Marketing Briefing: ‘With empathy and agility’: How marketers are dealing with Omicron disruptions and delays

By Kristina Monllos

After nearly two years of the pandemic, the impact of the various waves on advertising isn’t as clear cut as it was in the beginning. Advertisers aren’t pressing pause on ad spending. No one is rolling out a “we’re here for you” ad, even as Omicron cases surge and daily case counts hit peaks across the country.

That’s not to say that advertisers aren’t affected by the Omicron variant. If you ask agency execs and marketers how Omicron is impacting their plans, you’ll mostly hear that more people they work with are getting sick more frequently – people either within their company or with companies they work with – which makes it harder to keep things running as usual.

“With Omicron, we’ve had to be pretty flexible in terms of meetings, shoots and any sort of in-person activity,” said Abbey Klaassen, president, business leadership, East for dentsu Creative. “For example, we may intend to hold a client meeting in-person, but also plan for the possibility that we’ll have to switch it to virtual. Or if we have a shoot, we have to think through various backup plans in case someone can’t go.”

Klaassen continued: “That said, we’ve been living with the ever-fluid disruptions of COVID for almost two years, so we’re getting pretty good at being flexible and building in contingency plans. We’re trying to manage all of it with empathy and agility.”

At the same time, some say client pitches for new business are being pushed back and contingencies for some creative as well as experiential efforts are increasingly needed. One agency exec said that pitches are usually at a higher volume in January than they are currently as he believes that clients are being cautious given the current wave.

Major cultural events planned for early this year including in-person conferences, such as CES which last week was shortened by a full day, and televised award shows are now harder to plan for given the uncertainty of whether or not they will happen.

“It’s hard to approve and plan when there’s constant uncertainty and changes, so we’ve had to keep flexible,” said Michael Shawn Tucker, managing director LA, Campbell Ewald

“For instance, we’re planning around cultural events like the Grammy’s that were pushed back twice last week. This is our cultural norm for now so we’ll stay nimble and open to different thinking and creative.”

One agency had projects planned that would bring people together in public spaces but now sees that as impractical, according to one agency exec, adding that those plans are now likely going to be retooled to virtual.

“Bigger things like SXSW that were on our radar are now likely to be lower key,” said the exec. “We are still planning to have a contingent there, but we don’t feel comfortable planning bigger activations unless there’s a dramatic change in cases.”