Marketing Briefing: Why the topsy-turvy economic and cultural landscape led to decision ‘paralysis’ from marketers

“Almost every client and brand is facing their own set of challenges right now in this time of extreme polarization, accompanied by a fear of retribution if you get it ‘wrong,’” wrote Kirsten Flanik, CEO of Revolt in North America, in an email. “We see some form of paralysis across the board, whether it’s tariff mania, how to support the causes you care about, or due to consumers spending less due to their own fears. Clients are looking to their agencies for guidance to help them through these challenging and unprecedented times.” 

That guidance varies by agency but overall with clients more fearful there’s a need to work more closely on potential ideas, budget allocation and what-if scenarios. Flexibility and contingency plans are nothing new; marketers are used to having to pivot quickly but the uncertainty and whiplash (the back and forth with the tariffs, for example) is making decision-making more difficult now.

Moving forward an idea or potential spend commitment has become more difficult to get clients to do in recent months, according to execs, who say that paralysis comes from clients’ fear that their ad budget could evaporate — if a tariff hits them hard or consumer spending drops due to the economy, the budget they thought they’d have would be gone — as marketing is typically the first to get cut when brands face hard times. 

“If they’re doing something for the first time, if this is their maiden voyage of an idea, yes, it’s harder to move ideas to the pipeline [this year],” said Craig Millon, CEO of event production agency Jack Morton. Marketers aren’t necessarily more fearful, but much more prudent when it comes to spending this year. “I’m seeing more of, ‘Are we spending the right dollars on the right areas?’”

That said, Millon has seen clients extend timelines by months with clients cautious to make spend decisions. He isn’t alone in seeing that extension. Agency execs and consultants say they’ve heard similar talk from brands, delaying finalizing marketing plans and ad spending commitments to have a better sense of how 2025 will shake out. Agency execs and consultants are mixed on whether marketers will get that clarity. 

Typically when there are recession fears, marketing pros will refer back to 2008, noting that the brands that didn’t cut marketing spending to zero during the recession fared better. But the way that marketers spend today has changed dramatically since the 2008 crash — much of today’s ad budget is spent in areas where it’s easy for marketers to turn spending on and off — and be indecisive, noted ad execs.

“In 2008, social media marketing didn’t exist [like it does today],” said Nathan Jun Poekert, a CMO advisor and consultant. “You can’t compare it. In the marketing industry, the dynamics of where we invest our budgets has completely shifted.” 

At the same time, how consumers interact with brands has changed dramatically. Consumers are constantly talking about brands on social media, dissecting what they’re doing, saying, spending and how they’re showing up. How consumers speak about a brand is a function of brand building today, noted one agency exec who requested anonymity, adding that that makes it harder for brands to sit on their hands during a more difficult time period.

“When these kinds of times of uncertainty come, they’re not only hamstrung by questions of ‘What do we do?’ or delaying decisions of a big campaign,” said the exec. “But as they speak, consumers are building the brand on their behalf, for better or worse. So there’s kind of a double urgency [to figure things out.]”

As marketers try to manage the turbulence of early 2025, agency execs understand there will be delays and caution as they sort out if they’ll keep spending, where they’ll spend and the ideas they feel comfortable green lighting. That said, delaying decisions, holding out on spending can only last so long in today’s landscape. 

“Brands are so focused on the risks of saying something, but they are overlooking that there is also a risk associated with saying nothing,” wrote Flanik. “But brand meaning and the actions you take in the age of polarization requires a new playbook.”

3 Questions with Katie Chaffin, director of marketing at Garner Foods, a Texas Pete company

There are more than 250 retail media networks at this point. How do you decide which RMNs to partner with?

What we’re doing is we’re focusing on retailers where we already have good distribution. We want to make sure that the people who are seeing our ads can actually go to the store and buy it. Of course, we’re looking at the ROAS because that’s the standard right now. But really what we’re focusing on, and [what] we’re pushing our retail media partners to do, [which] is give us more of those incremental sales data. 

For evergreen stuff, we’re working with four [RMNs]. Then in our expansion markets, we’re doing some hyper-targeted with a couple of retailers in some of those markets. Once you get outside of our Heartland markets, it’s really more about availability. Do they have our product to sell? Then, it’s about the things that they offer–the attributed sales and that sort of thing. 

Are you getting that incrementality? 

It’s taking a turn. Especially the more robust ones, the [retailers] who have had this in place for a while are turning that corner and getting us more information. 

Why lean in? 

We’re a pretty small company with a pretty big brand. We have to hit above our weight. A lot of our competitors out spend us three to one, and [retail media] is a great way to be hyper-targeted, reaching the consumers who we know are buying hot sauce and are more likely to buy our product. — Kimeko McCoy

By the numbers

Connected television is one of the fastest growing ad channels, becoming the crown jewel in some marketing budgets — especially as more people turn to streaming services over broadcast television. But as advertisers continue to shell out ad dollars on the channel, new research from Tubi reveals over half of streaming viewers feel the ads they see don’t align with their personal preferences. Find more highlights from the research below:  

• 79% of consumers feel that if they’re paying for a streaming service, they expect no ads at all.
• 46% of Gen Z viewers believe that ads significantly disrupt their experience, making it crucial to get them right. 
• 81% of viewers agree that watching ads is a fair trade-off for free streaming content, demonstrating a strong willingness to engage with advertising. — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“The requirement is that everyone, and I mean everyone has to think and be versed in content creation. You can no longer claim ‘I’m not a social person’ as it’s too wide a bucket now,”

— John Cornette, CCO at ad agency EP+Co, of the rise of advertising content creators and why it’s not a requirement for advertising employees to be content creators today.

What we’ve covered

• Digiday+ Research: How are marketers measuring success on the top social platforms?
• How startup brands prep their supply chains for launches in Target and Walmart
• As retail media booms, lines blur between performance and brand marketing budgets