New year, new opportunities.
2010 has started with a bang. Everyone you meet seems to be in a better mood, at least here in Southeast Asia. People are more optimistic, and there's the sense that fresh possibilities are opening up for everyone. Even those who put on a brave face during the onslaught of bad news in 2009 are glad to see the end of that year.
That said, some of the remnants of the past year remain. In particular, the marketing and training budgets, which were cut so rapidly in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, have not yet been restored fully.
This continues to dog my friends in traditional media, who rely on big-spending corporates with burgeoning ad budgets for their bread-and-butter.
The fact that "traditional media dollars" are being replaced by "digital cents" is actually good news for marketers. They face more fragmented audiences, but it's cheaper to reach them, and more targeted to boot.
 Best wishes
Mark