SUMMERTIME - 3 sunbeams of optimism for marketers.
Building on something I wrote for industry a month ago, plus the current nihilism out there, I wanted to surface a couple of evergreen things worth discussing/celebrating!
Another late one this month, given my Darwinian focus on client management, retention and of course business development, via Cannes (which is a double edged sword of insight and bullshit, inspiration and exhaustion).
But I want to keep it short and sweet, as I think the sun is out, people seem ‘under the cosh’, and to be honest my focus needs to be elsewhere for sure.
In all honestly, I know so many of you (myself to a degree too) have found things tough of late; contracts are slow to get signed off, budgets and rates are getting squeezed and the summer months can be tricky. Even I, having been non-stop busy since lockdown, now I find myself with a little more time!
So there’s a choice. We focus on the spiral, we listen to the narrative, or we focus on where things can be better, and what works.
As I have mentioned in my review of relevant Stoic philosophies before, we cannot control the economy or the market, or indeed the apparent cultural shifts to different ways of workings, from ghosting to AI. But we can control our response and approach.
So 3 things to smile about…
#1. ECONOMY : Consumer spend going nowhere, and at best increasing
Depending on your source, things are good!
Consumer purchasing power will rise as wage growth outpaces inflation. (Mastercard)
Consumer spending as a whole over the course of 2024 is similar to the story of 2023: positive growth in cash terms, but only a very marginal increase once inflation is taken into account. Savvy shopping will prevail (Mintel)
Look for small-to-moderate gains in consumer spending over the course of 2024, improving in 2025 (Forbes)
And with Forbes citing that ‘those who were negative about their personal finances mentioned high prices as the biggest factor, followed by weak income’, points to a marketing opportunity, however you wish to interpret it (not necessarily discounts).
Talks of growth and gains side, it isn’t totally perfect out there, but definitely not as bad as folk would have it!
#2 MARKETING INDUSTRY : In the media/ad world, things will be OK
Tools and understanding of measurement is improving. There are more efforts for diversity and representation in the industry, and there is thirst for innovation and new creative ways of working. I wrote something for The Media leader as one of their columnists : Check out full article here : https://the-media-leader.com/its-fine
#3 PERSONAL WELLBEING : People taking better care of each other
For you reading this, the human, you have no doubt experienced moments of stress in both your professional and personal life. Damn, marketing is hard and can be overcomplicated by the noise. But in essence, we are all fighting the good fight and deserve kindness to one another.
As an industry, we are adopting better practices for mental health of our staff, well at least they are trying and saying they are (important to follow through with promise otherwise things get worse).
Depending what you read and which survey, it usually nets out that half of marketers are happy in their job and few more % are quite happy. So overall there are a happy half and less happy half. But isn’t that an analogy for life, the glass half full etc?
You only need to review the World Happiness report to see that actually, over the last 40 years, not much has changed. New pros definitely come with new cons, but it seems to net out. As I have said, if you change fashion or tech (and maybe some of the barbaric punishments) you would not know the difference between now and the ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires in terms of attitudes :
To add to this, Check out these 10 facts to smile about here (with considerations).
TO CLOSE
Buyers of products are going nowhere, the world is no better or worse than before, and your happiness is probably similar, just with a different challenge. Also, if you work in advertising or marketing, there are things getting better, from working practices and inclusion, to innovation and new exciting opportunities.
Stick in there, it isn’t all beer and skittles, and this is in no way intended to be dogmatic, toxic positivity. But we need the good energy and that comes from looking at some positive evidence, we love a data point right (I know I do). It’s the summer and there are enough sunny rays from our world to keep us going. Enjoy your day.
SA
FOOTNOTE : In the spirit of positivity, I will briefly plug and share that I’ve a little time to play with in the next 3-4 months. If you want to work together to solve a marketing or media problem in your business, I am freeing up some 30 minute slots for conversations, feel free to get in touch here!
P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, The place formerly known as Twitter, or even my company page. If you want to discuss anything, you need some marketing advice, or you just want to discuss something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!