Marketing Briefing: Flexibility, contingency plans are ‘biggest ask from clients’ amid economic uncertainty

By Kristina Monllos

Marketers are asking for contingency plans and increased flexibility in their ad deals as fears of economic uncertainty and a looming recession continue to pick up steam.

Last week, during IPG’s earnings call, CEO Philippe Krakowsky noted that some clients are asking for “contingency plans” to deal with the uncertainty and the potential slowdown. Meanwhile, Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, noted during the holding company’s earnings call that while there haven’t been cutbacks yet, that doesn’t mean there won’t be.

The recognition of a need for contingency planning as well as more flexibility in the current economic environment is commonplace, according to marketers and agency execs. They say that, while they haven’t seen a pull back in spending for the most part, they do see a focus on planning for the need to do so. During the height of the pandemic, having contingency plans and flexibility built into media plans was par for the course and marketers are now more used to making swift changes on a dime.

“Clients in some verticals have been focused on getting ahead of the curve with addressing the changing economic conditions,” said Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer for Mekanism. “For some of these clients it makes sense to proactively address uncertainty head-on.”

Getting ahead of the curve means that clients are working to “ensure our media plans continue to be nimble to allow for changes in business conditions and consumer confidence,” explained Carrie Dino, head of media for Mekanism. According to agency execs and marketers, even if they aren’t actively pulling back, there’s an overall outlook of being aware of the need to do so and being ready with plans in place should that need to happen.

“The biggest ask from clients is around commitments and ways to increase flexibility as we navigate the second half of the year and beyond,” said Stacey Stewart, chief marketplace officer for UM. “We’re also starting conversations to prioritize efforts around marketing dollars in anticipation of reduced spending while minimizing impact to overall business.”

Some marketers and agency execs are prioritizing more fluid digital, social and programmatic media plans over options that are more traditional or harder to cancel. At the same time, marketers are also spending more on audience research to get a sense of consumer sentiment and behavior to help inform their decisions now.

Zambezi chief media officer Grace Teng said she hasn’t seen any cutbacks or dealt with many conversations about pulling back media investment. With that said, Teng added that there’s an outlook of being aware of the current economic landscape and looking back at plans from 2008 to reference how things were handled then — taking lessons from what to do and what not to do.