As the world slowly emerged from the constraints of the global pandemic, we found ourselves back in face-to-face academic conferences, in classrooms, and at the office working together in research projects. It was a wonderful feeling to see our offices coming back to life and seeing colleagues and staff every day. In this 11th edition of the Marketing Area Report, we would like to share some of the highlights of the past year. Both our teaching and our research are guided by the dual drive to address fundamental questions and to deal with concrete issues. In research, we embrace this contrast: we go to great extents to ensure the correctness and rigor of our research and we also connect with practice, letting much of our scientific inquiry be guided by the problems faced by managers. As a group, we cover a wide range of research topics and methodological approaches. Some of our published articles this year looked at brands as platforms, gamification in digital markets, the evolution of marketing mix, the content choices in traditional media, and more. These projects have been published in top journals of our field. In the last year we have published 13 papers, with 7 in the A+ journals. In this report, you will find further details about these projects. This duality is also alive in our teaching. We give tools to our students so they can start and develop their career successfully. But we never forget that we are a university and we cannot just focus on the immediate and the practical. We are educating the next generation of business leaders who will ineluctably deal with problems that we cannot precisely foresee. We work hard to provide them with a broad perspective of the business world, to instill in them good managerial practices, to develop a rigorous intellectual attitude to problem solving, and to reflect on the ethical and social issues that permeate organizations.

In the academic year 2022, we offered a total of 34 courses at the bachelor, master and doctoral level, as well as courses targeted to professionals in the University of Cologne Executive School. We believe in teaching excellence and we care about our students. Our courses frequently receive excellent feedback from students and rate among the top courses across business, economics, and sociology. A total of 160 students completed their theses at the Marketing Area (100 at the bachelor level and 60 at the master level). In addition, we open our courses to guest lectures and talks from managers and business leaders across all industries. Our two talent programs for students, ZMM Marketing and More and the Circle of Excellence in Marketing, provide our students and business partners an opportunity to cooperate and learn from each other. We train our doctoral students and researchers to become leading academics in top institutions and industry. We are delighted to announce in 2022, 4 students have successfully defended their dissertation and are now starting exciting careers in academia or in executive positions in government and corporations. The Marketing Area comprises 28 researchers: Professors Hernán A. Bruno, Marc Fischer, Martin P. Fritze, Werner Reinartz, Thomas P. Scholdra and Franziska Völckner, 6 post-doctoral researchers, 17 doctoral students. Our work would not be possible without a very engaged support staff and a team of student assistants. We hope you enjoy our annual report. If you would like to know more about our work and vision, or are interested in specific aspects of our research and teaching, or just want to let us know what you think, please get in touch.