Manchester focus: Is there a sense of big agency dominance or are smaller agencies leading the way?

As part of The Drum’s special reports on the marketing and media scene in Manchester we speak to a number of industry insiders operating in the space to gain an insight into the key issues surrounding the city emerging as a media capital.

In a series of features we’ll be looking at the industry’s responses to the questions we posed, to find out what’s happening in the city now and what they think the future for Manchester looks like.

This feature looks at the Manchester agency scene, asking if there is a sense of big agency dominance in the city. Industry experts offer us varied opinions; with some thinking that size just doesn’t matter in the emerging digital city.

Chris Garratt, managing director at Bert, explained that rather than competing, agencies large and small are working together: “Larger agencies like Creative Lynx were brilliant when we first moved across from Yorkshire, helping supply us with contacts and referrals. The climate is really making agencies pull together.”