Something in the Air?
People in the West Country get more creative, more readily. There are more inventors and innovators per square inch than our spacious countryside might suggest. We launch more patents than many other areas and have a well above average number of smaller businesses.
Some little enterprises that got bigger include:
- Dyson - Distinctive Domestic Delights
- Aardman Animation - home of Wallace and Gromit
- Eden Project - one of the UK's top 5 paid-for attractions
We've got centres which develop and produce creative thinkers (UC Falmouth has been doing it for 100 years, and there's Bournemouth Uni, UWE and more). There's tons of talent that wants to remain in, or return to, the creative atmosphere in which it was conceived.
No surprises then that there seems to be creative talent lurking behind every standing stone - from one person businesses to big billers operating on the international stage. Some West based agencies have gone on to develop international networks, yet have kept their head offices here - why is that?
If you like choice, there are 79 Digital, 60 PR, 27 Direct Marketing, 225 Design, 91 Advertising / Integrated and 10 Recruitment Communications agencies in the region. And it's rising. According to the latest IPA Census, there are now more people working in the creative industry outside London than ever before, while numbers in the capital are shrinking. You can see some of our brightest sparks in the Creative Agencies section.
So why not breathe in a bit of Western creativity? Then again, you may want your project to look like everyone else's...