Large-scale marketing accounts to return to regions predicts Crown Paints marketing director
Large-scale marketing accounts to return to regions predicts CrownRegional agencies are likely to see large-scale marketing accounts return, says the marketing director of Crown Paints, Liz Hickson.
Speaking to The Drum, Hickson predicted that business were beginning to look outside of London for expansion and that agencies in the largest regional cities would benefit from that as a result.
“At this moment in time there is a big move into businesses expanding out of London and into the key cities such as Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds. Corresponding with businesses moving, we also start seeing a rise of agencies, and strong agencies, in regional pockets as well,” said Hickson.
“I think there’s definitely a trend to companies looking outside of London for options. That’s no disrespect to those fantastic agencies in London as well but they do carry extensive overheads as well. There’s that consideration, but I also believe that there is a really good regional talent pool and there I’d be first as a regional company to try and support the local region, where feesable and so far it’s worked very well for us.
“I am a strong believer in that. I know cash is tight everywhere but we are starting to see a lot of regeneration programmes as well as even when you look at a lot of the architect practices, you could say that the top practices are all based in London, but if you look around, you start seeing big business units. The finance industry has big regional pockets also.”
Darwin headquartered Crown Paints appointed Manchester-based BJL as its creative agency last May, after a year with TBWA, and then handed BJL its consumer PR account last month.
Meanwhile, The Leith Agency was named the new advertising agency for Baxters, which returned to Scotland having moved its creative account to London with JWT two years ago.
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Really? Dreams, Nissan, Kelloggs and Harvey's have all moved to London. DFS are on their way.
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It's not about 'supporting the local region' - regional agencies are not charities. It makes far more commercial sense in many instances to have an agency close by. We all have the technology to make it easy to email proofs, SKYPE and video conference; but at the end of the day we are a service industry that is fundamentally about people buying people.
Clients are often too hasty to look to London for their creative resource and invariably these are the clients that most frequently move agencies. There is phenomenal talent in the regions, and it's just a shame that so many big brands based outside of London, completely miss out on it by focusing their search in London.
out of touch.
Paul, this argument has been pushed out for years and years by regional agencies, but whether we like it or not, the fact is, that perception is reality. If clients perceive the regions to be inferior to London, then that is the reality in the eyes and minds of the people who really matter - the clients.
And no matter how much the regions keep talking it up, it's obviously not working, hence why more and more big clients are heading down south.
Instead of talking about how good the talent in the regions is, the regions need to start proving it with their work - as the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words.
Time to stop navel gazing, and start producing work that really does rival London, and it needs to be done on the few large high profile clients that are still in the regions, not small 'chip shop' accounts.
The regions do indeed have some fabulous talent, unfortunately big clients are failing to see this, and this is what needs addressing by the industry in the regions.
Have regional agencies - especially the larger ones, looked at how their recruitment policies completely contradict their 'fabulous talent in the regions' mantra.
It's no good waxing lyrically about how much talent there is in the regions, and then going off to London and Sydney for your new creative director!
Practise what you preach!
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