Today is officially the last day of summer, though one could be forgiven for thinking it ended 4 weeks ago based on the weather we’ve been having. Next year, even if UK PLC is in the grip of a double-dip recession, British Airways cabin crew have elected Bob Crow as union Chief and Iceland looks like it’s about to explode I suspect this August’s record of abysmal weather should hopefully mean the phrase “staycation” has had it’s day. I’m undecided as to whether this has been a price worth paying.

The Sales Team had much to live up to in July following a record June for quality new business meetings set. In the end we fell just short of June’s peak with a highly creditable performance that delivered the 2nd best set of results for the year so far. August has been storming though; we’ve bettered June to establish the best set of results for over 4 years.

I know that clients often ask whether August is a good month for new business prospecting and we’ve occasionally had a job convincing them that it is. Most people acknowledge that September-November is a great time for seeing prospects and picking up briefs and will see the benefit of laying the groundwork in August but I often hear “surely so many key decision makers are on holiday, getting through to people must be impossible?”.

This sounds logical but actually we enjoy a higher than average access rate (ratio of attempted calls to actual decision maker conversations) in August. For every Marketing Manager regretting their staycation (hoping this will be the last ever recorded usage of the term) on the soggy south coast there are half a dozen sat in an office but unable to progress full pelt because at least one cog in their wheel is being washed out on an English beach somewhere. Consequently they have the time to reflect on the year to date and what’s required as they approach the final quarter. Crucially, they also have time to take calls and talk to new agencies.

We find Marketing Decision Makers to be particularly frank around this time of year. Regardless of when their company’s financial year runs August seems to be a natural time to take stock of things, which is why so many agency reviews take place in the Autumn.

Prospects rarely criticise their incumbent overtly when they’re on the phone to us but we’re more likely to hear rumblings this time of year, which makes our job MUCH easier.

The irony is that many marketing agencies consider August to be a lost month and chose to take their holidays. The guys in the office holding the fort will be servicing clients and won’t have time to prospect for new business, which means many marketing agencies are missing out on a very fertile period for making new connections. This is where a New Business Agency that is working day-in, day-out on your behalf can be such an asset.

While many agencies have put their new business efforts on ice over the summer we have been very busy indeed. A quick analysis of meetings we have set show that 12% of the FTSE100 and 21 from Top 100 UK advertising spenders will be meeting clients of ours as a result of work over July & August. Not bad considering most of the companies we target would fall just outside of these league tables.

July was also the month for momentous sporting events of course. The Alchemis Rounders Match on 9 July saw the company split into two teams, each under the captaincy of a Director. Three innings and much arguing later and my team emerged victorious. Some special mentions for:

John for volunteering to referee. To describe this role as a poisoned chalice would be a gross understatement. He was still taking stick for decisions made in the 2009 match so that took some courage.

Pete, Dan and Algie for the most outrageous act of cheating; over the course of one innings the distance between bases grew from 20 metres to 40 as they shuffled them further and further apart.

George for almost decapitating two of his colleagues with a wildly struck ball and Amanda and Claudia for bravely taking said baseball in the face in relatively good spirit.

The other sports event of note in July was the world cup. Much has been written about the mockery that unravelled in South Africa so I won’t comment further here but two guys who took more from the tournament than most are George and Richard who each earned a big night out with optional hotel for winning World Cup based team incentives.

So a great few months for Alchemis and our clients. Brilliant though August has been for the sales team I don’t expect the record to last until the end of the year. September to November is usually our strongest period so the challenge is to meet or beat August’ performance every month until December.

By the way, December can be a good month for similar reasons to August but there just aren’t enough working days to be breaking records for absolute performance numbers. Needless to say we we’ll be looking at setting a new high for productivity instead.

2010 has been interesting for a number of political, sporting and other factors. However, Alchemis is focused on advertising and marketing and the Guardian article (July 12th) was a great sanity check as it mirrors our experiences over the first half of 2010.

The article focuses on the recent Bellwether report, published by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. It has found that one in five companies cut annual advertising spend between April and June. This compares with 15% that said spend was increased.

It was as recent as Quarter One when the report announced that more UK companies raised their marketing budgets than cut them for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Advertising took a knock, although big events such as the World Cup meant the dip in this area was not as significant as it could have been. Sales promotion was hit very hard, with the report recording “the third fastest downgrade to spending on the sales promotion sector in the Bellwether survey’s history”

It is not all doom and gloom. For those in the digital sector spend went up, although at a very slow rate. Internet advertising continued to grow, with social media remaining a major focus. With ROI crucial, digital media’s measurability is very appealing to company bean counters.

