Digiday+ Research: Buy side braces for a recession, but with a wait-and-see approach
This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
The powers that be have yet to make an official ruling about whether we’re in a recession, but that hasn’t stopped businesses from factoring a recession into their plans for the coming months. Earlier this week, we looked at how the sell side is approaching a possible recession. This week, it’s the buy side’s turn.
Digiday+ Research surveyed 85 professionals from the buy side — in this case, agencies and brands — to find out whether they’re expecting a recession in the coming months and, more importantly, what they’re planning to do about it.
First of all, Digiday’s survey found that buy-side pros are definitely expecting a recession to happen in the next six to 12 months: 56% of agencies and brands said they agree somewhat or strongly that we will be in a recession in the next six months, and 67% said the same of the next year. Meanwhile, only 18% of respondents said they disagree somewhat or strongly that a recession will occur in the next six months, and only 15% said they disagree there will be a recession in the next year.
Despite the apparent agreement among buy-side pros that a recession is on its way, agencies and brands either don’t know what the outcome of a recession would be for them, or they’re waiting to make any guesses one way or another.
When asked whether they’re worried for their jobs or their companies in the event of a recession, not one answer choice garnered even 30% of respondents. When combining those who said they disagree somewhat or strongly that they’re worried about their jobs, just over half (51%) of respondents said they’re not worried. And 45% said they disagree somewhat or strongly that they’re worried about their companies.
On the flip side, only 28% said they agree somewhat or strongly that they’re worried about their jobs if we enter into a recession, and slightly more than a third (34%) said they agree somewhat or strongly that they’re worried about their companies. All in all, Digiday’s survey found that agency and brand pros don’t have strong feelings one way or another about whether a recession will cause them to worry.
The buy side’s wait-and-see approach to a possible (or probable) recession became more clear when agency and brand pros told Digiday what their companies have done to prepare — mostly because the most popular answer was that agencies and brands haven’t done anything to prepare for a recession. Forty-five percent of respondents said their company hasn’t made any preparations related to a recession.
Meanwhile, the next most-popular answer followed fairly far behind, with 35% of agency and brand pros saying their companies have cut travel and entertainment spending. Instituting hiring freezes or slowdowns was the third most-popular answer among respondents, 29% of whom said their companies have done this.
More in Marketing
Beyond the rosé: Navigating Cannes Lions as a sober attendee
For some, the constant flow of booze and cocktails is all part of the schmoozing that comes with Cannes Lions. Others, however, may be looking for a Cannes Lions experience sans alcohol. Here’s how to do it.
While Meta, X step back from publishers, TikTok sees them as an opportunity
While it’s still early days, TikTok is at the very least showing its intention toward publishers, by making them more of a priority and increasing monetization opportunities.
Research Briefing: Meetings and dealmaking are top of mind for execs headed to Cannes
In this edition of the Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine how meetings and dealmaking are top of mind for ad industry professionals as they head to Cannes, how LinkedIn’s Wire Program may yield new ad revenue for publishers, and how OpenAI continues to sign content licensing and tech development deals with publishers, as seen in recent data from Digiday+ Research.