Interview with Mark Curtis - Author of Distraction

I've known Mark Curtis, on and off, since pre-Internet days. Yes, that long and yes, there was such a time. We probably didn't even have mobile phones in "them days."

So it was interesting to do this interview, catch up with his latest thoughts and find out about his new book. Since his company does a lot of work for Nokia, he's at the very heart of all things mobile, and I think I'd describe him in a couple of words as a "thoughtful evangelist".

While passionate about digital and mobile generally, this is not the blind enthusiasm of a shallow gadgetman, constantly in search of the new, the faster and the smaller. Mark takes time to think, to argue and to wonder just what the implications for all of us are for the future we're rushing into at break neck speed.

Here's the interview:

Please can you give us a sense of who Mark Curtis is? A brief bio in a few sentences?

I've often wondered myself!

I started in marketing agencies—below the line specialising in the (at the time) rapidly growing radio industry—and then became fascinated by the potential of what we then called interactive media in 1994, and set up CHBi as an offshoot to a sales promotion company I was then a partner in.

After a shaky start (no-one we talked to believed in our vision that media would change totally), the cuckoo outgrew the nest and it became an independent company, which we sold to Razorfish in 1998 and became Razorfish London.

Thereafter followed dramatic growth, for a while wonderful work (at our best when 90 strong), head-turning new business wins (100 enquiries a week at one stage), a plague of management consultants who thought digital was cool (and that they could get rich quick and then screwed up client relationships by being so arrogant) and then the internet winter set in.

I left in March 2001, set up Fjord a few months later and where we have focused on mobile. Basically the consistent theme in my career has been media innovation.

I have a number of passions which include my four daughters, cycling, running, wine, books, mountains, food, wildlife.

Tell us a little about what Fjord does.

Fjord develops new mobile products and services for clients seeking to differentiate themselves in handheld media. However, a lot of our work is cross-platform.

And a campaign that you're most proud of, that encapsulates what you're trying to achieve these days.

I feel the need to take issue with the word "campaign". Right now I fear that much of the interest in mobile is marketing focused and that the default setting for marketing thinking is "campaign"—suggesting ads, ephemeral items that come and go, and above all a pointer to products but not the product or service itself.

We've been down this road before at the start of the web. Marketing money tends to gravitate towards new media because it can create stand out appeal, new stuff is fun, and often a very appealing audience can be found there.

Article Author: Russell Buckley

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