Bookmarks 2012 Entry: Greatest contribution to Digital in SA

Quirk – Our contribution to digital in South Africa

Our focus has, at all times, been towards the improvement of the industry as a

whole. Making up this commitment are a number of touch points, each pivotal in

what has been our contribution to digital.

• Our textbook now on it’s 4th edition, devised and written by us, populates over

450 higher education institutions’ reading lists, internationally.

• Our merger with Red & Yellow will help the industry bridge the gap between

digital and traditional marketing.

• We educate our people through a University of Quirk concept involving

prominent industry minds.

• Our grad programme consistently produces competent industry ready

professionals who ultimately spur the forward motion of the digital industry.

• Our TCEO methodology provides a blue print applicable to any industry

business and marketing challenge.

• Through our Quirk Labs we’re constantly filling niches with businesses that

offer unique services.

It is for these reasons that we feel our contribution to digital deserves significant

attention.

Quirk’s Contribution to

the Digital Industry in SA

As we’ve grown, so has our knowledge and skill base. Naturally, the next progression

occurred in the sharing of that knowledge, and the dissemination of those skills.

Quirk Education, then, was born and is the embodiment of our curious minds.

Within that division we offer training in all major online marketing disciplines,

spreading the digital gospel.

Quirk Education specialises in the synthesis of experience intop knowledge,

converting it into practical learning for marketers and entrepreneurs. Knowledge and

practical application are delivered in the form of textbooks, online courses and

workshops, overseen by some of our own illustrious Quirkstars, leaders in thought

and accredited professionals. Quirk Education's teaching material is recognised as

the latest available knowledge from a new and evolving field. Quirk Education has

been a vital cog in the thought-machine we’ve started to a grow; a machine that will

soon power the industry.

Testimonials about Quirk Education:

"The course content is fantastic! I found it exciting and very informative! I was

impressed with the feedback given – in fact didn’t expect any. So here I was most

impressed! Thank you".

Rene May, Online Sales and PR Manager at Diemersfontein Wine & Country

Estate

"I have taken over 15 Master's level online courses, and the communication and

timeliness of the Quirk staff in responding to questions and fostering dialogue on

the forum is the best I have encountered. Well done! I have been very impressed

by the quality of the course content, delivery method, feedback, and staff!"

Matthew Erickson, Conference Manager at the University of California,

Santa Barbara

"All in all, I loved the way the course was put together. The class participation bit

was well thought out. The use of video, is great & I would recommend this course

to anyone hoping to learn the basics of eMarketing".

Adiel Slarmie, Online Marketing Executive, Allan Gray

Quirk Textbook

A point of immense pride, our shining contribution, so far,

to the industry and a highlight of our journey, has been

manifest in hardcopy for quite some time.

In addition to a peerless online learning platform and

syllabus, Quirk Education offers the famed digital

marketing text book: eMarketing: the essential guide to

digital marketing. Free for download under the Creative

Commons license, our textbook is in use in some 400

universities and colleges around the world.

We want our knowledge platform to be open to likewise

curious minds around the world, bringing together a

community of passionate people who want to do great

work and break new barriers, and the best part? Our

textbook is devised, owned and contributed to by the

illustrious minds at Quirk.

Bravery and curiosity meet logic and magic – an exquisite match. Quirk Education

recently merged with the prestigious Red & Yellow school, taking their passion for

education to the next level. An institution with the same essential ethos as Quirk, the aim

is to combine the brightest minds in the traditional and digital spheres, establishing a

wonderful melting pot of individuals ready to define a new era in advertising.

This was the logical ‘next step’ and with it, we will bridge the gap between traditional and

digital advertising. By engaging with future industry players at grassroots level, we will

instil a tradition/digital formula that will soon start to permeate and grow into what we

hope will be the blueprint for the agency of the future.

The merger serves as step one to moulding the industry's future. With it we now dedicate

everything we do to developing a new generation of brave, curious minds, intent on

breaking new ground.

Our Graduate Programme

Another immense point of pride, our graduate programme is one that has established

itself as a crucial starting point for those wanting to get into the marketing industry.

Each of our agencies takes on 2 new graduates every month on a 12 month

programme. The graduates spend the first 6 months at the Intern Station getting to know

our people, our clients and digital as a whole. The second 6 months is as an apprentice

in one or more of our disciplines .

During the programme apart from working on real client projects, a graduate must

complete 4 different courses through Quirk Education as well as two projects; a research

project and a business project. Many leaders at Quirk started their careers in the humble

intern station.

The programme is somewhat gruelling and has been know to produce outstanding,

industry-worthy people. Having said that, we have to live with the fact that our grads,

then, become highly poachable. But we do live with it, because we are constantly secure

in the knowledge that from our hallowed halls, emerge people that will contribute to, and

improve the industry, wherever they end up.

University of Quirk

At Quirk, we celebrate our curious minds with weekly University of Quirk (UoQ)

lectures. These are one hour sessions set aside every Friday afternoon where

QuirkStars get the opportunity to stimulate their grey matter with presentations from

some of South Africa's top minds.

