Why brands are prioritizing TikTok influencer spending and more

In this week's Media Buying Briefing:

Almost a year into his tenure as global CEO of Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Florian Adamski (known by colleagues and friends as Flo) still has to force himself to stay above the fray of details and increasing complexity of the modern media agency business.

In this week's Marketing Briefing:

The ripple effects of inflation are nothing new. Throughout much of this past summer, the nervousness among marketers and ad agency execs’ about the uncertain economy led them to prioritize efficiency when choosing where to spend ad dollars.

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By Michael Bürgi

Almost a year into his tenure as global CEO of Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Florian Adamski (known by colleagues and friends as Flo) still has to force himself to stay above the fray of details and increasing complexity of the modern media agency business. He confesses to always being a meticulous detail guy, but having 22,000 employees worldwide, and 380 different specialties all ultimately reporting to him, necessitates stepping back from the granular day-to-day of his remit.

Most recently the CEO of OMD Worldwide (part of OMG) and before that head of OMG Germany, Adamski worries less today about the economic environment, saying he expects the rest of 2022 to soften but with a quick, V-shaped recovery in 2023.

Adamski spoke with Digiday in the agency holding company’s headquarters in downtown Manhattan about how clients are preparing for the downturn and how he keeps his employees and his boss — Omnicom CEO John Wren — happy.

By Kristina Monllos

The ripple effects of inflation are nothing new. Throughout much of this past summer, the nervousness among marketers and ad agency execs’ about the uncertain economy led them to prioritize efficiency when choosing where to spend ad dollars.

Marketers and agency execs say purse strings will continue to tighten this fall as they seek more performance marketing efforts. At the same time, with consumer spending more difficult to predict, planning windows are shorter as some marketers have yet to sort out Q4 plans — something they’d typically be well on their way to hammering out.

“There is belt-tightening across the board,” said one agency exec who asked for anonymity. “Brands are being very conservative with their dollars right now. There’s more paused campaigns than usual and a lot of the ad spends are very conservative and performance-focused. There’s a lot of concern that consumer spending is going to continue to pull back.”

That focus on performance has led some marketers to lean more heavily on influencer marketing, particularly on TikTok as it is often cheaper than the more established Instagram influencer marketing landscape.

“There’s definitely a dollar shift we see from display ads into influencers, especially mid-tier and micro on TikTok,” said Noah Mallin, chief strategy officer to IMGN Media. “Obviously it depends on the advertiser but we are seeing about 2X the number of creator campaigns.”

More member exclusives

Digiday+ Research: Brands’ confidence in marketing channels doesn’t line up with ad spend

Media Buying Briefing: How smart-to-market became the order of the day over speed-to-market

Marketing Briefing: Marketers seek more performance marketing given the economic uncertainty