Some green shoots, yesterday.

So, back from holidays and how are things in the UK? Just having a look at recent news in the advertising sector:
JD Decaux (one of the world's largest outdoor advertising companies) reports 95% fall in profits for first half of 2009. (Guardian article.)
The number of media companies going bust went up by 50% in first half of 2009. 300 companies went out of business in the first six months of the year. (Guardian article.)
Omnicom (the holding company behind BBDO, DDB and TBWA among others) posted a 24% fall in profit in the three months to the end of June. (Guardian article.)
Publicis Groupe (the holding company behind Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH and, er, Publicis) reported a 13% fall in net profit in the 3 months to the end of June. (Guardian article.)
WPP ( the world's biggest advertising holding company: Ogilvy, Y&R, JWT, etc) reported a 6.7% fall in revenue for the first four months of 2009 and reported that pre-tax profit was significantly down. (Guardian article.)
Part of the result of this has been the announcement of significant job cuts: 3,500 announced at Omnicom in December 2008, 1,800 at Publicis, and 7,000 planned at WPP this year.

Hmmm. Not a very encouraging picture to return to overall. And my worry is that when the business contracts like this, it never comes back. Ad spend may recover but, for most agencies, profit margins won't. In the new world we'll all just have to continue to work harder, quicker, smarter.

On a cheerier note, the sun is shining in London and the chilli plant on my window sill is thriving.  Green shoots and red fruits.