From the biggest online influencers to tech heavyweights to academic luminaries, UoQ

sessions afford us the opportunity to gain fresh insight and understanding.

We believe that knowledge is a tool to be pooled for communal progress; UoQ helps

us add depth to that pool of knowledge and keep pushing the boundaries of what's

possible.

In the educating of our people, we know that immense benefit comes in the passing

down of knowledge. Our speakers benefit, too, from engaging with our people. These

sessions, then, become symbiotic, and what occurs is a crucible in which industry

knowledge can converge, where the melting point is a broadened scope for all,

immensely benefitting the industry as a whole through this valuable insight provided.

ClientLove

Our journey as an agency has been one based on growing client relationships. Successful

relationships between client and agency make brands truly great – build trust and you

have the environment for creativity from which the best results will flow.

Born out of the need to essentially codify every point of engagement with our clients, our

client service model is built on the concept of ClientLove – this is a notion that serves to

inculcate partnerships and deep strategic insights, and is measured by quarterly Client

Satisfaction Surveys.

We have a healthy mix of business savvy, digital natives and brand custodians who work

closely with our TCEO teams and our clients to ensure transparent process and ruthless

honesty.

ClientLove is an innovation that serves as reminder of the fact that our clients trust us, and

that is vital to our continual contribution to the industry as an organisation producing great

work.

QuirkLabs

The growth we’ve experienced in our digital journey to now has allowed us to

branch out to many other areas industry-wide, where we’ve built, through

innovation and thought, a number of businesses from within Quirk.

With these, industry niches are identified, and further filled in order to broaden

the Quirk service base and, as each of these businesses grow independently,

digital marketing ultimately benefits from what are usually the first industry

service providers of their kind.

TCEO

One contributing factor to our success so far, may primarily be attributed to a specific

set of elements, a ‘secret sauce’, if you will. Unlike many agencies, our model is built-

for-purpose.

This is applied to everything we do and deeply ingrained within every Quirk process.

It’s a business design, a way to approach any marketing or business challenge.

These disciplines work closely together throughout every project, ensuring learning

and results, and even though they’re internal process to how we approach every

business impact point, we share these methods, almost as a masthead to our

business. This approach, we feel, betters the industry with a window into the inner-

workings of what makes an agency grow and progress.

TCEO

THINK delivers broad-based brand strategy for a digital world: consumer insights,

research and planning.

CREATE is the discipline that generates concepts and executes sophisticated

campaigns and platforms, almost entirely in-house. We create anything, from brand

identities, to web design and development, conceptual copy writing, campaign

microsites, mobile development and deep business systems to social media

integration.

ENGAGE is responsible for driving traffic and building relationships. A diverse area of

expertise from media buying and planning, search engine optimisation, CRM, email

marketing, social media and campaign management.

OPTIMISE drives our insights and discoveries through analytics and data mining,

conversion optimisation and user experience design and testing.

Quirk’s Continued Commitment to the DMMA

Along with significant overall industry contribution, we continually lend our time and

commitment to the support and growth of the DMMA. Our support has manifested as the

following:

• Assistance on the Bookmarks provided by Suzanne Little and Rob Stokes

• Bookmarks media planning provided by Andre Britz

• User experience provided for the DMMA newsletter, provided by Marc Coppin

• The hosting of DMMA events, including the DMMA Blogger Debate

• Quirk Education has represented the DMMA at the MarkEx event - setting up and manning

the stand

• Quirk Education helped drive the textbook campaign to give earlier editions of the Quirk

Education textbook back to students that would not otherwise have a copy

• Every year, our graduate interns help plan the Bookmarks Award Ceremony and assistance

in vetting the awards.

More about Quirk

Quirk is a marketing agency.

Born digital, driven by creativity and disciplined by results.

Founded in 1999 and with an international footprint, we deliver marketing solutions for

businesses and brands that seek to engage with connected audiences.

We are now the largest independent digital agency in South Africa, and the fourth largest

agency in South Africa.

Nearly 200 QuirkStars in South Africa now power our proceedings. All experts in their

respective fields.

We currently manage a myriad of key clients and continually gain new business interest

through our innovative procedures and incomparable quality of work.

Some of our clients

In Summary

The last year has seen Quirk’s brave, curious minds flourish.

We’ve watched the reach of our textbook increase massively, and with our ground-

breaking merger with the Red & Yellow School, we’re steadily working toward our

goal of bridging the gap between digital and traditional marketing. With this move,

we hope to combine the best of traditional and digital education to produce a new

generation of talent that will be industry ready from the day they graduate.

In addition, we’ve now reached a pinnacle in establishing our tradition of growing

education within the industry; a point that is reinforced with the larger audiences

we’ve reached through our Quirk Education courses and weekly University of Quirk

sessions.

It is for these reasons that we feel our contribution to digital deserves significant

attention.