IAPI says adland coping well in Covid-19 crisis

While advertising agencies are finding business planning and forecasting difficult since the Covid-19 crisis struck and three quarters of respondents are concerned about employees feeling uncertain and insecure, adland is coping well with the new and unprecedented demands faced by agencies since the coronavirus pandemic last month.

Commenting on the results of a member sentiment survey, IAPI chief executive Charley Stoney (above) said the industry is “highly resilient and agile, determined to continue providing the best possible strategic and creative thinking to their clients.” Six out of 10 agencies have won new client business recently and 91 per cent are busy pitching.

However, agencies would like clients to reassess pitch timelines and the level of creativity.

The new Agency Leaders Survey is the result of work IAPI undertook last week with directors across the institute’s 60-plus members to assess the current sentiment of the industry during Covid-19. Adland, which generates around €1.4 billion for the economy, is as much under pressure as any business sector right now – especially smaller agencies.

At the IAPI leaders strategy day in January, one of the biggest challenges facing agencies was attracting and retaining talent. Now they believe that it will be easier to retain people (61 per cent) and attract the best talent (37 per cent). Half remain determined to continue focusing on up-and-coming talent, so they are ready for the recovery when it comes.

NEW WAYS OF CREATING

Just one in 10 respondents believe the crisis will act as a breeding ground for new, digitally enabled start-ups. Half the respondents are working closely with production and post-production companies to provide new ways of creating TV campaigns. Nearly all agency leaders find client communications as easy, if not easier than under normal circumstances.

Eight in ten respondents said they are in regular contact, suggesting ways in which they can promote client brands in an authentic, relevant manner. Two-thirds are working on innovative campaigns as well as learning new ways of working more efficiently with clients. There is a belief that this new way of working may help them work remotely with overseas clients.

The survey shows agencies are looking to the future, with over 90 per cent believing that there will be major changes to how the industry works with remote working more widely used. Whether this makes some of the larger agency offices a thing of the past is debatable, but it has helped the agencies adopt a more positive view of flexible working.

Core, TBWA\Dublin and OMD are heavily involved in the development and roll out of HSE and Government information and awareness campaigns. The high level of competence shown by agencies in producing campaigns during the crisis shows adland’s ability to adapt to the new circumstances, as with JWT Folk’s ‘Together’ work for Vodafone.

Over a third of respondents believe that the crisis will result in further consolidation and 45 per cent also think the crisis will result in the use of technology in servicing clients better in the future. Stoney said that the true extent to which Irish advertising will be hit will depend on how long the shutdown lasts and whether the Government will introduce to stimulate growth.

WORTH TO CLIENTS

The IAPI Smash programme, set up last year by TABS and IAPI to provide mental health, well-being, financial and legal assistance for the 2,000+ advertising industry employees and their families, is up and running. Spectrum Life manage the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and IAPI have been supplementing it over the past few weeks with online yoga, meditation and webinars aimed at maintaining well-being for remote workers.

Over 200 IAPI members have used Smash in recent months, reflecting the industry average for EAP. However, the figures do not include those using individual EAP in place in the larger agencies across IAPI membership. Callers presenting with anxiety increased from 17 per cent in January to 33 per cent in March, when Covid-19 took hold.

Patrick Meade of Boys+Girls said the crisis is a chance for agencies to prove their worth to clients. “We consider ourselves as valued partners. Now’s the time to prove it. We should apply our creative thinking to business problems, not just communications. Help them understand if their brands should be active in the market before we help them work out how.”

Shenda Loughnane, group managing director, Dentsu Aegis Network and IAPI president, said the survey shows Irish advertising is open for business, supporting, advising and guiding clients. “We’re also seeing some brilliant examples of Irish creativity, from outstanding pro bono work for charities to new ideas in producing TV commercials,” Loughnane added.