On the surface this may look like just another good year for Next Fifteen. Revenues and profits rose yet again and would have risen further had certain currencies such as the US dollar not weakened. Indeed the underlying growth in the business was around 11% in revenue and over 26% in profit as detailed in the Financial Review. These numbers reflect an impressive performance by the business but they don’t tell the whole story. Behind them lies a continued but important shift in our business.

This shift is being driven by the rapid rise in social media, which first became noticeable in the UK and US but which has rapidly spread around the world. By “social media” I mean blogs, wikis and the various forms of social networking that have emerged, such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The rising importance of social media has been matched by a steady decline in readership and ratings for traditional forms of media. Thankfully our strength in the technology sector has left us well placed to deal with this transition.

The emergence of social media is not only changing the way PR is done but is also changing the way marketing is done. A quick tour of the hugely popular YouTube website makes that abundantly clear, as more and more companies submit videos that are designed as soft promotions of their products or services. Sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are blurring the lines between advertising and PR. Whereas in the past we would have pursued editorial content for clients, today we are creating audio and video podcasts and polls on sites such as Facebook. This kind of content sits somewhere between the old-fashioned press release and the radio or TV ads that used to be the staple diet of PR and advertising. Add to this the dramatic rise of blogs as a source of content and you can see how our world is changing. I don’t for a moment think the pace of change we are seeing will slow in the next year; if anything it will increase as we see more and more companies adopting these new tools.

It is for this reason that we decided to introduce blogging in this year’s annual report. So, if you are reading this in the printed version of the report, I strongly encourage you to go online and look at the annual report, which you can access through our website www.nextfifteen.com. When you do this, you will be able not only to read the printed version of the report but also to see comments from others about the issues we have raised and add your own thoughts.Not only is the rise of social media and social networking changing the way we work but it is also introducing a new client-base. I am therefore pleased to report that different parts of the Group now represent two of the better-known social networking platforms: Facebook and MySpace. In addition the Group is supporting efforts by other major vendors including Yahoo! and Microsoft.

The other major trend affecting our business is that of the clean technology sector (“Clean Tech”). It is still early days for this market which spans wind power, solar power, biofuels, information technology and energy efficient appliances, but all the indications suggest it will become a key industry sector over the next five years. Venture capital investment is flowing into the market and traditional technology companies are reinventing themselves as Clean Tech businesses. A good example is our client Applied Materials, which has for many years been the leader in the technology used to create semiconductors. A few years ago it began making the machines and technology needed to produce flat screens for TVs, computers and other devices. Now it has become a major player in the solar energy market, by becoming a significant producer of the technology required to make solar panels. The Clean Tech market has been a strong area of focus for our US businesses in particular, and I am pleased to report that they can already boast SunPower, Khosla Ventures, Range Fuels, SolFocus and Green Rubber Global as clients.

Lastly, I would like to let shareholders know about our continued expansion plans for the next year. As a Group we have always believed in the value of organic growth and I am pleased to note that we have opened Bite operations in Hong Kong and Beijing in the last quarter of the year. In May 2007 we also founded a small market research business in the UK, called Redshift Research by recruiting an experienced team and putting them together with the rest of the Group. In the next year, however, we fully anticipate making acquisitions that will both strengthen existing businesses and expand our client base and service offering. Our approach to acquisitions is quite simple: the deals need to make strong commercial sense and there needs to be a good cultural fit with the other parts of the Group. This means acquisitions need to be earnings enhancing for our shareholders, while offering appropriate incentives to the people who built the businesses to continue to deliver strong growth.

Tim Dyson

Chief Executive Officer

13 November 2007