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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Speak Up! Blog Survey
2008-10-27 16:00:00
Sponsored by PushPlay DVD rentals, the Speak UP! survey is described ...
More About: General , Survey , Blog

Domino City
2008-10-26 09:56:00
The Sony Bravia ads have become quite the staple. You know that you're going to get something of a spectacle - stunning imagery on a grand scale, some catchy feel-good music and a cool idea that has a strong tie-in with...
More About: Viral Marketing , City , Domino

Less Corporate Spam?
2008-10-22 10:31:00
Recently I've spent a significant amount of time managing email campaigns – some large, some very small...
More About: Spam , Email Marketing , Corporate

Muti iMod's Post for the Blogger Bake Off!
2008-10-21 11:59:00
Chris M from iMod.co.za has stepped forward with a marvellous plan. If he gets 100 votes on Muti for hi...
More About: Blogger , General , Post

Guest Post: A New Web2.0 BookMark Directory Option
2008-10-20 15:26:00
Steve Jankelowitz and I are the developers of Sasnet – a bookmark publishing framework project...
More About: Bookmark , Post , Directory , Guest

A Blog Post Worth 17 Billion...
2008-10-20 11:50:00
Living in London and taking public transport to work has given me a little extra time in the mornings to catch up on the London news. I recently came across a rather interesting...
More About: Post , Blog , Worth , Billion

My Relationship is a Viral Ad...
2008-10-19 14:45:00
A close friend of mine (bless her), is a very gullible soul. She was close to tears when she first saw this viral advert for Meg Ryan's new movie The Women. Maybe the Ad became that much more personal because her name is...
More About: Relationship , Viral , Viral Marketing

Blogger Bake Off Breads
2008-10-17 13:00:00
I love the Blogger Bake Off campaign. ...
More About: Breads

The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off..."bake bread - give dough"
2008-10-15 11:34:00
I am honoured to present to you a viral campaign for one of our charity clients Bread line Africa - The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off – an initiative aimi...
More About: Give , Dough

Eliminating Global Poverty
2008-10-15 08:59:00
When I heard that this year’s Blog Action Day would be dedicated to eliminating global poverty my brain went into complete overdrive. I was trying to analyse and understand what I could do to get people to take...
More About: General , Global , Poverty

QuirkStars of the Month
2008-10-13 12:43:00
Every month or so, we have a little internal competition to recognise the achievements of the team for that period. The process is simple - each person gets to confidentially nominate one or two people as their QuirkStar of the month. Most importantly howe...
More About: Month

Hovis- Evoking the Legacy
2008-10-12 08:26:00
This advert from Hovis cost £15 million to make and was aired in England about&nbs...
More About: Viral Marketing , Legacy

Don't Vote
2008-10-11 14:23:00
I can’t help it, I always click on the “Election '08” icon when I’m surfing the latest virals. No one does controversy like Americans and with the budgets they hav...
More About: Viral Marketing , Vote

Friday Fact Box - Online Politics
2008-10-10 13:44:00
In light of our recent political happenings we have naturally had politics on the brain. We thus could'nt help but investigate the intersection of politics and Onlin...
More About: Politics , Fact , Online , Friday

Hello Quirk
2008-10-10 10:35:00
Born and brought up in Nairobi, Kenya, my path to discovering what would soon become my...

AdTech London
2008-10-06 15:03:00
My first visit to AdTech London can be summed up in one simple word - money. AdTech is a fast talking, hip shooting jamboree of the UK’s finest online marketing businesses. The only thing I found more amazing tha...

Website Validation, Why Bother?
2008-10-06 10:42:00
It has been said that the Internet is one of the most difficult design environments to work in. Depending on the browser, operating system, platform (Apple vs. PC) or device (PDA or iPhone) someone is using, they are likely to have a different experience w...
More About: Website , General , Validation

Camp War
2008-10-05 09:16:00
If I were to raise an army, I'd have my legions decked out in some seriously styling gear. I'm not talking about camouflaged tanks and stealth jets; my troops and their equipment would be designed to iconically stand out, intimidate the hell out of the enemy and draw as mu...
More About: Viral Marketing , Camp

Nice Finds for the Week
2008-10-02 14:46:00
I’ve just got back from our SA office and it’s great to be back in London with its creative buzz. This week’s finds are like my head at the moment – a bit muddled. But like any muddled brain, there are some gems ins...
More About: General , Week , Nice

5 Basic Tips to Help You Make Sense of Quirk SearchStatus
2008-09-30 15:39:00
So, you’...
More About: Sense , General , Tips , Search Engine Marketing , Basic

eMarketing Textbook Blog - Competitive Intelligence
2008-09-29 14:28:00
Two weeks ago we launched the eMarketing Textbook Blog - a way for us to share some thoughts on the new chapters and get some feedback about what should be included in the next edition. Today our res...
More About: Intelligence , General , Competitive

Science World Knowledge
2008-09-21 09:14:00
This is a brilliant little viral. It’s short, to the point and genuinely funny. You don’t have to think about it too much and it flows into a clever ending.  The advert is for Science W...
More About: World , General , Viral Marketing , Knowledge

