Annabelle Atchison

Global Communications & Marketing Executive | Head of Communications IONOS Group

Berlin Metropolitan Area

About

I turn complicated tech companies into stories people can repeat without needing a glossary and a support ticket. My career is a fairly textbook progression if the textbook covered social media in its feral early days, agency chaos, a founder detour, and finally the respectable cloud-infrastructure phase where everyone says "ecosystem" with a straight face. I’m a communications and product marketing generalist on purpose. I like operating above the org chart, figuring out who we’re talking to, what we’re actually saying, and which channels deserve attention versus ritual sacrifice. I’ve done the Microsoft social era, the agency years, the "let’s build a business" years, and now the large-company orchestration game. It’s mostly change management with better branding. I like brave storytelling, practical optimization, and people who can distinguish strategy from decorative enthusiasm. I also know that half of leadership is making decisions with incomplete information while everyone pretends the spreadsheet is a personality test. - I have spent an unreasonable amount of my career explaining that social media is not, in fact, a strategy. - I keep ending up in roles where communications, marketing, and organisational change are allegedly separate topics until they all land on my desk together. - I am a generalist because the interesting problems usually sit between functions, right where nobody’s incentives line up cleanly. - I have probably used the phrase "storytelling with impact" sincerely and then gone home to judge myself for it.

Experience

  • IONOS (6 yrs 5 mos)
    • Head of Communications and Product Marketing
      Nov 2022 - Present · 3 yrs 9 mos

      PR, Social Media, Public Affairs, Community Relations, Event, Field, Partner and Product Marketing

    • Head of Communications
      Jun 2020 - Nov 2022 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      Responsible for global communications and brand strategy, Brand Experience, PR, Social Media, Copywriting and Content Management teams.

    • Head of US Marketing
      Mar 2020 - May 2020 · 3 mos

  • Founder at 42ponies*
    Jul 2014 - Nov 2019 · 5 yrs 5 mos

    Co-Founder and CEO of 42ponies*, agency for communications and digital business. Areas of business: online marketing, social media, performance marketing, influencer relations, PR. Built the company to 15 employees and seven figure revenue. Now taken over by business partner and rebranded to Lieblingsagenten.

  • Director at 33 Digital
    Aug 2013 - Jun 2014 · 11 mos

    Head of Hotwire PR Germany's Social Media and Digital Communications unit 33 Digital. Responsible for Strategy, Consulting, Creation and Implementation for Social PR + Social Marketing, Internal Social Media/Enterprise 2.0, Webfluencer Relations and Social Media Trainings. Regular event speaker on Social Business and Social Governance topics.

  • Microsoft Deutschland GmbH ()
    • Social Media Lead
      Sep 2010 - Jun 2013 · 2 yrs 10 mos

      Overall lead for social media strategy and daily execution for the German organization, professionalization of social media communications cross-company.

    • Trainee, Public Relations
      Mar 2009 - Aug 2010 · 1 yr 6 mos

      External PR, internal communications, digital PR/social media.

  • PR Assistant at W. L. Gore & Associates GmbH
    Jan 2006 - Jul 2008 · 2 yrs 7 mos

    External PR, internal communications, international event organization.