20 Ways Clients Adapt Campaign Strategies In An Uncertain Climate

Forbes

14-07-2025

Long-term forecasting is becoming increasingly unreliable, pushing marketing leaders to rethink campaign strategies. Many are shifting away from rigid, year-long plans in favor of agile, data-informed approaches that allow for quick pivots and measurable impact.
From shorter campaigns to AI-driven personalization, today's marketers are focusing on what drives real results in real time. Below, 20 members of Forbes Agency Council share how their clients are reimagining campaign strategies to stay resilient and responsive amid uncertainty.
1. Simplifying And Leaning Into Customer Understanding
In times of uncertainty, clients simplify their approach, focusing on maintaining agility and flexibility so that they can quickly pivot with changing market conditions. They focus on using fewer vendors, simplifying campaigns and leaning into those that are proven and measurable. Mostly, they are leaning into their understanding of the customers, meeting them where they are with empathy and personalized experiences. - Tate Olinghouse, Acxiom
2. Adopting Flexible, Emotionally Resonant Strategies
Clients are moving away from rigid, year-long plans and leaning into adaptability. The focus now is on emotional resonance, fast feedback and the willingness to act on real-time information. Data-driven flexibility is becoming the new foundation of all campaign strategies. - Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding
3. Treating The Brand As A Decision-Making System
As forecasting remains foggy, the businesses staying afloat aren't pulling back on strategy—they're getting surgical. They're investing in their brand as a decision-making system to sharpen focus, speed up calls and gut anything (or anyone) misaligned. Short-term moves still happen, but only if they serve the long game. In uncertain times, brand isn't decoration—it's how you adapt with discipline over chaos. - Shanna Apitz, Hunt Adkins
4. Pivoting To Customer LTV And Inventory-Based Strategies
With e-commerce, specifically, we're seeing a number of clients pivot to focus on customer lifetime value more than ever. With uncertainty surrounding sourcing and manufacturing, having some level of repurchasing probability provides a focus point for demand and the replenishment level required. This also might mean pulling back on new product releases and sticking with product lines with plentiful stock. - Bernard May, National Positions
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5. Prioritizing Speed, Flexibility And Measurable Outcomes
With economic uncertainty, business and brand leaders are leaning into flexibility, speed and measurable outcomes, meaning shorter campaigns, modular creative, real-time optimization and trusted channels with strong ROI data. They're not pulling back. Instead, they're pushing forward by demanding a smarter, faster and more responsive strategy. - Mary Ann O'Brien, OBI Creative
6. Launching Shorter, Performance-Driven Campaigns
Many are leaning into shorter, performance-driven campaigns with flexible budgets. Instead of committing to long-term strategies, they're favoring agile sprints, real-time data tracking and channels that offer fast feedback loops—such as paid social, influencer collaborations or micro-content. The focus is on adaptability and measurable ROI over predictability. - Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd
7. Prepping Assets For Many Paths, Per Scenario Mapping
Clients are shifting toward scenario mapping, developing modular campaigns built around possible future conditions. Instead of betting on one trajectory, they prep assets for multiple paths, activating based on live signals. This cushions volatility while enabling strategic speed without starting from scratch each time. - Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions
8. Building Projections Around Conservative Estimates
In today's climate of uncertainty, companies are leaning into more conservative forecasting, building projections around cautious estimates. This approach ensures that any upside can be reinvested strategically into growth opportunities rather than just sustaining baseline operations. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising
9. Investing In Deeper Social And Experiential Engagement
As forecasting becomes more challenging, clients turn to deeper social engagement and experiential brand communications. The focus is on real human interaction, from live events to brand activations. Long-form and episodic content are also rising, building lasting narratives and stronger connections with audiences beyond short-term campaigns. - Cagan Sean Yuksel, Dreamspace
10. Creating Timeless Content For Long-Term Value
Clients adapting to uncertain budgets are focusing on relevant and helpful content that delivers lasting value in the short and long term. This approach supports continuous engagement, builds brand authority and reduces the need for frequent campaign changes. By investing in timeless content, they maximize ROI, maintain consistent visibility and stay resilient in shifting market conditions. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
11. Diving Into Al Search Visibility And Positioning
Our clients are leaning into strategies that can impact their AI search visibility. As a PR agency, generating earned media with contextual relevance on authoritative sites can impact this metric. They're looking for guidance on how they appear in LLMs versus their competitors and how they can show up more often for specific prompts. AI search is new territory for us all, but it is demanding attention. - Lindsey Groepper, PANBlast
12. Delivering Dynamic Personalized Experiences With AI
The short answer is AI-driven personalization. Customers expect personalized experiences and often lose patience when brands do not deliver. This makes companies invest heavily in advanced segmentation and dynamic content creation. They know that if they don't, tomorrow their competitors will happily claim a bigger slice of consumer trust and market share. - Nataliya Andreychuk, Viseven
13. Training Sales Teams To Maximize Lead Conversion
Clients who are adapting well are turning inward: strengthening their sales teams and focusing on conversion rates. Rather than chasing more leads, they're training teams to maximize what they have. It's a shift from volume to skill, helping them stay resilient even as the market slows. - Austin Irabor, NETFLY
14. Centering Strategy On Proof, Not Promises
I am noticing clients pivoting to 'proof over promises.' They're investing in expert-led thought leadership in core competencies, momentum announcements that show resilience and case studies with measurable outcomes. When budgets tighten, demonstrable results and authentic expertise become the currency of trust. They are also paving the path forward with owned research and customer events. - Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
15. Embracing Modular Narrative Systems
With long-term budgets becoming harder to forecast, more teams are shifting away from big-bang campaigns and embracing modular narrative systems. Instead of one splashy launch, they're creating repeatable, multiplatform content that spans earned media, social, podcasts and owned channels. The goal is structured visibility—not just reach, but also memory. - Kyle Arteaga, The Bulleit Group
16. Doubling Down On Owned Channels
We're seeing a strong move toward content-driven engagement—things like thought leadership, evergreen content and educational resources—because these assets provide value over time without requiring constant reinvestment in paid media. Additionally, there's a growing emphasis on owned channels: improving website experiences and building stronger direct relationships with audiences. - Goran Paun, ArtVersion
17. Running Testable Campaigns For Fast Feedback
Clients are ditching long bets for fast feedback and smaller, testable campaigns with clearer ROI. There is less 'brand awareness' and more, 'Did this move the needle this week?' Messaging is punchier, platforms are chosen for speed and budgets are fluid. In uncertain times, flexibility beats forecasting. It's not about guessing right; it's about adjusting fast to the data you have and having detailed things to test. - Tony Pec, Y Not You Media
18. Relying On Agency Insight And Staying Flexible
Honestly, clients can't know for sure what to do in this uncertain and rapidly changing business environment. The best decision today could look dumb tomorrow. Clients need to get as much insight as possible, including asking the people closest to what's happening in marketing: their agency. After that, they need to simply remain flexible and never become attached to any one campaign or strategy. - Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited
19. Going Back To Basics With CPL Metrics
I am advocating for clients to go back to basics when it comes to long-term business projections by not complicating forecasting. Ultimately, you want to predict how much your cost per lead is, and then how much your average lead spends. It's really as simple as that. Without getting leads coming in the door at an affordable price each day, your business will go backward, and fast! - Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR
20. Staying Committed To Long-Term Brand Building
Volatility is the new normal. Instead of chasing trends, smart companies stay committed to long-term brand building and reputation management. They recognize that consistency, not constant pivots, yields meaningful business outcomes. - Jason Mudd, Axia Public Relations