About Gyre & Gimble
'Twas brillig
Our company, our product and our mascot are all named after one poem and one dog. It seemed only fair to explain.
Pull up a chair
Where it started
A drizzly Thursday, just off Leicester Square
Like a lot of good British ideas, this one began over a few pints. A table of developers and lifelong media strategists, an old pub a stone's throw from Leicester Square, and the rain doing what London rain does best.
The conversation kept circling back to the same question. Why has advertising become so complicated? Running a decent campaign now seems to demand a specialist, a technical background and a budget most small businesses simply don't have. It shouldn't. By last orders, the outline of Snifferdog had been scribbled down, and the whole thing needed a name.
That job fell to Caitlin, our co-founder and COO, whose mind went straight to the thing she loves most: her dog.
51.510° N, 0.132° W
Where the idea was born
Brillig. The original Snifferdog.
Meet the dog
Brillig
Brillig is named after the very first word of Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll's gloriously nonsensical poem. So when our AI became Snifferdog, there was really only one place the rest of the names could come from.
Every name we use is lifted from the same four lines.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky, from Through the Looking-Glass (1871)
The names
A short glossary
Carroll left most of these words for readers to puzzle over. We've given them jobs.
Brillig
noun
The dog who started it all, and the reason any of this has a name.
In Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains that brillig means four o'clock in the afternoon: the time you begin cooking dinner. Brillig would like it noted that he agrees.
Gyre & Gimble
verb
Loosely, to rotate while keeping steady. For us, it means creating change in a controlled manner: solving a problem properly and conscientiously, without losing our footing.
The company. The steady hand on the wheel.
Tove
noun
Our mascot, loosely based on Brillig, and your guide through Snifferdog. A friendly face who keeps you company while you set things up, and celebrates with you when your campaigns go live.
Carroll's toves were something like badgers and something like lizards. Ours is a robot dog. We took some liberties.
Snifferdog
noun
A sniffer dog doesn't do the searching for you. It guides you to what matters. So does ours: Snifferdog turns your brief into a media plan and a live campaign, and nothing goes live without your say-so.
The product. The helping hand.
Meet the mascot
Tove
Every good sniffer dog has a handler's best friend. Ours is Tove: a robot dog, loosely modelled on Brillig, who lives inside Snifferdog and keeps you company from your first brief to your first live campaign.
She points you in the right direction, keeps an eye on the details, and when your campaign goes live, she celebrates. Usually like this.
Go on, give her a click
Our mission
Advertising shouldn't need a specialist, a technical background or a huge budget.
Gyre & Gimble was founded on that idea. Snifferdog brings together the thinking of lifelong media strategists and the craft of a medley of developers, designers and sales people, so a small business can plan and launch campaigns with real rigour, without the agency overheads or the learning curve.
Simple by default
Upload a brief, approve a plan, launch. The complexity hasn't gone anywhere. It's just our problem now, not yours.
Steady hands
You approve every plan before a penny is spent. Change, in a controlled manner, which is rather the point of the name.
Straight talking
We'll tell you what works and what doesn't, including when it comes to the tools we build and test ourselves.
Fancy a closer look?
See what Snifferdog can sniff out for you
Founded in London over a few pints. Built with considerably more care.