Sorrell has a voracious thirst for economic data, always quick to join the dots and cast forward on high-level economic trends.<\/p>\n
“We’re in the eye of the hurricane,” he says in this interview with Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser, conducted over Zoom. “All the projections for Q2 are pretty awful<\/strong>. Goldman’s latest projection … for the US economy is GDP down 34%… It is pretty grim conditions at the moment.”<\/p>\n Sorell predicts a “V-shaped” recession<\/strong>, in which economies would bounce back in Q4 and the “panic mode” will be over.<\/p>\n But he concedes Q2 will be “very painful”<\/strong>, saying that his clients are enduring ” extreme pressure and pain.”<\/p>\n “What we see is the tech companies maintaining their patterns of spend<\/strong>,” Sorrell says. “They are deploying their budgets still.<\/p>\n “(But) the FMCGs, the pharma companies, less so. Retailers, travel and hospitality have been hit badly. Those companies are certainly cutting their budgets<\/strong> – delaying and deferring and cutting.<\/p>\n “But they are switching money to digital<\/strong>. I’m not just saying that. We are seeing a view developing that there should be an acceleration of this switch to digital … which will be permanent.”<\/p>\n Sorrell is cautious to say he is not advocating brands should “spend your way out of this”, and he is aware that his own company’s bread-and-butter is, indeed, brands that either are digital or spend digital. But he does see three digital-growth trend lines emerging…<\/p>\n Sorrell says the trend of “in-housing”, through which some brands have become keen to take on roles traditionally outsourced to ad agencies, is challenged by working from home.<\/p>\nTech carries on spending<\/h2>\n
A new digital dawn<\/h2>\n
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Survey: 2020 will improve<\/h2>\n
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