Professor Dr. Thomas Garms is a publicist and media consultant. After studying musicology, literature, and psychology in Frankfurt am Main, Garms worked in various media companies as an editor, editor-in-chief, and publishing manager. His career included founding the magazines Fit for Fun, Men's Health, and Modern Living. He was editor-in-chief of Welt am Sonntag and editor-in-chief of the weekly TV listings magazines at Axel Springer.
After serving as Vice President of International Business Development, Garms became a member of the management board of Axel Springer Switzerland and, as managing director, was responsible for the company's business publications. In early 2016, he launched the investment and lifestyle magazine Materialist in partnership with the Kiel-based publishing company Ocean.Global.
At the end of 2017, Garms was appointed Professor of Media Management. In this role, his research focuses on topics such as entrepreneurship, international media management, brand culture, and leadership and ethics. In early February 2020, Garms assumed overall leadership of all editorial teams at Jahreszeiten Verlag Hamburg as Head of Editorial Teams. Since July 2020, Garms has also served as Editor-in-Chief of AW Architektur und Wohnen and Robb Report Deutschland.
Garms + Partner Communications – Our consulting services focus on premium content, brand management, and leadership. Our conviction: Good stories connect people. Through effective storytelling, we make tangible what people experience, feel, and desire, but cannot always express. We work primarily with the banking, financial services, manufacturing, and medium-sized, owner-managed companies.
Branded Content: The right content for your brand. As a relevance filter, we support companies, brands, and top management in selecting and preparing content with a lasting impact. In particular, it is crucial to convey consistent brand values and attract and retain target groups through seamlessly integrated content across all channels. We find the right message and the perfect fit for every format.
Consulting: The interplay of strategy and message. Strategic and operational support in building or optimizing successful media relations. Together, we define objectives, methods, success parameters, and budgetary constraints. The core of our approach is the development of multi-stage communication strategies that address the diverse needs of both internal and external stakeholders. This means: clear brand messages for customers, a compelling equity story for shareholders, sustainable perspectives for employees, and persuasive values for stakeholders. This also includes establishing an early warning system for negative perceptions and tools for defusing situational crises. The perfect interplay of marketing, media relations, and thought leadership requires distinctive and credible messages that everyone in the company can internalize.
Coaching: Sharpening focus, acting decisively. An increasingly digital, virtual, and multicultural business landscape is forcing leaders to rethink their approach; the demands on leadership and communication skills are changing rapidly. Through intensive workshops, we offer support for organizational development and the professional development of senior staff. Agile and transformative methods are just as important as questions of trust, values, and integrity in the context of responsible leadership. In successive checkups and workshops, self-perception and external perception are analyzed. Participants examine the demands of their role, sharpen their focus on goals, and find ways to compensate for potential shortcomings. During the events, they practice powerful, deliberate action and effective rhetoric. Exercises for the persuasive use of voice and body language are included, as is the ability to recognize and defuse pitfalls.
Publishing: Cross-channel offerings. We conceptualize, optimize, and produce media offerings for specialized target groups. These include customer magazines and online content. In partnership with Ocean.Global, we publish the investment and lifestyle magazine MATERIALIST as a flagship product.