{"id":855397,"date":"2025-06-13T22:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T03:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/marketing-briefing-expecting-chaos-with-tariff-uncertainty-a-new-constant-marketers-use-covid-replanning-muscle\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T22:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T03:13:11","slug":"marketing-briefing-expecting-chaos-with-tariff-uncertainty-a-new-constant-marketers-use-covid-replanning-muscle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/marketing-briefing-expecting-chaos-with-tariff-uncertainty-a-new-constant-marketers-use-covid-replanning-muscle\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Briefing: \u2018Expecting chaos\u2019: With tariff uncertainty a new constant, marketers use Covid replanning muscle"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Marketing Briefing covers the latest in marketing for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

If the last five years have taught us anything, it\u2019s that chaos may be tough, trying and certainly worrisome \u2014 but it\u2019s ultimately manageable. That\u2019s the general sentiment among brand marketers, ad agency execs and industry analysts when you ask them to make sense of the current economic landscape amid tariff <\/a>back-and-forth<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m expecting chaos,\u201d said Jeremy Whitt, executive media director at Hanson Dodge.\u00a0\u201cOne thing I want to make sure that we don\u2019t have too short of a memory of what happened back on March 15, 2020.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Marketers should remember what happened in the early days of Covid and operate in similar ways now, explained Whitt, who noted that marketers weren\u2019t prepared to pull back to the degree that they needed to when the pandemic hit. Whitt believes marketers should keep those lessons in mind, putting the proper provisions in contracts and preparing to toggle from brand build advertising to performance marketing as needed and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Whitt isn\u2019t alone in the Covid analogy. Three other marketers and agency execs shared the same sentiment. \u201cCovid primed us for this environment,\u201d said Carrie Tropeano, chief media officer, Mekanism. \u201cThis is naturally how we plan now \u2014\u00a0maybe not to this extreme forecasting and re-forecasting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The disruption that the pandemic caused to marketing in 2020 is the \u201cbest analogy that we have in terms of similarities,\u201d said Katya Constantine, CEO of Digishopgirl Media. \u201cThe one big difference is that during Covid, we had a stimulus package to help support the economy and consumer behavior. Here we don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stock market has had series ups-and-downs amid the topsy-turvy tariff tension. Movement in the stock market has been closely tied with the chaos of the tariffs. On Monday, for example, the stock market rose after the announcement that smartphones, chips and computers would be except from new reciprocal tariffs. Whether or not that boost will last, we\u2019ll have to see. <\/p>\n

While marketers have a reference point in Covid \u2014 becoming comfortable with flexibility and constant replanning \u2014 this moment isn\u2019t a one-to-one comparison. Marketers are seemingly having to get used to doing business in limbo. They\u2019re making plans despite price and advertising shifts without a clear end in sight.<\/p>\n

This time last week<\/a>, the consequences of President Trump\u2019s tariffs were starting to set in. Marketers were planning to start cutting ad budgets this quarter to manage the effects of the tariffs. Then, last Wednesday<\/a>, President Trump announced a pause on reciprocal tariffs for 90 days \u2014 aside from China. That pause hasn\u2019t necessarily changed the game for marketers and agency execs who say they\u2019ve been constantly replanning, forecasting and re-forecasting since the plans for tariffs were announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling is that unless there\u2019s a steady turnaround in the next 90 days, they\u2019re planning for the chaos to still be there 90 days from now,\u201d said Whitt. \u201cNo one knee-jerked in reaction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aside from assuming that chaos is the norm and replanning will continue, marketers are relying on agencies to \u201cpush the bounds of our tools and capabilities,\u201d said Tropeano, adding that the agency is getting more questions around how they can use \u201cmedia mix modeling and attribution solutions to more quickly figure out ways to optimize our full marketing mix instead of just looking at our media mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mekanism, they have a \u201cgood, better, best\u201d scenario planning system for clients. For example, \u201cif tariffs are full steam ahead and costs are really high and consumer purchasing is down, then we\u2019ve got this baseline plan. We don\u2019t want to go fully dark, we have to make sure we have some baseline media that\u2019s running,\u201d Tropeano said.<\/p>\n

Marketers and agency execs aren\u2019t just planning for clients when it comes to the chaos of the moment. While that\u2019s the general focus, there are also questions around what it means for their businesses in the short and long-term. Danielle Wiley, founder of influencer marketing shop Sway Group, is trying to determine which businesses aren\u2019t affected by the chaotic tariff environment to mitigate some of the worries of the impact on businesses she works with today. Wiley isn\u2019t alone in asking that question. It\u2019s starting to bubble up at agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of worry right now but no one is in panic mode,\u201d said Whitt. \u201cBut we\u2019re all waiting for that shoe to drop.\u201d<\/p>\n

3 Questions with Jessica Serrano, CMO at fast casual restaurant Dig <\/h2>\n

As a New York City-centric restaurant chain, Dig has expansion plans it\u2019s currently working through. What does that mean for marketing strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been experimenting with a lot of different tactics that Dig hadn\u2019t historically used. We have been doing things like streaming audio, which you can buy in a hyperlocalized way. We\u2019ve done CTV for the first time over the last few months and really seen success with that. Then another tactic that I\u2019ve been really bullish on is hyperlocal influencer marketing. We could talk about being in D.C. or whatever, but it resonates more when the foodie that you\u2019ve been following for the last five years goes into a Dig and shows you from her perspective what we have to offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why test CTV and streaming? What role are they playing in the media mix?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Audio is a little bit more of a brand investment. It requires having a balance in terms of the spend. We continue to leverage things that are harder working in terms of performance, but I\u2019m pretty adamant that it\u2019s important that we carve out some dollars for things like audio, CTV, and even a little bit of out-of-home just so that we\u2019re making sure that we\u2019re also telling more of that why, and not only telling the what of the new menus here. It\u2019s not the most efficient tactic but still an important one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of uncertainty right now and marketing spend is under scrutiny. How does all of this impact the role of a CMO?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The CMO role has evolved quite a bit to, in some ways, almost be interchangeable with chief growth or chief revenue officer. It really isn\u2019t enough to hang your hat on building brands. You have to demonstrate that the brand that you\u2019re building is driving impact to the business. Maybe CMOs of the past were focused on numbers tied to marketing metrics, like CPMs, but really today it starts with the actual business figures. You\u2019ve really got to be able to speak to both sides, be the expert on the marketing side, but also really understand the P&L and how the tactics that you\u2019re doing are impacting it. \u2014 Kimeko McCoy<\/em><\/p>\n

By the numbers<\/h2>\n

As brands continue to navigate the so-called culture wars, politicization and polarization, brand safety is likely to be top of mind when it comes to where ad dollars are spent. Taking it a step beyond brand safety, positivity, or how users perceive their experience on a social platform, matters. That\u2019s according to new research from Pinterest and MAGNA, a global media intelligence compan<\/a>y. See key findings from the study below:\u00a0<\/p>\n