This year's successes
When I wrote a year ago of the substantial achievements of 2007 in the rapid increases in client reviews, the rise of agency renewals and the sheer value of business the company managed on behalf of our growing list of clients, I also looked forward to 2008 as a year of opportunity, especially from our new website, our UK wide regional expansion and client engagement.
Some of the milestones of 2008
The results
 Across 2008, all the key performance indicators of our business have recorded significant improvements over the previous year and we achieved our stretching business targets, namely,
- Total value of client briefs have increased by over 15% since 2007
- Agency subscriber renewal rates continue to increase, hitting 80% this year
- Client ‘search’ income has increased by over 64%
- Many leading client companies have registered through the new website and over 150 in the last 3 months alone
- In the last two months, visits to the website have grown to an average of over 4,500, representing almost 2,500 unique visitors
- www.creativebrief.com is now the highest ranking website by UK traffic of any intermediary, by a factor of 3!
The new website
 In March we re-launched the website (v3), after extensive redevelopment to meet the new and future demands of the internet. This has been supported by our heaviest and most prolonged client marketing campaign ever, with groundbreaking results for traffic, site visitors and passwords issued.
To add further value to our agency subscribers, January 2009 will see the launch of Quarterly Traffic Reports. These will provide detailed analysis of site traffic and individual showcase statistics.
Going UK wide
 A key part of our 2008 marketing strategy has been to bring our unique service to everyone in the UK, not just to London based agencies and clients.
In fact, 70% of creativebrief’s clients are based outside of London, across all parts of the UK and we are providing them with a 360˚ view of the UK marketing industry based on our city by city agency engagement programme (visiting Belfast, Bristol, Exeter, Bournemouth, Norwich, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow).
The response has been fantastic and the feedback from agencies has been very positive. In the words of David Ford, CEO Bright Blue Day, Poole
“creativebrief is a core part of our business development process. We have been shortlisted by a number of high quality clients via creativebrief and won a significant amount of business. The team are intelligent, professional and helpful and I would certainly recommend their services to anyone looking to develop their business”.
We have seen an upturn in agency searches and local briefs throughout the UK. Proof of this is reflected in some recent wins like Bright Blue Day in Poole recently winning Zurich, McCann Erickson in Bristol winning AXA and JWT Cheethambell in Birmingham winning bmibaby.
The future challenges
 2008 has also heralded the arrival of something not so welcome – the recession. Whilst all of us recognise the implications for our industry in its broadest terms, we are finding that the objective and transparent value we offer our clients is becoming more attractive, and the quantifiable value we give agency new business and marketing, more appropriate.
It’s a buyer’s market. That’s why more and more clients are turning to us to help find the most efficient and effective agency solutions, demanding more tangible value delivery.
We have been working with some of the UKs leading marketing clients, helping them manage their agency rosters more effectively for the future – we know we’ll be doing much more of this in 2009 and utilising our unique Roster Management Service software to help.
As we approach 2009, a year of immense challenge for us all, I firmly believe that all our planning and development has put this company in pole position to create value for clients and for agencies alike across the next 12 months.
So, have a relaxing and restful Christmas and New Year, ready for 2009!
Paul Duncanson
Managing Director
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