Interesting times ahead.....

It has been a while since the last post - I'll put it down to a very busy end of financial year, but truth be known, I think the "busy-ness" of the business is only linked in part to the time of year.

I have picked up some publications from a couple of different sectors (advertising, IT, marketing, government and even the magazine which comes in the weekend newspapers) and the news all round is the same - the internet is important, growing and taking corporate and government marketing expenditure and investment funds away from traditional activities.

I saw a statistic in AdNews this week which stated that in the UK, internet advertising will pass MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS for the first time this year; 13.3% of marketing spend compared to 13.2% for newspapers - a very significant milestone for our industry.

For us, this is manifesting itself in the increasing demand and increasing "quality of opportunities" we are seeing. Not only are we being asked to respond to more proposals, but the projects are better funded, better developed and more significant than they have been at any time in our recent past. This is getting serious.

The time of year is significant in one respect - the change-over of budget years. In 2005/06, most corporations and governments in our markets were "caught by surprise" and underestimated the significance that online channels would achieve over the last 12 months - most projects were funded from "borrowed funds" from other projects or budget fund. With the passing of th 1st of July, corporate budgets have now been reset and most corporations have allocated explicit funds to digital projects, specifically in the areas on mobile and internet activities.

So... the gun has gone off .... we have spent nearly a dozen years building capability to respond to the opportunity we have in front of us right now. .... now we get to enjoy the challenge, effort and reward of getting to change the world ....