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Ayca Dederke is a luxury travel, lifestyle, and family influencer based in Germany. Originally from Turkey, Ayca received her Masters degree from the University of Hamburg and began working in the financial services sector. More recently, Ayca transitioned to social media marketing and now provides coaching to companies and micro influencers. You can follow Ayca on Instagram or visit lucasocial.com to learn more.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
There are a lot of things that I can explain, because I did a lot of different things from my study till now, but it’s not so interesting for this video now. I started Instagram in 2014. No, 2015 actually, and then it was basically that I was not professional, I didn’t know what to post, and I didn’t delete at all. If you go my feed post previously, you will see that I was super amateur.
We lived in Brussels, and my partner was a general coordinator or a general manager in General Motors. We traveled a lot, and I thought that, okay, I started to travel and I can show the places just to my friends or my small followers, because I had maybe 15K. Then I started to make a lot of videos, a lot of photos by myself because my partner wasn’t with me. I was alone, so it was also difficult. Then one day in Egypt, we were… I have a child, and after birth I told my husband that I will become an influencer, but I was very… I was not model. After the birth, I was very fat. I was ugly, to be honest. My partner just laughed and told me, “Look at yourself. How can you be an influencer?” Then it’s motivated me, of course, a lot.
Photo courtesy of Acya Dederke
Until now in my life, if I want to reach something, I always reach this goal. I told, “Okay, I will do it. You will see it.” Then I start to buy a lot of books relating influencer marketing, how to become an influencer, a lot of books, a lot of videos. You cannot imagine, I was crazy. Next to me I had an even not one year old baby, all the time I was dealing with this. Then in time I grow a lot, and one day I also told, “Okay, I have a very large community with network because I worked at Amazon in Berlin as influencer marketing manager.”
I had a lot of network. I told my partner, “Okay, I will open an influencer marketing agency.” It should be global, and I will work with a lot of in international influencers together, because they’re my friends. It became even more popular because we traveled together and they tagged me, they published in their channel, and it was a lot of big interactions. I [grew] very fast like this.
You have worked with a lot of different brands as an influencer, including Hyatt and Hilton, just to name a few. Can you talk about one or two of your favorite brand collaborations you’ve had to-date?
To be honest, Accor is the best brand that I can work together because they are super professional, and they know how to deal with the influencers.
Photo courtesy of Acya Dederke
It’s super easy to deal with them, and they don’t demand a lot.
You have a lot going on between social media and everything else, including managing a business… How do you structure your average day so you can get all of your goals accomplished?
I have a great team, and I can manage easily because I can organize with the team and they know what to do. Also, for example, for house… Everything: cooking, cleaning I never do, because I have house maids that they clean the house and they cook everything. Also I have a babysitter, they play with my kids.
Also, for my agency, I have five persons who deal with them, and I have a big team.
You are interested in travel, so what has been the best trip, or your most memorable trip you’ve ever been on?
It was in Thailand, Ko Samui. It’s like a paradise. The hotel was not so super big, but it was a boutique hotel, and it was a very nice sea view.
Photo courtesy of Acya Dederke
The people there is very friendly. They know how to host their guests, and because I was an influencer, they behave me like a princess. I feel myself that I’m in paradise. It was very nice. Yeah, that’s basically it.
What are some of your goals for this year as it pertains to your work as an influencer or with your business?
I have two different business. One business is, I have influencer marketing agency and we have a lot of hotel brands, because our agency is only focused on luxury tourism, so we work with luxury hotels worldwide and tourism boards. Other one, I’m a travel influencer and I also work with luxury hotels and tourism boards, so… Sometimes together, sometimes independently, but I will work with Turkish tourism boards, and then this year we plan to go to Bali for two mounts. I’m super excited because we will create really crazy content there. It’s a paradise for creators, travel creators. We also plan to go to Egypt, and also in Greece, three different destinations for this upcoming month.
Note: Influencer Spotlight interviews are edited for time and clarity.
Andrew is the Head of Client Services for Intellifluence and has a background in communications. He is committed to helping brands get the most out of their campaigns and is the co-host of the Influencer Spotlight series.
