Marketing Intelligence by Iain Johnston

Is there a “right” noise level in the office?

On the one hand, I do understand that sometimes we all need a bit of quiet time to concentrate and other people’s music can be annoying.

On the other, I am used to working in busy offices with energy, noise and lively creative debate the norm rather than the exception.

I think the level of noise and energy of the office does drive the culture and attititude of people. I’m not saying noisey is good or bad, I’m just intrigued by the differences. Indeed we spend huge amounts of time with clients urging them to take control of their culture, to pull the levers of language internally, and to proactively develop the way their staff live and breathe their brands before they try to communicate them effectively to external audiences. So I guess we should look at ourselves too.

Where I am currently based,  in the relative backwater of Pimlico, our office is actually quite schizophrenic. We only have two Executive Directors in Loewy, and we share an office and most of the time create quite a lot of noise. I hope this is reassuring for most of the people around us (yes, we are alive), and welcomed by some. I do sometimes worry that the small central finance and legal teams find us a little too lively at times, but they’re too polite to mention it.

Last week I spent a few hours at Speed Communications in Leicester Square, and was amazed at the range of noise levels there: some parts, busy, bustling, traditional PR agency hubbub, yet in some, almost eerily quiet.

Now, this is an multi-award winning business, including some of the most-prized awards in the industry, awards for being a great agency to work in, and awards voted on by journalists and editors themselves. This is also the business famed for some of the most memorable social events in the West End. Nevertheless, it was surprisingly quiet in one part of the office.

Steve Earl explained that for some of their clients, so much of their work was online these days, they had less need to be constantly riding the phones to get their clients’ messages across. Wadds on the other hand (never the most shy and retiring of people), agreed it was an interesting by product of so much digital PR work.

In a few weeks the central team at Loewy are following our colleagues in The Team, Branded and Prescient across to Park Street, near Borough Market, and I have to say we can’t wait. Not only will we have the delights of Vinopolis and the Tate Modern on our doorstep, but when I have visited Prescient and the people at The Team that have moved in so far, I get a real buzz as soon as I enter the space. You can just feel the energy.

I just hope we’re not too noisey for them.