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Keep calm and spend: 5 ways agencies can persuade clients to advertise during a recession

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Asking people to part with their money has never been an easy thing. It’s why sales skills are still seen as incredibly desirable traits by employers and it’s why advertising exists in the first place. I mean, what is good advertising anyway if not exceptionally engineered persuasion?

However, given the global cost-of-living crisis catalysed by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, it has arguably never been more difficult to convince people to spend money on their marketing. Because in times of hardship, it’s often the parts of the business seen as “non-essential” that tend to face the largest culls.

But even though energy prices are set to hit record highs and pennies are being pinched with unprecedented voracity, I would argue that advertising has never been more vital. But how can agencies go about persuading their clients to keep spending while the world falls apart like wet cake around them?

1. Give them the facts

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We are privy today to far more analytical information than we were even a few years ago. So, make the most of it. It doesn’t take much detective work, for example, to find a recent report by Nielsen Ad Intel that shows a 20% increase in overall ad spend in the first half of 2022 compared to this time last year.

Of course, the trend currently shows that ad spend has marginally slowed down in the second quarter of 2022 as companies are cautiously waiting to see what impact the increased cost of living has had on consumer spending and the wider macro-economic challenges. But there’ nothing wrong with focusing on the positive. Tell them that ad spend on TV and radio were up by 8.30% and 3.35% respectively in comparison to this time last year and that the OOH sector saw a 54% increase and do so with a smile.

2. Show that you care

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We are all living through this hellscape together so use a little empathy and compassion to help grease the wheels a little. Inflationary costs are soaring and clients are constantly under pressure from the consumers and their boards/shareholders to keep profits steady and that can be a tough burden to bare.

Take the time to listen to your clients. Really listen. Understand the pressures they are under and work solutions to those pressures into your pitches. Build the best route forward together and do so with care but always remember the best route forward will vary depending on brand and sector.

3. Don’t be afraid to get emotional

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If the Leave campaign in the EU referendum taught us anything it’s that emotion is often the fastest way to win an argument. We’re not talking about the kind of emotional manipulations deployed by Farage, Johnson and co, however. We’re talking about using and promoting emotive acts to help clients and their customers through the recession while also improving the business.

What does this look like? If I knew then I’d probably be sitting on my pile of treasures as a creative director at a top agency right now. But try looking beyond traditional KPIs and put yourselves in the shoes of the clients’ end customers. People don’t want to be advertised to in such times, they want advice and if you can offer something valuable, you’re more likely to make an impact.

4. Show them what the competition are up to

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There are precious few brands that exist in a world without competition. So, while one brand is sitting out on the marketing game, it’s always going to be another brand that keeps things ticking along and will have the resources to spend their way back into the hearts and minds of the general public.

Granted, your client might not be one of these brands with seemingly unlimited resources. Indeed, their resources might be somewhat depleted right now. But still, try framing the question not as “how much can you afford to spend on advertising right now” but as “can you really afford to be invisible right now?”

5. Remind them that this will pass

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Finally, recessions don’t last forever and while it might seem like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel right now, when that light finally starts to reveal itself it’s the companies that continued to build their brand through the bad times that will bounce back faster and stronger.

Ultimately, it’s all about adding value for the client and their consumers. Agencies must determine what will allow brands to add value to their consumers and push this agenda until it sticks. Because brands that add value and mean something to their customers are always going to be the ones that end up surviving through even the harshest of winters. And it’s getting mighty chilly right about now.

Header image by John Holcroft

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