International expansion, a massive wave of new hires, bigger and bolder campaigns – 2016 was an incredible year for us at DCMN. We’ve come a long way in just 12 short months and we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve achieved this year!

This was the year we went international. We spread our wings and launched hubs in France and several in India. We incorporated in the UK, following on from our launch in the US last year. And we also expanded within Germany, adding Hamburg to our existing Munich hub and our Berlin HQ.

Perhaps most exciting, we had 54 more talented people join our lovely DCMN team! Next year, we will hit the 100 mark – a huge milestone considering we were just 38 people at the end of 2015. Our headquarters also moved to a lovely new office in Boxhagener Str in Berlin (complete with its own event space, rooftop and even a napping area) giving us plenty of room to continue to grow.

We signed more than 40 new clients, including big names like Wargaming, Jimdo, Auxmoney and Secret Escapes. But the biggest campaign highlight came early in the year. We launched our most ambitious TV campaign to date: an own production for the mobile game Clash of Kings featuring none other than German footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger.

We performed over and above on our revenue goals for 2016, with a 100% percent year-on-year increase in revenue recorded at the time of writing. We expect this figure to be even higher by the time December draws to a close.

2016 also saw our first acquisitions. We acquired the mobile attribution platform 1SDK as we strengthened our capabilities in the mobile space. And we also took on a 50% stake in department one, a customer engagement, customer loyalty and CRM agency.

There were plenty of changes within our teams, too. We restructured our creation and production department so that they are ready to tackle even bigger campaigns come 2017. We also made some changes to our strategy team, which is now split into the growth, insights and brand units.

“This growth unit is really thinking outside of the box in terms of how to bring more growth to our clients, and how to generate new possibilities for them,” says our Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, Matthias Riedl. “This will have a big impact on our business next year.”

We had a lot of fun, too. In April, we were spoilt with a company retreat to Marrakech where we rode camels through the desert, went quad bike riding, ate more tagine than we ever thought possible, and danced on the rooftop terrace of our amazing villa. Can’t wait to see where the next retreat will take us!

And in November, we held our very own marketing conference SCALE16 for the second year. This was even bigger and better than the sold-out SCALE16. We had speakers from Babbel, Ancestry, OLX, Foodora, EyeEm, Bloomy Days and many more digital brands on the bill. Now stay tuned for round three.

Looking ahead, our priorities for 2017 are, as always, helping our existing (and new!) clients to grow their businesses with their marketing campaigns. We will also be looking to build on our ever-expanding product portfolio, so stay tuned for more on that.

Our international hubs will continue to be a focus. We’ll be looking to strengthen our operations in all DCMN countries, as well as expand to new markets a bit further down the line. We’re also focused on making sure our international operations work together as efficiently and seamlessly as possible.

“Finding the right approach is key. Our clients should have the same experience working with our hub in India as they do with our headquarters in Berlin,” says our co-founder Andreas Dengler.

Thanks for an amazing year DCMN – now bring on 2017!