The discourses surrounding ‘agencies of the future’ or ‘the impact of technology on traditional marketing’ can be easily simplified: marketing is still about connecting brands with people. The crucial change is how these connections are being facilitated, which is via a digital fabric that forms the ‘experience layer’ between our lives and the brands we encounter.

Big brand ideas rooted in sound strategic thought remain the core, but the frameworks of thinking we use to get people to engage need to evolve and, in some senses, catch up. The new playground has a few new rides and the marketers of tomorrow have no choice but to give them a whirl.

So, how do we get an industry to become more relevant, become more ready? Enter the Red & Yellow School of Logic and Magic in a digital world. The merger between Quirk’s educational arm and Red & Yellow has provided a perfect union of strategy, creativity and technology.

Logic, Magic, Tech

So why does it make sense? Both the Red & Yellow School and Quirk Education developed out of a similar need to evolve the industry – about twenty years apart!

Brian Searle-Tripp and Bob Rightford (the founders of what became Ogilvy South Africa) decided that the industry needed a higher calibre of work-ready bright minds. So they took a leap of faith and started a school that would teach hands-on skills and disciplines. This was the Red & Yellow School and they positioned it around what makes great communication: insight and creative solutions (logic and magic).

That was twenty years ago, and the core of their thinking still rocks. The only upgrade required is around the evolved context within which the logic is derived and the environment of channels available to situate the magic. Concepts such as contextual marketing, data modelling and experience planning are just a few critical topics relevant to today’s brand ideas.

Not so long ago, the founders of Quirk faced a similar problem: how to generate marketers better equipped to navigate a digital landscape. So they wrote a textbook and developed a raft of courses in digital marketing. Quirk Education specialises in the synthesis of knowledge from the Quirk agencies and its partners, converting it into practical learning for marketers and entrepreneurs. The Quirk eMarketing textbook is used in over 400 education institutions worldwide – that’s big.

So, put it all together and you get a world class environment of marketing training, ensuring a future of marketing excellence based on a set of of core principles able to adapt within an ever-evolving environment. This is what the merger of Quirk and the Red & Yellow School is all about.

Brave, Curious Minds

The future of marketing will be led by those most willing to accept that technology is a significant connecting agent of people world-wide, regardless of geography or demographic standing.

Mobile technology transports a world of possible brand experiences. It’s in our cars and on billboards. But it’s still just about the connection of brands and people, and therefore is very much a real-life pursuit of true insight and meaningful experience. Only those with the ability to evolve with this landscape will remain relevant: they’re the brave, curious minds.