MANAYUNK

By Rachel Jenkins

Photography by Melissa Kelly Photography

Long gone are the days that 10 Shurs Lane housed a bustling textile mill near the Manayunk Canal. But the air of productivity is still alive and well in a much more modern sense at the 140-year-old building. These days, it’s the headquarters for Delphic Digital, a hotbed of creative thinkers making waves on Philadelphia’s digital scene.

In 2004, technology entrepreneur, Mark Patten, founded Delphic Digital, a web design studio with only eight employees at the corner of Shurs Lane and Cresson Street. Quickly adding web development capabilities, they focused on building websites to establish brands for their clientele. By the time company partner Lance Hollander was added to the mix in 2012, the agency had grown to include digital marketing services, becoming a full-service digital agency. In 2015, Delphic Digital moved 144 feet down Shurs Lane to a new building that could accommodate the nearly 80 employees they had. Mark may have initially come to Manayunk for the affordable rent, but his company stayed for the creative work environment the neighborhood provided.

“We’re obsessed with experience,” said Beth Perkins, the Talent Acquisition Manager on the team. “Mark and Lance wanted to find a place that set the right tone as soon as you walk in the front door.”

That’s putting it mildly. Everything about Delphic Digital is designed with intention. Inside, the company took the bones of the old mill, with its high ceilings, skylights, and original hardwood floors and turned it into a 21st-century creativity factory. The elevator greets you with a different TV theme song each time you ride. The main floor is a well-thought-out maze of whiteboards filled with sticky notes and rough website wireframes. Pockets of desks are arranged so designers can “collaborate at a moment’s notice,” or let their minds wander. Each conference room is named after a celebrity muse, like Ellen, Oprah, and Bill Murray.

“There have been plenty of times when I’m leaving work around 6:30 p.m., and I hear a ruckus at the back of the office because there’s an informal ping-pong tournament going on,” Beth said, laughing. “We also have dogs that employees bring in from home. They’re a part of everyday...so this is a place that people genuinely want to be.”

Delphic Digital has come a long way since its birth 13 years ago. They have made a name for themselves not just with their impressive work environment, but the digital strategies they create for the absolute best customer experience. The company has worked with both regional and global companies, from Borgata to the likes of Comcast and Aramark. Vice President of Client Services, Danielle Rossi, believes the work they have done for Delaware North’s national park division (with clients like Yellowstone and El Questro in Australia) have been among the most rewarding for the team.

“We wanted to bring national parks and their lodging to life in the digital space. So some of our team members had the opportunity to visit the locations to talk to the staff and experience what it’s like to actually be there,” she said. “Not a bad gig.”

A self-proclaimed passion for experience is more than just a chance at a Yosemite adventure (who would say no to that business trip?). Hands-on research is important to the Delphic Digital team because that’s exactly what they want the website user to experience digitally, in the simplest way possible. The average web user only sees the finished product of a site, so the complicated world of digital strategy that lives underneath remains ambiguous. If the team at Delphic Digital is doing their job right, it will stay that way — meaning web users can navigate through a website’s interface and interact with a brand without even having to think about it.

“Once a site launches, that’s when the work truly begins,” Danielle explained. “We are laying a really great technical foundation for contextual marketing and serving unique experiences for audiences. Then, we begin to layer in digital marketing programs like paid search, email, and SEO.”

It’s clear that Delphic Digital speaks digital strategy like a second language, because that’s what the staff is trained to do. But for a budding entrepreneur without expert guidance, connecting their business to online customers can feel a little more confusing. Danielle cleared things up: it’s all about getting inside customer’s heads and focusing on their needs.

“You need to understand how your customers are using digital,” Danielle said. “And try to meet that experience in an organic way. Ask yourself which tasks you want users to perform on your site. How will they interact with the brand?”

Beth added that Manayunk entrepreneurs, with their proximity to a whole host of Philadelphia colleges, are especially primed to get help from young professionals hoping to break into the digital marketing world.

“Philadelphia is one of the most inclusive tech communities that I’ve ever worked in,” Beth said. “It doesn’t take that long to make good connections if you just put yourself out there. I would encourage local entrepreneurs to connect with Philadelphia universities because there are so many students who want hands-on work and would do it for a reasonable price.”

Beyond making lasting connections with the right talent, there are a number of resources business owners can use to learn more about digital. Delphic Digital regularly blogs about industry trends and tech events, including some they host in their own ground floor space. On May 4th, they hosted a Star Wars-themed event for Philly Tech Week, so participants could learn to “bring optimal digital experiences to the galaxy.” It’s just another way they are making Manayunk a creative and tech-oriented destination.

Like the company itself, many Delphic Digital employees have become part of the fabric of the community. In fact, an estimated 25% of the Delphic Digital workforce are Manayunk residents — either they decided to work local, or their job at Delphic Digital drew them to the area. A cutting-edge company like Delphic Digital could very easily have thrived downtown or in a trendy urban hub like N. 3rd (“Nerd”) Street in Northern Liberties. They could have worked in the thick of the hustle and bustle. But Beth and Danielle are grateful for the “homey” neighborhood spirit, and have become invested in the energy of community relationships.

“When we go down to Volo for a cup of coffee every day, the pace is different [than downtown],” Danielle said. “You almost forget you’re at work because everybody there is a local taking a break. Getting coffee becomes a meaningful event.”

Whether Delphic Digital is searching for the optimum digital experience or a real-life one, they seem to have found it here. It lives in their bike ride to work, beautifully interactive websites, and office ping-pong tournaments. If only those 19th-century mill workers could see them now.