Thanks to all who responded to the survey to assess the major changes in the Seattle marcomm community over the past three years, which have been more profound than any in the past three decades—abetted and accelerated by the pandemic.
To no one’s surprise, working remotely has become the rage. The only question is whether it will persist once (and if) the pandemic subsides. The absence of people gathering in their (mostly) downtown offices and engaging in the normal professional and social activities after work is a major contributor to the loss of community.
The MARKETING Awards EVENT, last held in 2017, which was the social highlight of the Seattle marcomm-community year, seems like a distant dream. And the thought of getting some 200 folks together at Bell Harbor seems unimaginable in today’s virtual world.
Add to that the fact that there are fewer people employed now in the marcomm community, although the cuts in staff were more modest than expected—at about 33% on average. Part-time employees have been minimal throughout the period, and working with independent contractors continues to grow.
The reported revenue losses since the beginning of 2018—not surprisingly—ranged from 20% to 75%, with a couple of agencies looking for a modest recovery in 2021.
There was one outlier that went from 38 to 53 staffers and has achieved an amazing double-digit gain in annual revenues today, compared with Jan. 1, 2018. That agency shall remain anonymous for now, but we’ve gotten a commitment from the leader of said agency to share his successful strategies in a post here soon.
Finally, there was also was a slighter-than-expected uptick in the spend on digital—as compared with traditional—media dollars. Overall, the balance seems to be about 40% traditional vs. 60% digital at the moment.
Here are some of the comments received:
“As an agency, we reacted quickly to the changes that happened in early 2020. We cut overhead costs early, relocated to a smaller office and kept costs low. We maintained our network of contract/remote workers to keep projects moving forward and brainstorm how to approach business in the new norm of the pandemic. It actually drove us as an agency to think hard about what we do, who we serve, and how we can continue to best help our clients, as well as continue to be profitable. PPP funds provided a lift, and made things easier over the past year. Our video work exploded, and we produced more video content in 2020 than in the history of the company. We also had time to focus on our own marketing and branding, and launched a completely new website. We are fortunate to have a very seasoned and professional staff, and despite all of the difficulties, we still love what we do!”
“2018 and 2019 were very strong years for us, so 2020 was a blow to our momentum. 2021 has not started off great, but we’re hopeful with the vaccine rollout, things will shift into a more positive direction.”
“My agency has spent 20% of revenues on marketing the last two years and it is paying off.”
“Things seem to be coming back. Drip, drip, drip. As we see more industry categories opening back up the tendency for clients is to, very tentatively get back into the game. Being very lean and very creative has helped us to surf this wave rather than having it crash down upon us. With steady vaccinations and restrictions being eased it would appear that the light in that very, very long tunnel is no longer the oncoming train.”
“We were feeling a downturn in revenues well before the pandemic began, but in March 2020 it was almost a complete shutdown of business for our clients and our agency.”
“Our numbers are interesting. We had a record year in 2018 and early 2019 lost three gorilla clients that represented over 60% of our recurring revenue. While 2020 Q2 was horrible, Q3 and Q4 we stopped the bleeding. Our new business wins in Q4 2020 will potentially get us close to 2018 revenue or a little above. Very strange, especially since we’ve done it all virtually.”
“While 2020 was a challenging year, we are hopeful and confident that 2021 will be much better—putting us back on track for growth.”
I’ve been in business for three downturns (so far), 911, the recession, and now the pandemic. Each time we grew back stronger. As much as the downturns hurt, some more than others, survival and lessons learned have always been valuable. Seeing light now makes it easier to want to stay in the game, just wearing a different jacket (I wanted to say jersey but I’m tired of sports analogies ; ).
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