2Stroke rebrands to Rogerwilco, appoints Chris Vermeulen as Chief Innovation Officer

The name is derived from the classic two-way communication to confirm that a message has been received, understood (Roger) and will be complied with (Wilco), and is in accordance with the agency's repositioning as a more creative, strategic and engaging business.

In addition, the name creates a persona around a digital marketing agency which has long held the belief that fostering excellent client relationships is the key to success in a highly competitive marketing environment.

In tandem with the name change, Rogerwilco has appointed Chris Vermeulen to the role of Chief Innovation Officer.

"The digital industry is going through tremendous change, and now, more than ever, brands need to know that their existing agencies will be there for them and continue to deliver a standard of work that has grown their businesses to what they are today. Trust is vital in this field, and we believe we have gained this trust. Now is the perfect time to build on that and take our clients to the next level through even more innovative work," says Rogerwilco CEO Charlie Stewart.

Chris Vermeulen

"While 2Stroke perfectly epitomised who we were - an engineering-led business that generated results - we are positioning ourselves as a creative and strategic digital marketing agency that is aligned to brands' needs. We aim to be an agency that engages with clients on an exceptionally personal level, assisting them every step of the way to build their brands to become leaders in their respective fields. We believe that the new name, coupled to Chris's appointment, does just that."

Vermeulen, whose brief is to bolster Rogerwilco's creativity and ability to innovate, joins from Primedia where he served as Executive Creative Director in one of the digital divisions in Johannesburg, before relocating to another one of the media giant's digital divisions in Cape Town as interim COO.

As the new millennium arrived, Vermeulen founded a digital agency after returning from the UK where he worked at Sky Digital, and formed part of the creative team behind Sky's interactive television platform.

He joins a 30 person-plus team whose recent appointments have included client services director Michelle Geere (formerly at Gloo and Hello Computer), PR head John Harvey (previously a senior production and editorial journalist at Times Media Group) and Michelle Jones (a vastly-experienced journalist at The Cape Times).

"I was amazed at the results 2Stroke had achieved for its clients - the business has a powerful reputation for delivery particularly within its SEO and content marketing projects and innovations.

"With the evolution to Rogerwilco, it's my role to add a more structured approach to innovation and creativity that will bolster its development and broader digital marketing services," says Vermeulen.

Under its previous name of 2Stroke, Rogerwilco was recognised as one of South Africa's leading digital marketing agencies, providing web development and search engine optimisation services to many local and international brands.

In 2014 the company, whose core service offerings include content marketing, search engine optimisation and web development, won a Gold PRISM for content marketing at the annual PR industry awards and was recognised as being the country's leading search engine optimisation (SEO) agency.

Recent projects for a number of top brands have cemented the company's reputation as South Africa's leading web development studio.