The professors at Hochschule der Medien have both a superior academic background and management experience in their fields, some of them even have been awarded with highest honors like Grimme-Preis, German Multimedia Award, Deutscher Fernsehpreis, some of them switched back to university after having sold their successful companies to national and international players.

Here you can find out more about some of the lecturers and the lectures they are covering in the German master program:

Harald Eichsteller, Dean
is an experienced university teacher with a C-level working history in Media, Digital Transformation and Innovation Management. His competitive educational background with a Diplom-Kaufmann degree is focused on Business Administration, IT and Marketing Management, from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and Northwestern University. Professor Eichsteller is regarded as a leading expert in digital transformation both on the strategic and communication side, his management books are top-sellers on Amazon.

The Strategic Management Course covers various perspectives on strategy, mostly based on a customer centric view. Master students gain insights on how leading German corporations see their strategic future and compare this internationally.

In the Innovation Management Module, the students will jointly apply approaches like Blue Ocean Strategy, Design Thinking and Jobs-to-be-done. Finally master students apply their knowledge together with industry partners with »real« tasks.

The Social Media Course delivers a strategic framework on content, being applied on top brands in various channels like Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook as well as on personal brands on LinkedIn.

Henrike Andersch
is Professor of Marketing at HdM and an expert in the field of market research and innovation management. Prior to her post at HdM, she worked in the innovation office of a B2B company. She is experienced in translating customer insights into new products and services and in fueling up the innovation pipeline with new ideas. Teaching covers marketing, digital marketing and responsible management as well as master courses in marketing innovation and advanced customer analytics. Her research interest lies in the field of marketing and consumer psychology as well as behavioral business ethics.

The Marketing Innovation Course presents best practices and state-of-the-art research insights with regard to innovative marketing techniques. Moreover, students learn how to make strategic marketing mix decisions by taking over the management of a virtual company in a market simulation.

Advanced Customer Analytics covers the fundamental aspects of applied market research. Besides theoretical aspects of data collection and data analysis, students learn how to conduct a market research project on their own – and how to derive valuable customer insights from their data.

Katrin Hassenstein
brings her many years of experience in the professional field of Public Relations and Corporate Communications to the teaching. She is an expert for crisis communication and strategic planning for companies and organizations. Katrin Hassenstein was a spokeswoman at Lufthansa German Airlines in Frankfurt am Main and also responsible for strategic communications planning and press relations for the Passenger Airline’s Product & Service board department. Previous positions in the media and event sector round off her practical experience in communications and public relations.

The Content Strategy Module focuses on theoretical knowledge of strategic thinking in corporate communications and related methods and tools. Students will create a content strategy for one of our industry partners and after a pitch, implement their ideas into crossmedia content.

Klaus Kamps
is Professor for Communication Science at Stuttgart Media University. He is an expert in studies on political communication, especially in the USA. As his latest books were focused on the Trump-Presidency, he is currently working on the structure of the US media system. In 2023 Professor Kamps spends a sabbatical term on research in this field.

The Political Communication unit will give students a better understanding of how communications is being used in the political context so they gain a better understanding and awareness of the methods that are in use.

The course Storytelling and Narrative Approaches in Companies will introduce the basics of storytelling for business: What is a good story? How can you find and develop stories? In addition, the course will also cover other areas of application of narrative methods in organisations, for example collecting and evaluating stories in change projects.

Stephen Schuster
is an expert in brand and communication stragegy. In his almost 20 years in the consumer goods industry, he worked for global brands like Ritter Sport, Gerolsteiner, WMF and Groupe SEB on a Senior Management level. He received several awards over the last years (e.g. Best Brands Award, Effie Award). Stephen Schuster was and is active in numerous committees, such as the Germany CMO Council or the Board of Trustees of the German Marketing Association. Since 2021, he is Professor of Marketing & Communication Strategy at Hochschule der Medien.

The objective of the Brand Strategy Module is to introduce fundamental terms and concepts of brand management. The course provides deep knowledge about proven techniques and frameworks for assessing and formulating branding strategies. Furthermore, students will have a strong understanding how to develop effective branding strategies.

Jürgen Seitz
is an expert in digital marketing and digital business models. He helped building and scaling up several successful digital companies as managing director, founding partner and member of the advisory board. He worked for Microsoft, WEB.DE and 1&1. As a HdM professor he is now engaged in the fields of digital marketing and business as well as in artificial intelligence. In 2023 Professor Seitz spends a sabbatical term on research in this field.

The Strategic Marketing Course is focused on strategic marketing in the digital age. The course will outline the thinking and tools necessary to develop and execute such a strategy. Students will also gain valuable insights from real life cases.

In the Digital Business Module, the students will gain the necessary knowledge for the compilation and analysis of digital business models. After completion of the module, they are able to analyze and set up digital business models independently.

In the corresponding Digital Business Transfer Project the students will work on case studies in the digital business and digital marketing area. This will help them to apply the knowledge gained in the course.

After working for more than 20 years as executive producer and consultant in Germany and Hollywood, Eva Stadler has a vast knowledge of the whole entertainment industry including the creative and the business part. She produced award-winning films and series such as »4 Blocks«.

The module “Creativity and Strategy in the International Moving Images Industry” covers different frameworks of the script developing process and of the packaging process from an international market perspective for different parts of the industry such as streaming and television.

Felix Weißmüller
is Professor of Digital Advertising and an expert in measuring online and offline advertising effectiveness. He worked as a Data Scientist and Research Manager at one of Europe’s largest media companies where he helped companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns across various channels and he identified use cases for leveraging Artificial Intelligence. Professor Weißmüller’s research interests include measuring advertising effectiveness, the impact of digital technologies, and leveraging AI to improve performance. He teaches courses in digital advertising and marketing analytics.

The Data Analytics & Science modules provide lectures that cover fundamental concepts and tools for data analysis, visualization, and interpretation. It also includes an introduction to international differences in data ethics and privacy. This course is ideal for those looking to enhance their skills in data literacy and analytics and gain a foundation in this exciting and fast-growing field.

Oliver Zöllner
teaches media research, media sociology, digital ethics, broadcast journalism and international communication at Hochschule der Medien and is an honorary professor at the University of Düsseldorf. Previously he was director of the market and media research department of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. Oliver Zöllner is an expert on questions of digitisation, digital transformation and related aspects of media literacy and digital ethics. His areas of expertise also include the strategic representation of states in the system of international communication (public diplomacy, nation branding, competitive identity) as well as processes of identity formation in societies.

The Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding course gives an introduction to the international and strategic communication of nation-states, incorporating related areas such as international marketing, public relations and propaganda.

The Empirical Media Research Module focuses on studying digital media and digitising society in the context of the reflexive framework of digital ethics. Students are encouraged to design and carry out their own empirical projects.