Should media reinvest in ‘fun’? I raced 14 agencies across the UK to find out

Feature

It’s time to bring the fun back into media.

That’s what Nick Shaw, Ocean Outdoor UK’s CEO, said he wanted to do when setting up The Great ADventure, a competition for 14 media agencies (plus The Media Leader) to race from London to Glasgow.

Inspired by the BBC’s Race Across the World, the story goes that Ocean’s group head, Katherine Kershaw, had played a mini version with her family in the UK. When relaying her replica race to Shaw and the team, inspiration struck: let’s get the agencies involved.

Media has a legacy reputation for being a fun industry to work in, but a reduction in socialisation during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with increased financial pressures on many businesses, has meant that in-person jollies have got lost somewhere along the way.

At The Media Leader, we believe fun is an necessary component for the creative industries. Our quiz, Media Mind, carries a similar ethos: putting agencies head-to-head for some healthy competition on their media knowledge.

While Ocean’s gamble on the race was a larger endeavour, it seems to have paid off. Despite the financial and logistical implications of organising 30 people to take part, following the success this year, the media owner is keen to make it an annual event — and is even considering expanding it to its seven other European markets.

Of course, the race also gave media agencies an opportunity to see Ocean’s city screens IRL. Shaw shared that Ocean have a saying: “On the streets, not on spreadsheets.” And while our dwell time will have been significantly shorter than the tours Ocean gives its potential clients, the race still demonstrated the breadth of its inventory.

Day one

As for the race itself, we were given £330 in cash to cover travel costs from London to Glasgow for our team of two. Along the way we had to take a photo in front of compulsory checkpoints — Ocean’s DOOH screens — and upload it to a personalised web app.

There were also bonus checkpoints that would take 30 minutes off your time. The biggest bonus required an extra journey to Liverpool, a risk in terms of time and money, but the reward would knock a hefty four hours off the total travel time. For myself and my teammate Linda Eckefeldt, Adwanted’s senior content producer, it was a no-brainer: we had to do it.

After an hour of planning, at 9:00 AM on Thursday 25 June, we were ushered underneath Ocean’s screens in Piccadilly Circus for a countdown. The moment it hit zero, the group split in two, with some catching the tube from Piccadilly Circus. The rest, including us, sprinted to Tottenham Court Road for the Elizabeth line. Our first stop: Canary Wharf.

Linda and I made an early error. After getting caught up in the excitement, we jumped on the first train that pulled up, leading astray the MG OMD team who followed us on board. As we stood up to leave, they broke the news: we were on the train to Stratford.

Immediately our momentum stalled as we tragically trudged along on the DLR, a mode of transport that felt akin to a bumpy camel ride.

Eventually we ticked off the first checkpoint and left behind MG OMD, who caught the train from Euston to our next stop, Birmingham. A popular choice, but Linda and I felt a coach from Golders Green might help us in the long run. An hour slower, but half the price.

The coach ended up being one of the highlights of our journey. Beautifully air-conditioned, a working charger port on the seat, and it arrived 15 minutes earlier than expected. Beat that, National Rail.

The rollercoaster of emotions continued upon arrival into Birmingham. After capturing two more Ocean screens, the woman behind the ticket desk rolled her eyes upon seeing our branded t-shirts.

“Why are you so much later than the others?” she asked. We groaned in despair.

No time to grab lunch before our train to Liverpool. We sat on that journey (with a crying baby in our carriage) hot, hungry, and disappointed.

Once in Liverpool, we found the Ocean screen right outside the station before immediately heading back to catch a train to Manchester, our final stop for day one. But, like many a train to Manchester, it was delayed.

Linda tried to convince me to inconspicuously jump on a faster train, but ever risk averse and conscious of strict ticket inspectors, I refused. We clambered onto the delayed train and hit a wall of heat. No air-con on the hottest day of the year (so far).

The train was, in fact, overheating, and minutes later the conductor informed us it would be cancelled. Onto a faster train we ran. Permission for Linda to say: “I told you so”.

Once in Manchester, we quickly ticked off the final four checkpoints and headed to a bar that marked the day one finish line.

Inside, we found the sign-in book (just like in the TV show) and enjoyed the ritual of opening it up and writing our names. We counted what place we had come.

Last.

