North vs South

A recent chart on Scamp got me a bit angry. The age-old South is better than North debate was struck up by means of the Top 50 agencies list, which Scamp then converted to also show the creative output of said agencies.

Not much argument with the list. But you've got to ask the question why many of the Northern agencies don't have the creative output their Southern counterparts?

It's not down to lack of creative people. That's for sure.

Is it a difference in client base?

Is it a difference in spending power?

Is it a difference in the quality of the suits?

I don't know the answer, I wish I did. My gut tells me that it's a lack of good leadership and lack of people willing to actually serve their clients properly. Too many people are happy to sell in any idea, instead of selling in the best idea.

In recent weeks I have seen these ads on TV which have directly scuppered my own plans for ideas I had in my top draw.

Audi - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ZsNieEUSY Not a particularly great ad, but I had that song attached to an idea of my own for a car ad. Scuppered.

Tmobile - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM Some people love it, some people hate it. I wish they hadn't done it in a train station. But it is a good ad. Unfortunately for me, I had a 'flashmob' ad sold to a client and it was certainly a bigger and better event than this one, if I do say so myself. Scuppered.

I guess what I'm saying from my point of view is that there are creatives in the North who are banging out some really good ideas, but for whatever reason they aren't always seeing the light of day.

In a grass is greener kind of way, I always had this thought that difference between North & South was who had the power: suits or creative? I thought creative had more rights in London and so they get their work through.

It always seems kind of paradoxical that we have a load of creative people making ads and then suits or non-creatives are the ones with the final decision on what idea goes forward. I know agencies nowadays are supposed to have creative tea-ladies and creative receptionists and that ideas can come from anywhere - but we're kidding ourselves if we think that's true.

There's another problem inherent: the more suits and planners we employ, aren't we just chipping away at the creative teams' need to do their own thinking?

So, anyway, you end up with people who actually don't understand ideas, but look pretty, making decisions on the agencies final output. Nuts.