At some point after economic screws are tightened, brands look to review all their costs with outsourced activities such as advertising or media usually being fairly high up the list. This is resulting in increased pitch activity with 2009 fast becoming one of the busiest on record for advertising and media pitches.

Specialist recruiters (and ex-agency people themselves) www.inhousenetwork.co.uk recently released a white paper on how marketing and creative agencies are reacting to this situation by evolving and developing a business development culture across all agency staff.

"Now is the time to acknowledge that additional skills may be required, both to win new business and retain existing accounts” - comments Nicky O'Malley, Managing Director www.inhousenetwork.co.uk - “We're finding that our clients are very interested in our ability to recruit both New Business professionals aswell as business development focused Senior Client Handlers. 'Opportunity spotters' not 'Processors' are the key to survival of the fittest in the agency world"