Mobile10: Russell Buckley
Interviews with key mobile influencers
- Name
- Russell Buckley
- Role
- Chief Marketing Officer
- Company
- Eagle Eye
“...the biggest opportunities at the moment are joining the digital and physical worlds together in a way that only mobile can do.
”
Described on these very pages as the Godfather of Mobile, Russell has been a key evangelist for the mobile advertising market, once of Google/Admob fame, now flying the Eagle Eye.

What's your app of the moment?

The usual suspects Kindle, BA, StopWatch (for timing speeches) BBC, Twitter, Solitaire (the time killer I always return to). There’s also “ToiletFinder” – a crowd sourced loo finder, which is pretty useful when you don’t have a London office and yet spend a lot of time there.

What is your primary phone?

Still got the Nexus 2, which was a Christmas present to me from Google when I worked there. Well, and everyone else got one too!

Which mobile startups have you got your eye on?

Eagle Eye excepted, OnDeviceResearch is showing a lot of promise in disrupting a very traditional industry. Palringo (which serves 16 Billion+ group messages every month) – an under-celebrated UK success story. I also like Givey, which has just won investment from Ingnite100 and a bunch of startups that I helped mentor, which came out of the Springboard accelerator programme. Layar are doing some cool stuff and I’m looking forward to judging their Creation Challenge in the coming weeks.

What are you currently working on?

My main focus is Eagle Eye as the mobile payments and coupon space is going to be huge and we stand as good a chance as any of being a winner. We also have a couple of partnerships in this area (yet to be announced) that could be game-changers.

What will be the biggest opportunity in 2012?

I’d say that the biggest opportunities at the moment are joining the digital and physical worlds together in a way that only mobile can do. That means coupons on the one hand, but also includes AR and apps like price comparison. The biggest change for retailers at the moment is the realisation that they need to compete in their own stores for the first time ever.

Who are your 3 rockstars in mobile?

Well, I want to avoid turning this into a reciprocal lovefest, so everyone you’ve interviewed and has been mentioned so far would clearly have made it. But let’s have some new people. Cheryl Dalrymple – AdMob’s CFO– is awesome in the real sense of the word and the CFO label undersells her many abilities.Mike Rowerhl – the first engineer at AdMob, but probably as well known for running MoMo in The Valley, being networked with just about everyone and working on a whole bunch of successful startups. And Harry Dewhirst, founder of Amobee and still young enough to qualify as a real rockstar!

Who were you working for 10 years ago?

ZagMe – world’s first location based advertising company and many years ahead of its time. But my mobile success was built on it, so it wasn’t all bad.

Who was/is your best boss?

I’d have to give the best boss crown to Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob and which has to count as the highpoint of my career – so far. He’s also the person I’ve worked longest for in my career (nearly 5 years), which has to count for a lot. He also trusted me (most of the time) to just get on with it.

Who else should we interview?

Anna Gudmundson of Vertu is doing some interesting things. Digital polymath, Mark Curtis. Dave Birch, who knows everything there is to know about payments.
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What is Mobile10?
The Mobile10 interview is a series of profile pieces on leading global influencers in the mobile sector. Each interviewee is asked to give their viewpoints on new mobile innovations and growth opportunities as well as revealing their own mobile habits over the course of 10 questions.





















