The word on the street is that 2006 won't necessarily be a race to snag as many new clients as possible. Instead, design studios and ad agencies alike will focus on maintaining and growing current relationships, taking in new clients from referrals and only where they are a solid fit.

Many company principals surveyed also report that their companies will position themselves as partners or extensions of the firms they serve Ð extensions that offer something beyond traditional approaches to marketing, advertising and design challenges.

As for 2006 business trends, most say they'll embrace emerging technologies and online approaches even more than in years past, as well as other alternative approaches.

Top players from the following Atlanta ad agencies and design studios shared responses to the questions below on business trends for 2006. Use the keys to see exactly how each firm's representative responded to the questions.

Ad Agency Key:

Acuity =	Huey+Partners =	Think Monster =	Merge =	WestWayne =
Acuity Inc.	Huey+Partners Advertising	Think Monster	Merge Agency	WestWayne, Inc.
Decatur	Midtown	Inman Park	Buckhead	Midtown
Gail Tassell, president	Ron Huey, president & executive creative director	Wade Forst, president	Michael Taylor, president	Karen Evans, EVP, chief marketing officer

Design Studio Key:

16toads =	Brand Bird =	Bass Designs =	BAD Studio =	Iconologic =	MaxMedia =
16toads Design	Brand Bird	Bass Designs Inc.	BAD Studio	Iconologic	MaxMedia Design
Smyrna	Atlanta	Buckhead	North Atlanta	Midtown	Buckhead
Paul Burton, creative director/principal	Kevin Rej, principal	Melanie Bass Pollard, principal/creative director	Scott A. Banks & Lyn Albers, principals	Ben Friedman, partner	Keehln Wheeler, president/owner

OZ: How will your firm approach business in 2006?

WestWayne: 2006 will continue to demand high degrees of focus, tenacity and flexibility. As an agency, we approach new business as strategically and methodically as we do our clients' businesses. You cannot be all things to all people, so it will be incumbent upon us to identify those who will benefit the most from our insights and experience.

Iconologic: A primary dedication of attention to our existing clients followed by a commitment to controlled growth where appropriate. Also, 2006 will be our firm's 25th anniversary, something we are particularly proud of and will reflect upon (and which we also plan to celebrate heavily).

Think Monster: Think Monster's approach for 2006 will be targeted towards mid-sized and Fortune 1,000 clientele that need integrated communications to deliver consistent messaging across various channels. Our core will still be brand-focused with direct customer communication.

16toads: 16toads Design has relied almost exclusively on referrals for the better part of a decade. As an independent business owner, my greatest asset is my client base, present and former. My focus has always been on cultivating the relationships that I already have É happy clients lead to referrals. Nonetheless, the business climate is constantly evolving, and for independents this usually means a great deal of uncertainty. In 2006, 16toads Design plans to incorporate budget-conscious marketing into the mix for the first time.

Acuity: We'll be even more strategic about our process for 2006. We'll focus on maintaining our clients, our larger accounts.

Brand Bird: Pursue prospective clients with vigor and focus. Keep existing clients amused, fat and happy.

MaxMedia: Same as always Ð hard work, creativity, dedication and a little bit of fun.

Huey+Partners: The industry continues to evolve at a breakneck pace and we will do the same. We'll continue to think in new, different and unexpected ways and push our clients to do the same.

Merge: Since the business environment is becoming exponentially more complex and competitive, our consulting approach to marketing and communications will continue to replace traditional account service. Our strong creative execution will always remain a top priority, no different in 2006. We will continue to focus on our full service relationships and the use of technology to make our clients' marketing more accountable and effective.

BAD Studio: Emphasize our strengths in cable industry marketing and focus on connecting with clients who can use our experience.

Bass Designs: Developing marketing tools that integrate technology solutions into our clients' operations and utilize their websites as global portals for brand tool management. This will help us to provide our creative work to them in a variety of formats that can be accessible and editable in real time around the world.

