• by Masha Geller , October 10, 2001

For mid-size ad agencies around the U.S. and around the world, the events of Sept. 11 in the U.S. were shocking and traumatic, but for the most part it's been business as usual. At least that's the finding of a survey among the ICOM network of independent agencies, which has members in more than 45 countries.

"Although at first it was surprising that there wasn't more disruption to day-to-day business, when you think about our membership and mid-size agencies in general, it's understandable," said Gary Burandt, ICOM executive director.

"Mid-size agencies generally have a broad client base. Unless an agency specializes in a particular industry that was affected, they're not going to see much change," he said.

Of the 36 agencies (based in 27 countries) responding to the survey, only a handful said their business was changed in any significant way. In the U.S., only agencies with financial or travel and tourism business felt an impact.

The biggest concern expressed by the agencies is that already shaky economies will get even shakier as clients delay spending until they are confident of a turnaround, and a few agencies mostly outside the U.S. saw some client budget cutbacks immediately.

ICOM agencies handling travel and tourism accounts that either stopped or reduced advertising include The Phelps Group/ICOM, Santa Monica, Calif., Incognito Oy/ICOM, Helsinki, Finland; Da Vinci Comunicaciones/ICOM, Montevideo, Uruguay; and Cramer Krasselt/ICOM, Chicago, which stopped all advertising immediately for AirTran Airways as is customary when there is an airline tragedy.

On a positive note, AirTran is back in the 60% range for load factor as of Oct. 1.