I thought the issue of Marketing Week (dated 17th December) was an interesting read, namely because it was the last issue of the year AND decade! Reflecting back over the noughties there have been highs; such as more recognition for women in business and politics, but also lows with (the global recession obviously springing to mind).

I opened my copy of Marketing Week on the 18th December and I waited with bated breath to see what the predictions might be for 2010. As a sales professional, working for a new business agency, I have often found the predictions given by the magazine at the end of the year to be extremely useful when speaking to marketing prospects in January. Let’s face it, if you are going to call someone then you had better have done your research and being able to demonstrate forward insight really works with prospects.

Last year, ‘Marketing Week’ decided to opt out of a full-length feature giving an overview of the year and predictions for next. Instead, they focussed on a subject, which has been topical for some time – namely ‘the bruised relationship’ between marketers and procurement.

The article explains that ‘value’ will be the buzzword of 2010 as businesses continue to keep a close eye on budgets. This is something we can relate to as a business development agency when we speak to marketing prospects on the telephone. The message is clear, marketing spend is there but companies will have to ensure that they achieve good value for money when deciding which agency to appoint.

This year, procurement will play an increasing role in achieving good value for their business. This does not mean cutting costs but genuinely growing the business through a value added approach. It is true to say that marketers have tended to eye procurement through suspicious eyes in the past, but the need for both sides to work together is paramount. Also, an understanding of each other’s roles will go some way to achieving this.

I will certainly consider this argument and when I next get directed to a procurement department, rather than fearing that I won’t get anywhere, I will ask them what measures they are taking to ensure a good turnaround of agencies with the right experience.

We’d love to hear about your experiences with procurement departments.

I read an interesting article in Design Week on 10th December.

This article gave a rough prediction on 2010 marketing trends and it picked out five key directions for this year.

I was extremely excited when I read that one of the key directions was going to be digital touch points in the retail environment. This subject is familiar ground for me as one of my clients that I help generate new business for is an ecommerce agency who are particularly forward thinking in this area.

Last year, I had the pleasure of introducing the concept of Instore Kiosks to marketing prospects. Instore Kiosks are essentially a robust, touch-screen version of an eCommerce store. It allows the consumer to search for products, colours, and sizes that aren’t on the shelves. This concept can also be applied to an offline store to save the customer time when browsing. Another area of interest has been mobile applications; online stores have come up with tens of thousands of applications to enhance the handset experience and this is potentially a great area for growth in the retail sector this year.

Of course, many of you will have already heard of these mediums last year, but the difference this year is that retailers will be under much more pressure to move with the times as marketing becomes more sophisticated and technical. What started off as a discussion last year will now be put into practice.

If you are a creative agency working in this sector, we would be interested to find out what your thoughts are on this subject.

Our clients attended more quality meetings in November than any other month in 2009. Although the sales team didn’t quite match the heights achieved in October in terms of new meetings set we still exceeded targets across the board. Some of the meetings we set in November will happen in January, as will most of the meetings set in December so we have entered the New Year with a record breaking number of meetings in the diary.

Setting meetings is only stage one of what can be a long journey for our clients before they win business but it’s the stage that our New Business Managers can most influence – creating opportunities for our clients to meet with prospects is the foundation upon which everything else we do to help clients is based – which is why we get so excited when we thrash our targets.

The sense of optimism and activity across UK businesses that we first picked up on in June 2009 (after a moribund 9 months) feels stronger than ever as we enter the New Year (and decade). It’s a sense based on collectively speaking with about 2000 senior marketing people every month but has been backed up since November by the fact that 2 marketing agencies we first worked with 2 years ago have recently re-signed with us to help them exploit a market that was emerging from hibernation.

It’s always a relief when the Christmas party passes without serious injury or incident but 2009’s was one of the best we’ve had. Shy retiring types are thin on the ground at Alchemis so the banter and party games began early with a champagne breakfast and Mystery Santa in the office followed by a prodigious lunch in a private room at one of London’s finest restaurants and then drinks in Soho.

The first few days of January have been very busy for the sales team. We do our end of month reports at the beginning of the following month so it was always going to be busy – but the weather has thrown some logistical challenges our way. So far London remains relatively unaffected so we’ve all been able to get into work but not all of our clients have been able to get to their meetings. By speaking to our clients everyday we’ve been able to deal promptly with any meetings that must be rescheduled. We have also focussed our fresh calling on areas of the UK not yet in the grip of permafrost but by Thursday 8 January this was pretty much London and the Scilly Isles….even so, by giving the North West, Scotland and Western Home Counties a wide berth we’ve avoided any drop off in productivity at a time when the Federation of Small Businesses have estimated the cost of the current weather to be £600m per day to the UK economy.

The sales team has been growing since early summer and we welcomed our latest colleague in November. A personal friend of one of our stalwart New Business Managers it soon became obvious to the rest of us what Pete and Richard had in common; a suspicious physical resemblance and unfounded belief in their own dancing ability meant they were quickly christened Petard.