The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog The GottaQuirk blog is a great resource for information about internet marketing. It’s an up-to-date resource on the happenings in the fast-moving eMarketing industry. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 2 4686

Articles from The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog

The ties that bind: finding freedom in the era of technology 2007-12-18 07:01:58 As the year draws to a much welcome close I, for one, am looking forward to a little freedom. And it strikes me that as technology marches forward, and the global village grows ever smaller, in the circles of computer geeks and their wannabe affiliates, the very meaning of the word ‘freedom’ has changed. Indeed, the freedom I speak of is almost enough to make some of my colleagues shudder and in a flat panic, crash with an irresolvable system error. Heading off into the depths of the Eastern Cape, off the beaten track, I will have no cell phone reception, no access to email and most importantly, no social networking sites to check on or update every five minutes. My online life will, for the next blissful three weeks, be resting in a static state of limbo. Possibly you will text me, or drop me a friendly Christmas email. Maybe you will break up with your significant other, get engaged or have a baby. All this, and I will be languishing on a beach somewhere remote, in delic ...

I know which one I prefer! 2007-12-16 05:12:52 When I came across this beauty, an instantaneous smile dawned across my face for a couple of reasons. The first being the obvious male hormonal reaction to seeing a beautiful half-naked girl on the screen in front of me, and the second being that this advert is a ‘play’ on the advert which was recently blogged about by our very own Carlos Menezes (along with countless others) in his post Gorillas, Chocolate and Television. The clip which Carlos was writing about is a viral of a gorilla drumming to the 1981 track In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Carlos had to contemplate for a bit on whether or not to write a post on this advert; the same could not be said for me. Ladies please forgive me because this blog post is directed slightly more towards the male population, but it is also an interesting example of the open acceptability in the United States to take other brands’ campaigns and use them to your advantage. Take a look at this clip and decide for yourself wh ...

I'm fine to drive... 2007-12-15 00:58:31 I must admit I’m counting down the days (6 more sleeps) till I pack up and head off home to see the family for the holidays … A time to relax, reflex and prepare for a kick ass 2008! That said, statistically (and you know how much I love the stats) it’s one of the most dangerous times to be travelling and I thought it would be appropriate to rehash this thought provoking, in-your-face ad campaign produced by Jupiter Drawing Room for Arrive Alive.   I just need to get it out of my system.   I’ll sober up when I’m behind the wheel.   I’ve driven home like this hundreds of times.   How often have you heard or even used these (rather lame) excuses yourself? It’s astounding how often these words are said… Well done to Jupiter! This is an awesome campaign and a perfect example of why I love advertising :) On a final note … GottaQuirkers, please Arrive Alive and have a super holiday! Comment on "I'm fine t ...

2007's Most Watched Viral Videos 2007-12-14 06:23:00 The end of the year brings more than panic gift buying and embarrassing Christmas party photos, it also bring lists galore - Top 10's, 100 most popular - you name it, its in a list somewhere. This week The Financial Times released the list of the Top 5 Viral Videos of 2007: 1) Cadbury - Gorilla Drummer with over 5 million views on You Tube. 2) Smirnoff - Green Tea Partay with 3.4 million views on You Tube. 3) Ray-Ban - Catch Sunglasses with 3.2 million views on You Tube. 4) Blendtec - Will it Blend? Their iPhone version alone received 2.7m views on You Tube. 5) Lynx/Axe – Bom chicka wah wah with 2.6 million views on You Tube. So which was your favourite? Comment on "2007's Most Watched Viral Videos" ...

How rude of me... 2007-12-14 01:07:28 What exactly am I referring to? Well it seems I may have forgotten to introduce myself before diving right into the mix with all kinds of outrageous viral predictions. So here goes. I am one of the new interns here at Quirk eMarketing. What this entails exactly, I can't really say. To be honest, I'm still kind of working that out, but it is starting to become clearer. What I do know though is that everyone here is really friendly and making the transition into the working world a far more pleasant experience than expected. I mean who gets to go to the office Christmas party on the third day?! By the way, if you haven't had a chance to see what that event was all about go check out Kat's post, “The QuirkStars hit Mzoli's” or visit us on Facebook to view the pics. Who am I? I went to school at Pinelands High, making me the fourth in the office, and giving us a one man advantage over the Bosch boys. I am fresh out of varsity and with an undergraduate degree in economic ...

