When Stuart Feather co-founded a media agency in Edinburgh in 1991, people told him he was mad. "Clients don't want an agency outside London," cried the prophets of doom. "Everyone knows London is the only decent place for a media agency."
But Feather Brooksbank has proved these naysayers well and truly wrong. In addition to Edinburgh, the company now has offices in Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds, employing almost 100 people. The agency was ranked 17th largest media agency in terms of billings by Nielsen Media Research in February this year and regularly pitches against London agencies, with around 75% of its client base made up of national accounts.
Clients include big spenders such as Matalan, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Scottish & Newcastle, and the agency's trophy cabinet is bursting at the seams with silverware such as the Fresh Media Awards Media Agency of the Year 2007. Clearly, there was method in Feather's madness when he and partner Giles Brooksbank launched 16 years ago.
Well treated "Yes, there are a number of clients who would not consider a regional agency," Feather admits. "But there are clients based outside London who don't want to go to the capital every five minutes. The most important thing they're after is to be well treated. That's got nothing to do with location; it's down to experience, systems, tools and people."
Feather says the only disadvantage he has experienced by being located in the regions is the fact that there is a smaller pool of talent to recruit from. To combat this, Feather Brooksbank has had to invest more in training programmes to skill-up fresh candidates. While other regional managing directors, such as Jason Spencer at PHD North, agree that recruitment is a challenge, they argue it is becoming less of an issue as work/life balance continues to enjoy a high media profile.
Spencer moved from London to Manchester a year ago, when he started a family and wanted a better quality of life. Having expanded his agency from six to 14 employees over the past nine months, he believes other top talent is starting to follow suit.
"We've cast our net wider to recruit good people and we've been successful," says Spencer. "For example, two of my colleagues are former colleagues from London who have been happy to make the lifestyle change. I think we will continue to see people making these kinds of moves up North for lifestyle reasons. After all, both the cost of housing in London and the gap between income and housing keep increasing."
Spencer also challenges the perception in the media industry that London can offer a more fulfilling and high-flying career than the regions. He claims that he has found working at PHD North, for clients such as Irn-Bru and Sainsbury's Bank, far more rewarding than his experiences at London agencies.
"I'm certainly not drifting in a backwater, easing myself into retirement," he jokes. "I've worked harder over the past year than I did in London, but the rewards have been greater. You're a bigger fish in a smaller pond and so you have a bigger impact: you might represent 5% of your agency's output, whereas in London that figure may only be 1%."
Spencer adds that planners and buyers at regional agencies get greater exposure to a wider breadth of experience, as well as the opportunity to build close, direct relationships with media owners. This in turn leads to a better service for clients. For these reasons, it "really annoys" him when regional agencies are sometimes treated as "the poor relation" by their London counterparts.
He says: "We are in no way poor relations, but we're not bothered if some London agencies want to keep thinking of us in that way, as long as we keep winning business from them - with a better quality of life to boot."
Indeed, the fledgling agency has doubled in size over the past year, with two of its seven new business accounts - mail order brand Otto and AG Barr-owned Orangina - moving from London agencies.
The feeling at Brilliant Media, based in Leeds and Manchester, is that the days when regional agencies were treated as poor relations are "long gone". One reason for this, according to managing director of the Leeds office David Moutrie, is the growth of digital, which has spurred phenomenal growth in the regions.
Brilliant is ranked ninth-largest interactive agency in the UK, with billings in excess of £20m and more than 20 staff working in digital. Moutrie, in common with other agency heads, believes it is easier for regional agencies to restructure themselves for the digital age because they are smaller and nimbler than their London siblings.
"The dramatic growth of media agencies in the regions means we are now taken very seriously by our London competitors," says Moutrie.
"The scale of our business, and of agencies such as MediaVest in Manchester, has proved we are able to pitch and win business against London agencies." As a recent example, MediaVest Leeds won the national tender for the Government education department's Lifelong Learning account in November 2006.
Nevertheless, while regional agencies are keen to convey that they can handle major, national accounts, the majority admit there are certain account sizes that would be better-placed with a London network. For instance, Brilliant is predominantly geared towards advertisers spending between £1m and £20m in the UK market.
Similarly, MediaVest Leeds handles accounts worth between £500,000 and £6m. However, although the agency is relatively small, the majority of its business (70%) is still national. In fact, one of the reasons it was set up in 2003 was specifically to target the wealth of clients in the locality, such as Arla Foods and First Direct, which still use London-based agencies - it is working hard on changing their minds.
Managing director Dominic Geary says one frustration he encounters is the perception that "because we're based in the North, we must be very good at local press, which is far too stereotypical".
The overriding message from regional agencies, therefore, is that they are up for the fight for national, meaty accounts, and that just because they happen to be based in the regions doesn't mean they can only work on regional business.
Lone voice All the agencies consulted for this article except one, that is. This lone voice comes from BLM Clilverd in Bristol, run by chief executive Rob Clilverd, who disagrees with much of what his regional rivals have said. For starters, he argues that their business models are flawed and that they should not attempt to compete with London outfits.
"The notion that the media world should come out to the regions is one I don't buy," he says. "London suits the majority of clients. So, we leave the major brand stuff to the London agencies and we specialise in regional media."
As a final comment that is bound to spark further debate, Clilverd adds: "Some regional agencies need to lose the chips on their shoulders. They would be better-off looking again at their own business than whingeing on about the fact that clients should buy the services of regional agencies."
THE WANTED ADS EXPERIENCE
The Wanted Ads Experience is a scheme spearheaded by The Newspaper Society to give London agencies a flavour of regional media scenes. A group of young media planners take a day trip, courtesy of the society, to a regional city and find out more about the principal media channels, consumer lifestyle, role of the local press and how the extension of digital media is extending the influence of local media.
Robert Ray, the Society's marketing director, explains: "The media industry is still massively London-centric and I say this having been a London agency head myself [at Starcom]. However, the majority of audiences that planners are trying to reach are based out of London. So we wanted to show planners the real role of local newspapers in a town or city."
The first Wanted Ads Experience took place in Manchester in April and the second happened in Newcastle in June. The Manchester trip included a tour of the city, a session with local editors at the Manchester Evening News and a live broadcast at local TV station Channel M's studios. Christina Totty, account manager, MindShare, says: "I'd never been to Manchester and it was a real eye-opener.
There's a totally different way of life to London. There is a tendency in media to stereotype people and that comes from a lack of knowledge. Next time I'm looking to do a trendy music campaign, I won't automatically assume that London is the place to do it."
.