Expert to Know: Stefanie Hetjens
What's the backstory behind starting or joining your agency?
I started as a software engineer, built internal communications systems at Siemens USA, then spent a decade agencies in advertising, marketing, and communication. The biggest name definitely was Ogilvy. In 2018 I went independent, and in 2020 I founded EVERYWOW. The reason was a pattern I kept seeing: companies knew exactly what they needed to say, but the videos they produced built no trust. This is where I started working on with my agency EVERYWOW.
What was your first entrepreneurial moment?
My 18th birthday. It was the first day I was legally allowed to register a company without my parents’ approval, so I biked 10 kilometers to the city administration of my hometown and registered my first business, SimpleTEC. I did everything in the field of information technology: developing websites, selling computers, and building custom software.
Any personal rituals or habits that contribute to your success?
The first thing in the morning I do: Reading the Economist. I think this is the most balanced and global newspaper out there. And it gives me perspective on what is going on in the world - and with our clients.
How does your agency differentiate itself from competitors?
We produce videos, but we come from communications strategy, not from video production. Before anyone books a camera, we work out what the organization should say, to whom, and why. The other part is that we push. When a leader is reading their script instead of presenting, we stop them. For us, a video is a success not when it looks cinematic, but when it achieves its communication goals and reaches its audience. This is a key difference to many other video agencies and video production companies.
What marketing or industry trends do you think are overhyped?
This whole «I quickly record something with my mobile phone, that’s authentic». No, that’s just not true. The camera model doesn’t define what is authentic. The most authentic moments on video appear when they are prepared, which is so counterintuitive. And chasing virality. For a leader, that’s the wrong and risky goal. It will only shift your focus away from what's really important.
What do you predict for the industry in the next 5-10 years?
AI can and will fake everything and most audiences will recognize it. The more that can be faked, the less any of it gets believed. Video of your own people, where they are explicitly human, is the one thing audiences still believe. The risk I see: leaders stop showing up, and AI produces content with their face on it. At that point, leadership communication is just worthless. I think communications leaders are the last serious line of defense against that.
What do clients often misunderstand about agency work?
How much of the work happens before anyone records a word. A lot of what reaches us is a communications problem disguised as a production request. A CEO once came to our studio with an 8-minute script for a 3-minute message. People speak at about 160 words per minute, and nobody had done that math. This escalates the work significantly without adding any value.