OZ: How will you sell your services in the New Year, simply stated?

MaxMedia: It's all about results.

Merge: Capitalizing on two areas where we have deep experience:
1) Emerging entrepreneurial companies in the $10 to $100 million range, and
2) Web development and e-marketing strategies. We'll focus on work from trusted relationships vs. cold smiling and dialing.

WestWayne: At WestWayne, we approach any client/brand issues in a consultative and collaborative fashion. We work tirelessly to wrestle the brand's problem/issues to the ground, and then identify the most appropriate solution, whatever form of communication that may be.

Brand Bird: Horizontal specialization.

BAD Studio: By splitting our company into several unique businesses, each with a selective focus.

Huey+Partners: We'll target and attract clients who seek and appreciate the value in fresh, unconventional thinking. We will not attempt to sell ourselves, but rather let our work speak for itself.

Iconologic: People choose Iconologic as their branding partner based upon a review of our previous work and a perceived fit with the personalities of our team. We will continue to sell ourselves in a consistent manner in 2006.

Think Monster: Our approach will be with targeted sales and business development efforts, online PR and a continuation of our marketing campaign that was initially launched in 2002. Our key offerings of integrated marketing and brand communication across various mediums will be backed by our known strength in branding and our creative approach.

Bass Designs: 1) Development of new print and electronic promotional tools to give us more time to focus on design. We tend to limit our promotions and products since we are protective of our proprietary tools. We are updating our website and will integrate most of our promotional tools using permissions access, but we see better results getting in front of our clients so we can explain how we study, evaluate and explore solutions for a company and how we've done this for previous clients. 2) Development of new design products and services geared towards small business models [that] need much different tools than larger companies.

Acuity: Our clients deal with senior-level people. We focus on building partnerships to act as extensions of their companies. We are very strategic about our processes.

OZ: How will you position your company in the marketplace in 2006?

Iconologic: Over the past 25 years, Iconologic has dominated the design and branding landscape in the Atlanta area. We will continue to push ourselves creatively on behalf of our clients to maintain our status as a best-in-class provider of branding services locally and to grow our reputation on a national and international level.

Bass Designs: Small but smart and experienced. Able to ramp up or down depending on our work flow. We specialize in the development of brand messaging and imaging systems and their integration into a company's infrastructure. We will look into adding features to our services that create a better understanding of how brand systems can benefit a company's growth and efficiency, as well as brand system models designed to fit the smaller business model. This will help create more balance with our work flow since the systems we develop are designed, in some ways, to auto function, which means our work flow can change as we move from one project to the next.

Think Monster: We will continue to position Think Monster as a pro-active partner for a company's branding, marketing and advertising needs for offline and online mediums. We currently compete with many traditional and interactive agencies and hope to stand out even more with our proven service offerings, skill sets and industry knowledge.

16toads: Web design and development, Flash, Illustration, Print.

BAD Studio: We help clients stand out in the marketplace, not blend in.

Huey+Partners: Our core strength has and will always be our ability to bring creative solutions to every aspect of our clients' businesses. We immerse ourselves in our clients' businesses and wrap ourselves around their obstacles and opportunities.

WestWayne: WestWayne is an independent agency Ð in thought, mind and deed. We are independent, both organizationally and in the perspective we bring to relationships between consumers and brands. We are also a group of professionals who have come from agencies known for their unconventional thinking, with a desire to create a place free from the traditional borders so prevalent in conventional advertising.

Brand Bird: As an expert in graphicstandards, style guides and subsequent retail marketing.

Merge: As an alternative to a traditional ad agency.

MaxMedia: MaxMedia is dedicated to creating engaging brand experiences by combining creative strategies and technical expertise.

OZ: How will you go after clients?

16toads: Viking "berserker" approach É pillage and plunder. Seriously, I would prefer they came to me. Most potential clients are pretty good at recognizing whether a particular designer or agency fits into their "vision," so to speak. Most of my clients find me because they are looking for someone capable of thinking outside the corporate box. Now, where did I put my horned helmet?

