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Turner Duckworth The Drum Awards RAPP

Are traditional creative industries losing talent to tech companies? Roses Creative Awards judges weigh in

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

January 28, 2016 | 4 min read

In the time it takes you to read this article the UK creative industries will have generated hundreds of thousands of pounds for the British economy.

Celebrated in figures released this week, our unique brand of creativity – from across each and every region – generates £6.9m an hour adding up to a grand total of £84.1bn each year.

Spanning the worlds of film, design, music, TV, advertising, gaming and more, the biggest hurdle our creative industries face when looking to keep momentum is the same as it’s always been, according to TurnerDuckworth head of design, Bruce Duckworth, a judge at this year’s Roses Creative Awards, and that is “finding great, talented people,” a challenge which is getting ever harder as new avenues prove increasingly alluring to creative minds.

“The fact we all lead virtual lives alongside our real ones has had an increasing influence on the kind of work creatives want to make,” explains fellow Roses judge Rapp executive creative director, Jason Andrews, when asked if companies like Facebook, Twitter, et al poaching the best talent from the traditional creative industries like advertising and design. “There’s an expectation that every brief will now have a social or ‘innovation’ dimension and we really encourage exploration of that.”

“These companies [Facebook, etc.] are an option when looking for an alternative to an agency,” admits Roses judge Razorfish’s executive creative director, Nick Turner, who argues those looking to jump ship need to consider the “variety of projects and brands” they’ll get to work on and whether or not they can make a real contribution.

“I predict talented and ambitious people will stay at a role at one of these companies for about two years and then head back to the agency world with great experience and a new perspective, eventually the agency world will benefit.”

Joining Beri Cheetham, executive creative director at Leo Burnett; Studio Sutherland founder, Jim Sutherland, Karmarama creative director, John Iredale and Gavin Torrance, CHI&Partners creative director on the Roses judging panel, all three are particularly vocal about celebrating the great creative work done outside of London.

“We need to champion more centres of creative excellence across the UK, says Turner. “We need to endorse and support creative talent in every corner of the country and it’s important to see our diverse British culture and our heritage influencing our creativity.”

And Duckworth echoes those sentiments adding: “There’s great work done outside of London, just less agencies and designers.”

Having judged the back in 2014, Andrews knows what he’s looking for when it comes to this year’s entries and that’s work that makes him jealous.

“Awards like the Roses are crucial; they give regional agencies a platform to showcase their work in a national format,” he says. “They’re also a brilliant way to support the work that has a running chance on the bigger international stages.”

Turner adds his head will be turned by “original idea, indispensable experiences, behaviour changing innovations and beautifully crafted executions. I want to be able to understand the submission as if I was a six-year-old.”

This year’s Roses Creative Awards are open for entries until Friday 5 February; the awards are supported by the Chesterfield Group and Become. For more information on the Roses Creative Awards visit the awards website to register.

Turner Duckworth The Drum Awards RAPP

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