February sees the start of the Chinese Year of the Tiger. The adventurous but focused wild cat symbolises courage, confidence, survival and grace and is therefore a very different animal to last year’s hard-working, rather plodding and generally less appealing ox. 

Superstition also has it that the tiger’s eye gemstone stimulates wealth and abundance – hold it up to a full moon and it will draw cash to its owner.      

Hmm. Should we rush out and buy one?

It seems, more than ever before, people are trying to change their luck, make or win some money or get a bargain – and marketers, always quick to respond to trends (page 24), are offering deals and ways to help consumers stretch their precious cash. 

Take, for example, McDonald’s, whose ‘Saver Menu’ ad campaign has been airing in the UK, promoting how far our money goes in a McDonald’s restaurant. It’s a sound concept, but whoever devised the ad is clearly under the age of 40, not British, or both. How can I tell? Take a look: http://bit.ly/5yVeGH

The narrator claims a British pound is nicknamed a quid (yes, it is) or a bob – well no, actually: a bob was a shilling, a 20th of a pound, as anyone born before 1971, when the UK ‘bob’ was scrapped, would know. 

We all make mistakes and you can call me a finicky old pedant if you like, but I would expect pan-global companies with the clout of this fast-food giant to be masters of the art of the perfect ad.

Even the very best can occasionally get it very wrong (page 20) and a wasted ad budget is the stuff of nightmares, particularly as we count the cost of the economic downturn. 

For many direct marketers determined to look to a better future (page 34), ethics are high on the   new year wishlist (page 15). Some might claim they can’t afford morals but they should realise today’s customers will not put up with the smoke and mirrors of yesteryear – they demand transparency (page 12) and it would be a grave mistake to take their hard-won trust and loyalty for granted (page 30).

Industry forecasters GroupM and ZenithOptimedia have brightened this new year by predicting that global adspend rates will grow in 2010 – rising around 0.9 per cent. It isn’t a lotto win but they add there will be fairly steady growth over the next three years. And, as we leave ‘the noughties’ and head into what I hear might eventually be known as ‘the twenteens’, other reports agree the recession is easing. 

The full effect of 2009’s financial drubbing will take a while to play out. Meanwhile, I read that playing bingo online (page 6) is surging in popularity and might even go global. I’ll bet my tiger’s eye on that.