• Adweek, Sunday, August 2, 2009 9:59 PM

A fundamentally leaner, meaner advertising and marketing sector will emerge from the recession, say experts. Fueling the trend are new client demands and changing consumer behavior. Client demands include less staffing, a greater focus of teams and rapid-response approaches -- critical in an age "where your brand can be affected by one teenager who puts a message out in a YouTube video," says Richard Pinder, Publicis COO.

As far as consumers go, thrift is in vogue and hard choices between wants and needs dominate family dinner table discussions. According to a July Gallup poll, consumers expect that curtailed spending will become their "new normal pattern for years ahead." Last fall's economic crisis was "so severe [and] there was such an impact on corporate psychology that it will take a long time before companies and consumers go back to what they did years ago," agrees Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP.

Experts also predict that in a post-recessionary climate, agency compensation will feel a greater impact from procurement- and performance-based models. Russ Sapienza, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, says agencies have to be "black belt in working with procurement and striking a balance between the agency and the client's procurement teams and brand managers."

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