2007 Round Up - What Paul Doleman Thinks

What's been your highlight of 2007?

2007 has certainly been ultra challenging, but what a year! It's hard to pin it down to one highlight as there have been so many.

I think as a company we have broadened our services and can now tell a 'connected story'. As a consequence, we’re being taken seriously by the big brands and are able to go up against larger creative agencies on a pitch, which is brilliant. What’s more, we’re winning.

This year we have implemented new technology to manage our campaigns in paid search called Merchantize. Getting that installed in a very complex environment has been a great achievement all round, from design to implementation.

I suppose, finally, seeing some of the less experienced staff cope so well with such dramatic growth in the business, and dealing with the changes in product services and framework. We’re in with the big boys now, as a fully integrated, established, digital service, and it has been delightful to experience that.

What are you looking forward to in 2008?

Personally I am hoping for a quieter diary…. I'm also looking forward to the development of the NetworkSense toolkit and to taking Sharp Analytics to our clients, to give great visuals and compelling dashboards.

If you were in charge of Google for a day, what one thing would you change?

I’d like to see a little more humility. They are sharing more information, but I think they have nothing to fear. I’d like to see them open up completely and share search data with their major advertisers and agency partners. If I was Google I would adopt the Spannerworks philosophy of total transparency.

And your dream Christmas present?

I would like an Aston Martin Vantage, but I don’t think that's particularly realistic. Perhaps if Arjo gets one I could take it for a spin? I will settle for a nice digital camera, however.