July 13, 2004
newcastle
I work in Newcastle. It’s a small, prosperous city in England, about 300 miles North of London on the East Coast, about an hour’s drive shy of the Scottish border. It’s where they filmed “Get Carter”. It’s where Hadrian’s Wall meets the sea. It’s where they also make Newcastle Brown Ale.
In the UK the advertising center is London. Agencies in other cities- Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle- are commonly referred to as “The Provincial Agencies”.
Traditionally ,‘Provincials’ like me look elsewhere for ideas and inspiration- London, New York, Chicago, Paris, San Francisco etc. Traditionally it’s a fairly one-way conversation. It’s the same as any other content business- the capital informs the provinces, the favor is very (very!) rarely returned.
For years people have been trying to create a British equivalent of Minneapolis or Portland i.e. a small UK advertising scene that makes the big boys in the big global capitals sit up and pay attention. So far they haven’t succeeded. Edinburgh came close about a decade ago, but… Eh.
That’s about to change. Soon the hungry gaze of all the world’s advertising agencies will be on Newcastle, waiting to see what comes next. You can take my word for it or not; it makes no difference.
There’s a big idea about to unleash itself upon the business world.
Yes, my company is at the epicenter of all this. Tear up your current ad agency biz model. Keep reading this website. Keep reading The Hughtrain Manifesto as new stuff keeps on being added to it.
You’ll find out all about this soon enough. We're almost ready to go public.
Posted by hugh macleod at July 13, 2004 6:24 PM | TrackBackI love it when you boast. :)
Posted by: Nia at July 13, 2004 11:35 PMRock on, Nia ;-)
Posted by: hugh macleod at July 13, 2004 11:46 PMI'm in. Especially if it keeps me from xxxxxxx xxxx or taking it up the xxxxxx.
Posted by: nick at July 14, 2004 5:44 AMWMD?
Posted by: Gahlord Dewald at July 14, 2004 5:54 PMHugh, I love your bravado. I shall continue to watch gapingvoid closely, as you have instructed me to.
Posted by: Will Pate at July 14, 2004 7:40 PMYou're scaring the crap out of me.
Posted by: cliclou at July 15, 2004 10:16 AMwell i don't know much about advertising but i laughed at the xyz.
Posted by: alan at July 15, 2004 11:02 PMHoly wotsit. I've been reading your blog all this time thinking you're toiling away in some trendy US city somewhere, and in reality you aren't that far down the road from me, lol.
Newcastle is great. Its recent redefinition (in the eyes of most media savvy Brits, in any case) has certainly been something to behold.. even I've considered checking the place out some more. Anyway, best of luck!
Posted by: Peter Cooper at July 16, 2004 5:34 AMSo is it going to be Creative Old Wank or Creative New Wank?
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000839.html
Does Newcastle have a massive corporate consumer of media time local to it? I know the Portland advertising scene was basically funded by the presence of Nike and Phil Knight's preference for going local when it comes to contracting work of that sort. There's a local Portland architecture firm that made its name building the Nike campus the same way Weiden and Kennedy made its name building Nike ad campaigns.
It doesn't surprise me that Phil went local with the work though. Portlanders benefit from a marked provincial clannishness about their city. They place a very high value on their quality of life, and think that quality of life is best preserved by people from California and New York staying the fuck out of Portland. They are third-tier and that's exactly the way they like it. By comparison, Seattle, it's larger sister provincial to the north (and yes, Seattle, you are ridiculously provincial, as demonstrated by your wildly flailing attempts at being a "national city") so desperately wants to be San Francisco, it's realy just sad. It makes the city's culture thin, derivative, and neurotic.
So is Newcastle really very pleased it isn't London and never will be, or is it aching to Make It Big? Is it Portland, or is it Seattle?
Oh, and yes, I am from Portland and live in Seattle.
I remember standing at a bus stop on Murray Boulevard in Beaverton (the Portland suburb where Nike is headquartered) about 12-13 years ago and seeing Phil Knight pull up to the light in his black Lamborghini Countach. It was rather like standing in the shallow end of a public swimming pool and seeing a hammerhead shark swim by.
Posted by: roxann at July 18, 2004 5:19 AMBuold it and they will come, Hugh. In a global world, there are no more borders. With the Internet, there is no more distance. I am in China as I write this. See!
http://ccca.nctu.edu.tw/~hlb/poem/EyesOfAChild/
« Does Newcastle have a massive corporate consumer of media time local to it? »
Yep! It's called Byker Grove.
Posted by: Peter at July 20, 2004 8:27 AMumm I beg to differ in a big big way.
I'm a marketing student at Newcastle and I'm about to some to then end of my third year which has been spent on a placement.
This has been 7 months with Leo Burnett working on McDonald's and 5 months at Saatchi & Saatchi.
I'm extremely keen to learn how large clients, with large media budgets will turn from the advertising, fashion and financial hub of London and place their accounts in Newcastle.
Don't get me wrong I would love to see your forecast come alive but knowing both cities very well and their commercial climate I can't see it happening on any real scale.
Tell me more about your start up.
Posted by: Anton @ Saatchi at August 19, 2004 12:24 PM