In 2010, Birmingham was due to become a leading digital city. I’ve no reason to assume that didn’t happen on schedule, although I’ve been flicking through The Drum’s list of Top 100 Digital Agencies (by fee income) and they don’t seem to have got the memo.
The Midlands (east and west) only have three agencies listed. Those are:
- Freestyle in Warwick (59th)
- Big Picture in Leamington Spa (92nd).
- WAA, who are identified as Sutton Coldfield rather than Birmingham but we know the truth (90th)
The good news is we beat Wales (one agency listed) and the North East (also one agency, although their fee income easily outstrips the combined Midlands ones). Hurrah, I suppose.
Well done to 383 Project for their mention in the ones to watch for 2012 list.
One agenda is about trying to make commercial aspects of ‘digital’ a viable employer to replace the loss of Rover et al. The other is about making sure that grannies can blog. Attempts to conflate these agendas have led to heated debates in the past, but personally I believe Birmingham focuses on one to the detriment of the other.
Look at the NorthWest in the list you reference. The Northwest’s five top 100 agencies are based in Manchester and Liverpool. Ours are based in Warwickshire and Sutton Coldfield. Why is that? And why are we punching well below the SouthWest as well as the SouthEast? We need a bit of commercial ambition in the city. I seem to remember someone saying as much a couple of years back: http://claritydigital.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/the-new-birmingham-city-council-site-a-step-back-for-the-citys-digital-ambitions/