London Calling

We know that the economy has been in trouble - we have had two recovery packages and it’s not even Christmas. Advertising has benefited and retail sales are up in many categories. The signs are good.

Charlie has been telling me that the tough times aren’t over yet but it has stopped getting worse. Or as Churchill said in the middle of WWII “it’s not the end, but it is the end of the beginning”.

With thoughts of Churchill in mind, I headed for London last week.

Our advertising industry has always had an affinity with the English. For a start we speak the same language or so I thought until I started to talk to a Cockney tout about getting a couple of tickets to the Wimbledon final. He just didn’t get it when I suggested that 2000 pounds for a single ticket was a bit rich.

Back in the world of commerce, I lined up meetings with as many important people that I knew. Over the years I suspect they have looked down on us convict bred larrikins but not these days, particularly as the “old country’s” economy is in real trouble. By comparison, we have handled our economy well.

Advertising in Australia will be down around 7% this year, but try 30%+ in some European markets, and as for Russia well just don’t go there.

The message is simple; don’t get carried away with the news from abroad. We will come out of this downturn better than most of the rest of the world.

Before I left, the editor had filled me with questions to ask all the big wheels I was to meet in some misguided hope that he could turn me from a columnist into a journalist. No hope of that: some of the answers they got were so good that I am sworn to secrecy. But thanks boss – the questions were terrific!

The story with all the big wheels in the UK advertising community is that this downturn is frightening.

They didn’t see it coming and when it happened they didn’t realise that it would be so severe. Their confidence took a beating.

So with the knowledge that the rest of the world is pretty well shot and that Australia will be okay, I decided to revive negotiations with the ticket tout. By this time the Englishman Andy Murray had lost the Semi Final and the price was coming down. And he was a Scot again.

So off I went to the tennis last Sunday - big crowd, happy people, merchandise turnover booming.

In his acceptance speech, Roger Federer mentioned his disappointment at missing out on winning the Australian Open last January. Suddenly, at this magic time in England the old colony was back in the news on centre court.

But there is one worry on the horizon. One of our former Australian cricket greats told me over dinner that the first test that started last night in Cardiff is a plot. The wicket is a dream for spinners and they have been waiting for Warne to depart before luring us to the land of leeks.

That may be so, but the gentle resurgence of our advertising industry in Australia is a win for us ….. and it has the Poms in a spin.