Yorkshire focus: Do Yorkshire agencies feel they are getting enough support from local clients?
As part of The Drum’s series of UK regional reviews, we caught up with those working across Yorkshire’s creative marketing industries- Boutique Media Communications, Cherry Tiger, Turn Key, Extreme Creations and INK Digital Agency – in order to find out if Yorkshire-based agencies believed they were getting enough support from clients based within the regions.
Does the creative industry in Yorkshire receive enough support from regionally-based clients?Simon Bollon, director, Boutique Media CommunicationsThere are still too many Yorkshire based clients using agencies outside of Yorkshire, more specifically London. However, it’s the job of the agencies to convince those clients that we have the creativity, resources, intelligence and experience to offer a kick ass proposition. I would love to see more Yorkshire brands appoint Yorkshire agencies but they will only do that if the variety of proposition exists and they have absolutely confidence in the agency roster that exists here. Around 80 per cent of our clients are based in Yorkshire. We would like that to be higher and we would of course like the volume to be greater but it’s our job to ensure we talk to the right people with the right proposition. We won’t suit everyone and we wouldn’t want to.Mike Ashton, director, Cherry TigerProvided the quality of the end product is comparable (which of course it is!), it’s in everybody’s interest – both client and agency – to source marketing services from within the locality. I believe this attitude has become more honed in Yorkshire over the last couple of years. Currently around 50 per cent of our business comes from within Yorkshire and significantly 75 per cent within a 90 minute drive time from the agency. Nik Entwistle, MD, Turn KeyI would certainly say so – Yorkshire is the largest county in the UK with a thriving business landscape. We work with a range of regional businesses and I’d say 60 per cent of our clients are based here. We work with chartered surveyors Eddisons, Hullbased Ideal Heating, snacks producer Humdinger and restaurant group Chaophraya – we even recently designed a website for Sheffield metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon! Antony Prince, MD & founder, Extreme CreationsAt the moment, 80 per cent of our clients are based in Yorkshire, though a number of our key clients are elsewhere in the UK and Europe. We think that nothing really can replace the occasional face-to face meeting. Most prospective clients that we meet say that they like the idea of working with an agency that is close to them. From our base in Yorkshire, we work with brands across the world and provide digital strategies for local clients with extensive, international portfolios. We’re actually located in the centre of the UK, therefore our services are accessible to a wide radius of cities.Tony Pye, head of digital development, INK Digital AgencyFrom Southampton to the tip of North Yorkshire we’re incredibly lucky to have a wide and varied client base who we build long term relationships with. We don’t go out of our way to focus particularly on a location, we focus more on helping businesses by producing solutions to meet their challenges. However, INK is headed by a Yorkshire lass and of course we have strong Yorkshire ties; with clients including University of Leeds, Calderdale Council, University of York, University of Sheffield, LA fitness, and a couple of agencies we work under approximately 33 per cent of our business comes solely from the Yorkshire Region.This question was asked as part of a wider feature on Yorkshire in the 23 November issue of The Drum.Content created with:
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