Weekly Wrap - as seen in The Drum (13.03.09)
I think it’s time I changed my morning routine. The highlight of my breakfast ritual used to be watching Bill & Sian on the BBC sofa whilst I munched through the most important meal of the day, but let’s be honest the news isn’t exactly inspiring at the moment. In the last week alone 600 jobs have gone at ITV, more than 2000 are under threat with retailer Principles and closer to home, marketing recruitment firm Blue Skies closed their Manchester office citing a contracting market in Manchester as their reasoning. It’s enough to put you right off your Rice Krispies!When you hear morning after morning that another company is going bust, making redundancies or suffering record losses it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the doom & gloom and not even bother trying. I’m very familiar with that feeling and initially considered my own timing less than perfect when within a month of launching Marketing Scout the entire world fell into global recession. After all, there are more opportune moments to be approaching new clients about their marketing recruitment needs. But after the initial shockwaves and a couple of mornings hiding under the duvet for a little longer than my regular snooze, it became apparent that our own offering was even more relevant than ever. After all, how many other recruiters can help agencies find new clients as well as new talent or provide them with additional HR support when they’re facing less than easy decisions?
For some businesses, turning a problem situation into a creative opportunity can be the making of them and some real gems have surfaced out of challenging times. Take William Wrigley Jr who instead of crying into his failed soap powder decided that there could be money in selling the chewing gum he’d originally used as a promotional giveaway. Many a dark cloud can provide a silver lined pocket and let’s face it, our industry is better equipped than most to calculate on challenging times with innovative thinking.
In true Darwinian style, recessions encourage the survival of the fittest and as your weaker competitors fall by the wayside there are opportunities aplenty for those truly talented agencies to not only survive but to prosper and come out the other side stronger than ever. The shrewd clients out there recognise that they need creative thinking & dynamic planning more than ever to drive the development of their products & services at a time when consumers are making much more considered purchases. I know from my own agency experience that if you can help a client’s budget stand & deliver when it’s at its smallest they’re much more likely to remember you when it’s supersized again.
Whilst we’re all far from coming out the other side of this recession, I do think it’s time to start focussing on the good news stories that may be well hidden but are there. Whilst Peter Mandelson’s Birds Eye moment was reason to smile there’s been some other, more relevant highlights swallowed up inside this week’s bad news. In the last 7 days we’ve seen Wilmslow based Frank win the Madame Tussauds work out of London, Kelloggs on TV with an ad created by CheethamBell JWT and Love continue to do yet more great work with Dr Martens. Hardly evidence of a contracting Manchester market eh?
As for my morning rituals, I reckon I’m going to Sky+ the previous night’s soaps and swap Bill and Sian for Steve and Becky’s wedding whilst enjoying my boiled egg and soldiers.
Karen Staniland-Platt
Director
Marketing Scout
Posted 13 March 2009
