Sector spotlight: marketing

Fact

·       There are over 50 marketing agencies in Bristol

·       The average digital marketing salary in Bristol is £50,000

Marketing and advertising tend to blur into one, especially in the modern digital era.  As billboards and prime time TV adverts have shuffled over to make room for social media, influencers and internet channels, the industry has changed. Given the spectrum, there are plenty of actors in the space across Bristol, though the digital slant is noticeable.

BIG PLAYERS

Founded in 1997, e3 is a digital agency with around 60 employees that helps clients “produce growth strategies to keep pace with consumers” from its Paintworks headquarters. It’s growing at 15 to 20 per cent a year with a turnover of £4.2 million.

“Our main Bristol client is Bristol Airport,” says business director Miranda Glover. “We’ve shared a successful relationship with since re-designing their website to align with their ambitious aims to take passenger numbers from 6.3 million to 10 million by 2020. We’re also the lead digital agency for The Royal Navy and Arthritis Research UK, and currently work with Historic Royal Palaces, Unicef, Orange and Yodel.”

She says the burgeoning digital world presents both the opportunity and the challenge: “Our biggest challenges are the same as our brands, creating innovative, user-centred experiences for an increasingly digitally noisy world with savvy-consumers. We don’t want to add to the noise, we want to be seen as integral to the experience, not a part you have to put up with.”

T&S, based in the Bath Road Studios, is a Bristol-born agency turning over £2 million annually. “We have seen rapid growth since we started T&S back in July 2011,” says client services director Emma Knapp. “Our team alone has grown from 5 to 27 in that time,” and there’s no reason to think that growth won’t continue.

“The initial shockwaves of Brexit made consumers, and in turn the companies that advertise to them, hesitant. But we are seeing a renewed confidence in the marketplace, which should make for a busy and prosperous year ahead.”

MID-SIZED AGENCIES

Beneath the bigger players sits a significant tranche of mid-sized agencies.

Proteus has a 16-strong team working nationally and locally with clients such as Lloyds Banking Group and GWR. “Client budgets are growing ever tighter and we are being asked to achieve more with less,” says client services manager Eva Whittaker. “Successful campaigns are also not just about the creative concept, but about being creative with your choice of channel and how the messages are delivered through those channels. Campaigns need seamless delivery across so many channels; it’s not just a simple advertising campaign, it’s about a cohesive delivery of the campaign across offline, online and social channels.”

She says detailed procurement processes for larger businesses makes it harder for less established agencies to break into those opportunities, but that Bristol marketing agencies are well placed to compete nationally: “We have a lower cost base than London. Coupled with such great transport routes, we are able to truly compete with London based agencies, in terms of creative output, but at far more competitive rates. We are in London weekly to see clients and this a real area of growth for our agency.

Synergy Creative was the only Bristol agency to make this year’s Recommended Agency Register Top 100 following a 30 per cent increase in turnover thanks to clients such as Vodafone, BNP Paribas, ODEON Cinemas, Caterpillar and Aviva, and has just moved to new Clifton headquarters from Westbury-on-Trym.

Director Gemma McGrattan says: “We’ve had a really successful year in 2016, attracted dream clients, added exceptional talent to the team and we’ve grand plans to grow the business even further next year.”

“We have a very clear, focused strategy for growth,” adds fellow director Nicky Clark, “but what’s more important than the financial side of these rankings is the fact that this list also takes into account recommendations and comments from our clients.”

Danny Gosling is managing director of Thinkography, a small marketing agency. He says being small can bring agility advantages: “There’s such an extensive pool of freelance talent within Bristol that it allows a small company like Thinkography to punch above our weight while staying agile and adaptable to our clients needs.”

SPECIALISTS

Out of the throng, specialist companies have emerged. Companies such as 42 Group which has honed in on the science, tech and healthcare sectors, recently working with Ovo, Alderhey Children’s Hospital and the Tour of Britain. Smaller companies have been harder hit by the Brexit shockwaves: “we’ve recently lost two relatively large contracts because of Brexit”, says managing director Lawrie Jones, however he’s enthusiastic about the prospects for the year ahead. “We operate in a niche which is increasing its usage of external agencies. The marketing and communications sector is set to grow. The biggest challenge for us will be in managing what looks like an increasingly competitive environment.”

Also fixed on health, Create Marketing, founded in 2004 by Darren Clare, has built up a client portfolio including Smith & Nephew, Rayner and the World Health Organization, providing them with planning, creative, tech and content services. It is “growing at a fantastic rate”, says Darren who has recently moved the office from Wick to larger premises in Colston Street to accommodate an expanding team. 

Harvey David is dedicated to B2B clients, helping customers like the Lloyds Banking Group and Ricoh to generate verified leads using data and content.  With 25-years of experience, Atom Content Marketing specialises in business marketing, focusing on building relationships with organisations that want to reach and engage with start-ups and SMEs. “Our biggest client is HSBC,” says chief executive Rory MccGwire, “a client of 15 years, for whom we are a ‘preferred global supplier’.

VIDEO MARKETING

Social media has evolved our attention spans and the way we digest marketing messages, and that’s been a boon for video makers and marketers. Digital ad spend has just exceeded TV ad spend for the first time and 92 per cent of millennials regularly watch digital videos.

“The explosion of video onto people’s mobile devices has taken ad spend away from traditional platforms such as TV and put it into people’s hands through YouTube and other social media outlets,” says Jon Mowat, managing director at Hurricane Media, a fast-growing agency that produces video content with strategic campaigns to make sure audiences engage with it.

“Video is no longer the new kid on the block and is a well-established part of the marketing industry.  Almost every brand will have video of some form in their plan, from viral films to infomercials, emotional brand videos, ‘how to’s and testimonials. This demand has seen experienced production companies grow and more companies enter the market. This has in turn employed people with a range of skills from animation to 3D and filming, all of which are available in depth in Bristol. The growth has, in fact, gone some way to offset the decline in traditional TV employment in the city.” 

Aspect Film and Video operates in the same sphere, with 32 full-time members of staff producing video content for a range of organisations including Bristol University, Starwood, Yankee Candle, Hargreaves Lansdown and local pressure group, No Fixed Abode which works to tackle homelessness. “Video production is a growth market and video is a growth media,” says managing director Evelyn Timson, identifying a number of the future challenges within the industry. “The big topics are the increasing focus on VR and AR and whether this will become mainstream, the continued growth in content and how to navigate that territory for brands, the increasing maturation and proliferation of new and older social platforms.”

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

There’s a collaborative spirit to the sector with many companies keen to share tips and best practice between each other. Noisy Little Monkey, a digital marketing company working with the likes of Oak Furniture Land, Greenies and Yeo Valley from the Aardman Animation Studios, hosts Digital Gaggle, a series of events “to educate and inspire marketing minds in Bristol and the South West”.

“We host monthly meet-ups and also put on a free conference twice a year in the Colston Hall to help skill-up marketers and allow them to do their jobs better,” says technical director Jon Payne. “I think there’s plenty of opportunity for specialist digital marketing agencies to provide great online marketing for B2B and B2C businesses in Bristol.

The Business Marketing Club debuted in Bristol in November to provide “leadership for the B2B marketing industry” and “practitioners the opportunity to join together to drive and steer the development of the industry”. The Chartered Institute of Marketing hosts a Bristol chapter with a programme of events to engage and share best marketing practice.

“There’s a real sense of collaboration and opportunity to grow,” Evelyn concludes “the sector has become increasingly competitive in the wider industry, which has traditionally been very London-centric.”

Main image – the Noisy Little Monkey team 

Read more: Sector spotlight: PR and comms