About us
An essential feature in dialogue marketing is empathy for your opposite number. If you have empathy, you can identify goals and work towards them. Tradition, innovation and competence play a vital role in everything that we do;
When Karl and Maria Trebbau founded the directory publishing company “Das Aufgebot” in Berlin in 1936, they laid the cornerstone for today’s full service provider Trebbau direct media.
We are looking forward to bringing our dynamism, efficiency and reliability to bear as we embark upon new paths together! We employ the most up-to-date methods to ensure your success. The best measure of our success is how satisfied our customers are.
With our permanent focus on quality, our staff are a vital component in our work. Benefit from their extensive expertise, commitment and flexibility as our highly-specialised teams become your highly-skilled partners.
The story so far
1936-1955: The history of our company started in the year 1936 in the registry offices of Berlin: Maria and Karl Trebbau used to note down the addresses of the couples who were soon to be wed from the notices of intended marriage. The original idea that “newly-weds move in together and need furniture” soon gave rise to the thought that these young people actually needed a lot more than just furniture. So the Trebbaus began to make the addresses they had collated available to other firms, creating a directory that remained unrivalled in Germany for many years. Following a five-year long interruption because of the war, and a move from Berlin to Cologne, the company resumed operating under the name “Adressenverlag und Direktwerbeunternehmen Karl Trebbau” in Cologne-Mannsfeld in 1946. In 1948, Karl Trebbau became a founding member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Adressenverleger, the forerunner of the German dialogue marketing association Deutscher Dialogmarketing Verband (DDV).
1956-1975: In 1956, the company moved its registered offices to Cologne-Bayenthal, Schönhauser Straße 21, where it can still be found to this day. In 1964, Karl-Peter Trebbau, the son of the founding family, joined the company. 1973 saw the introduction of electronic data processing at Trebbau. Since then, all addresses have been captured and processed electronically. In 1975, Karl-Peter Trebbau took over the management of the company.
1976-1995: When relocation of a part of the company became necessary in 1980, the new building in Schönhauser Straße was built and the lettershop extended. In 1989, the expansion of the list broking business resulted in a complete re-orientation of the directory. When ink-jet printing ousted the classic Cheshire label from its top spot in 1993, Trebbau immediately commissioned the first three ink-jet printers.
1996-2015: Trebbau was one of the first dialogue marketing providers to go online in 1996. Mechanisation continued. At the start of 2000, the first of the two computer and camera-operated mail insertion machines was put into operation. The Trebbau print centre came into being in 2001. 2009 saw the media business division integrated into the portfolio of services. As a result, our customers can benefit from the synergistic effects of classic advertising and dialogue marketing.
2016-today: The company celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2016 and now operates as a full-service provider for online and offline media. As a result, we are able to derive the maximum available extra value for our customers by linking advertising spheres across media: from detailed advice on media and dialogue marketing target groups via list broking and list management, selection of the most effective media and data optimisation with special software through to personalisation, the individualisation of mailshots and lettershop, production, printing and distribution services. The current change of name to Trebbau direct media GmbH in March 2017 documents the synergistic effects of dialogue and classic marketing within our company name.
