I am back after a month's break. I was back home in Turkey with my family enjoying a well-deserved holiday. As you can guess, the topic back home and here in Spain and almost everywhere around the globe has been the same for quite some time. I tried avoiding writing about it as much as I can but I guess it is time to open the subject and see how marketers handle it: Inflation.
Lately, an ad by IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) became viral. The print ad in Financial Times hopes to encourage brands not to cut their marketing budgets in these turbulent times.
Source Credit: The Drum
Marketing has been always the first one to be affected by budget cuts. It's been always like that and unfortunately, it looks like it will be like that for a while more. We all know that everywhere the rising inflation and consumer responses to the cost-of-living crisis are already affecting brands and Chief Marketing Officers. But did you know that data from the great recession shows that brands that countered their instincts to contract and instead continued to spend on advertising and growth strategies saw decent to significant annual growth? So then, why do we insist on attacking ad budgets first?
It is certain that markets will be better eventually, we have seen worse...The challenge for any brand here is to make the right choice to keep their brand image up and running in these harsh times.
I want to leave you with Katy Wright's (MD, FCB Inferno) words: "Don’t lose your voice, keep advertising, people need reassurance. Don’t pretend nothing is happening, show empathy, be honest and direct, and don’t ignore. But we’re human beings and we still, albeit hard, want to enjoy our lives."