Hidden Gems
Over the last 12 months emphasis has fallen on the key centres of industry throughout the UK. The Drum looked to identify the most creative city, as debate continued over the vitality of the creative industries outwith the M25. As hard times fell on the industry it was argued that perhaps it was those based outside London that were best placed to capitalise in the downturn, offering lower overheads but maintaining a high quality of service.
But what about those based in smaller outlets still, those based outside the key regional creative hotspots? Surely the economic arguments (cheaper overheads, better quality of life, ease of travel, etc) applied to the likes of Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham during the recession could be magnified further when we look to the agencies that enjoy a location out of the city completely?
Well, there appears to be two schools of thought here. There are some that work outwith the city for the very reason of low costs and overheads, while others argue that it was just a coincidence of circumstance.
Factor 3 was established by three directors of an existing Cheltenham-based company, its roots were already in the area but importantly for the founders, it is ideally placed to serve not only the South West and Wales but the Midlands and London.
DRAWBACKS
“It’s hard to think of drawbacks,” says MD Nick Fairburn. “Most of the 16 members of staff live less than a 20 minute drive from the office; we have free parking on site and we work in a restored Regency building directly opposite Hotel du Vin. And to cap it all our client base is a varied mix of national and international blue chip accounts (Office Depot, Cheltenham & Gloucester plc and WorldHotels) to some high-profile local organisations including Cheltenham Racecourse.
“Being IPA members we never feel out on a limb and we get approached regularly by ‘quality’ candidates for whom the big city has lost its allure. And don’t forget that plenty of marketing personnel with big brand experience are now working for Gloucestershire-based companies.”
Engine Creative is another to count location as nothing more than a quirk of early existence. Its two cofounders, Matt Key and Phil Christer, studied together at the University of Northampton and set up together straight after completing their courses. They soon picked up clients and never saw a requirement to move elsewhere.
“The company has always been focussed on delivering the best creative solutions and as long as we can continue to do this from our current location we see no reason to up sticks and move,” says Andrew Wise, Engine’s strategic director. “Northampton is a growing and vibrant town with a huge amount to offer culturally and historically. There is a huge amount of investment being made in the region and, as the largest growth area outside of London, is a great place to do business at the moment.
“We’ve been lucky enough to attract quality staff because of our work and client base,” continues Wise. “Great creative people want to work on great creative projects in a creative environment regardless of location. We work from a converted church and so the space is open, inspiring and very conducive to creating the type of work that ourselves and our clients aspire to.”
PROUD
Engine counts the likes of the British Library, the Open University and the National College among its clients. The agency is also working on a growing number of TV commercials for the likes of Ministry of Sound and Universal Music TV. “I’m proud of every project but, specifically, I love the work we have done with Top Gear over the past year,” says Wise. “We have just created the cover artwork for the 200th Collectors’ Edition of Top Gear Magazine which is another piece of work we’ve done that has helped to build the Top Gear brand.”
While Factor 3 and Engine might have ended up in their more scenic locations by chance, others have decided to go by design.
“We positioned ourselves as having ‘big agency ideas, small agency prices’ when we first opened up for business, offering all the skills you’d find in a large city based agency at a fraction of the cost. Keeping our overheads low was key to fulfilling this proposition,” says Louise Muir, a partner at Pitch&Co, based in Macclesfield.
“We are very passionate about our business, we work hard and put everything back into it, which has meant that we have been able to invest in a new office as part of our plan to move the business forward over the coming years,” continues Muir. “The biggest challenge is to get larger clients to understand that paying city rates is not always the most cost efficient route to getting great ideas, professionally delivered in a timely manner, whilst at the same time, convincing smaller clients that they can still afford you – although our new offices should help us with that on a number of levels.”
Scott Dickson, MD of Stirling-based Vizibility Design, decided on location after researching the market: “We had been operating a team from Glasgow for eight years and in 2000 decided not to relocate South with our principle company. With their agreement we decided to set up a standalone agency. Most of our work up to that point had been in the USA and Europe, but we reviewed the local competition we would be up against both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. At the time both cities were crowded with design agencies. We decided to set up in a less crowded market and Stirling fitted the bill.”
However, Dickson adds that being based in Stirling doesn’t give him major cost benefits, “rent is on a par with many locations in Glasgow and Edinburgh and there is less choice.” And, if anything, he finds that he has to pay a bit more to attract staff, and he commutes from Paisley every day. “But being in Stirling is seen as a neutral venue by some central-belt based clients.” Which overcomes certain loyalties when it comes to appointing an agency.
Vizability has recently been involved in a national initiative called People Making Waves – a four year programme that seeks to connect the people of Scotland with the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games through volunteering. Volunteer Development Scotland will deliver the programme in partnership with a number of partners including Voluntary Arts Scotland and Greater London Volunteering.
“We worked closely with the lead partner to develop a full brand identity for the initiative and helped launch it nationally during the summer. We are currently working on marketing strategy for the initiate for 2010 and beyond,” adds Dickson.
One thing that is common to most that operate outwith major cities is the power and potential that networking gives.
DETERMINATION
Cactus Creative is based in Kentmere Valley in the Lake Districts; a stunning natural environment that has always attracted creatives, poets, artists and writers. “For us, part of the story is a determination to make our business work in a place that suits us to the core – we’re outdoor people and therefore take continual inspiration from our environment as well as being able to play as hard as we work,” says Creative director Andy Smith. “On top of that, we can take a healthy distance from the mainstream that is invaluable for originality.
Cactus shares a mill yard with a famous fell-runners cafe, an acclaimed brewery and an award-winning artisan bakery, as well as Europe’s biggest mountain bike store. So, bringing together like-minded businesses that can benefit one another is important.
