About That Guy From Rotterdam

Hi, I’m Serge and started a gay travel blog named LiveLikeTom a few years ago. The goal was to become a digital nomad and work while traveling around the world. But then I fell in love with Alex and landed a great job as a Creative Director at Oxyma. 

My popular gay travel blog suddenly also covered a lot of other topics. Mainly food, restaurants, bars and things to see and do Rotterdam and London. Alex lives in London and Oxyma has offices there since it became part of Merkle.

So after a while I figured I had to rename my blog. Most readers as well as commercial and collaborative partners remembered me as ‘That Guy From Rotterdam’. I decided that it would become the new name for my blog.

Alex and I love nature. We travel a lot, enjoy good food and don’t mind a good party every now and then. Yes, we like cocktails and rooftop bars, as much as being surrounded by the sounds of nature. Oh, and about the good food: don’t be misleaded by my annual Hamburgertest. It’s how I became the Accidential Influencer and somehow I still like to eat the best hamburgers in the world.

In short, That Guy From Rotterdam is all about gay friendly travel, hamburgers and Rotterdam.

Audience

That Guy From Rotterdam targets AND reaches mainly gay men between 25 and 45 with an interest in a gay lifestyle. Men are less likely to comment on articles, but I often receive emails or DM’s on Twitter and Instagram on how we inspired guys to visit places we covered, to book hotels we enjoyed and to buy articles we like. If you want to know more about my audience reach and what I can do for you, please do not hesitate to email me.

Partners & influence

However That Guy From Rotterdam is always open for ideas for getting your brand and products in the spotlight. Would you like to collaborate with me, advertise or invite me for your press-events: please contact me and you will get a reply asap. If I like your brand and it embraces diversity, I’m sure we can make some good things happen.

Please do include information about your intended campaign, budget size, and flight dates and know that writing is my main thing. I like to take pictures for Instagram, but I always decide how much I want to post about your brand.

These are some of the partners I have succesfully collaborated with:

That Guy From Rotterdam is mentioned in local AND national Dutch media and has become a Dutch influencer and gay travel expert:

Onbetaald voorpagina nieuws 🙂

Cultuurtips voor Valentijn.

Collaborations that won’t work for me

My readers are smart enough to know when I’m not being honest about a destination or product. That is why I decided to add these paragraphs.

I used to love well-organised press trips. But often the programme did not include time to discover gay bars, clubs and accommodations which to me is an essential part of the gay lifestyle. Sometimes a destination doesn’t have any of these and that can be perfect: I like discovering not so gay gems. But please understand that I am not interested in places where families are the dominant audience, or where women go crazy about the nail-spa. Getting directions on where to go is fine, but please allow some time to feel the vibe of a place and discover something unique for my readers. So as a general rule: I quitted unpaid generic press trips.

I also and stopped reviewing products that were sent to me randomly, without paying any interest in my readers and their needs. I rather pay my own travels and stuff and be honest about it.

Native Dutch Copywriter

As a professional native Dutch copywriter, Serge started That Guy From Rotterdam as a project on the side to improve my SEO copywriting and to explore how social media can be used to reach a niche community. Gay travel was the main focus at first, but soon success came from unexpected angles and articles.

The experiment became a success and currently I am working as a creative director at digital marketing agency, working for both Dutch and international brands. Are you looking for a native Dutch copywriter for engaging copy, just contact me. If we can’t make it work, I will use my network to find the right copywriter for your (freelance) job. I also write in English and have facilitated workshops in English for international brands.

Looking for a speaker or lecturer on ‘how to build a successful gay blog in the Netherlands‘, ‘how to reach gay men‘ or ‘gay marketing‘, by now you should know who to contact 😉

I hope to hear from you!