After taking stock and reading everyone’s thoughts over the last week, we’ve decided to break cover and try and explain the rationale behind the campaign Resign London.
Yes, some people feel that parts of the campaign missed the mark, but whatever people’s personal thoughts are on individual elements such as the video and tone of some of some of the Tweets, the fact still remains that the identified skills gap came from industry consultation and is real.
No-one ever meant to imply that we lacked creative talent in the North West. We, more than most, are constantly championing the region both in terms of the workforce we have here and the incredible business base, especially in the creative services sector.
We hold our hands up...we didn’t provide enough of a back story or detail in terms of the specific roles that many of the large creative agencies identified as having trouble recruiting for. For those who feel the research document is too weighty to read, the research identified a talent shortage in two specific areas. First of all digital specialists – hard coders and programmers in particular, and secondly senior level account managers and strategic planners.
The skills gap in digital has come about due to the sheer explosion of digital within the advertising and media sector coupled with the fact that skills in this area are changing so quickly with the technology and increasing convergence. Another conclusion in the report was that the agencies in the region lost many of their young talent after a couple of years to some of the larger agencies in London and found it difficult to win them back. Often, when surveyed, much of this talent were unaware of, or unconvinced by the potential of career opportunities in the region. Individual businesses found it difficult to invest in the necessary marketing, awareness building and recruitment process.
As a result of this report and these findings, the Steering Group recommended an awareness building campaign for the region’s businesses across the sector targeted at London based talent, specifically many of whom had originated from the region. The campaign was the subject of a full procurement process and was won by a virtual agency called Nerve who have representation both in London, the Midlands and the North.
The Nerve directors have a wealth of integrated agency experience and have worked across most sectors, with clients ranging from small regional businesses to global organisations. As a start-up, they were very keen to make sure as much of the budget as possible was spent on production and media for the campaign and were not responsible for any of the content of the Twitter feed as some have suggested.
This campaign is not aimed at relocating businesses from one part of the country to the other, but rather supporting North West businesses in addressing one of the key areas of market failure, which is at the core of the objectives of Vision+Media’s programme.
Obviously the ultimate success of this campaign relies on the skills gap being addressed whether that be with talent from the South, elsewhere in the country or the North West region itself. We’ll keep you updated as to how it goes.
Vision+Media
“We have masses of talent in the North West, we have fantastic agencies with some of the best minds in the business, but success needs feeding.”
Enda Carey,
Head of Games, Digital and Creative Services, Vision+Media.
“There is a talent shortage across the sector, demand is outstripping supply and is likely to continue to do so for a number of years. This is especially true of senior digital people as this industry has simply not been around that long.”
Tony Foggett,
MD of Code Computerlove
“Everyone knows there's amazing talent in the NW, it rivals that of London/NY/Amsterdam. However, the issue isn't talent; it's available talent”
Andrew Eccles,
Operations Director, Fudge
"We have ambitious growth plans and need talented people who can help us achieve this. It’s a chicken and egg dilemma but amazing career opportunities definitely exist in the North."
Markerle Davis
MD, Soap Media
"The North West has masses of talent but there's greater capacity for everyone to grow if there is a larger, more mobile pool of senior talent in the region"
Leo White
Hydrant