More than two and a half decades in the business has seen our agency grow from a small three-man shop to an international business with a fantastic team and amazing clients. In that time we’ve seen a lot, done a lot, and learned a lot, building our expertise word by word, image by image, megabyte by megabyte.
An expertise we look forward to sharing with you.
For our 20-year anniversary, we have crafted an extra high-quality book for our friends and partners, which we'd love to share with you.
If you'd like to receive your copy, please drop us a message.
zooom started when Ulrich Grill quit his job at one of Vienna’s most illustrious advertising agencies. Why? Simple – he wanted to work for clients and on projects he cared about.
Not long after, he and his wife Niki Grill were running their own agency out their tiny apartment in Fuschl Am See – a tiny summer holiday town of just 1,700 inhabitants (and a rather well-known multi-national producer of the world’s finest energy drink).
The first way Ulrich made money? As a photographer – his images of acrobatic freeflying – made in concert with the Red Bull Acro Team, of which he was a part – offered a unique birds-eye-view into a world few had ever seen. Freeflight and adventure magazines world-wide picked up his work, and Ulrich’s career as a photographer was under way.
He focused his lens on all types of action sport.
Business buzzwords come and go – good stories always keep coming back. Today we watch images and videos go viral, circulating across the globe in the course of a few hours. But back in the mid-90s, zooom and Red Bull worked together on a bold new marketing strategy, that has since become standard practice: make incredible, stunning images highly accessible, for free – and watch how far they go.
That was the thinking behind Red Bull Photofiles – and let us tell you, it worked.
zooom’s areas of focus were not chosen randomly – they were simply an organic evolution of what we loved to do everyday. Clients in the outdoor industry gravitated naturally towards the agency because we could walk the walk as well as talk the talk – delivering exactly what they needed.
After moving out of Niki and Ulrich’s apartment, the agency took up shop in a storefront.
Cheap, but hardly practical – after a photoshoot involving snowboarders showing a lot of skin in bikinis was clearly visible in the windows, suspicion arose around town about just what kind of business zooom was.
As the media landscape expanded digitally, so did the job of the agency. It was no longer about designing a catalogue, or re-concepting a logo. Brands had to begin to think about every single way a consumer interacted with them – and how to support their brand story at every step of the consumer journey. Our work became methodical and analytical as well as creative – storytelling, with strategy.
Business was booming – and we needed more space. The first part of the current zooom offices was built.
The modern, open-floor-plan creative space was an oddity in old-school Fuschl Am See, quickly earning the stares of the local residents. It soon became a bustling hive of activity.
Do good work, and more work comes to you. After a decade in the business, work was plenty – and varied. We found ourselves organizing events, orchestrating business partnerships, and of course, taking care of the classic needs of communication – print ads, websites, POP display and billboards.
The first Red Bull X-Alps was run in 2003 – and it was a lot different race then than it is today. Athletes took a lot of risks – often staying up all night – and we weren’t sure anyone would even finish.
Fortunately, they did – and one of the most legendary adventure races in the world was born.
Young, energetic and ambitious, zooom quickly found themselves working with the giants of industry. Procter & Gamble’s personal care brand Braun selected zooom to head up their Braun Cruzer campaign – and zooom ultimately took over as agency of record for the multi-million dollar business.
Clients like Nike, Fischer Skis and Red Bull continued to keep us busy.
With our global business growing, zooom opened up our offices in the USA – Venice Beach, California. A stark difference from the Austrian Alps, the beachside buro helped us and our clients expand our horizons.
Photography and the creation of images has always been at the core of what zooom does. From 2006 - 2007, we worked with Red Bull to find a way to engage the community of action sports photographers in a way never done before. With Red Bull Illume Image Quest, these artists and athletes gained a stage they never had before – and the photo contest quickly become one of the most respected in the world, held every three years.
Everybody wants to visit California - we wanted to do a litte bit more than that. In 2008 we opened our new office in California USA, after working for two years from Red Bull's US HQ.
Back in Fuschl, things started getting crowded – so we figured we needed some more room. The ‘new building’ part of the zooom offices was completed in 2009, including a huge kitchen and common area, creative brain-space, and oh, yeah, our in-house climbing wall.
Beginning in 2013, we took our photo expertise to a number of new clients in the photographic industry – Broncolor, Leica, and more – creating a host of campaigns, projects, events and activations. Offering excellent tie-in marketing opportunities and exposure through Red Bull Illume, it’s a subject dear to our hearts – in an industry that will only continue to evolve.
We practice what we preach – and starting in 2014, we decided to build our own brand. COOPH – the Cooperative of Photography – is a content platform, online community, and maker of unique photography accessories and apparel.
In stark contrast to our lake-side headquarters, our new Venice Beach office in Southern California is right on Abbot Kinney Blvd, one of the California surf town’s hippest addresses. The communication hub for our US-based clients, and a constant collaborator on projects big and small, everyone in Fuschl looks forward to a trip to the LA office.
In the first decade of the millennium, we went west - in the second decade, we're heading east. A mutually beneficial partnership with Japanese retail giant Yodobashi has begun to take shape.
Two incredible decades of producing amazing work with great clients has all come together in our zooom Anniversary Book.
There’s a lot to be said about teamwork, but there’s nothing better than being able to hold all of your achievements in your hands with a beautiful book.
What happens when two people from opposite sides of the world meet over a cup of sake? The beginning of an epic brand story.
In 2014, Ulrich Grill had a vision to extend zooom’s network and so, through a mutual connection, he organized a meeting with Kazunori Fujisawa, vice president of Yodobashi. Both men shook hands to the start of a longterm partnership, founded on mutual respect. It was because of this great opportunity that within just five years of business, zooom was able to open an agency based in the heart of Tokyo, Japan.
Our year started with the amazing accomplishment of reaching over 1 million YouTube subscribers for our COOPH channel.
Of course, we all know that 2020 was full of ups, downs, and a lot of wait, what?! It had a lot of brands searching for direction and someone they could trust with their brand’s reputation, and many of them turned to zooom. We are fortunate to say that during one of the most unpredictable years, we gained a selection of amazing new clients, like Kelag, Black Diamond, Schöffel, Pieps, Mayrhofen Bergbahnen, and Salzburger Land Tourismus; which trust zooom to deliver the very best, no matter what happens.
Coffee and water, the two most important drinks in the world and a daily staple here at the zooom offices. We can thank both for giving our teams the energy and inspiration to acquire two of Austria’s most well-known brands: Julius Meinl coffee and Gasteiner mineral water.
A quarter of a century has now passed since Ulrich took the leap and founded zooom. We celebrated the anniversary with another successful year and the sixth issue of the zooom magazine. Our Japanese connection grew stronger with product launches for Panasonic and continuing collaboration with Yodobashi.
2023 marked 20 years of the legendary Red Bull X-Alps race. Since the very first event in 2003, this epic "hike and fly" adventure has continued to push the limits of endurance. Athletes race across the Alps, covering hundreds of kilometers on foot and by paraglider. Over the two decades, the race has evolved significantly, but the core spirit remains: raw adventure and grit. Zooom has been managing this iconic race from day one, making it the world‘s toughest and for sure the most covered adventure race worldwide.