“Networking plays a big part locally,” says Smith. “We have many connections with local consultants and are also able to connect with local businesses on a personal level. There is some incredible entrepreneurial spirit in the area.”
This is something that is also common to the Borders, claims Giles Etherington, creative director of Fruitful Advertising & Design, based in Selkirk: “Networking in the Borders is very proactive. We, along with several other creative businesses, are in the process of setting up Creative Borders, which will showcase the quality and experience of the creative companies in the area and hopefully attract clients from the cities looking for a better value service.
“In 2008, we were identified by Scottish Enterprise as a potential high growth business and granted ‘incubation’ status. This helped facilitate our move into offices in the form of reduced rent and the free rental of computers and printers. They also helped us financially in setting up our accounting procedures. Now that the incubation period has expired and we achieved the growth potential laid out in our business plan, we have been appointed an account manager. We are having our first meeting with her later this month, so we hope that will lead to more access to funding.
“But we have been lucky, we have done more than just survive the last couple of years (we have tripled our turnover in the last 12 months). As a relatively new business, we have not experienced a climate of prosperity. If we can do better than OK during the recession, we are hopefully pretty well placed to enjoy the recovery. “
Richie Keeble of Keeble, a “relatively new” (six months old) business in Livingston also talks up the prospects of working in partnership with others in the locale. “West Lothian has a large amount of small to medium enterprises which we’ve been able to connect with via some fantastic networking groups. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of freelancers and suppliers in and around Livingston. We have formed a great working relationship with the print and direct mail company Stewarts, who are less than a mile from our office. Stewarts relocated to Livingston in 2007 having been based in Edinburgh since 1879.”
But what of the challenges faced now and in the year ahead... Are they just the same as anywhere else in the UK or do they come unique to each location?
OPPORTUNITY
“The opportunity ahead excites us,” says Andy Johns of Chester-based Heart & Soul. “The last 18 months have been incredibly tough but we have got some fantastically loyal clients and good friends who’ve supported us. We can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel.
“The last year has not all been good! New opportunities dried up and existing clients cut back their spend. The inevitable raft of redundancies meant saying goodbye to some good friends.”
Yet, the agency has produced some “outstanding” work in the last year, claims Johns. “Our challenge is to keep the momentum moving and to build on the foundation we have already. The agency is constantly evolving which is tremendously exciting, but we need to stay true to our values and remember what it is about this agency that brought clients through the door in the first place. And in fairness I don’t think that has anything to do with location but more to do with sheer hard work and tenacity.”
The challenges faced are common to every agency, agrees David Patrick of Uttoxeter-based Yes Agency. His Staffordshire team grew out of Midlands agency, Brookes and Vernons and works with the likes of JCB, who are “just up the road in Rocester” – with the team coming from a wide geographic area, from Birmingham to Nottingham.
“It’s a time of tremendous change and that always creates new opportunities,” he continues. “Business has been tough and the dynamics of our industry are rapidly changing. Clients want more for less and they want it now. We’ve seen a level of churn among our clients as marketing budgets are cut back. Having said that, those agencies that can take the strategic lead, have very high levels of client service and are able to deliver a wide range of marketing services will thrive.”
“Our location is certainly not a challenge,” says Cathy Bentley, founder of Anslow-headquareterd Iceni. “I’ve worked up and down the UK, and in more than 30 countries, and brought film back to a Midlands studio to edit and finish it. Quite soon after the company was formed, we moved out of the city (Birmingham) to our first rural studio. As we built a core staff of online editor/ colourist and senior designer/animator we relied less on other post production houses and design studios. So it didn’t really matter where we are based. We don’t need a shop front, we don’t rely on passing trade. The projects that we are invited to pitch for are looking for creative ideas, not for the company closest to their office.
“Although the studio is in a rural location, we are in the heart of the Midlands conurbation – Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, all less than 30 miles away. That gives us a large pool of talent to draw on. There is a lot of competition for jobs in our industry. We get a lot of interest for the posts we advertise. Our biggest challenge is continuing to generate cost effective, creative ideas, matching delivery method to the message, and making the hard work that we do to deliver a project a great experience for the agencies we work with.”
In fact, says Stirling-based Baseline director Douglas Walker, the main drawback to our location would be that we tend to be quietly getting on with doing our own thing under everyone’s radar – whether clients or peers. With a constantly demanding workload, we don’t get out that much... Over the last 12 months there’s been a lot of projects which we’ve been really proud to have worked on, and we’ve done some of our best work on them... such as Homecoming Live, T in the Park and the Borders Music & Comedy Festival - these, along with working with Idlewild, Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks have been exciting projects to be involved in. My personal highlight was The Breeders doing an impromptu after-gig signing session for the posters we’d designed and screen-printed for their two gigs in King Tuts.
Furthermore, Baseline’s screen-printing off-shoot Handcooked Posters should come more fully in to play this year as a fully-fledged business, “rather than being run as just a creative side-line/indulgent hobby.”
Rose O’Connor of Eden Consultancy in Falkirk, adds: “Cost has perhaps come into sharper focus and margins have definitely been tighter, but being a small agency means that we’ve been able to deal with it better than maybe some of our larger competitors. We’re naturally lean and have a good spread of loyal clients in a wide range of sectors, so we’ve been busy throughout.
“Our challenge for the year ahead is to continue to evolve and stay ahead of the curve, while at the same time focusing on our core business of delivering consistently dependable, first class service to our clients. But probably the consistent challenge is having to address incorrect perceptions – there are lots of really good agencies and really good people working outwith the main cities.”