Talk to many agency folk right now and they will tell you the surprising news that this has been the busiest August for new business pitches for many a year. What! How can this be? The deepest recession since the war, the worst year for the economy in living memory and yet August, traditionally the quiet new business month of the year, has been manic for new many UK agencies? Of course, the big question, is why? Before we all throw our arms in the air and start chanting about those green shoots, let’s just pause for thought. A couple of agency heads I have spoken to can’t quite believe that things are as good as they seem. We have lived through some pretty turbulent times. Some of the most stable agency accounts have seen senior client decision makers move on in the last couple of years, and perhaps this is a reason behind the current busy pitching season? As the incumbent decision maker has moved on, or been moved on, so the new kid on the block wants to stamp their authority on the comms plans. As a result the incumbent agency is asked to pitch for the business all over again. Whether we are about to see a changing of the agency guard and the highest amount of client churn in recent memories remains to be seen. It may just be that clients are having a look at the market and perhaps using the pitch process to review things and, dare I say it, drive yields down a bit. (Fair enough in the current climate, some would say.) The new business rush therefore is likely to be a double edged sword for many agencies; a big opportunity to win some new, potentially six figure accounts? Yes. But also the fact that the decision makers for current clients may have moved on, means that the agencies know they are likely to be both the hunters - and the hunted.