We are Winners!

Our Big News - hot off the press

This month, I've got 2 exciting pieces of news that will make a difference to IM over the coming months, and maybe even years...

Firstly we won a big industry award last Thursday night. The MCCA is our key trade association and runs the annual 'Best' awards for marketing agencies. We submitted one of our Lufthansa campaigns and were shortlisted in the 'Creme of the Best' award for strategic planning. It was great to be able to take the team who had worked on the campaign, and also a couple of the Lufthansa marketing team, to the awards do, and even better to win the Best Award for our category (beating big name agencies Arc Worldwide, Ogilvy Action and The Lounge Group). Winners of other categories included well known agencies like Saatchi and Saatchi X, Elvis and Euro RSCG and campaigns for Virgin Holidays, O2 and Barcardi, so we're in excellent company and it's a great one for our 'trophy cabinet'. What's really good about it is that it positions us as strategists (which is a core business objective for us) to other agencies and clients (existing and potential). Last year we won the B2B Direct Marketing category for an HSBC campaign, so we're demonstrating our breadth of skills.


Our other exciting piece of news is that we have brought on board a new chairman who has started with us today (we've not even released this news to the press yet). His experience is spot on for what we need as he set up the UK's first integrated marketing agency, grew it to a £multi-million turnover before selling it a few years ago. His experience and network of contacts means he'll be a great asset in our plans to raise our game to a new level. He's already had suggestions on how we can look at doing certain things differently, and potentially introducing some key new people into the business. It's a big step for us, as it's likely to mean that Trish and I will no longer be the sole share holders in the business that we set up and have grown together. Bringing in another member to the director team is going to be an interesting, challenging dynamic which I have great faith will shake us up in a positive way and move us forward. It's also going to change the way that I work. There'll be loads I can learn from him, and I'm going to make sure that I'm in a strong position, in conjunction with the other directors, to drive the business forward in a really positive way - structurally, as well as income-generating.


What else is new this month?

Other business news is that we've won Orange Business Services as a client - a brilliant one with huge potential, and also TaylorMade Golf. Client work for Isklar (a water brand we've been launching in the UK - look out for it in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Harrods, and various other independents) is picking up, as has our new account with Timberland, so business is looking much stronger for the next few months. That's not to say we haven't had to make cut backs - we have, and we may not be replacing a couple of people who have resigned in the past couple of weeks depending on how the work pans out. But my view on this is that it's those businesses that keep a tight eye on their cost base and are pragmatic about what's coming up, as well as on pushing for income, that will be the ones that do best out of the recession.


Inspirational Entrepreneurial Women

I saw Karen last week (as well as Kresse - who I did manage to have a quick chat with - and Karen Darby - who was on the speakers panel) at the Real Business 100 Most Entrepreneurial Women event that we were all invited to. As the 3 of them (and Caroline Plumb from the MAD Mentor programme) were included on the list, I was very much a 'groupie' at the event - I was invited along by virtue of having been shortlisted for an entrepreneurial award last year. It was an inspirational session with incredibly impressive women entrepreneurs providing great examples and useful insights to the likes of me, and it was also great to catch up, albeit briefly, with Karen and Kresse.

I think that's it for the moment - it seems like it's been a successful and productive February, and with quite a few more bigger business picture plans in the pipeline, I am feeling pretty excited about the next few weeks and months.

Our Year End is this month, so April's going to be a fresh start for us in terms of our annual income and profitability objectives. Right now I'm focusing on how we can drive the business forward, and the starting point will be this year's business plan which I'm working on, in conjunction with our Account Directors. I'm hoping to chat it through with Karen (I'll be using some of my learnings from the day at Top Table) in the next couple of weeks before launching it to the business in April.