Advertisers “paralyzed” by tariffs, states NY Times post

Tariffs mean uncertainty for agencies and their clients.  According to the New York Times: Should a retailer commit to holiday television commercials for toys manufactured by newly vulnerable trading partners? How do social media companies account for the potential disappearance of Chinese companies that have spent billions of dollars promoting their wares? How does an automaker pitch vehicles that may cost consumers thousands of dollars more than they did a year ago?

“You’re going to introduce uncertainty about how they make stuff, let alone what’s going to happen to consumers in terms of their propensity to buy?” said Brian Wieser, a veteran industry executive who runs Madison and Wall, a consulting firm. “That’s going to cause advertisers to really curtail their ad spending.”

Major companies were left in the lurch this month, states The Times, as the administration declared new tariffs, soon imposed them, reversed course a few days later and then doubled down on targeting China. Now, those advertisers feel “paralyzed,” said Jay Pattisall, a principal analyst at Forrester, a research firm. Several companies declined to elaborate on their marketing strategies for the coming months or said they were in “wait and see” mode.

The Times post also stated: “Sixty percent of American advertising executives anticipate that tariff pressures will result in decreases of 6 to 10 percent in ad budgets this year, according to a survey conducted in February by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group. Retailers and e-commerce merchants are most likely to slash ad spending, followed by consumer electronics companies, media and entertainment providers, and automakers, with the bulk of the reductions expected to happen in the middle of the year.”