Ganjou launched Curb, the world’s first marketing agency exclusively using nature, in his parents’ basement in 2008.
The location was inspired: no rent; low overheads; room enough for Ganjou’s three staff. But, while Ganjou is keen to endorse the benefits of working with elements like snow and water, he neglected to consider the flipside.
A few months into business, disaster struck. "We got flooded," he admits, wryly.
It was a low blow for Curb, which had just executed a fantastically successful snow-tagging campaign for extreme sports firm Extreme. In just a few hours, the Curb team had stamped 3,000 Extreme logos in snow-covered street furniture all over London, prompting Al Gosling, Extreme’s CEO, to say, "Extreme has a long history of both branding innovation and association with alpine adrenaline living, but it’s not very often we get to bring these both together onto the streets of London. We were very impressed.”
Shame the tag team couldn’t go back to Curb HQ and warm up afterwards.
"It was a complete mess," says Ganjou. "Everything was damp and horrible."
However, this minor blip isn’t likely to hinder Curb’s stratospheric growth. In six months the young firm has pulled in a turnover of £60,000, and is on target to make £0.5m in its first year. "We could do a lot more than that," adds Ganjou.
And at least Ganjou is aware of the irony of the situation: "It’s hilarious, isn’t it” A natural marketing firm, getting screwed by the weather."
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