CREATIVE talent is gradually shifting from London to the county in a trend that promises to enhance the reputation of local agencies.

So says Len Scannell, chairman and chief executive of Zest, a long-established communications agency that has just completed a corporate makeover.

But he believes that while Medway may see itself as a centre of creative industry - the publicly-funded Medway Enterprise Gateway has just opened to help new and existing creative businesses - it still has some way to go before it can claim to be a centre of creative excellence.

However, he is convinced that goal is achievable if more professionals follow the example of boardroom colleague Paul Williamson - Zest's strategic marketing director - and move from prestigious London firms to regional operations.

Mr Scannell said: "Creativity is not just the remit of an agency with a West End address. All these people with a West End address can move to places like Kent."

Mr Williamson recently joined the reverse flow of talent bringing expertise to Kent companies such as Zest.

"London is a wonderful place in our industry but you're knackered quickly," Mr Williamson said. "There's a high level of burnout. I went from account manager to account director in three years. It makes massive demands on you both professionally and personally.

"What we offer is hopefully London thinking in a responsive, credible and cost-effective way."

Sharper London-style thinking has seen Zest emerge from SNS and take the company - founded by Mr Scannell in Westerham, later Maidstone, in the early 1980s - in new directions.

Mr Scannell felt the SNS brand no longer fitted the firm's widening portfolio of services. It was well known in the electronics sector but less well known elsewhere.

Zest clients include Sainsbury's French operation La Boutique Sainsbury's, jointly owned by the British superstore and Auchan, in Calais.

The company devised a campaign aimed at increasing business through the store in the wake of declining numbers of booze cruisers and cross-Channel shoppers.

Through a series of wine promotions, Zest helped Sainbury's counter a 30 per cent drop in footfall and lift sales by 18 per cent, or £650,000. One wine brand enjoyed a 600 per cent increase. "In terms of marketing spend, we're paying for ourselves," said Mr Williamson.

Zest employs 25 staff, and has a £4m turnover, up by around £500,000 on the previous year.

But the firm's recent history has not all been smooth. Its acquisition of a Cambridge communications company - the hook was a lucrative contract with the Phillips electronics giant - looked good for a while. And was.

Turnover virtually doubled to around £6m. But the downside came when Phillips ended the account.

Like all good PR firms, Zest puts a gloss on the setback. "We went backwards but we're now going forward again," said Mr Scannell.

Mr Williamson talks up the experience. "It was a positive step because it made us look at the business and take some steps to make sure it didn't happen again."

Zest likes to work closely with clients, in consulting, branding, advertising, media buying and planning, PR, relationship marketing, design, interactive and other ways.

It produced an incentive scheme for distribution company TNT, recommended the rebranding of Rapesco staple guns from Handheld, Air and Electric to Nail Guns, Glue Guns and Staple Guns, and created a hard-hitting campaign for Medway council.

It was designed to cut the tragically high number of people killed or seriously injured on Medway's roads.

A film poster image of a young girl above the "title" Death Becomes Her was a shocking but powerful image that produced results.

Mr Scannell says the rebranding exercise to Zest has taken his company onto a new level, but he cautions about growing too fast.

"We are growing organically, not being in too much of a rush," said Mr Scannell. "We are doing a lot more zesty things than we have ever done.

"The name change wasn't just a change of name, it was a really different ethos. Our new business structure is geared towards investing in growth."