Mick Rigby is Founder and CEO, Yodel Mobile, a global full-service app growth marketing agency that works with brands including Gymshark, B&Q, NBC Universal, and Kuda Bank. We asked who his digital hero is.
Who is your digital hero?
David Murphy, the former Editor of Mobile Marketing Magazine.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
David founded the magazine in 2005 when mobile as a digital opportunity was at its genesis.
In the early days, there were no advertising, marketing, or industry rules, and Mobile Marking Magazine was the one source of information and truth fully championing the nascent sector and helping to define what it was all about through the interviews, news stories, and opinions it printed.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
The magazine was the roadmap that enabled the few and then the many of us working in the growing sector to get clarity on what developments were in play, how it was evolving, who was doing new and ground-breaking activities, and what businesses were embracing the opportunities.
Whether he liked it or not (and he is probably embarrassed to read it), he was at the centre of the wheel, and all the spokes were the agencies, the data programmers, the innovators, the platforms, the developers and the networks that made the whole thing turn.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
Entrepreneurial talent has consistently helped grow the sector through innovation and problem-solving to find effective solutions and opportunities to most challenges.
The more established digital businesses and more prominent agencies are typically slower to innovate, and as the sector grows to be the most significant aspect of digital, it becomes more established and, consequently, conventionally structured; we will see less innovation and fewer entrepreneurial businesses and individuals making as much of an impact. I hope that there are other digital heroes out there that can keep the pace of change moving at speed.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I wouldn’t call it heroic, possibly daft at the time, but launching Yodel Mobile in the early days of mobile and coping with the challenges that came back then was undoubtedly my number one achievement. That and ensuring the business has grown and thrives by doing the right thing by our clients and the Yodel Mobile team.
It makes me feel I’ve done some good to help many yodellers establish successful careers in this sector.
