Surviving regional status: Establishing, maintaining and developing the creative culture of a non-metropolitan advertising agency through personal-professional projects

Abstract

Starting up or working in a creative
agency located outside the major urban centers
seems to be antithetical by nature. In a context cut
off from “creative clusters” and burdened with the
effects of regional status, genuine creativity may
appear difficult to achieve. This article shows how
the managers and employees of small advertising
agencies in outlying regions (SAORs) legitimize
this counter-intuitive choice by means of personalprofessional projects. Based on two case studies, the
article illustrates the dynamic of dislocation inherent
to the creative culture of SAORs and contributes to
analyzing the personal/organizational change pair in
terms of regional agency.