Mr Splashy Pants wins hands down 2007-12-12 04:20:47 The votes are in! The most famous whale alive has now officially been named Mr Splashy Pants after a landslide poll hosted by Greenpeace. The name was the only one out of a list of 30 that didn't take itself too seriously, and the poll quickly became an online hit as it was passed around from one end of the Internet to the other. Some of the other names for the Pacific Ocean inhabitant selected as the final thirty from over 10 thousand included Nurani, Malaya, Humphrey, Atticus and even Madiba - all of which received less than 4% percent of the votes while Mr Splashy Pants received a whopping 78% of the total. The humpbacked whale is one of the several which have been tagged by scientists while travelling the Great Whale Trail, and the runner up names will be used to name the other whales under examination (but chances are people will only remember the alpha-whale while the others fade out into the background). Mr Splashy Pants was pretty much a celebrity before he had an official ...

StarCamp: So much to learn, so little time 2007-12-11 00:34:16 Bright and early on Saturday morning (after quite a Friday night) I clawed my way out of bed and headed through to AIMS in Muizenberg for the first ever Cape Town StarCamp. Needless to say it was full of big minds, crazy concepts and plenty opportunities to learn. On Saturday I found two talks particularly interesting. First up was Alex Halderman of Princeton University who presented a very interesting (and not too technical) talk on electronic ballot systems. Alex’s presentation covered his personal experience of researching Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine. As part of his research, the “tamperability” of the device was explored and was found to be very vulnerable to attacks. When concluding he presented a number of options to ensure the safety of electronic voting systems and I highly recommend you read his very interesting research paper. Next up was Phil Barrett with a fascinating talk on User Experience and mechanisms for building software to improve user &ld ...

The QuirkStars hit Mzoli's 2007-12-09 23:21:32 On Friday I was exposed to my first ever office Christmas party and I believe the experience may leave me spoiled for future experiences. Tim Shier organised a unique event which, cloaked in secrecy up till the last minute, was a great introduction to the unconventional and special culture at Quirk.     At about 4pm all the animate contents of the office cuddled onto a smallish bus and headed off through the traffic to Mzoli’s in Gugulethu.  A bus full of happy QuirkStars moving through the traffic (at full volume as always) must have been something to see. When we reached Mzoli’s we were greeted by the man himself, a table was set up, and despite initially feeling like a bunch of tourists, everyone quickly settled into the local Mzoli’s spirit. If you’ve never been there, I suggest you go - it’s a Capetonian experience not to be missed. Entire loaves of bread were dropped on the table, they apparently double as serviettes as well, and ...

Discovery Channel: footprint 2007-12-09 00:49:13 The message behind the advert might be an old one, and for some of you it might cause you to sigh in despair of being faced with another environmental message. But, for me at least, there is always something exciting about watching a Discovery Channel advert. I am  by no means an environmentally friendly campaigner, don't get me wrong, I'm not campaigning against environmentally friendly behaviour! But I am always captivated by adverts from reputable environmental brands such as Discovery Channel and WWF. The production quality of their adverts is incredible and really makes us appreciate the world we live in, even if it is only for those few moments during the ad and briefly after. The way they are able to capture our attention, even with the simplicity of this advert, is remarkable. And at the end of it all I do feel a slight bit of guilt for not appreciating our world as much as I should. Damn you Discovery...yet another thing on my mind! Comment on "Discovery C ...

