I realise that mentioning social inequality and the World Economic Forum in an introduction to an interview with my boss may seem like a spectacular moment of sucking up. (This should really be the moment when you get back at him for continually calling you Katscan, I hear you say.) I do, however, think that if you're interested in understanding the thinking behind taking a “free textbook” approach to business, Creative Capitalism is a concept that should be mentioned. It's certainly one Rob is familiar with and motivated by.

“If a company gets involved in social development, and they do it tastefully and make money while doing so – they're more likely to do it again.”

So, bringing together a lifelong belief in education and an understanding that the Internet provides the ability to distribute a huge amount of information at an exceptionally low production margin, Quirk went ahead with putting together the free to download eMarketing Textbook (with a hard copy available for sale). A process that proved to “take longer, be harder and more expensive” than Rob had anticipated.

Rob says that “the concept of releasing what was previously intellectual property for free is certainly not a new one.” He listed the well known examples – Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Cory Doctorow's free releases as initiatives he “learned from” - but mentioned that the real inspiration for the project was the Open Education Declaration.

“The information in the textbook was all out there already, what we've done is to put it together and package it in a way that is accessible and useful.”

The textbook gives access to information about a growing industry to anyone who wants to learn about it. With the benefits to the receiver established, what exactly is in it for Quirk and when will Rob know if the hard work has been worth it?

“I felt that it was worth it on day one. But from a return on investment perspective, the book sales have offset the hard cost of production. In terms of brand awareness, producing the textbook has been incredible.”

Brand awareness is famously tough to measure, but the fact that Quirk.biz saw a traffic increase by 100% in the two month period after the textbook launch gives us an idea of the benefits. As Tim pointed out, this brand awareness is also incredibly focussed – people downloading the textbook are interested in engaging with eMarketing, which just so happens to be what Quirk does.

With 20 000 textbooks downloaded to date and another 1500 printed copies having been distributed locally and abroad, it seems safe to say that creative capitalism worked out alright for Quirk. And we can feel good about it.