2018 seemed to go past pretty quickly actually, and here we are right at the end, about to launch into 2019, so I thought I'd put down a few things that if I was stood in front of my team talking about what we should watch out for in 2019, these are the eight things that I think are quite important and what we should be focusing on. 1. Narratives Trump Data Number one is about narratives always trumping data, and no pun intended there, but it's pretty much at the forefront of everyone's mind at the moment that people don't always look at the data. They look at the stories behind it. And I think sometimes in the agency world, we fall too much into the trap of presenting data to clients, especially around results, without the narratives to go with them. So I think if I was stood in front of my team first week of January 2019, I would be saying to them, "Look, make sure that you have the story about how this solves the business problem that we set out to solve. It's not just about presenting them with fantastic data, these are the sales we've achieved, this is the efficiency that we've driven in the account, it's about wrapping that up in a story that can resonate not only with the client you're talking to, but with his boss and with the wider business when he takes the story back to them." Now, that actually means that you need to know quite a lot about their business, so it's not just about getting involved in what you're doing. You need to know what's driving some of the decisions that have been made to drive forward the performance marketing that you're working on. I think it's absolutely key that we get the narratives right, and that we work on those going forward, because it is quite easy to get burnout in performance marketing where you take over an account, you make all the changes, you get the basics right, you get everything running, then all of a sudden, you sort of plateau, and you think the performance can't grow at the same level that it's been growing over the last 12 months or two years. And if you don't have the story correct, you don't have the right narrative, you don't understand the client's business, it becomes really difficult then to push that account forward. And what happens is, they end up going out to pitch choosing a new agency. I think narrative's absolutely key, and especially in something that's quite mathematical, quite data led like in performance marketing. Finding people who can balance that with a story and with a narrative is not always easy to do, but it's why you need an account management team. It's why you need client service. 2. Trouble on the High Street Number two is a bit of a given, really. And that is that retail, the High Street, will continue to struggle, and if you are an agency and you are looking after retail accounts, this really impacts you in two ways. One is you've got to help them find their way through digital transformation and help them do things which will keep them relevant on the High Street. The second thing is, not the nicest at all, you've got to be really careful that you don't get left out of pocket if someone does disappear off the High Street. It's not the greatest thing to think about, but having plans in place and contingencies and insurances and everything else is something you should look at. So if you're at a senior level in an agency and you don't have that, and you have retail clients, you need to be keeping a very close eye on the financial stability of those clients. 3. AI Isn’t Driving Bottom Line Anytime Soon I think my third prediction for 2019, and the third thing I would have said to my guys is, "Look, artificial intelligence is here, and everyone's working on it, everyone's talking about it. But look,