Phone holders - acceptable?

I know that he is the leader of the free world and has a seriously busy diary, but is a belt phone holder ever acceptable outside an IT helpdesk?

Will the recession drive up standards?

I have been keeping an eye on the Tweets that are coming out of Davos this week. David Brain, head honcho at Edelman Europe, mentioned that not only the mood of the delegates had changed from last year but also the dress. Apparently business casual is out and suits and ties are back.

I guess that this is a human reaction to an economic crisis. Although, the question I’d want to ask is how come none of the great and the good chatting away at Davos last year saw this collapse coming?

But if standards of dress are returning to a more formal age will the recession have the same impact on writing? Freelance journalist, Sally Whittle wrote a very amusing and rather depressing blog on how PRs approach her on email, using superfluous language – including awesome – to describe new IT software and products. In the worst cases she is pitched stories using text language. I’m guessing that making the journalist feel old is not the best way to endear yourself!

Let’s hope that as the size and number of available client budgets reduce and competition increases amongst agencies that standards of writing will improve, along with the rise in more formal dress. Although I don’t think you’re going to see me I suited and booted any time soon.

You Can Never Get Enough Stats

A quick round-up of some web stats that I seen over the last few days. All good for getting the size of the opportunity, and the challenge of making yourself heard, into proportion:

1. Social networks over took adult sites as the most visited sites last October and have remained ahead since - Hitwise

2. Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors - comScore

3. Wikipedia Gets 97% of Encyclopedia Visits - Hitwise

4. UK Twitter traffic increases 10-fold in a year - Hitwise

T-Mobile Dance

I'm sure this has been everywhere since last week but it is Friday evening, it made me smile. and it is a great example of social media. Have a good weekend.

Perfect!

With many thanks to Matt, Daily Telegraph

Spokespeople with Passion

We are always telling our clients that spokespeople with passion make the best interviews. Emma Thompson shows that keeping it personal and having a lot of passion gets the point across very well.

Thanks to Greenpeace for flagging this up on Twitter.

Trust in Public Bodies

Not for profit sector think tank and research consultancy nfpSynergy announced it's latest Charity Awareness Monitor survey yesterday. The good news for charities is that trust has increased 23 percent to 65 percent to November 2008.

As expected, trust in banks has dropped from 41 percent in November 2003 to 17 percent in November 2008. Only insurance companies come in below the banks, with the Government sitting at third least trusted. Top of the trust list are The Armed Forces.

All seems about right from my point of view!

2009 - Gloom and Doom or Steady as She Goes?

It has been nearly a month since I last posted. I reckon Christmas and the New Year break is a good excuse, although I notice many others kept the blogging and Twittering going throughout, even on Christmas Day!

But what has kept me busy since the 2 January has been two major activities:

1. Existing clients - tightening budgets, refocusing on possible outcomes and results, and looking for much more detailed activity plans than last year.

2. New business - as I continue to read about global economic meltdown we are receiving a steady flow of new leads (all be it with smaller budgets than last year). The prospects' expectations are the same as existing clients but with one major addition. A clear and simple demand for a senior consultant to direct and manage the campaign. We are having regular discussions about how the pitch team must match the account team.

If this trend continues we will be faced with the serious challenge of trying to turn a profit from reducing budgets while applying more expensive senior time to each account.

On a positive note, I'm guessing that this recession will throw up a number of agencies that take an alternative view to the traditional structure. Lets hope some of them are very successful and we can all benefit from an improved business model. In the meantime I guess we'll just focus on reducing those fixed costs.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the latest PRCA's PR Leaders' Panel later this week. We've asked 160 agency MDs about their expectations for growth in 2009. Fingers crossed for some positive expectations.