How brands shifted marketing and media strategies through year of tariffs

What should have been a celebratory year for the 28-year-old business proved to be one of its hardest. “We took a margin hit,” said Scherz. And Bela wasn’t the only one. 

For Sam Piliero, CEO and founder of media agency The Moonlighters, it’s been a “whirlwind” of a year. The agency works with almost 100 brands, 80% of which are e-commerce businesses – many spending between $1 million-$10 million annually. During the choppiest period of Trump’s tariff maneuvers, Piliero estimated some clients cut back on media spending by 50% as they navigated higher costs on imported goods and the end of the de minimis shipping exemption.

“Some of the smaller businesses that weren’t prepared for this had to cut a lot of operational costs,” he said.

‘High degree of uncertainty’

Though the political drama around tariffs quieted down in the second half of the year, their economic impact will be felt for months to come. The IMF, for example, predicted nominal GDP growth will fall from 9.1% in 2024 to 6.8% in 2026. Though many businesses absorbed the additional cost, many more chose to increase consumer prices, leading to loss of real income for the average American household of $1,257, according to Yale University’s Budget Lab.

And although the ad market remained stronger than most expected — WPP recently upgraded its 2025 ad revenue growth projections from 7.7% in 2024, to 8.8% — businesses large and small were forced to devote time and money to navigate the shifting regulatory maze. 

“There were shipments that we lost money on because we didn’t want to upset our retailers,” recalled Bogg Bag founder and CEO Kim Vaccarella. The company’s brightly colored bags, which are popular on social media platforms including TikTok, were all manufactured in China at the beginning of the year, putting the company on the hook for tariffs initially as high as 145%.

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Though that figure has reduced, the firm no longer depends solely on Chinese suppliers. “By the end of December, we’ll have 50% [of our suppliers] in Vietnam,” said Vaccarella. “Unfortunately … there still isn’t a lot of certainty. But you still have to run the business.”

Target, already weathering one of the rockiest years in its history, has had to manage similar disruption on a much larger scale. In May, a 5.7% fall in sales was attributed to the introduction of tariffs. “The difficulty level has been incredibly high, given the magnitude of the rates we’re facing and a high degree of uncertainty,” CEO Brian Cornell told analysts that month.

‘We scaled back significantly’

In some cases, brands had to choose between media budgets or their price margins. Vaccarella said that Bogg Bag reduced its ad spending by 10%, as part of a wider cost-cutting push that enabled it to hold prices. “We scaled back on that [advertising] significantly in that period,” she said.

Within his agency’s roster, Piliero saw several clients move production out of China to countries with smaller tariffs, such as Brazil and Mexico, while two apparel clients stopped advertising altogether. More typically, those clients that had reduced their spending in the first half of the year ended up increasing investment just months later. Piliero told Digiday revenues and client accounts had both doubled in 2025. He didn’t provide financial specifics.

Not every brand choosing to absorb rising costs altered its advertising plans. Some cut back on free online returns, while others rethought their promotional calendar — and some international brands stepped back from the U.S. altogether (and some U.S. brands leant farther into overseas markets).

At Bela, which faced a 15% blanket tariff on goods from the European Union, Scherz decided not to raise prices and not to cut paid media investment. The brand originally planned on spending 15% of its sales on advertising, the bulk on Instagram and Facebook (Scherz didn’t provide a dollar amount). 

But as well as additional costs, delays moving goods through ports during the spring led to stock shortages. “After 28 years, I pride myself on being in stock — even throughout the entire pandemic. This was a much more challenging year than the pandemic,” he said.

The shortages led Bela to focus promotional efforts on the products it had over the ones it couldn’t ship (in this case, piri-piri sardines over lemon sardines). As a result, Scherz’s team tilted the campaign supporting Bela’s DTC business farther into brand storytelling, and away from emphasizing specific products. 

In Target’s case, the retailer chose to refocus its campaign messaging on own-brand product lines and its decision not to raise prices. “We continue to see strong consumer response to campaigns that clearly communicate savings, newly lowered prices and stylish, on-trend items at affordable price,” chief guest experience officer Cara Sylvester said in an email.

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Noble West, a full-service agency that works with food and beverage firms Sun Valley Rice and nut company Minturn, found clients willing to take a similar direction. Founder and CEO Ali Cox told Digiday the tariffs had granted some of its clients a window to reinforce regional credentials. 

“In times of international uncertainty it’s actually an opportunity to double-down on the safety and ‘local’ story,” she said. The agency’s clients had refocused on content marketing and social campaign activity; she declined to provide specific examples.

‘A good problem to have’

Marketers deciding whether to change course – and if so, how – have had to juggle opportunity cost alongside rising real costs. In many cases, the impact of tariffs wasn’t felt by businesses until months after they were imposed – just as they went into the make-or-break Q4 sales period. Some marketers cut back on creator spending in response.

According to John Shea, head of commerce at PMG, while some clients reduced their spending in that period, high e-commerce demand among shoppers meant most kept their investments in place. As a result, PMG’s revenue during the fourth quarter was “slightly better than expectation”, he noted, without providing specifics.

Elsewhere, Piliero said clients were less willing to take a chance on channels with unproven performance, preferring to keep budget focused on Facebook or Google’s search inventory.

While 2026 should bring fewer surprises, businesses that chose to absorb higher costs will have to choose whether or not they continue to do so — and if so, whether to cut marketing spend to maintain profit margins. At full-service agency Moroch, CEO Matt Powell said he expects one or two “very conservative” clients to cut media spend by 5-10%, while others are set to take a wait-and-see approach.

Shea hopes 2026 will bring relative calm after the “super turbulent” 2025, while major sporting events like the World Cup and Winter Olympics offer the chance of boosting brand spending. “I think you’re going to expect an extra 2% bump in overall media spending just [from those] cultural moments,” he suggested.

Despite the turbulence, Bela’s DTC business caught an updraft. Speaking to Digiday a week after visiting Portugal to visit olive oil suppliers, Scherz said the company recorded “exponential growth” in sales. In 2026, he said the brand will promote its full range of items and forge ahead on its DTC business.

“We were confronted with logistical challenges and inventory challenges, but the demand for canned fish is insane” he said. “That’s a good problem to have.”