Dust Settling After Recent Facebook Changes
2008-09-19 10:10:00
Always the hot topic, Facebook ’s recent changes have received mixed reactions online. Recent ly made default, the changes seem to be irritating some, while sparking new interest for others. I’m sure most are aware of the new chan...
More About: General

Geographical Performance Report
2008-09-18 14:54:00
(Image via Flickr, by David Shapinsky, under CC) AdWords has introduced a new Geographical Performance report.  You’ll find it in the report centre along with the rest of the performance reports.  This report provides you with an understanding of the geographic distribution of your impressions, clicks and conversions, right down to the ad group level.  It breaks down the countries you are targeting into exact regions, cities or provinces. For example if you are targeting South Africa, you could find that your product is most popular in the Western Cape and Gauteng – and can alter your campaign targeting accordingly. How does this help you?  By running this report you are now able to find out which regions/cities are driving the most conversions and can specifically target those in your campaign. This may work especially well if you have limited Media Spend. You can maximise spend for only those specific locations, thus eliminating unnecessary cli...
More About: Report

The Most Public Index
2008-09-18 10:49:00
A while ago some of you might remember how I waxed on about a few of the most influential people and blogs operating online today. Here is part three of that little cheat guide. Before I started these posts, the lovely GottaQuirk-fiend Kat asked me gently to please make sure that I clarified how I decided on these “Top Five Most Influential People/Blogs”. Apparently some people have been known to get mad over certain inclusions and exclusions and we have to cover our bases. In the last two posts I took the easy way out and let Google and other sites do the research for me, but it did get me thinking. Can we accurately judge who has a notable influence online? And lo and behold, Google gave me the answer (how could I have doubted it?). There is actually a site that does just that – collates the most influential people online. NowPublic has launched the MostPublic Index and it is essentially a measure of any individual’s influence online. Voted as one of the to...

eMarketing Textbook Blog - All Systems Go!
2008-09-17 14:48:00
Those of you who have been following the news about our eMarketing textbook will be well aware of our plans to update the textbook every six months, offer it for free on our site and provide the prints in bookstores around the country.  The dust has settled after the initial launch and the team is back to work to update and expand on the existing textbook. The approach to the new eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing is very different. This time we are looking to YOU for feedback and assistance in selecting what to include in each chapter (both old and new).  The first chapter up for review is a new one: eMarketing strategy. Sarah Blake, our resident textbook geek expert has written a post on the textbook's very own blog so go have a look, contribute and let us know what you want covered in the next version of the textbook. Comment on "eMarketing Textbook Blog - All Systems Go!"

Virgin Fest SEO Sucks
2008-09-17 11:03:00
You can’t turn on youth radio station 5fm these days without hearing about the upcoming Virgin Music Fest ival to be held in South Africa later this year. Since ...
More About: General , Search Engine Marketing , Sucks

A Chat with Rob Stokes on the eMarketing Textbook
2008-09-17 10:21:00
When Bill Gates spoke at Davos earlier this year, he discussed the merits of Creative Capitalism. He suggested that the best way for a business to efficiently and effectively contribute to social development, is to tie its social responsibilities in with its profits. With this kind of approach, he argued, everybody wins and things actually get done.  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 m...
More About: Chat

Be the Change - Tackling Open Source in Government
2008-09-16 16:01:00
At Quirk we have three types of individuals – the completely non-tech (Kelly), the medium tech (Darryn) and the super-hardcore-I-think-in-code tech (Java Coders like Jean). So a little while back when Jean sent an email around the office about Aslam Rafee, Daniel Mashao and Helen King's formal complaint registration against the IEC for its “failure to provide information as required by the Bill of Rights”, there were a few blank faces around the office. But this definitely twanged something inside of me (medium tech) and might just have sent me into the crazy echelons of “I-think-in-code” geekiness.  For those who are more non-tech, these three pretty much make up the who’s who of Open Source in South Africa: Aslam Rafee chairs the South African government’s Open Source working group. He is a complete Open advocate and has affected some amazing change in the roll-out of Open Source solutions in both government and educat...
More About: Government , Change

4 Tips to Make Idea Sharing and Collaboration Profitable
2008-09-16 10:14:00
 Sharing ideas and information can be a profitable business approach. (Image via Flickr, by Kalandrakas under CC) There are some things that people don’t like to share. Lovers (well most people don’t), money and ingenious ideas usually top this list. There are a bunch of good reasons for keeping these things to yourself and exposure to risk is a big one. Willingly share your lover and you don’t know what you might pick up along the way. Share your money and you run the risk of not having enough of it sometime in the future. Share your ideas and risk them being implemented by someone else.    Nonetheless, our parents always taught us to share our toys and our sweets and in our modern era of open-source software, open education and international collaboration, grown-up sharing is a concept the needs to be revisited.  Obviously the risks are still there though - no one wants to give away their ideas for nothing. So here are some tips to make idea...
More About: Tips , Idea , Make , Collaboration