2010 was always going to be an important year - the year that South Africa hosted the biggest sporting event in the world, the start of a new decade (depending on who you believe) and the year that all those binary geeks got to have nerdy celebrations (10:10:10 anyone?).
It was an especially illustrious year for the very special people working in all three of the QuirkStations. As our fearless ginger, Rob Stokes said in an earlier post ; “If 2009 was the year that Quirk grew up , then 2010 was the year Quirk got married and had babies.”
This month we welcomed our 100th QuirkStar, Karyn Lovesay, into the Quirk Jozi office. In January we had 49 staff members and now we have 103 (and counting!). In fact, both the London and Jozi QuirkStations moved into new offices to accommodate their burgeoning teams. This rate of growth is almost unheard of in an independent, organically growing business. The thing that amazes me is that we’ve more than doubled our numbers but not lost any of our unique ‘Quirky’ Identity – we’re still the same bunch of nutters we’ve always been, the asylum just got bigger.
Among our new QuirkStars this year, we have some real heavyweights. For me, to be able to say I work with people like Clint Bryce, Justin Spratt and Tom Brady is a great honour. It’s not all about the men though, you may recall that earlier this year we extended our Board of Directors and powerful women like Mary Mzumara, Kathryn Sharfman and Sophia Raw joined Janine Carpenter and the boys in the control room of Quirk.
From a client perspective, we’ve had exciting projects go live for some really awesome brands; Free The Web for MWEB, The DJ is on Fire, Marry for a Million and Don’t Touch me on my Summer for Savanna, Mzan.si URL shortener for South African Tourism and CapitecBank.co.za, to name only a few.
This was also the year Quirk had babies of a different kind. Apart from splitting the agency into four service areas - Think, Create, Engage and Optimise, Quirk’s “side offerings” became business units of their own. BrandsEye, Idea Bounty and Quirk Education are now profitable, self-sustaining entities with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met at their respective helms. In fact, they're so smart; I will only do their wrap-ups justice if I let them say them in their own words:
BrandsEye
By: Tim “Head Pirate” Shier – MD
This has been a fantastic year of business and personal development for the BrandsEye team. Still fully based in South Africa, BrandsEye has grown to be a truly global tool, now used in 26 countries around the world.
The software has been hard at work finding over 7 million individual online conversations relating to our clients (thanks Craig and team!). The client-facing team has presented at over 25 conferences this year and the total team involved in BrandsEye has grown from one team member in January 2010 to a whopping 18!
Moreover, BrandsEye is rated in the top 10 Online Reputation Management services available internationally - with a recent inclusion in the Social Media for Dummies book (which really gave the team a big smile).
Being involved in just about every major online South African client reputation crisis(on the assisting end) it goes without saying that the team has been pushed to their limits, but it has been completely worth it. There are some exciting activities planned for 2011 so keep an eye out, give the team loads of feedback and help BrandsEye to take South African technology to the rest of the world!
Statistical Round Up:
• 300% business growth since March.
• 26: Number of countries we have clients in.
• 5.5: Average hours sleep a night.
• Approximately 360 BrandsEye presentations this year.
• Approximately 25 conferences presented at this year.
• 17 new team members (both permanent and contractors).
• 7 241 183 Mentions found this year.
Idea Bounty
By: Daniel “Fatty” Neville – MD
In 2010, Idea Bounty turned two years old and grew into a very healthy and active toddler. We hosted seven briefs including some from well-known international brands such as Chevrolet and The Financial Times.
We also hosted a highly successful brief for one of the coolest and fastest growing brands in SA - Capitec Bank. As a relative youngster in the South African banking industry Capitec Bank showed just how innovative they are when we they went from a brief going live on Idea Bounty to having the resulting finished ad running in Sunday broadsheets in less than 2 and a half weeks! We also saw the Unilever Foods snack brand, Peperami roll out the first of the television spots they bought off their brief which was VERY exciting - you can view the ad here.
2010 came with lots of learning and we have some grand plans in the pipeline for 2011. So a huge thank you to all those who submitted ideas, sent me amusing emails and made the Idea Bounty community what it is - it would seriously not have been as fun without you! Here’s to a brilliant third year - and hopefully a bit more sleep...
Statistical Round Up:
• 7 briefs hosted.
• $26,500 worth of bounties rewarded.
• 140% growth in the community - now at a total of 19,789 members
• 87 countries represented by community members.
• 2 587 ideas submitted across all seven briefs.
• 61 156 emails (excluding spam) received, which averages out to 167, 5 emails a day.
• 145 online articles about Idea Bounty
• 5 average hours of sleep a night ← Ooh, Tim – it seems Dan is beating you here!
Quirk Education
By: Lyndi “Lindiwe” Lawson – MD
2010 has been a huge year for Quirk Education, not least of all because it was the year of our birth and like any start up, (or baby for that matter) a year of laying foundations and of learning on a very steep curve. Our team tripled in size when Kat Scholtz paired up with me (and brought her content writing expertise to the table) and we cunningly recruited the lovely Dianne Shelton as a Marketing Coordinator, Course Convenor and Student Liaison Extraordinaire.
In addition to our ever-popular Quirk Certificate Course in eMarketing, our team produced and ran four brand new courses focusing on Social Media, Search Engine Optimisation, Mobile Marketing and WebPR. As to the quality of these – well of our student’s comments speak for themselves. Here’s a recent example:
“Thank you very much indeed – I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and have learnt a huge amount. The module resources are invaluable documents that I will refer to in my Social Media projects next year and the assignments have sparked some good new thinking and ideas. I hope to explore your other offerings over time.” – Matthew Macris (Epic Communications)
Statistical Round Up:
• 290 000 downloads of our textbook.
• 141 841 words of new content written for Quirk Education.
• 13 courses run.
• 7 workshops presented.
• 326 registered institutions and educators using our textbook in 27 countries.
• 965 hours spent on student feedback.
• 0 - the number of weekends off the team had from January to August.
And if all that info wasn’t enough for you, I’ll end off with a Statistical Round Up of the whole Quirk group:
• 103% growth in staff
• 105% growth in revenue
• Over 200% increase in office space in London and Jozi
• 6 new Board members
• 1 Silver Loerie Award (for Harry Potter Tweet)
• Short-listed as most innovative agency in the UK by eConsultancy.
• 2 engagements
• 2 pregnancies
• 1 birth
• 1 Australian
• A helluva year!
So, 2010 was a biggie and if the trend continues, 2011 is going to blow our minds! I, for one, feel privileged to be a part of it. We’re still hiring y’know – so play your cards right and you could be a part of it too!