MaxMedia: By bringing them innovative strategic internal and external online campaigns to ensure their success in 2006.

Merge: Through partners, existing clients and trusted referrals.

Brand Bird: Clearly communicate our specialization to qualified prospects. No cold calls, no direct mail shotgun blasts.

WestWayne: We will research prospects we believe we can truly assist in elevating their brands and business above the competitive fray and contact them directly to share our insights. We will also work in tandem with new business search consultants in formal reviews and respond directly to prospect inquiries.

Huey+Partners: We will seek clients who feel creativity is paramount to separating, distinguishing and growing their brands. But more important, we will continue to strengthen our current client relationships and find fresh, unexpected ways to stretch their budgets, build their brands and increase their market share.

Iconologic: We typically have very long-term relationships with ourclients. As such, we are more concerned with our existing clients' continued and new needs over those of other companies. We typically work to grow our existing relationships further before looking to bring a new company into the studio. Of the new companies we do pursue, the best fit for us is a company that needs a variety of services (traditional print design,interactive, environmental and content development) and prefers that they be provided by a single firm.

Acuity: We will maintain the ones we have and go after a few new ones. We have a partnership with a PR firm to go into clients and market strong PR as well. Some new clients come through the PR company and some come through the agency.

Think Monster: We will focus on internal networking and service education with existing clients, while our approach to new business will be founded on success of our previous campaigns. As with most campaigns we do, we will utilize both online and offline channels for these efforts.

Bass Designs: Using the business publications, leads collected from clients and vendors, and our research on those companies, we will selectively approach clients using several sales methods directed at key decision makers.

BAD Studio: A ton of direct mail and promotion. Sandwich boards.

OZ: What business trends do you foresee in 2006?

BAD Studio: Sometime soon somebody will be ready to take chances. Right now there are a lot of "safe" campaigns.

Brand Bird: Collaboration. A team of specialists working in concert will provide added value. Lowballers will continue to charge less than fair market price for design services, and clients will continue to think lowballers are the cat's pajamas.

Merge: Total mixed messages and less focus. More cynicism about what we do and more demand for accountability.

Bass Designs: Increased customization of products and services. For our industry we'll see an increase in web application development; tools that enable better brand management for our clients and their customers through remote permissions access to the sales tools we develop. This is great for our clients since it gives them increased controls on brand management with speed, efficiency and flexibility. It's great for us since it gives us more time to focus on developing brand framework and less time ironing out the delivery and multilingual challenges in the global marketplace.

Think Monster: A greater use in technology and online channels within the marketing space. I think that adver-gaming, content specific advertising and search engine marketing will grow at a much faster rate than before, since they have been proven to be low-cost, high impact tools for exposure. I see more product placement online, within television and in print campaigns due to the over-saturation and control that people have of the mediums. I also see more Fortune 1,000 clients moving away from sole representation by an agency and relying on smaller more strategic firms for a better return on their investment.

Acuity: Companies are transitioning a bit, and budgets are increasing for those efforts. Sometimes they can get the same quality of work at smaller agencies as at large agencies with a better focus on the client and fewer political issues.

MaxMedia: Customizable content will continue to be a focus. Users have come to expect the ability to create their own experience when they go online. Online video distribution will continue to grow and the quality of content will improve.

16toads: There seems to be a trend, finally, toward clients fully understanding that web and print go hand in hand and one cannot succeed without the other. Web technology will continue to develop at a pace that far outstrips the budgets of most small businesses. The challenge will continue to be finding the right balance of budget and technology and ROI for small to medium clients. And, lastly, I foresee an illustration renaissance ... photography will be usurped by a brush and a stylus.

Huey+Partners: More clients realizing that business as usual doesn't work and that creative thinking and imaginative ideas and approaches are the most efficient and impactful means to building great brands.

