
Aside from his research expertise Mark is an active participant within the culture insofar as he regularly DJs and puts on acclaimed club nights, he has produced short films which have accompanied mainstream feature films in cinemas (one of which – Desserts with Ewan McGregor – won the Silver Bear at Berlin for best short film) and is regularly quoted within the press on cultural/research-related matters. He has also popped up on BBC and Channel 4 News when research projects he has undertaken into sensitive areas have received a lot of attention. Most recently he has been recording and releasing records under the moniker Rude Audio. Their last 2019 release was played on 50+ UK radio stations, including regularly on BBC Radio 6 and supported by DJs like Andrew Weatherall (RIP) and Don Letts. Club-running, DJing, music creation, journalism and film production are the kinds of activities which can help contextualise and enhance our understanding of markets whether they be media or technology or communications or youth or alcohol (or whatever). Qualitative research is often treated as a discipline in a vacuum separate from the real world. The Murmur view is that qualitative research cuts across all sorts of disciplines, subjects and areas of interest and that research may well be informed (rather than unduly influenced) by personal histories and interests. Mark has been proclaimed as the number one market research trend spotter by The Evening Standard in an article entitled ‘Top 25 Trendspotters: some of the most influential and creative people in London’