• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 13, 2020

Most marketers are now focusing on post-pandemic how-to-proceed strategies, according to a new poll from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).

But in the meantime, the poll reveals global ad budgets are expected to be down 36% in the first half and by nearly one-third for the full year 2020.

Those cuts are deeply impacting ad agencies, which have collectively shed thousands of employees since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Nearly three-quarters of the marketers surveyed feel they have to find ways to support agencies during the crisis.

“Marketing leaders are fully aware” of the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the agency community, said WFA CEO Stephen Loerke.  And they’re doing their best to drum up agency projects, even as they slash ad budgets, Loerke reports.

Of course, these are the same companies that have been squeezing agency fees pretty drastically for the last few years, making it harder than ever for Adland to make a buck. Maybe brands realize what a mess they’d be in without their agency partners. And it’s not infeasible in this environment that some will shutter.

But it’s not just their relationship with agencies that brands are worried about. Numerous surveys have found consumer spending patterns are shifting dramatically during the crisis.

Over 90% of the marketers polled agreed the crisis will have a long-term impact on the way they operate. And 84% said now is the right time to “rethink everything in terms of our marketing organization.”

The survey was taken in late April and the findings are based on responses from 38 companies with total global ad spend of $46 billion.

Find more from the survey here.