Is your agency's location part of its story?

I started “doing new business” at Branded3 in 2013, when we were already generating around 6 inbound opportunities a week (SQLs, for the avoidance of doubt). 2-3 pitches in any 5 day period was common…and this was pre-COVID, so that meant a lot of travel.

We could be speaking to a brand in any corner of the country and we knew we’d be up against 2 or 3 of the following agencies:

• Epiphany, a 100+ headcount firm based in Leeds
• Stickyeyes, a 100+ headcount firm based in Leeds
• Search Laboratory, a 100+ headcount firm based in Leeds
• Twentysix, a 100+ headcount firm based in Leeds
• Maybe one of the larger Brighton firms, like iCrossing or Jellyfish…or one of the smaller Leeds agencies, like Blueclaw

Once a week, a new business meeting would end up like this:

“There are a lot of search agencies in Leeds, aren’t there?”

…to which we’d reply “yes, it’s so weird, we don’t even know each other!”

Then one evening, sitting in a bar after a CMO speed dating event and lamenting the tens of thousands of pounds we just wasted*, we decided to put on our own conference.

The event video from our third edition in 2018, so you can get a feel for SearchLeeds if you didn't make it. There are also loads of photos on Flickr.

“Well yeah, you have to come to Leeds for a search agency”

I’ve spoken a few times about the way we ran SearchLeeds and how it grew from 450 attendees at the Royal Armouries in 2016, to around ~2,500 at the first direct Arena in 2019. This time, I just want to talk about the Leeds part.

(I’ve also written about the logistics of Branded3’s location on the outskirts of Leeds and why that location was a strategic advantage.)

There had been conferences in the city previously: Blueclaw’s ionSearch had been one of the first I’d attended and it pulled about 350 people to the Carriage Works in its final edition in 2013; Think Visibility had sadly finished before I’d joined the industry, but one hears…things. We met with some of the organisers of each, who gave us plenty of advice.

We decided that we were prepared to make a loss on the event if it achieved our other objectives:

• Allow us to answer “there are lots of Leeds agencies” question with proof that the city is where all the talent is (we began to refer to Leeds as “the epicenter of SEO”
• Make sure that Branded3 was considered on every pitch list that our larger brethren were on (since we employed a meagre 80 people as a more specialised firm); we wanted brands to reflexively associate Leeds with search…and us with Leeds
• Replicate BrightonSEO, which had been such a successful part of our efforts, with something that we didn’t have to drive 6 hours for

Then, we went to the other Leeds agencies, cap in hand, to see if they’d help us to fund it. A few agreed to contribute:

• iProspect had opened an office in the city and, since the networks tend to ignore the regions in their marketing, not many people knew it was there. The Leeds office was keen to position iProspect as a Leeds agency (as well as all the other things it was)
• Search Laboratory went all in for the first edition and stuck around for the duration: from the second edition, they had the “Search Labs Stage” on the second stage, covered it in Search Labs banners, moderated the day, and so on
• Epiphany - and the then-new, then-Leeds-based Journey Further, sponsored and spoke in later years; we would usually platform Leeds-based agencies even when they didn’t sponsor too, since it furthered our objectives.

We made the tickets free, because we knew we wouldn’t get the quantities of people we wanted if we’d charged. Our second year - our first in the Arena - was a similar price to our first because we decided not to cater. The event typically cost around £80,000 to produce (exclusive of staff time) and recouped around £25,000 in sponsorship…

…but it did achieve its objectives. Brands who knew me from SearchLeeds continued to inquire long after Branded3 disappeared and I started Rise at Seven…and we maintained our level of inbound leads - and increased our conversion rate and deal size - during the years SearchLeeds was running.

(It’s worth mentioning that I think Charlie Whitworth is pursuing something similar with HIVE MCR and Charley Brennand with Performance MCR; the agencies outside of performance marketing seem to be content with letting others run the events, like MAD//north, which I think is both a shame and a missed opportunity for them.)

Some other examples

At the Agency Hackers Ibiza Super Summit I had breakfast with an agency owner who was considering whether his agency was “a Scottish agency, or an agency that happened to be in Scotland”. I think you can be both, or either when it suits you, but having worked with a Scottish agency/an agency in Scotland called Realise for a number of years, I saw some subtle ways the country made it into the agency’s story:

• Gifts to clients, suppliers and friends would often be Scottish in nature: I left an early meeting with a very nice bottle of Craigellachie
• “We’re Scottish, so we’re tight, and we look after your money like we look after our money” would be mentioned in pitches
• The agency was founded in an Edinburgh internet cafe when someone from Lloyds Bank asked for a website to be built (or so the story goes); Lloyds and Standard Life had been clients for 20 and 15 years respectively; the original baristas were now web developers; and the agency had followed the financial institutions to Liverpool Street. The language and imagery invoked those institutions (when it suited) and it felt like an agency custom built for those FS brands…the agency would also use Scottish celebs like Andy Murray in campaigns for those companies and feature them heavily in case studies and on the website
• “You must come up for the fringe!” was something I heard from time to time: find an excuse to have a meeting with us and we’ll take you out and show you a great time is the implication. The event/destination is a uniquely Scottish thing; arguably I could have invited Rise at Seven clients to the snooker in Sheffield, but I’m not sure it would be quite as universally popular…
• Our MD, Fiona, used to date Gerard Butler and we would often find ways to bring that up in conversation. “Gerry” sometimes felt like the 11th man in a Realise pitch…

There’s a reason why people will pay more for spring water when it comes from the highlands. There’s a whole (very good) chapter about place brands, citing this very fact, in the late Wally Olins’ book Brand New, which I read well over a decade ago and still recommend.

(If I was a Scottish agency right now, I would be attempting to hire Ardross Castle, which doubles as a wedding venue and therefore is available for bookings, to host my own game of The Traitors with a bunch of brand-side CMOs, since I would be absolutely sure that I could drag 20 of the biggest deal marketers up the East Coast Mainline to get there.)

You can see the same principle at work with some of the agencies I’m involved with, like Digitaloft, who you can visit in the Lake District, if you’d like to have a meeting somewhere more beautiful than wherever it is that you’re based. There are lots of places around the UK - not just in cities - where the associations people have with your home can be turned to your advantage. What about where you’re from?

* These events are fantastic, for the right agency, which Branded3 wasn’t. Drop me a message if you’re thinking about doing one and I’ll tell you whether it’s likely to be worthwhile for you.