A Year in 'The Village' for Advertising Agency
Chalk & Ward Advertising is celebrated a year in their new building on Southernhay last month. The move from the Quay in March 2013 has proven a very successful one, Managing Director Robert Chalk says;
“It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in Southernhay a year already. Time flies when you’re having fun, or at least when you’re busy! I’d like to think we’ve had a healthy mix of both.
It’s certainly been a crazy 12 months since we moved. We’ve taken on 5 new members of staff and won a staggering 17 new clients, including The Met Office, The Big Cake Show, Bradburys and the high profile Jamaica Inn, the subject of a new BBC Drama!
Increased confidence in the economy has definitely rippled out to the local market and the former tight grip on marketing budgets has been loosened considerably. We’re heading for yet another record year, with much of the growth coming from PR and digital marketing. In fact it’s the integrated approach of these two disciplines working ever more closely together, combined with our strategic consultancy overview, that has accounted for most of those new client wins.
A year ago we were starting to see signs of digital marketing moving in-house for clients, spelling the end of the agency relationship to a large extent but this now seems to be going full-circle, no doubt as clients acknowledge that indeed one person alone simply can’t fulfil all the digital needs of the business. It has become too complex and I can only see this gaining pace over time. All fascinating to observe but for us we have to stay one step ahead constantly, so we now actively encourage all our digital team to spend at least 25% of their time finding our what’s new, what trends are on the horizon and making sure we know about them first. Quite an overhead but vital if we are to be at the forefront in this area.
Meanwhile it’s encouraging to see traditional media like radio hitting all-time highs of ad revenue, whilst we are also observing a trend back towards printed literature. There’s no doubting digital is the future but a balance will, I believe, always exist between traditional on online media.
Thank you to everyone in Southernhay who have made us feel welcome. It’s a lovely part of Exeter to be located, even if it can be a tad expensive being so near the shops! “
Chalk & Ward are looking forward to another year in ‘The Village’ and starting up their Balcony Drinks networking evenings as soon as the sun makes a full reappearance!
