About us
What sets us apart
Beyond the Blur e.K. was founded in 2024 in Hamburg. We primarily create and optimise marketing content, but we also optimise training courses and presentations for companies and institutions. Fair prices for our clients and the freelancers in our network, clear communication at eye level, and a high level of performance and quality are a matter of course for us. No bullshit, just clarity and transparency at all levels: That is Beyond the Blur.
What we do
Our services
We are a young company that is still being built up. That is why we are focusing on the core competences of the owner and his freelance network for the time being. At present, these are primarily the following services:
- Text creation for websites and blogs
- Slogan development
- Creation of subtitles and transcriptions
- Audio clean-up and optimisation
- Consultancy on SEO strategies
- Consultancy on training courses and lectures
Dr. Andreas Falke
Company owner
Through my training and work as an analytical philosopher in Germany and the USA, I have learnt to love goal-oriented questions, structured thinking and clear and precise communication. I also use these in marketing - which has long been a second mainstay of mine. During my studies, I worked as a freelance graphic designer, then as a copywriter in an advertising agency for clients including Porsche and Schüco. After my doctorate, I was Head of Marketing at a medium-sized translation agency for five years until I finally took the leap into self-employment and founded Beyond the Blur e.K. in 2024.
Fair. Honest. Transparent.
What sets us apart
Consulting and marketing can be frustrating. There are brilliant, creative agencies that create highly effective campaigns. However, these are often hardly affordable for small and medium-sized companies. Of course, it’s not just the big, well-known agencies that do good advertising. Sometimes, even the best known agencies waste huge sums of money on ineffective campaigns. Still, those who cannot afford established top agencies sometimes search for quite a long time before finding a suitable marketing partner.
You come across all sorts of nonsense on the way to a partner. Infantile content. Strategies that ignore empirical data. Metrics that say little. Annoying and unpleasant calls and emails from salespeople. Sound familiar? We can tell you a thing or two about it. All of this seems completely unnecessary. And that’s why we founded Beyond the Blur.
We treat our clients as equals, respond to their needs, communicate as clearly as possible, and think along with them. Our goal: results that are aligned with their business objectives. Where good data is not available or metrics can only serve as rough heuristics at best, we say so explicitly; where better data is available, we research it and include it. This way, our clients know where they stand and can make well-founded decisions.
In terms of price, we try to weigh up the interests of all parties fairly. The services should remain affordable for our clients, even if the budget is not huge. But let’s be honest: Quality has its price. It requires time, expertise, and knowledge. There comes a point when ‘cheaper’ always means ‘worse’. Where quality is important, priorities must be set accordingly when the budget is limited.
Few things in life are more motivating than being productive, learning, and finding solutions together with competent people. That’s why we place more value on such collaboration than on large profit margins. Of course, we all need a basic level of financial security. Instead of maximising profits, which ultimately always comes at the expense of clients, employees, freelancers, and quality, we prefer to enjoy achievements we can be proud of and people we enjoy working with.
Books that inspire us
Marketing & Communication
Data-driven, effective marketing requires at least a solid basic knowledge of several disciplines. The first port of call for up-to-date information are scientific open access and preprint platforms as well as specialist journals. For the layperson, however, these too often focus on a detailed problem and are not easy to understand without substantial background knowledge. Non-fiction books are therefore the next best alternative for acquiring a few basics. However, the same applies to the book market as to scientific open access and preprint platforms: A great deal of nonsense is published. A sensible pre-selection is therefore necessary.
Unfortunately, this is especially true for consulting and marketing books. Many statements do not correspond to the best available evidence. False conclusions galore. Terms are used confusingly or incorrectly. In some cases, there is a complete lack of conceptual and methodological rigour. If you want to get an overview of marketing, you should therefore choose the starting point of your journey carefully. After all, the starting point will later serve as a reference for categorising the quality of new information. A few good books do not make someone an expert. That requires decades of practice, research and investigation. But a few good non-fiction books are enough, for example, to judge whether a marketing agency is any good.
The books listed here cover a broad spectrum in terms of content: communication, marketing, psychology, language, etc. Every book has problems. Statements should always be critically examined. But they can all be read profitably. Some of these books are light reading, others require serious study. But they are all books that have shaped us and our approaches and that have grown close to our hearts. Enjoy browsing through them.
Clarity. Empiricism. Precision.
What does "Beyond the Blur" mean?
The company name ‘Beyond the Blur’ stands for clarity and precision as well as the absence of uniformity and nonsense, both in communication with our clients and in our content. On the other hand, the name refers to a famous test in marketing.
To decide whether the logo of a brand or the packaging design of a product is effective, a photo of the logo or product is blurred. If you can recognise the brand or product based on the rough shape and colours, this is a sign of a good design. Even better is a blurred photo of the product on a supermarket shelf, surrounded by the competitors’ products. If it stands out and still is easily identifiable, in spite of being blurred, it will attract attention, even if the customer only recognises the product out of the corner of their eye.
Why this is important: People are constantly scanning their surroundings for potential dangers and rewards. This happens mostly unconsciously and automatically. It utilizes system 1, as Daniel Kahneman would say. If marketing manages to appeal to this system, it is more likely that the product will be taken into account in the purchase decision. Of course, the potential customer may still consciously decide in favour of another product, but ‘the first battle’ has already been won.
In addition to clear communication, Beyond the Blur therefore stands for data driven marketing that also incorporates research outside the ordinary scope of marketing.