Cyberclick: Pioneers in Digital Marketing and Employee Happiness

Joost Minnaar
Written by Joost Minnaar July 01, 2024

Cyberclick, a digital marketing agency established in 1999 and headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, is pioneering the future of online marketing with its customer-centric approach and self-managing organizational structure. By combining cutting-edge digital strategies with a progressive work culture, Cyberclick is reshaping the way businesses engage with their audience online.

This blog post is part of 50+ case studies of self-managing organizations we created for the 2024 inaugural ZeroDX awards. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:

  • Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace

  • Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution

  • Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.

Introducing Cyberclick

Established in 1999, Cyberclick is a leading digital marketing agency headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The firm specializes in a broad range of online marketing services including SEM, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing. With a team of about 100 people, Cyberclick is renowned for its innovative approach to capturing potential clients through various digital advertising strategies. Their mission is to optimize customer acquisition costs and enhance the online presence of the brands they work with.

Cyberclick has been reinventing zero-distance practices in line with the RenDanHeYi philosophy for over 25 years. They consider themselves 'customer experience freaks' and have gone to great lengths to remove barriers between team members and end users of their services. Autonomy is visible in the lack of top-down goals and the right of people to decide what to work on to satisfy the customers and deliver outstanding results. To ensure alignment and co-sharing, the company also has a profit-sharing program, where above a certain profit margin, the profit gets divided among the employees.

Organizational Structure: Empowering Teams for Success

Cyberclick’s organizational model is a testament to the power of autonomy in the workplace. Teams, made up of 8 to 16 people, are fully autonomous, with minimal oversight from management. This decentralized approach fosters innovation, as employees are free to experiment and decide what direction best suits the needs of their clients.

The founder, David Tomás, serves as a source of inspiration rather than a traditional leader, motivating teams to explore new ideas and approaches. This autonomy ensures that teams stay aligned with their customers’ needs, driving continuous improvement in service delivery.

Customer Centricity and Autonomy

Cyberclick is one of the pioneers of online advertising and marketing in Spain. With a track record that goes back to the end of the 90s, they were the first to guarantee results in online advertising and work on generating new leads. Their progressive approach provides freedom for people to experiment and an inspiring peer-to-peer community that drives ever-better results for the team and for the clients.

In fact, two of the three company values (defined by the team) are directly relevant to how the company services its customers: "always find a better way" and "customer experience freaks". Both underline the strive to create the ultimate customer experience and upgrade their offering with every project they undertake.

Cultivating a Culture of Happiness, Transparency, and Learning

Cyberclick's internal culture is built on principles of transparency, collaboration, and continuous learning. The company practices what they call "Practical Happiness" which includes regular check-ins to gauge employee satisfaction, implementing flexible working hours, and fostering a culture of trust and autonomy. Cyberclick stands firmly behind the belief that happy employees are more productive and creative, leading to better outcomes for clients.

The company works with 'Open book management'. Everyone gets trained to understand the basics of the financials of the company. This transparency and aligned interest is supplemented by a profit-sharing program, where above a certain profit margin, the profit gets divided among the employees.

To ensure their way of work is sustainable in the long run, the people at Cyberclick learn together and do not shy away from difficult conversations. Besides, they have gone to great lengths to ensure only the right people join the team.

While in most companies the recruitment process ends with the first day of the person at the office, it is fair to say that in Cyberclick, this step is in the very beginning of a lengthy and well-thought-out process:

  • About 3 out of 4 applicants are invited for a visit to the company

  • They are tested by the team and their direct colleagues on: skills, personality, and behavior

  • Multiple reference calls are made to previous employers

  • Once selected, the applicant starts working for 3 weeks

  • After 3 weeks, the team evaluates the new employee. They have a strong focus on the new employee's alignment with the company values. Every team member can use a veto during the evaluation

  • After 3 months, there's another evaluation with a similar process

  • Once the employee has successfully passed all stages, he has a decision to make. He can choose to (1) take the job, or (2) not take the job and receive a 2-month bonus on top of the salary for the time worked

Conclusion

Cyberclick exemplifies how a self-managing, customer-focused company can innovate and thrive in the competitive digital marketing landscape. The company has created a flexible, autonomous organizational structure that prioritizes creativity, transparency, and customer satisfaction. Cyberclick’s progressive approach to digital marketing, combined with its commitment to employee happiness and innovation, sets a new standard for the future of work in the digital marketing industry.

Written by Joost Minnaar
Joost Minnaar
Co-founder Corporate Rebels. My daily focus is on research, writing, and anything else related to making work more fun.
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