MERSEYSIDE'S creative sector will start growing again in 2010 after a year of consolidation - that's the view from some of the industry's key players.

Paul Taylor of Northwest Vision and Media gives his take on 2009 and the year ahead

THE past year was a tough one for business and the creative industries have not escaped this.

Regular guest blogger Ben Pinnington on Wirral Waters

A STORY of potentially immense significance for the Wirral, Merseyside and the North of England has taken an important step forward this month.
Peel Holdings, the property developer, which dominates Merseyside and much of the North West, has recently submitted the UK's biggest planning application for its Wirral Waters project.

THE chief executive of inward investment body The Mersey Partnership (TMP), Lorraine Rogers, says Liverpool Hope University's new arts venue could help bring new business to the city's creative firms.

ONLINE marketing firm Hit Search has won a contract to work with designer fashion retailer Matchesfashion.com

ARCHITECTURE practice BDP is moving its Merseyside practice to Liverpool One - the £1bn shopping and leisure complex it masterplanned.

Stuart Jackson of Wirral marketing agency ICE on his decade in the creative sector

THERE'S no getting away from the explosion in new technologies, which have upped the pace and given creative businesses more control over almost every aspect of their work over the past decade.

Guest blogger Dougal Paver on branding and the BA strike

NEWS that British Airways staff have voted for strike action over the Christmas period, beginning December 22, poses less of a reputational issue for the airline and rather more of one for its workforce.

David Thorp on trends in the marketing sector

THE Chartered Institute of Marketing's latest Marketing Trends Survey for Autumn 2009 reveals that marketers, UK-wide, continue to be quietly confident about the prospects for the UK economy over the next 12 months.
The picture emerging from this ninth wave of Marketing Trends Survey, conducted for the Institute by Ipsos MORI, is that optimism has recovered strongly since the low point of last year's survey, and the first signs of optimism already seen in the previous wave six months ago appear to have been consolidated.
Sales are up, redundancies are down.
The more positive outlook is backed up by the financial conditions of the companies surveyed, which have improved compared to the previous wave: sales performances are up, marketing spend is up, redundancies are going down. However, those figures are far from where they were before the economic crisis. It seems that the recession has left many companies weaker and any recovery is proving slow and difficult, with many still struggling.
The survey reveals that after the low point in autumn 2008, when 70% expected the economy to get worse versus just 11% who thought it would improve, sentiment has continued to brighten through spring and into autumn this year. In spring 2009, the proportion expecting conditions to worsen halved (to 34%). Now 51% expect the economy to improve and just 12% expect it to get worse in the next year.
2010 will certainly be an interesting year for marketers, with the continuing uncertainty about an economic recovery, the UK general election and an ever-growing presence of digital and social media. It's good to see that marketers are responding to customer needs by changing their products and services.
For now, marketers are wisely concentrating their spend in the most effective activities, and still see the need to invest in training. As we move into the New Year, I'm convinced this more professional approach will stand them in good stead when the economy fully recovers.

David Thorp is director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing

A PILOT scheme to help creative and digital businesses attract investment got started this week.
The Fast Company programme, developed by support agency Northwest Vision & Media (NWVM), aims to help firms get "investor ready" to secure the funding they need to grow more quickly.