Iconologic: Continued focus on creative solutions that deliver results and/or enable a better determination of ROI.

WestWayne: From a category perspective, we foresee continued consolidation in the agency business, with continued pressure to evolve old and archaic agency business models; a greater demand from clients for agnostic solutions as opposed to automatically recommending advertising as a solution; and, finally, messaging that reaches the desired consumer anytime and anywhere.

OZ: What's working and what's not with the industry as you see it? Provide a few quick examples if you can.

Iconologic: Working: The creative industry officially is off life support and virtually everyone seems to be back-to-normal. Hooray. Not working: Ad agencies creating brand identities (see Brand Atlanta and Georgia Aquarium for recent examples).

WestWayne: Those agencies that continue to view the :30 spot as the answer will become extinct. Agencies like Crispin Porter and Naked in the UK are redefining the relationship between agencies and clients Ð those who seek to answer the issues keeping clients up at night will win.

16toads: Too many freelancers and small studios/agencies charging too little for their services drive down the cost and expectations of potential clients, which hurts everyone ... even the big boys. Work-for-hire needs to be stopped. Period. Despite the advent of desktop publishing and home-edition web publishing and design tools, there will always be a place for a talented professional in this business. Sometimes it just takes having a client let his partner's son do the design work for a while for him to realize the adage is actually true: "You get what you pay for."

BAD Studio: Working: Compassion, fairness and the truth. Not working: Everyday low pricing, checklist marketing plans, spin, not thinking beyond yourself.

Merge: It seems like it is hard to sell on creative strength alone as we used to. We had to abandon that approach and really evolve to a more fundamental partner with our clients. Small- to mid-sized companies seem to favor targeted web-based marketing over traditional advertising. We used to do a lot more straight-up print ads for campaigns than we do now. I love all the upheaval and confusion going on right now. It's a great time to build a new model for how we work. It is much more fun to find opportunities in the vast sea of change we are living through now than to find comfort in banging out ads all day.

MaxMedia: Working: Video on demand. Search engine marketing and optimization as part of the whole marketing strategy. Social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) Ð creating communities online. Behavioral marketing Ð providing relevant content based on user behavior and interests. Permission-based marketing Ð opt-in emails, RSS feeds, pod casts. Not working: Massive network ad buys. Fake corporate blogs.

Brand Bird: Working: Reaching prospective clients through referrals and entrees from allied practitioners. Not working: Wearing spandex bike shorts to pitches.

Think Monster: Working: Direct, personalized communications and one-to-one marketing are getting the results they deserve, even more when they are tied to an interactive channel for measurement and sales knowledge. I see search engine marketing through "paid" and "natural" listings becoming even more rewarding with Google's free analytics tool launched in November of 2005. Not working: Mass marketing and large list buys have become less important and quantified databases have become the new standard. With generations X and Y being more involved with controlling advertising spending and even the advertising mediums, my thoughts towards traditional advertising are worried. I think agencies will need to re-think their offerings and learn how to use other tools to reach the consumer in a non-invasive and interesting way. Overall the industry is changing rapidly and clients are getting better results because of it.

Bass Designs: Working: Increased awareness of the importance of brand imaging integration. It's great to see how many businesses and agencies have recognized this. As design becomes more and more a business commodity, we will be increasingly challenged to ensure that the core brand foundation is there and to continually improve awareness on the differences between intelligent design and a great looking layout. Not working: There's a disconnect between the business community and designers. I'd love to see our design community become more infused with the business community to create a better understanding of each other's language and point of view. Plus, we as designers, if we are to distinguish ourselves as more than application experts, need to get smarter about how we provide our services. Bringing more creative and business organizations together would be a great place to start as well as increasing interaction within the senior-level creative community. I really don't see a lot of participation at creative events of the senior-level leaders.

Huey+Partners: I don't know if I could say what is and isn't working. Though I think ours is an industry that promotes survival of the fittest. I think the better, more talented firms will grow and flourish and the lesser ones will fall away.