It's been a busy few weeks and I thought I'd better get back into the routine of blogging more regularly. I've been up north again recently and met with the heads of many of the agencies in that part of the world, and we also welcomed the Media Week awards judges to the Googleplex to take a look at our set-up and meet some of the team. Both occasions allowed me to reflect on the last year or so in the digital industry, and despite the recession things seem to be going very well. While some media sectors are struggling as businesses manage costs more tightly, digital innovation on behalf of both the user and advertiser has been significant.
This time last year, Twitter wasn't the growing phenomenon it is today, Facebook has reached 20m users in the UK, while Spotify was not opened up to UK registration without invite until February this year. Additionally Microsoft has launched its new search engine, Bing, and Google has continued to innovate with tools like Google Squared and Wave on the consumer front, and Doubleclick Ad Exchange on the advertiser and publisher side.
The digital industry can be proud of its achievements in 2009 and the news this week that the Internet as a medium is now well over 20% of UK ad revenues is further demonstration of the progress of online channels. As agencies and advertisers begin planning for 2010, I think we can be upbeat about next year and focus not on relative performance versus other media, but how the channels can work together more effectively for the benefit of users and advertisers.
