On June 18, it has been 20 years since Related saw the light of day. Today, we are 18 employees in our two offices in respectively Aarhus and Stockholm and is leading Nordic full-service agency within the travel and experience industry. 2022 even gave the best financial result ever. According to Henrik Koch, CEO of Related, the key to happy customers is a strong focus on innovation as well as employee’s individual strengths.
This year, we can celebrate Related’s 20th birthday on 18 June! And after some challenging years during the pandemic, Related is now stronger than ever.
– We have a very competent group of employees, several of whom have been with the company for many years. At the same time, we have a loyal client base, some of which go back up to nine years. This has given us a strong foundation, which enables us to run a healthy business and at the same time develop new initiatives and concepts. For example, we have created a market intelligence platform, an innovation department, and new complementary agencies – to offer our clients even stronger solutions in the Nordic market, says CEO and owner Henrik Koch, who has been part of Related since 2006.
85% of the business is driven by tourism
In 2003, we took our first tentative steps as a PR agency for the IT industry, under the name Ncom Publications. Today, we specialize in representing and marketing foreign brands – especially within tourism and lifestyle – on the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish markets.
– Today, around 85% of our revenue is driven by tourism related clients such as Visit Japan, Great American West, Travel South USA, VISITFLANDERS, Visit Estonia, Celebrity Cruises, Havila Kystruten, Tourism Ireland, and others. At the same time, we use our expertise within the experience industry to position lifestyle brands as Mutti, OptikTeam, Logitech and Board Bia, Henrik Koch explains about Related, who has the best financial year ever in 2022.
Watch our journey here: 20 years in 2 minutes!
Complements PR and communication with insight and innovation
For the past 20 years, Related’s core services have been PR, communication and trade – including branding, press work, influencer campaigns, digital marketing, fam trips, workshops, events, communication campaigns, etc.
But over the years, we have complemented these with new concepts and solutions to meet client and industry demands.
– Back in 2014, after many years of lacking a valid Nordic studies of travel preferences and patterns, we launched our own market analysis. This later became the global data platform Travellyze, which today covers 13 markets. Today, the platform has been sold, but we still own the rights to the Nordic market – and have further increased our focus on insights and data by hiring a dedicated data specialist in the autumn of 2022 who makes market analyses, trend reports, etc. for our clients, says Henrik Koch.
Sister agencies ensures additional specialist competences
Next to Related’s development, in recent years we have also launched a few new companies, all working within the tourism industry. Among them is Nordic Travel Rep. which was founded in 2018 and focuses on sales and marketing in the Nordic market – for foreign hotels and DMCs.
Innovation and employee well-being are the key to success
According to Henrik Koch, the key to Related’s success is a strong focus on innovation as well as on the employees’ competencies and daily well-being:
– Our basic philosophy is that everyone should work with what they do best – which is also often what they find most fun. This means that each and every employee has a core area of competence; while at the same time, of course, there is an opportunity to develop and try new things. We have a strong focus on continuously developing our competences, concepts, and ways of doing things through innovation processes. It creates job satisfaction, and I think our clients can feel that, says Henrik Koch, who also has a keen eye for client needs:
– We have a clearly defined “code of conduct” for our cooperation with clients; We are on their team, we prioritize client service super high, and we always act based on the client’s interests and goals. Our experience is, that it creates a trusting cooperation and ultimately happy and satisfied clients, he concludes.
Rooftop celebrations and housewarming party
We are celebrating the anniversary with two parties on the rooftop terrace of the Stockholm office in June and August – one for tour operators and trade partners and one for journalists and influencers. We’re saving the celebration for all employees until September, when the Aarhus office moves to a newly renovated 350 m2 office right in the city center.
