Mark Simmons is a branding expert, innovator and the co-author of Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution. Over the past twenty years he has been a senior global marketer at Coca-Cola, run advertising agencies in the UK and US, been an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, and is the co-founder of useless.org, a social enterprise dedicated to helping people use less and give more. Mark frequently speaks at conferences about creativity, marketing and branding. He passionately believes in the power of ideas to make a positive difference in business and society and works with organisations around the world to put this into practice.

Mark can be reached for branding consultancy and innovation help at mark@businessplayground.com. More details about Mark’s branding work can be found at here.

Mark’s previous book, Punk Marketing, was co-authored with PR expert Richard Laermer and was published in hardback by Harper Collins in 2007, by Morgan James as an audio book in 2008, and in paperback by Harper Collins in 2009. The core theme of the book is the shift in power from corporations to consumers and how marketers need to follow certain commonsense principles to connect with consumers. These are outlined in the Punk Marketing manifesto, a copy of which can be downloaded as a PDF here. Punk Marketing has been translated into Spanish, Portugese, Taiwanese and Chinese and has been published in a number of countries around the world including the US, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, China, Portugal, the Philippines, the UK and Taiwan.

Media praise for Punk:

Blunt, fair, fearless and outrageous – just like the marketing style they espouse.
– Publishers Weekly

It’s about taking risks, yet giving the consumer control of the brand.
– Business 2.0

Taken together, their anecdotes show that truly original, engaging, and—most important—surprising ads will always prevail, whether they’re labeled “punk” or not.
– Business Week

The best book on marketing. I devoured every single word here – and I don’t even CARE about marketing!
– Nick Digilio, WGN Radio

A mix of in-your-face punk flair and practical techniques, Punk Marketing is a manifesto for anyone looking to break away from the old methods and dropkick their sales campaign into the new millennium.
– Sales & Marketing Management

Welcome to a brand new brandscape. Despite its newness the authors maintain that the message is still the message — it’s just delivered with a new media
–Silicon Valley Business Journal

“Punk” reads like the insider wisdom your tattooed brother gave during your first nose-piercing session: “Don’t show Mom, but the girls at school will dig it.”
– Advertising Age

The book opens your eyes to the power your audience has over your brands…With the new communication tools and formats today, this book has been a great source of provocative thinking for strategizing and executing communications for client campaigns. Executives can understand the practical applications of new communications technology.
- St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)

Punk Marketing is the best marketing book I’ve ever read by far. It leaves all the old ways of getting marketing done in the dust, and mocks and brushes aside clichés that don’t work.
- Noggin Blog

I found your bold red opening statement of “This is a nonfiction work” to be a refreshing relief. Thank you.
– gasexperiment.com blog

It is a skewed version of the world that us, normal consumers would never expect and likewise probably never get to know. It is fantastic in its ability to relate to the real world that we seem to live in, not just figures and numbers, the usual “chiffre.”
– Mirum blog

From the very beginning they begin to make statements that you thought about but were too kind to say.
– Tinfoiling blog

A mix of in-your-face punk flair and practical techniques, Punk Marketing is a manifesto for anyone looking to break away from the old methods and dropkick their sales campaign into the new millennium
– Manage Smarter magazine

This should be required reading for all marketing and advertising people who still think that the world hasn’t changed much…
– Technorati

These forward-thinking authors wrote the perfect four chord rabble-rousing song in the form of Punk Marketing. It’s a new world, and they have some great analysis and advice for marketers and business leaders, who better listen or they will really feel the sting of mediocre or negative publicity that we scream in 4/4 time
– InBubbleWrap publishing site

Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons employ their considerable experience and explain in no uncertain terms the importance of marketing in an environment where the power is shifting from corporation to consumer, and expertly explain why, in today’s day and age, “marketing must be both brave and intelligent to succeed
– Website magazine

Cutting edge marketing strategies…Outrageous book format
– History in the Making

The blend of hard data (studies and surveys and such) with qualitative examples, insight and predictions creates a manual that is neither overly academic (like so many marketing tomes are) nor industry-specific (this one works for any industry…or marketing specialty, for that matter)
– Reading Mind magazine

Half how-to manual, half radical manifesto, this is a marketer’s no-bullshit guide to selling the product without annoying, ignoring, insulting, or otherwise alienating the consumer
– Writing.com

Recommended read for those who would like to live and tell the tale.
– Hindu Business Line magazine

Taken together, their anecdotes show that truly original, engaging, and—most important—surprising ads will always prevail, whether they’re labeled “punk” or not
– Read Now magazine (Philippines)