Bio
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"Jonathan has a knack for approaching brands and
marketing problems from a very human perspective, rather than a textbook one.
Always with quirky and unexpected insights. The good kind of quirky. The kind
that inspire you. Jonathan is a great writer, as well. I've found his work to be
alive with words and phrases that always help lead the creative work to a more
interesting place.
Jonathan is fearless, too. He'll track down and talk to anyone, anywhere -- no
matter how famous, self-important or inaccessible that person might appear to
be. True to his boxing-magazine writer heritage, Jonathan gets to the heart of
the story, no matter how tough and hardened the subject matter."
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Jonathan Field
Founder
Field grew up in New York City. After
getting a B.A. in political science, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where
besides working as a reporter for local newspapers, he used his background as an
amateur boxer to get a monthly column in the boxing publication, KO Magazine.
There he profiled young fighters like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
He
subsequently started writing plays about boxing, and won a MFA fellowship to the University of California, San Diego's Professional Theater Program
in La Jolla. He then won a bunch of contests and productions and worked as a
scriptwriter and reader for several Hollywood film production companies.
Following a 9-month stint in Europe after one of his plays was produced in
London, Field returned to New York City and became intrigued by the advent of
the Internet which led to a deeper interest in how technology and globalization
was changing modern business.
In the early 1990s, Field met advertising brand planner Ted Nelson. The two
shared interests in following the intersections between business, media and
culture. A few years later when Nelson moved from Anderson Lemke to create
Mullen Advertising’s first account planning department, he started to give Field
projects that tapped into the latter’s reporting and media acumen. After several
of these projects, Nelson brought him in-house to Mullen, where Field became the
advertising world’s first official “cultural strategist.”
His colorful title, and more importantly, interesting projects for Mullen got
mentions in articles in the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and the New
York Times. And his work on the Sci-Fi Channel’s position of "playground of the
mind" helped win Mullen a place in the Account Planning Group awards. He also
was part of Mullen’s huge growth stage between 1996 and 2000 where the agency
doubled in size.
Since launching Fieldwork in 2001, Field has worked on a range of terrific assignments
for great clients.
Summation
Field's work as a dramatist and reporter proved useful to understanding what
moves human beings, and therefore what moves markets. His years of throwing
punches at moving targets made him understand the importance of tactics and
strategy, as well as the difference between the two. Staying out of the boxing
ring has meant Field's ears are still awfully good, and his long range vision
seems to just improve with age.
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