stopping the scroll.

I got tired of guessing, so I built a prompt that knows the difference.

Full breakdown in this week's newsletter and in my online course "AI for Social".
(Among many other amazing workflows)

Find the link in my profile.

You’ve probably been working in social media long enough to know that a good hook isn’t optional. It’s everything. But here’s the catch: hooks aren’t 

Open article: The one ChatGPT prompt that actually writes scroll-stopping hooks by Mirco Gluch • 2 min read

The one ChatGPT prompt that actually writes scroll-stopping hooks

Stop lying to yourself: You’re probably trusting ChatGPT a little too much.

AI might feel like the Wild West right now: Exciting, full of opportunity… and without many clear rules.

But that doesn’t mean you should do whatever you want.

Ask yourself: you’d never post your company’s financials on LinkedIn...

...so why would you share them with ChatGPT?

We still don’t fully understand how AI tools use or learn from our data.
And that means we need to be careful.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m sharing practical and ethical advice for staying safe when using AI.

This includes the latest EU laws, simple do’s and don’ts, and my traffic light framework to help you decide what’s safe to share (and what’s not).

Read the full newsletter and consider signing up for my AI for Social online course for more content like this.

Stay safe out there!

Hey there, I’ve got some news for you: AI is going to become a bigger part of your life every single day - whether you like it or not. Since breaking 

Open article: Why you need to start using AI responsibly (and how to do it) by Mirco Gluch • 5 min read

Why you need to start using AI responsibly (and how to do it)

We all love to preach about how more brands should be "social-first".

But I just realised the other day in a workshop.

There’s no single definition of “social-first.”

Social-first isn’t a universal formula. 

It’s not a checklist or a specific content style. 

Social-first means something different for each brand.

Sure, it's about creating for the feed, the audience, and the culture of each platform first.

But how that shows up will always depend on the brand.

For Nutter Butter, it’s chaotic, funny, and unhinged.

For Hermès, it’s refined, aspirational, and artsy.

Both are equally social-first, they’ve just defined it in a way that fits their identity, audience and the channel.

And that’s the point.

There’s no single playbook for what social-first “should” look like. 

Every brand needs the freedom and time to define their own version.

So remember, just because it's not your version, doesn't mean it's wrong.

Do you agree? 

Are we too quick to accuse brands of not being "social first" enough?

If you truly believe you can change your whole social strategy in 3 months, think again.

When we started working with brands for our accelerator program, where we step into social teams for a limited time and overhaul their socials from the ground up, we began doing it for up to 6 months.

But now, we’ve extended it.

Why? Because creating real, lasting change actually takes time.

Our accelerator program is a lot of work.

We set up the workflows, kick-start totally new channels like Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, hire new team members, implement AI workflows... the list goes on.

Three months is simply not enough time to deliver all of the things I just mentioned (and more).

Secondly, ending our collaboration after three months wouldn't allow us enough time to actually understand if the strategy is foolproof.

We would never leave any of our partners with an untested strategy and simply walk away. That's simply not what we do.

That’s why our accelerator program is now 9-12 months, sometimes longer.

This timeframe allows us to dig deep, test our strategy, and ensure it delivers results for our partners before saying goodbye.

It's no quick fix, but there isn't really one when it comes to social media.

If someone's promising you something different, run (into Piggyback's arms!)

You know where to find us.

AI wrote the music for our most fun campaign this year.
Well, sort of.

We used ChatGPT and Udio to create a song for Academy Bikes' Kids Takeover campaign - where 12-year-old Kimy fired her dad and declared herself CEO.

The AI stack:
- ChatGPT for lyric iteration
- Udio for instrumental generation (with [Verse], [Bridge], [Chorus] tags)
- Exported stems for real studio recording

The human touch:
- Kids recorded vocals in a professional studio
- Kids choreographed the dance
- Kids brought the chaos
- Everything was written, filmed and edited without AI.

The campaign worked because AI handled what it does best, while humans handled what they do best (authentic creativity).

That's the balance worth mastering.
Full breakdown in this week's newsletter👇

Let me tell you about one of the most fun and successful campaigns we've ever done at Piggyback. It involved firing dads, a 12-year-old CEO, and AI do

Open article: The social media campaign where humans led and AI followed (as it should be) by Mirco Gluch • 3 min read

The social media campaign where humans led and AI followed (as it should be)

Did you know it’s perfectly fine to:

Believe that hopping on every trend is necessary.  

It’s also perfectly fine to:

Believe that hopping on every trend is unnecessary.  

Neither is wrong, and as social media managers, we should know by now that everyone will have an opinion on our work.

Just keep doing your thing if it works for your brand and is aligned with your strategy.

That’s all!

AI isn’t the problem. Your bad prompts are.
If you’re looking to change that, check out the guest article I wrote for deutsche-startups.de.

It’s all about how to get more out of your marketing with GPT: including the recipe for writing genuinely good prompts and getting results you’re actually satisfied with.

Check out the link in the comments to read the article.

P.S. It’s in German, but you should be able to use your browser’s auto-translate feature too. 
Or AI :)

Thanks to Deutsche Startups for the invitation. 
I really enjoyed writing it!

Feeling high after my time with MASCOTTE! 

Their fantastic team invited me to Eindhoven for a workshop.

If you don’t know them yet, MASCOTTE is a Dutch brand that’s been around for over 95 years, known for their rolling papers, filters, and other smoking accessories.

In recent years, they’ve shifted their focus from traditional tobacco products to the recreational 🥦 space, and with that move, they’ve done a great job of rooting themselves in modern culture and evolving with the times.

They've also built a super strong brand identity with impactful visual language and have established themselves further through cool collaborations with brands like Patta. 

However, they needed my help with sorting out their international Instagram channel strategy.

Before the workshop, we interviewed five key stakeholders from across the company to get under the skin of the brand and understand where they wanted to go next.

Next, it was time for our workshop together.

During an intense seven-hour session, we mapped out a new direction for their international channels — one that aligns more deeply with the needs of their global and local communities.

A huge thank you to everyone at MASCOTTE involved, especially Dylan Elzinga, Rafael Gruedelbach, and Karel van Wesemael, for your openness, collaboration, and incredible energy. I had such a great time!

Taplio

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