IT WAS NEVER ABOUT CARS
LOOK MOM I DID A THING!
IT WAS ABOUT EMOTION, CULTURE & COMMUNITY
How Porsche Broke my Workflow and Diet
A weekend on Sylt with Porsche and Hanna Schönwald
Written by: Fynn Maass (and ChatGPT)
We arrived on Sylt in a 30-year-old Mercedes estate. One of those cars that creaks in all the right places and smells faintly of old optimism and secondhand ambition. Hanna had been invited by Porsche to join a weekend celebration with the Sansibar on Sylt. I came along to shoot social media content and eat. Which, incidentally, turned out to be the two core pillars of the entire event.
We arrived on Sylt in a 30-year-old Mercedes estate. One of those cars that creaks in all the right places and smells faintly of old optimism and secondhand ambition. Hanna had been invited by Porsche to join a weekend celebration with the Sansibar on Sylt. I came along to shoot social media content and eat. Which, incidentally, turned out to be the two core pillars of the entire event.
The Porsche Germany community knows how to throw a weekend. Over three days, they drove, dined, talked shop, and casually out-flexed each other on Instagram. Taycans were the unofficial island taxis. Whisper-quiet, fully electric, and perfectly in sync with Sylt’s eco-conscious calm. We joined the group drives, explored scenic corners of the island, and seized every possible chance to shoot. Hanna was on point. I just tried to stay focused.
A surprise hit: a tunnel filled with miniature 911s—thousands of them—painted in just about every Porsche color ever made. Like a Pantone fever dream for petrolheads. As a special treat, Porsche had brought their newest release, the 911 Dakar. It looked like a 911 had grown up in the desert, developed a protein shake habit, and now wanted to challenge you to a sprint up a dune. Naturally, I stopped filming Hanna immediately and gave the Dakar my full attention. Priorities.
Here’s the kicker: the real challenge wasn’t charging batteries or managing light. It was speed. Not of the cars, but of the workflow. Shooting and editing real-time social content at a brand event like this forced me to shift gears: From overthinking every edit to delivering finished assets while the moment was still happening. That shift? A gift. Sure, I could’ve taken a week crafting the perfect 90-second cinematic recap. Maybe it would’ve even gotten 12 views. But that weekend taught me something crucial about relevance in digital storytelling: If you want to stay relevant, fast has to become your new default. Fast without losing quality. That’s the new standard. And if you’d told me back then that panic-posting Instagram Stories from Sylt would one day lead to running a social media agency? I would have laughed. Mid-oyster.
Here’s the kicker: the real challenge wasn’t charging batteries or managing light. It was speed. Not of the cars, but of the workflow. Shooting and editing real-time social content at a brand event like this forced me to shift gears: From overthinking every edit to delivering finished assets while the moment was still happening. That shift? A gift. Sure, I could’ve taken a week crafting the perfect 90-second cinematic recap. Maybe it would’ve even gotten 12 views. But that weekend taught me something crucial about relevance in digital storytelling: If you want to stay relevant, fast has to become your new default. Fast without losing quality. That’s the new standard. And if you’d told me back then that panic-posting Instagram Stories from Sylt would one day lead to running a social media agency? I would have laughed. Mid-oyster.
The Porsche Germany community knows how to throw a weekend. Over three days, they drove, dined, talked shop, and casually out-flexed each other on Instagram. Taycans were the unofficial island taxis. Whisper-quiet, fully electric, and perfectly in sync with Sylt’s eco-conscious calm. We joined the group drives, explored scenic corners of the island, and seized every possible chance to shoot. Hanna was on point. I just tried to stay focused.
A surprise hit: a tunnel filled with miniature 911s—thousands of them—painted in just about every Porsche color ever made. Like a Pantone fever dream for petrolheads. As a special treat, Porsche had brought their newest release, the 911 Dakar. It looked like a 911 had grown up in the desert, developed a protein shake habit, and now wanted to challenge you to a sprint up a dune. Naturally, I stopped filming Hanna immediately and gave the Dakar my full attention. Priorities.
