In the depths of the Depression, Ira Gershwin wrote of “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy….” Of course, he was being ironic as he penned the lyrics to brother George’s Porgy and Bess. Life was anything but easy for the impoverished bayou dwellers of that tragic jazz opera. Am I being melodramatic if I make a comparison between that dismal time and our own? Economists around the country have. They refuse to declare the recession officially over, with protracted unemployment, the threat of deflation pulling the bottom out of prices, a manic-depressive stock market that can’t decide which direction it wants to head, and an international climate that has everyone jittery even before the domestic implications of those troubles are weighed. Specific to the promotions industry, we’re still hearing of layoffs within agencies and in marketing departments. Tobacco and alcohol companies are decimating budgets in response to stricter marketing regulation. CPGs such as P&G and Unilever are axing long-standing brands, and few are planning new product launches to compensate. Amidst all this strain — in fact, largely because of it, as Senior Editor Betsy Spethmann discusses in our cover story — there is immense unrest among agencies.
And yet…it has never been truer that in tough times, the tough-minded rise to the top. Corporations have recognized the impact promotion has on the bottom line (hence the shift from media advertising we flagged in our Annual Report back in April). Stricter regulation is forcing “vice” brands to target their audiences more precisely, and that calls for better, smarter marketing. Those CPG brands getting trimmed? They were the weak performers that had probably overstayed their time anyway. And as the turmoil at corporate agency networks runs its course, newly entrepreneurial firms, led by industry veterans, are spinning off — hiring those staffers laid off over the last three years.
One more reason I’m looking for the light at the end of the summer: Surviving brands are getting stronger thanks to the quality of the work supporting them. A few weeks ago, I was one of about 30 judges who reviewed campaigns submitted for the annual PRO Awards. Not only did we receive more entries this year than ever before, but the caliber was top-notch (look for more on the finalists for these awards in the September issue). In these stringent times, promotion marketers are rising to the task. And while the work of building brands will probably never again be “easy,” for the tough, the survivors, the cotton will be high.
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