Well done – you’ve made it through so far. Now’s the time to reflect on what’s happened over the last 18 months, and spend a little time planning ahead. I think all of us running businesses in Suffolk agree that what’s important right now is making sure our companies are healthy, strong and on firm foundations to grow, or survive another dip.

Many pragmatic minded souls consider that design and marketing communications are the cherry on the cake, a little gloss that can be put aside when times get hard. But here’s the truth: if you do not use every means possible to market your business to the right people – ESPECIALLY in a recession – your chances of survival are seriously diminished.

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Erika’s off on holiday next week for a week – her first week off email in two years (since her maternity leave was largely spent attached to her iPhone as far as we can tell.) But we’re worried.

Where would the MD of a creative agency holiday? Barbados? Tuscany? Las Vegas?

Not our Erika. She has hired a house in Southwold (ten minutes from home, 2 minutes from the office) for the week, and borrowed a beach hut from an old friend of her Granny’s.

We are shaking our heads in horror and will be creating an exclusion zone for the week, anticipating her creeping into the studio at night like a Borrower.

A digital precipice is being reached for clients and agencies. We no longer need to be persuaded about the need to move into digital, it’s already part of our culture whether we like it or not. We can see that great leaps have been made into the digital realm, but now many are worrying that they have jumped without sufficient preparation. We have seen clients and agencies express the fear that some of the necessary core skills in training are missing… the skills that separate mediocre management from magnificent management such as syntax and decision-making. And now, we can see a lot of those agencies, who may or may not be new to digital, are rethinking their strategies (or finally creating one!)

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Is this the end of Paypal? Facebook has announced recently that they will begin offering Facebook Credits this September for its users to be used on ‘real-world’ items, much the same way as eBay’s chief online payment firm PayPal.

Currently in testing, Facebook plans on integrating its credit system initially with games, then if successful, to be branched out to real-world items in a shop environment. Credit accounts will allow topping up with a number of credit cards and merchants will be charged 30% commission from their sales.

It seems that Facebook is taking cautious steps with this new feature, as its success would mean a real boom to the social media platform’s infrastructure.

Using real currency to buy ‘virtual goods’ has already a long lineage, and according to a study this year by the virtual economy services provider Live Gamer and games industry analyst service DFC Intelligence, 60% of all gamers have purchased virtual goods, defined by the study as “an in-game good that was not a complete game.” Among gamers surveyed 88% had purchased digital content before.

There can be little doubt that, given Facebook’s already brilliant track record in gaining credibility, very soon we may not only be conversing with our friends on Facebook, we may also be shopping with them.

Dance East has commissioned Southwold’s agency, Spring to work on their marketing campaign.

Spring will start work with Dance East with immediate effect, creating an inspiring new style.

“We can’t wait to get started on the project,” says Erika Clegg, managing director of the agency. “Dance East is a fundamentally important part of Suffolk’s creative landscape, and for them to have chosen Spring is a real honour.”