Kwasi Studios hasn’t just lasted 14 years in the industry because of its expertise and results in digital marketing. There’s also a certain, not-so-secret, ingredient to the DNA of the company that’s been a key to its longevity and accomplishments all along.
Crafting a people-focused culture from the ground up has been a core component of its success, from the team members hired to the clients who have come on board.
As we surpass 14 years in the digital marketing space, we take a look back on the culture that has led us here.
People-Focused From The Inside-Out
Founder Woj Kwasi focused on building a strong culture from day one, and it’s part of what he says makes Kwasi so different from other digital marketing agencies.
“I really wanted to build a workplace that’s the best of all the worlds I’ve experienced,” he said.
CEO Greg Barrow ensures all of the Kwasi values inform the hiring routine and process of bringing on clients.
“With bringing on the right team members and clients, values are aligned, so people stay longer and have time to stay and share and build friendships,” he said. “That’s what I love seeing – those people building each other up, and when they then start to socialise and build friendships together, and it’s not forced.”
Many Kwasi employees have stayed with the company past the national Australian average job tenure of 3.3 years, so clearly they are doing something right. Someone who can attest to this is Oscar Redfearn, who has been at Kwasi for 8 years.
Oscar also thinks the company values and culture are part of what sets this agency apart from others, and has helped Kwasi Studios stick around for 14 years.
“The leaders of Kwasi are warm, open people, so that makes everyone else feel comfortable and open up quicker. That makes people willing to stay and focus on learning new skills,” he said.
More Than Just Clients
What is an agency without its clients? For Kwasi, connecting with clients means building a quality and authentic rapport alongside the business side of marketing.
We spoke with Woj, Greg, and Oscar to take us through their favourite client memories in the Kwasi vault.
“One time in Sydney, a bunch of us gathered for after-work drinks with client team members, and we dialled in people from all over the world. That was a really fun memory of how we’ve forged personal relationships with clients.”
Of course, to be a successful agency, you need stellar results for your clients, and Kwasi has seen many of those, too.
Oscar has had some pretty career-defining moments on the team, including when Kwasi was nominated for a 2024 Google Agency Excellence Award for International Growth. “As an Adelaide agency, that’s not very common. I felt like we really contributed to the success of the brand.”
Kwasi has also won some other notable awards, including a 2017 Fast Growth Award.
Throughout the last 14 years, Kwasi has made an effort to connect with their clients and build long-lasting relationships in special ways. In 2022, after working with Adelaide Fringe, Kwasi commissioned an art piece from poster artist winner Mali Isabel and gifted prints to their clients.
Kwasi positions itself as a partner to clients, not a vendor, and has achieved monumental results from its process, at times even tripling traffic leads for businesses.
Doing things differently
Woj recalls doing things differently at Kwasi from the very start, even when it was just him. “I attended networking events as part of BNI and showed up wearing kicks instead of the lawyer and accountant suits most people wore.”
He came up with the idea early on to create an infographic to hand out instead of your typical business card. He created the story of a place he called “Inbound Marketing Town” and labelled himself as the mayor, and each city represented a different part of marketing.
“The reaction was I seemed odd and different, but then I became known as the SEO guy,” Woj said.
Over the years, Woj has attended many digital marketing conferences, and he has the lanyards to prove it.
Doing things differently has made Kwasi adaptable through the years, always looking for opportunities to learn and grow in a unique way. Greg has found that respect, honesty, and personalising strategies have achieved a lot for their clients.
“Being truthful in our approach is one of our underpinning values,” he said. “I think that’s one of the biggest differences between us and other agencies.”
The Future Of Kwasi
The thought on everyone’s mind these days is how AI will be used in years, and even days, to come, and how it will impact the quality of what is being put out online.
Greg and Woj are focusing on how to utilise new and upcoming technologies while staying true to the Kwasi values and quality for clients.
“My philosophy on AI is not about replacing people, it’s about replacing tasks and making people more effective,” Greg said. “People are very scared of change as well, so you’ve got to make it a space that is safe and easy enough for them to be able to change from Kwasi’s current longer, complex, successful and comfortable processes to integrating AI into the processes for efficiency and effectiveness.”
Woj has spent the last three years travelling abroad and learning about new and upcoming AI tools and strategies, and how to apply them to Kwasi.
He also built an AI for Marketers course used by their clients and he plans to open up more cohorts for this course.
While Kwasi is looking ahead with AI, they are also seeing positive results in the present. Woj built a GEO course that applies AI to SEO and content optimisations, which has seen good results for clients, but there is still importance on keeping the human-first strategy and touch.
As an employee, Oscar also believes it is important to use AI to speed up processes, but still depends on humans to call the shots.
“AI is always as good as the human behind it. The human touch is super important when it comes to strategy and anything that requires nuanced thinking,” he said.
Greg knows that as an agency, you have to keep up with changes in the industry, but he is determined to do right by Kwasi’s clients in the process.
“I think it’s just about making sure we keep on aligning those company traits and control growth, and making sure we don’t lose sight of our values in that as well and asking, how do we keep aligning back to them even with those changes in AI?”
While AI is a heavy topic of conversation at the Kwasi office, it’s not the only focus. The team continues to align its actions with its values and is currently focusing on finding opportunities to give back to the community. And in the meantime, looking forward to its 15th year in business.
