Since watching my mum as a photographer when I was a nipper I have grown up filled to bursting with the desire to become a wildlife photographer, or even an amateur filmmaker (I’ll take either) but sadly, all the skipping around with my vintage cameras and super 8 cine cams has yet to earn me world recognition.

While I wait for the call from National Geographic insisting I hop on the next plane to the Monteverde Cloud Forests of Costa Rica to document the life of the Isthmohyla rivularis tree frog, I work diligently as a business development manager, which has given me a direct connection to the marketing services sector and some of the most inspiring creativity in the UK.

Being a visual person I love viral marketing videos, and have a great appreciation for creativity that leaves you feeling inspired, moved, or simply giggling like a 10 year old girl.

As viral marketing has evolved over the years any video that keeps people engaged and evokes these feelings can be harnessed to market a product or brand, and will spread like wildfire. An effective and budget friendly alternative to TV advertising.

How viral marketing is changing becomes apparent when you look at Mashable’s 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2009 from ‘piano stairs’, to ‘catching laptops with your butt’ they all keep you watching and deliver an end brand message.

If you only have the time to look at one of these videos, I suggest number 10. JK Wedding Entrance.

This brilliant video was never intended to be a marketing promotion of any kind, but as the couple’s wedding entourage dances down the aisle to Chris Brown’s song “Forever,” Sony Music decided to use the video’s popularity to sell more Chris Brown albums instead of stripping the video of its music — something copyright owners are permitted to do on YouTube. A classic example of the evolution of viral marketing.

Top 10 of 2009 aside, a favourite viral of mine so far for 2010 has to be the Specsavers parody of the iconic Lynx ads. Thankfully, I did go to Specsavers!

Interesting commentary from Sir Martin Sorrell on WPP’s 2009 performance, calling it a ‘game of 2 halves’ with a ‘much less worse’ performance from November 2009.

This almost mirrors our experiences at Alchemis, whilst calling marketing decision makers across a wide range of market sectors on behalf of our clients, who represent the full range of creative marketing agencies – except our second half recovery (a bit like Aston Villa at the weekend) began in August 2009.

When I say our recovery, I really mean our clients’ recovery, which actually manifested itself in a 70% increase in the amount of new business we helped our clients win between August – December 2009 compared to the first half of the year.

2010 has seen an even more significant increase with Alchemis helping to generate almost £2.5m worth of new business for our clients already.

These wins can only come from us ensuring that we manage to get our clients in front of the right marketing decision makers at the right time – we do this by combining fresh calls into new prospects and managing the ongoing development of those new relationships on behalf of our clients.

What are your experiences of 2009? Do they reflect WPP’s?

For many months I’ve been finding excuses to avoid going to the gym.

Initially it was because we were “coming up to Christmas”. This one started in November and could be justified by the fact that my social calendar was a lot busier than usual, so there simply wasn’t time… well there was really, but we all know what a busy period this is, what with writing cards, wrapping presents and meeting up with various “once a year” friends and acquaintances.

Following this, I was secretly delighted that the lift in our building was out of order for about a month. Surely having to climb 88 stairs three or four times a day on top of my 10 minute walk to and from the station negated the need for me to do any more exercise than this?

And then there was the skiing holiday. Admittedly a considerable proportion of that involved sitting in bars drinking steins of Bavarian lager and eating brotwurst, but the going down the slope bit must have counted for something. Probably.

However, my excuses have finally run out. The whole company has entered the Sport Relief Mile and there is no way to get out of this without losing face.

Now, one of the things about being the only person at Alchemis from a non-sales background and in a non-sales role is you notice how competitive everyone else is. They all strive for excellence and they all want to be top of their game – all of the time. So, whilst I appreciate the great camaraderie and “work hard” ethic in the office, the “play hard” aspect out of the office does occasionally fill me with a slight sense of trepidation – and this occasion wasn’t about to disappoint.

At first, I wasn’t too worried about running a mile. I thought I could do that without any training. In fact I could probably even squeeze in a fair few pints the night before (what with it being a Saturday) and still do it if I had to. Alas, everybody else here deemed that a mile was too short and the competitive element kicked in: “What? Surely it would be cheeky to ask for sponsorship for anything less than three miles!” cried half the sales team. “No, surely it would be an outrage to ask for sponsorship for anything less than six miles!” cried the other half. And so the new boundaries were set.

For someone like me, who was never overly competitive, working with the current team at Alchemis does seem to be rubbing off somewhat. Everyone is enthusiastic, the whole team works well together and nobody wants to let the side down – either in or out of the office. But also, for this very reason, no one wants to finish last within our team. I can’t use the excuses I was toying with, such as being the oldest runner in the team (I’m not) or “having a bad knee” (not bad enough to stop me skiing) – the only option would be to start training. So last night, for the first time in about six months, I forced myself to go to the gym, with the fear of there being less than two weeks to get in shape and the need to avoid finishing last driving me relentlessly forward on the treadmill for mile after mile – no warm up, no warm down, no stretching, just running… and today, finally, I have a genuine reason why I may finish last – and that is because I can hardly walk.