Carling reaches for the stars 2007-12-08 02:05:37 This ad from Carling is an absolute gem. As a person who occasionally makes the trundle to a club for a night out with the boys this really appealed to me. I think we've all had the unfortunate experience of reaching your destination for the evening's upcoming festivities, only to discover that one of your mates has failed to meet the dress code requirements – be it collared shirt or smart shoes (I am yet to meet a female friend who has had this problem, but that's a story for another day). This ad highlights the situation in the most fantastic, comical way with a certain “Armageddon” flavour. It is absolutely hilarious while still making one really think about your friends and the relationship you share with them. After viewing it over and over again, I cannot wait to send this beaut off to all my mates. In terms of viral value, the fact that it is so relevant while being so entertaining makes me believe that it's a winner.  Do yourself a favour and tak ...

StarCamp - we got the t-shirt! 2007-12-07 06:39:45 On Monday I wrote a post asking for design concepts for the *camp t-shirt. To my surprise I was left with quite a bit of choice (got about 15 ideas in total). From this array of ideas I selected the best and published some as comments on GottaQuirk. Which left us with 4 good concepts (and plenty in reserve if Andrew, our design director, disagreed with me). We then left the design team to do what they do: The t-shirts are royal blue and the print is in shiny silver so they look really great! Special thanks to “he who shall not be named” (anonymous) who sent in this concept. We love it and are looking forward to handing out all the Tees at tomorrow's StarCamp. If you haven’t already signed up for this unconference best you go sign up now! Comment on "StarCamp - we got the t-shirt!" ...

Public Service Annoucement 2007-12-07 05:18:36 Ok, so maybe this is a little presumptuous of me - but this is a little heads up that Quirk Cape Town will be downing-tools today at 3pm for a much needed end of year celebration. Not to worry though, we'll be 100% back on form first thing Monday (bar the bruised egos and incriminating photos). To see what we got up to last year watch the short vid below: Comment on "Public Service Annoucement" ...

Facebook Polls – worthwhile? [Yes, no, maybe]: 2007-12-06 00:45:23 Amongst the turmoil surrounding Facebook and their ad services - in particular the Business Beacons - Quirk has been super busy researching the ins and outs of the Facebook services as a marketing platform. As the final stage of this exploration, I took it upon myself to see how Polls can be used as a market research tool. The results were, unfortunately, rather inconclusive. After moving through a very simple implementation process, with a relatively high cost ($26 for 100 respondents), I was on my way to finding out “Which eMarketing service is the most productive?”. The first problem I ran into is that you can only select 5 options (which is awful when asking this sort of question, but is in line with Millers’ research on working memory). The options I selected where: Banner Advertising Email Marketing Viral Marketing Search Engine Optimisation Pay Per Click Advertising I then selected a targeted sample of any current or past unive ...

Is this part of Google's impression fraud filter? 2007-12-05 01:37:51 This morning I was testing out a few keywords on Google.co.uk to see what my competitors were up to. The best way to see your live advert (and those of your competitors) is by using Google’s Ad Preview Tool, which allows you to view the SERPs without your search being counted as an impression. Sometimes, however, I just do it the old fashioned way. I entered a few different versions of a similar phrase and on my third try got this Google 403 Error: “We’re sorry but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users we can’t process your request right now”. And then of course the usual CAPTCHA to prove my searches were coming from a human. After a bit of research it seems that this 403 error has popped up for a few people and for a variety of different reasons. In this case it seems to be aimed at preventing impression fraud. Any thoughts? Comment on "Is this part of Google's impres ... Google

Well, hello there 2007-12-03 12:15:02 Good day to all blog readers in the world, or at least those fashionable individuals who keep in touch with the premier eMarketing company in South Africa… I’m talking about Quirk of course. I’m William John Holden, but you can call me "Will". I’m a born and bred Capetonian and I attended Rondebosch Boys’ Prep and High Schools, which makes me the third ‘bosch boy to currently be working at Quirk. I was actually in the same year as Grant McLachlan (one of our designers) for my entire school career. So I’m Quirk's new intern…what does that mean? Well to be perfectly honest I’m not too sure at the moment. I seem to have my fingers in quite a few pots of honey, and it’s up to me to choose what I believe tastes best. The reason I’ve chosen eMarketing as a career is because I have an Information Systems degree and a postgraduate year in Marketing, both from UCT, so it really is the ideal industry with regards ...