Personally the last month has not been the best time of the year.

Firstly we have been badly let down by British Telecom, we had no broadband access for 2 weeks, through BT’s faulty installation. This meant that we were unable to present a web-based pitch for a brand design agency for their global website. Not only had Impress done all the research work, presided over a workshop, interviewed some of their global clients in UK, USA, Australia and Europe, but also devised a site map. However, it was impossible to present the full extent of our work.

Secondly, I had a great idea for a really interactive and engaging website for a school in Dorset, Bryanston Public School. The idea was to engage with parents, pupils and staff both current and potential by online video – the way of the world at the moment if you look at Youtube.com (20 million unique visitors a month!) and Video Google. This was another pitch, against larger agencies, and Impress did not get the website work.

Thirdly, our family dog died of bronchial pneumonia which was incredibly sad, while all the above was going on. Lara, named after the cricketer Brian Charles Lara, was a 12 year old black Labrador who had the sweetest temperament you could ever wish for in a dog. She grew up as my three boys were growing up and is the same age as my oldest son. We all miss her terribly.

I don’t like the pitching process.

The brand design agency, Blue Marlin, one of the global leaders in brand packaging design, were incredibly generous in offering a fee for the pitch. They have worked on pitches for their potential clients over the past 12 years at huge cost to the organisation only to get a two-line email saying we’ll keep you on our books!

Bryanston had 5 agencies pitch for the website work, some going all the way down to Dorset from as far as Cambridge. Effectively each agency had a 20% chance of getting the business, and each of them (I’m sure) put in hours, days and weeks of preparation.

Impress do pitch for work and have successfully pitched for 4 or 5 pieces of work that include websites in the past 3 weeks. However, we always maintain that we are a marketing agency not a web agency or design agency in isolation.

Marketing is a broad area of expertise and we pride ourselves in delivering customer-driven solutions that involve strategy, branding, research and tactical delivery. Effectively you get what you pay for, and we deliver the highest level of strategic thinking.

Impress want to be in the position whereby potential customers come to us, talk to us, realise that what they are getting is a thought through strategic approach and not a simple tactical solution.

I was also my 43^rd Birthday on 7^th November!