For Tech Marketing, the West is Best

Forbes recently conducted a survey of the top US cities for marketing jobs. As expected, New York and San Francisco topped the list, but the two cities are a continent apart in more ways than one.

New York City is America’s media and publishing capital, as well as its largest city, so it makes sense that many of the biggest advertising and marketing agencies locate their headquarters there. The high tech sector, however, is based overwhelmingly on the West Coast, and most tech firms don’t bother with the big Madison Avenue agencies.

The San Francisco Bay Area is the tech marketing capital of America, but Seattle comes in a close second, and there almost as many high tech and marketing jobs available per capita in Portland.

Until late in the 20th century, Portland and Seattle were both gritty resource towns. With the relative decline of industries like logging and mining, the two cities had little choice but to reinvent themselves if they wanted to prosper. With the rise of Silicon Valley a few hundred miles to the south, becoming the industry’s adjust cities made perfect sense.

Both high technology and marketing suit us out here. The West is still the “America” of America, and the tech industry has been on the bleeding edge of innovation and economic dynamism since its inception. It naturally attracts the descendents of the risk-taking pioneers who settled the West following Lewis and Clark’s expedition.

Advertising and marketing, meanwhile, have always attracted creative people, and the West Coast—like New York City—pulls them in like a gravity well.

We at reddbug are based almost entirely in the West—in Las Vegas, Utah, Texas, and in all three states on the West Coast. Most of us wouldn’t dream of living or working anywhere else.