A look at the plans for Billington Cartmell in Scotland
The Drum talks to David Guy who is heading up the Edinburgh office of Billington Cartmell, to find out what the agency hopes to achieve within the Scottish market place.
Guy has also recently recruited Fiona Burton from The Union and Pamela Craig from Feather Brooksbank, working alongside clients such as pensions and finance brand Aegon UK, for which it recently launched a summer tennis campaign and Morrisons.
Billington Cartmell has been in Edinburgh for a couple of years now - what does the company hope to achieve through its Scottish presence?
Since opening in May 2008, our plan remains unchanged, combine the best local talent with a major London integrated agency to help Scottish based businesses grow and help companies grow in the Scottish market.
As the industry saw major network agencies pull out of Scotland, Billington Cartmell saw opportunities in Scotland. That’s why we’ve developed a streamlined network agency solution for our Edinburgh office with viability at the core of how we’re structured.
We make brands matter’ is Billington Cartmell’s primary purpose and we’re bringing this approach to our clients’ briefs and consumers’ lives – north and south of the border.
We look for top calibre staff who can clearly show excellence in delivering campaigns for leading private and public sector clients in Scotland. Like Fiona Burton from The Union, who recently joined the team and has already provided existing BCL clients with strong local insights to help shape future Scottish campaign work.
What do you hope, Billington Cartmell brings to the industry north of the border?
We are unashamedly proud of the creative talent we have in the group and in Scotland we want to bring on fresh Scottish talent to this pool. Our group ambition, “to be the most admired creative agency, through heroic innovation” continues to inspire and challenge the agency and its people to move forward. We believe our ambition is aligned to the character of Scotland, whose brave, enlightened thinkers have changed, and continue to shape, our world.
20 years ago our founders were both senior client-side marketeers and have imbued their agency with a single-minded entrepreneurial focus. In Scotland we’re bringing clients this potent blend of commercial, strategic and creative thinking.
We also hope to give clients access to leading UK creatives and planners, but with the value of a local presence to build relationships and smooth the delivery of fast-paced projects.
Our networked solution gives clients access to a deeper pool of agency thinking specialists.
You've just moved into the centre of Edinburgh and have begun hiring from some of the more well established agencies in the city. Why is this all happening now?
Being in the busiest part of Edinburgh attracted us. We wanted to re-create the buzz of the London office and clearly the knock-on effect that has for staff and client experience.
There are great agencies in Scotland, yet many are not always producing the fantastic work they have done in the past. We’re finding many potential recruits share our way of thinking. New staff tell us they have more headroom to develop and freedom to express themselves. Which is great to hear as we’re in the business to develop better work – and critical to that is having fired-up agency staff.
How do you hope to develop the Scottish operation over the coming months?
“If you build it, he will come”, exemplifies our attitude to agency development. Our focus is on excellence for our existing clients and looking at how we go the extra mile, making time to proactively think about how we make their brands matter even more tomorrow.
What scale do you see the operation growing to in Scotland?
Over the next five years the group aims to double in size – and plans are in place to ensure that happens. In Scotland, we’ll continue to focus on delivering excellent work for our existing clients and we hope to add one or two more along the way.