“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”

- Keith Richards/Mick Jagger

Okay let’s face it, last year really sucked. Good people came and went. Businesses became paralyzed. Seemingly smart and sane people made poor choices. The Yankees returned to their glorious days of yesteryear. About the only positives were that that the stock market rallied and gas prices pretty much held firm.

So we’ve turned the calendar, but have we turned the corner? Ironically, the market has gone into the tank (Thank You, Scott Brown???) and speaking of tanks, it now costs me $50 again to fill mine up. But, I am encouraged by what I’m seeing and hearing, not just here at 12 Waltham, but down the street, across the greater Boston marketing/PR world and even in Silicon Valley.  Friends and former business associates are all happy to report those five magical words: “the phone is ringing again!”

We’ve had not one, but as many as three clients come back to us during the past month to talk about either expanding the scope of work they were doing with us in 2009, to completely revive PR and marketing or simply try out a new project. We’ve also seen several opportunities pop up through referrals.  Elsewhere there are some other positive signs that support an optimistic view on Q1, which of course, if things break the right way, would set us all up for a nice bounce off the canvas. RFPs are out there. CMOs are getting hired again. Even better they are getting budget approvals and subsequently taking their foot off the (marketing) brakes. Friendly rivals are calling to say they are winning business and looking at new hires. One firm even opened up a new office in New York City. The Economist has declared the PR industry to be on pretty solid ground and a beneficiary of both the recession and the aforementioned bad behavior. So it’s definite progress and it feels good.

That is a bit of a look into the here and now and the next few months in our little world.

As for what marketers accomplished, thought and executed last year (and how it will impact 2010 activities), continue to watch this blog. Our 2009/2010 Marketing Survey recently concluded, and we’ll be sharing some great insights over the next couple weeks.