Los Angeles: 6/10
So what are LA execs excited about this month? "It's an interesting term, 'excited'," muses one. "I'm going skiing, so I'm excited about that." Christmas, global warming and conference calls were also causes for excitement. But advertising? Not so much. That said, many prodcos emerged from a sluggish October and November looking forward to a busy January. Product categories were all over the map, with cars, trucks, beer, beauty, lottery and government as the highlights. The mostly comedic creative (irony is in for winter) hasn't been stellar - creative commentary ran the short gamut from stultifying to decent to "nothing breathtaking". "You caught me in a really good mood, but the creative has been horrible," said one exec. With the end of the year approaching, many production-types were in introspective moods, some hopeful the creative will improve in 2007, but consigned to the fact clients will still want to squeeze more and more from increasingly smaller budgets.

Toronto: 8/10
In Toronto, the weather outside isn't frightful (yet), but the board flow, according to most prodcos we polled, is delightful. The "use it or lose it" money for the end of '06 is being dispersed and scripts for categories such as banking, beer, government and retail are flowing like cheap-ass bubbly at a company Christmas party. "It's pretty nutty," exclaimed one EP. "There's a whack of stuff that's in a rush to get done either before Christmas or in January."

Shoot days are being booked fast and furious and while there's plenty of stuff being shot locally, other jobs are heading elsewhere (one exec rattled off such exotic climes as Argentina, Chile and, uh, Calgary). After all, in Canada, "Winter is a bitch," sighed one exec. "You look outside and say 'Yeah we could shoot today' but it could change in three days."

Predictions about the year ahead ranged from "cautiously optimistic" to "pretty bullish". Creative has been on a mild upswing, even if budgets remain a tad on the Scrooge side. Most execs we chatted with are eager to start fresh - after a holiday. "Everyone comes back a little more civilized," said one EP when the topic of relaxing for a couple of weeks arose. "But the Europeans have us beat when it comes to this shit."

New York: 9/10
Some of the board flow buzz coming out of New York this month rivaled the level of adoration and hype one normally associates with a back-of-the-DVD-case write-up. "Insanely fabulous!" gushed one exec. "I haven't seen a fourth quarter like this in years. Budgets are 10 times the size of what we saw during the rest of the year." Others were more measured in tone, but the story was pretty much the same across the city: boards were flowing in non-stop, creative was generally "pretty good," ("comedy is king" said one EP), directors were booked up through January and an end of the year rush has everyone planning to hit the ground running on January 2. On the whole, budgets weren't improving for everyone, but many execs didn't have the time to sit around and complain (or take calls from Boards, for that matter). Although many were optimistic that January is going to be good creatively, others were quick to put the board quality in context of the rest of the year, which wasn't the best. "We are in a death spiral, creatively-speaking," said one top exec. "But this month has been one of our better creative months."

London: 9/10
Perhaps heeding news articles that say traffic on English roads will increase 29% over the next nine years, or perhaps defiantly ignoring London mayor Ken Livingstone's threats to up the congestion charge to 25 pounds for large vehicles, automakers kept many prodcos on their toes this month. "The last month and a half has been manic," said one exec. "And there's a lot of big stuff for the new year." Production heads are reporting steady autumns have given way to the busiest fourth quarter in years, and are happily, albeit somewhat incredulously, finding their crews booked for most of January. The only thing holding some back from the fast-and-furious bids are holidaying directors. Creatively, boards are decent, but "nothing brilliant." No one is complaining though, just anxiously wondering whether disorganized agencies will ring up in desperation the Friday before Christmas. But in spite of the all-around merriment, not everyone is celebrating. "That is wildly awful," one exec said upon hearing of his competitors' production boom. "It would be much, much better if they were quiet and we were busy, but good for them."