Marketing Briefing: ‘We’ve had to pivot, pause, and adjust’: How supply chain issues are causing marketers to change Q4 and holiday advertising plans

By Kristina Monllos

Direct-to-consumer start up Our Place is running ads on Instagram Stories that directly address potential holiday shoppers telling them to buy early to avoid delays or shipping issues that will affect this holiday season. The approach may be a popular one this holiday as shipping and supply chain issues will likely change the marketing landscape for the fourth quarter.

Marketers and agency execs say that the impact is already palpable. For those struggling with supply chain issues — brought about by the bottleneck of cargo ships — the lack of new products to promote or stock issues is making them rethink how much they are advertising now as well as retooling Black Friday and Cyber Monday plans. Others are retooling ad copy to address these issues head on with consumers to plan purchases early to avoid shipping issues. That means holiday ads — as well as sales — are coming earlier this year.

“The big effect on Madison Avenue? Communications and ads will come early,” noted one agency exec, adding that typically the major holiday push starts around Black Friday. “November 1 [holiday] ads will arrive. And we will see messaging that says ‘shop early so you don’t miss out.’”

The exec continued: “The sense of urgency will be palpable. And we will hear the ‘supply chain challenges’ in the narrative.”

Of course, the supply chain issues won’t just push holiday messaging and advertising to come early. The challenges in getting products in stock have caused some marketers that typically rely on Black Friday Cyber Monday sales to say that they will likely not offer those discounts this year as they can’t do so without the stock.

“Clients are waiting for products and parts to come in and then we can focus on marketing it,” said Duane Brown, founder of performance marketing shop Take Some Risk. “Inventory has always been a challenge this past year and even last year… and now it’s only going to get worse.”

Allen Walton, founder of e-commerce shop Spy Guy, will be sitting out Black Friday Cyber Monday sales due to supply chain issues. “[There will be] no marketing sales, no marketing new products due to constraints,” said Walton. “We’re just going to keep things going as if there’s no Q4 at all.”

Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer at Mekanism, said supply chain issues are having more of an impact on clients’ advertising than he’s previously seen.

“We’ve had to pivot, pause, and adjust a handful of campaigns to account for these issues,” said Gahan. “The largest impact has really been around ad spends. For many the creative was already done (or well underway), and now it’s the actual promotion that needs to shift.”

It’s unclear when the supply chain issues will resolve but some marketers and agency execs expect to feel the impact for some time.

“This issue is going to creep into next year and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon,” said Brown. “This is just the beginning of a hard year ahead for anyone who has products …read more

Source:: Digiday