So What Are We Going To Do In 2010?

I think we have enough commentators giving their prognoses on the world of on- and offline marketing this forthcoming year. So I thought I would share my very simple resolutions for 2010 with you:

Enjoy the work
I felt towards the end of last year we (myself included) were gritting our teeth and digging deep to get through the barrage of work. This year will be similar in terms of workload but my resolution is enjoy it more and make light of the challenges we face. I also think collectively we will do better work because of it.

Hold steady on the money
This will be another year where there will be downward pressure on costs. This is understandable and if a client has just let 10% of its marketing department staff go, then who are you to stand like Canute trying to resist cuts in your budgets. However, both your day to day clients and procurement will be trying to get more for less. This is where we do need to stand firm and have our arguments ready for what you can actually provide and also more innovative solutions to help them get to where they need to be on a smaller budget.

Do meetings more effectively
Tom Fishburne to whom I am grateful, as ever, for this post’s cartoon quotes Seth Godin on being more productive by reducing meeting drag. All of his suggestions make total sense. What I found last year is that clients as they are based in different offices are using meetings or telecons to catch on projects in bigger groups. The more productive thing would be to meet in smaller groups in advance and come to wider meetings with conclusions from the initial meetings. Also, as more and more meetings are virtual, I am constantly surprised how little concession is made to the fact people are not face to face (eg by circulating work in advance, eliciting feedback from all attendees to avoid dissension further down the line). Anyway for my part I am going to take Godin’s tip of 1) always circulating an agenda in advance and 2) doing more meetings around our pooltable which doesn’t have any chairs. Hopefully at least the latter will mean less time spent on meetings.