Claire Beale's Year in Advertising: This is the end of the old order, but the truly creative and intelligent have nothing to fear

'Tis the season when columnal tradition dictates a lively review of the year past, marshalling messy events into a neat narrative and drawing some wise conclusions to fortify readers for the year ahead.

I could do that. Except that as it turned out, 2008 has really been defined by one thing: 2009.

The coming year – and you know this by now – is going to be a bloodbath. Confidence is plummeting, budgets are withering, jobs are disappearing; from advertising to marketing to media, life will change irrevocably in 2009.

As a result, so much of adland's 2008 seems quite irrelevant as the industry goes into the economic Armageddon of the months to come.

What matter that one agency sold to another (Beattie McGuinness Bungay to Cheil, say, or Booth Lockett Makin to Havas) or that Ogilvy, TBWA and Bartle Bogle Hegarty parted with their creative chiefs (Malcolm Poynton, Steve Henry, John O'Keeffe)? Or that the once great Lowe was, erm, brought low by a series of crippling account losses. Or that one of the greatest names in British advertising – CDP – breathed its last?

Will future generations look back on 2008 and marvel that adland (only just) managed to battle off further restrictions on advertising junk food and alcohol? Or that the industry finally woke up to the fact that its creative credentials are its lifeline but couldn't quite be bothered to put much effort behind the launch of the Creative Britain concept?

No, all these events will probably pass unnoticed by advertising historians, who will simply see 2008 through the smoky filter of the future: the last year of the old order.

And, yes, I know that you're all thoroughly fed up with gloomy thoughts of economic crisis. And you're desperately trying to stretch the comfy Christmas fug through till New Year, when you really will roll your sleeves up and plot your survival; you just don't want to have to face it yet.

So I apologise for interrupting your brief armistice with a reminder of the battles to come. But the writing's already off the wall and on to the pages of the advertising history books.

In the past week, two of the titans of global advertising have announced dramatic job losses. Omnicom is culling 3,500 jobs worldwide. That's about 5 per cent of its total workforce. Meanwhile, Interpublic is said to be cutting 2,000 jobs, and hiring freezes are becoming the norm for many marketing services companies.

If you're not one of those unlucky enough to lose their job, the chances are that you're going to be working harder, longer and quite possibly for relatively less money.

Nevertheless, I do have something positive to offer up before the year turns. I've written here before about how it's those ad agencies with creativity (in the broadest sense) at their core that will survive the downturn best. But 2009 will also be about finding ways to use agencies' deep understanding of consumers to ensure that the clients themselves survive.

This is because recession will drive home changes in consumption patterns that so many brands are still not prepared for. Consumers are going to be looking even harder for quality, service and product differentiation, all wrapped up in value-for-money offerings. It's time for ad agencies to make the most of their consumer insight to help their clients to actually improve their brands.

It's time for agencies to advise their clients on new product development and design, where the emphasis now will be on more personal brands that have a local and authentic core. Or they should be analysing and helping to improve the retail experience: the downfall of Woolworths is a lesson here and one that ad agencies, with their research and planning nous, are well-placed to teach.

Equally, agencies should help brands to create new environmental and cause-related initiatives that will appeal to a new generation of consumers less concerned with consumption than with quality of life.

Smart agencies have been eyeing such opportunities for years, trying to position themselves as business advisers rooted in the marriage of consumer insight and creative thinking. Clients, though, have been reluctant to allow agencies out of their advertising boxes. But with the stench of blood at Woolworths and MFI still fresh and the economic prognosis bleak, it's time for ad agencies to push the proposition home. Clients, after all, are as desperate for a survival strategy as the rest of us.

Best in show: Volkswagen (DDB)

*Perhaps there are worse consumer markets to be in right now than the car market, but I can't think of many. Whichever way you cut it, times are tough for car manufacturers and, consequently, their agencies.

But Volkswagen has a new ad out and it's stunning. A VW executive is ambushed by a series of clones of himself, Matrix style. It's surprisingly violent, disturbing and intriguing.

It's also beautifully shot and powerful. Will it persuade credit-crunched consumers to buy a new Volkswagen? Perhaps not, but it's exactly the sort of confident advertising that wise marketers will keep investing in.