WPP Buys Digital Marketing Agency Quirk Group

Marcoms giant WPP has acquired a controlling interest in South Africa and London-based digital marketing agency Quirk Group, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded by Rob Stokes (pictured) in 1999, Quirk Group comprises five agencies including startup incubator 42Engines, marketing training divisions Quirk Education and the Red & Yellow School, and software business BrandsEye, which offers a monitoring and insights tool to track online conversations. The latter provides access to the BrandsEye Crowd, a community of real people who bring local context and judgement to evaluating online mentions.

Quirk's unaudited consolidated revenues for the year ended 28th February 2014 were approximately ZAR 140m (c.£8m). WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said his company is looking forward to helping Quirk bring its 'unique brand of insight and innovation' to WPP's global client base.

Stokes adds: 'WPP has embraced our rather unusual culture and progressive approach to marketing, and together we have designed a partnership which will allow us to retain much of our independence in areas which matter most to us, whilst still allowing us to benefit from the advantages of being part of a global advertising network. Quirk has always held massive ambitions to expand our unique service offerings across the African continent, and our relationship with WPP will ensure that this becomes a reality far quicker than we could otherwise have dreamed.'

Web sites: www.wpp.com and www.quirk.biz .