87% of the population lives outside of London
77% of the nation’s GDP comes from outside London
70% of the commercial sector operates outside of London
10% of advertising is spent outside of London…
…so why, so often, does it feel like advertising speaks in only one voice?. The reality is that when people in the rest of the UK don't feel represented and see themselves in what they're looking at, they will not engage - it will simply not be relevant. As diverse as London is, it is still the case that what resonates in Haggerston may not hit home in Huddersfield (and vice versa), and that’s not an obstacle; it’s an opportunity.
Nick Wheatley eloquently discussed the topic of regionality under the banner “It’s time to ditch the ‘r’ word” last year, highlighting, quite rightly, that any mention of working outside of London intrinsically comes attached with a barely-concealed conceit that you’re apologising for something substandard. It’s a topic that means an awful lot to me personally, having moved to Edinburgh from London some 30 years ago.
Linda Baritski
Living and working outside of London gives a fresher, more representative view of the nation as a whole. You have empathy with people and their issues; there are so many things that happen that far transcend 'research groups' and 'insight.'
It's about where you shop and who you chat to at the till; the conversations you overhear on the bus; the relationship you have with nature and the outdoors; the industries you feel connected to. Believable storytelling needs to be told in a voice that rings with the emotion, pride and eccentricities that come with the area you live in and the culture and traditions associated with it.
It’s not even that agencies and brands are speaking to an entire nation with a distinctly London slant - it’s the fact that it’s a very specific London voice that often doesn’t even resonate with other residents across the capital.
But the regional and London battle is only holding us all back. So we are calling for all areas of the industry - clients, London agencies, “regional” agencies, Intermediaries, associations, publications, et al, to ditch the divide and put consumers first to give them advertising they feel connected to and represented by.
The regional and London battle is only holding us all back
By working together at every stage of the process, from pitching and planning to procurement and production, work is embedded with real truth and honesty. Sharing our cultural wealth benefits everyone, and collaboration across the nation allows us to bring a richness and a vibrancy to engage with people on a very primal level. It won’t just sound believable, it will feel believable.
From a commercial angle, it’s ruinously expensive to continue to centre all our creative output from London - overheads and transport costs strip value for money from everything we do, let alone the fact that we’re asking the new blood coming into our industry to relocate to somewhere where the cost of living is likely to impact their quality of life. Lockdown proved that creatives and strategists don’t need to be chained to one desk to create great work.
Creative talent has never been rooted in one place geographically, and this can be seen across the continent: Milan competes comfortably with Rome; Munich with Berlin; and Barcelona with Madrid. The UK has always celebrated our regional voices - our accents, our senses of humour, our environment and our history.
The irony, of course, is that the majority of industry workers in and around London have flocked there from these very same ”regions”. It’s not a matter of shifting all the work to one place, whether that be London or Newcastle - it’s about fostering collaboration to ensure that we are unlocking our creative strengths wherever they are.
Simon Manchipp
London used to be the flame that attracted all moths, but increasingly, the flame is less magnetic as other cities and regions become more attractive to a younger generation of consumers priced out of the capital. Media City is no longer a pipe dream, and the reality of relocating to one of the most expensive places to live and work in Europe has become ever more glaring.
The sooner we begin to embrace the opportunity of representation rather than retreat to the obstacles that regionality brings, the better. The inherent notion of being in competition with each other is unhealthy and counterproductive, both in terms of how we work and the work that we create. The world is currently crying out for a recognisable and authentic truth in every form of communication, and it’s only right that our industry embraces this challenge and delivers it via the best resource we have - our brilliant spectrum of talent across the nation.