Despite all of this, as a new business agency, we (and our clients) should latch onto Rory Sutherland’s (IPA President) comments – “Although this indicates a less optimistic picture than previously thought for this year, marketing spend is still set to increase.”

In fact, we are optimistic at Alchemis. As I mention above, our experiences have mirrored the positive first quarter followed by a slower second quarter with the digital sector remaining the growth area. We, and our clients, entered 2010 with a bang. New briefs were plentiful and outstanding proposals suddenly got the green light. We had a record quarter for clients converting business in all disciplines. The feeling from the market and our clients felt positive. Companies and marketing departments had stuck two fingers up to the recession and the combined efforts of Alchemis and our clients over the last hard 12 months were paying dividends.

Quarter Two did see a dip, although in fact, there were and are still lots of opportunities out there for small to medium sized agencies and results from the second quarter still smashed the figures from 2009. I am not an economist, but there is no doubt in my mind that the uncertainty both before and following the election was a factor. Those are out of the way now and the one thing that has not waned is the number of marketing professionals who have wanted to meet new agencies. We have set record numbers of meetings in May and June. If times are tough, you need to look at quality, cost-effective solutions. I’ve waxed lyrical about it before, but our client base of small to medium sized agencies offer exactly that and the market is really open to approaches from them.

There is still much uncertainty out there and whilst commentators will have their opinion, what happens next is anyone’s guess. However, we know that you will need to be prepared for both a down or upturn. If your current clients cut their budgets, you need to have irons in the fire with new business. If, as we all hope, the second quarter dip is short lived, you want to make sure that you have got the introductions out of the way before those budgets are released and allocated.

The Lib-Cons will be there for a while yet, Germany has beaten us again, but who knows what the rest of 2010 will bring? All I know is that everyone in agency land needs to be prepared for any eventuality.

“Who does a CEO call first in crisis? Now it’s the PR” (Evening Standard 15th March 2010)

This article highlights the renaissance of the PR industry as it has bucked the trend of depleted budgets and spending during the recession. Chime Communications has recently unveiled a 15% increase in profits and Martin Sorrell concurs with the uplift, emphasising the rise in financial importance of his portfolio of PR agencies.

Undoubtedly, there has been, as the article explains, an increase in the importance of PR for corporations and high-profile individuals. Danny Rogers of PR Week (as he should) believes the discipline has “moved up the food chain” over the past 5 years. We would agree. Ten years ago, a high proportion of the Alchemis client base consisted of PR agencies of varying size, stature and sector experience. Since then we have seen a marked dip in the number of clients in this industry, and it has been a much smaller proportion of our turnover for some time. Whereas we used to work in financial, corporate, technology, manufacturing and pharmaceutical markets, more recent PR clients have been consumer focused and even here, it has been a tough environment to be working and driving business development. However, I believe the recession has helped the PR industry. Agencies are often viewed as a cost effective alternative to advertising and we have seen this, with several PR clients in varying markets enjoying successful new business campaigns over the past 12 months.

This perceived cost benefit is just one side of the coin. More importantly, corporate reputations are far more fragile with the rise of the internet, digital media and almost instant worldwide coverage. PR agencies have adapted in recent years to embrace a digital offer. Whilst a reputation can be damaged at the click of a mouse button, they can also be protected and enhanced. PR agencies that will survive and thrive will understand the importance of the digital space and be equipped to use it to good effect for their clients.

What is very interesting from a new business agency perspective is the identification that, despite prominent PR agencies being full of talent, the power and hence profits remain with the founders. This, Rogers believes, will result in the emergence of many breakaway agencies. I believe that this has always been the case to a degree as we have worked with many PR agency start-ups utilising that “big agency” experience as a key selling point. Additional agencies entering the market should only be positive news for a specialist business development agency such as Alchemis. We have always built strong relationships with PR people who tend to be extremely loyal taking us from agency to agency throughout their careers. The offers are diverse and the very nature of the discipline lends itself to more in-depth, engaging and interesting conversations for our New Business Managers. Not every sales person “gets” how to sell PR as it is not as tangible or quantifiable as other disciplines, but we have a real heritage in the area and a bank of highly capable people ready to fill a PR gap in their client portfolios.