The Media Leader was in 15th place.

I may not be competitive enough to get ruthless for first, but I am competitive enough to be stroppy about last. It’s safe to say, our egos took a hit.

After a much needed shower and refuelling on pizza and margaritas (others spent time at a nearby casino until 3am…), I awoke the next morning already exhausted from the endless decision-making and lugging around heavy rucksacks. Nevertheless, Linda and I had our game faces on for day two.

Day two

Due to being at the back of the pack, we left 15 minutes later than the teams who arrived first. This didn’t impact us much: we almost all ended up on the 8am train to York, where we had to change to get to our next checkpoint in Newcastle.

Unfortunately, Linda and I had one minute to catch the train and in my frazzled state I managed to dramatically drop my breakfast yoghurt on the platform causing a dairy explosion that left a stain on my top for the rest of the day. Glamorous.

Once on the train, we enjoyed beautiful morning views of the Pennines, before race-mode kicked back in as we started to pull into York. The fellow six teams on our carriage began closely following the station departures. Our train was due to arrive at 9:39am. The quickest train to Newcastle was expected at 9:36am.

But it was delayed. Mercifully delayed.

We watched eagerly as the delay began to increase: 9:37, 9:38, 9:39…

As soon as the doors released, we were like race horses breaking out the starting gate. A swarm of us sprinted up the stairs, across the footbridge, and scrambled our way onto the train before doors closed. Success!

A few other teams hadn’t spotted the delay and trailed behind unsure what we were running for. They ended up catching the next train, splitting up the group.

Newcastle witnessed a similar frantic sprint. The doors released and we legged it to the shopping centre for the first Ocean screen, before looping back around to the train station for the second.

For all that running, another delayed train meant we stood on the platform, tapping our feet and sweating profusely.

Once heading to Edinburgh, we felt the day had been going a bit too smoothly. It was only 12:30 PM and we were nearing our penultimate stop. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised when, just 10 minutes away from the city, the guard announced a signalling failure causing a minimum 30-minute delay.

Slightly agitated from sitting on endless trains, Linda and I decided to take the road less travelled and caught a local bus from where we had stopped in East Linton to Edinburgh. It was 55 minutes, so a risk, but a more interesting alternative. Once again, we managed to lead astray the MG OMD team, who joined us at the bus stop. Such fools.

We arrived in Edinburgh ten minutes after the train, so we were confused to find a few teams casually waiting outside the shopping centre where the Ocean screen was located. Then a taxi drew up. Ah. The team at Wavemaker had managed to use their gift of the gab to get two free trains the day before, meaning their budget was looking healthy compared to ours.

Meanwhile, we continued on foot, running to Edinburgh Waverley. Linda and I got ready to buy our final train ticket to Glasgow, only to find we were a measly 20p short. Talk about falling at the final hurdle. We asked passersby for spare change and thankfully someone pulled through with just a few minutes to spare before our train departed.

Later that evening, we would hear many times the story of how the UM team managed to fundraise £15 from passengers on their carriage after the conductor threatened to prosecute because they’d hopped on without a ticket.

Arriving in Glasgow, we secured the final two checkpoints and arrived at the hotel to find MG OMD had arrived first, just 15 minutes before us: we were the 11th team to write in the book.

We felt euphoric at the relief of completing the race, but the final scores were still to be calculated, taking into account the bonus screens, as well as penalties given to those who took photos outside the wrong sites.

When they were tallied, Linda and I were overjoyed to discover we came in fourth place. Never underestimate the underdog!

In third was Mindshare, completing the race in 22 hours, 30 minutes and 48 seconds. Two seconds ahead of them was their fellow WPP agency: EssenceMediacom.

But taking the trophy was Amanda Yaffe-Parker and Zoe Bond from indie agency The7stars, who used their local knowledge, impressive planning, and a lift from a willing sibling to complete the race in 22 hours, 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The pair also won a weekend away in an Ocean city from across the group (“From Stockholm to Amsterdam, Helsinki, or even Portsmouth!”, Nick joked) and guaranteed entry into the race next year.

From blagging trains and the kindness of strangers, through heatwaves and thunderstorms, to watching iconic music videos made by the Carat and Spark teams, the race was a memorable moment in media and a great reminder to bring back fun.