Marketing agencies and Pandemic

Marketers (whether it be creative agency in Gurgaon or at the National level or even at the International level) are seeking facetime with their agencies again, but some ad execs are immune to going back to crazy pre-pandemic travel schedules Ad execs are beginning to travel again as clients seek facetime with their agencies. Agencies want to balance hybrid work with client expectations for in-person meetings. Some said they're prepared to keep off if asked to resume hectic pre-pandemic travel schedules. 

Ad agencies aren't fully reopened, but they're gradually resuming travel as more people get vaccinated and clients request in-person meetings, new business pitches, and on-site commercial productions. 

• A new study by advertising staffing company WorkReduce showed 55% of ad execs said they were travelling again for business. 
• Meanwhile, only 13% said they were returning to the office full-time, 40% said they were returning sometimes, and 46% said they were still performing from home. 

WorkReduce CEO and Founder Brian Dolan said most agencies want to take care of a hybrid work model and try to balance client demands for more facetime without resuming weekly flights and daily in-person meetings that were common pre-pandemic. 

"There's this real tension immediately of individuals eager to see their clients and eager to see their colleagues but eager to maintain a number of the advantages of remote work,"

Dolan said. "Everyone is basically hoping to return to something that's hybrid." Insider spoke to 13 agency execs who said clients haven't required anyone to travel but are gradually seeking more in-person meetings. 

They said most meetings are between senior executives which agencies aren't requiring employees to resume travel if they do not feel comfortable. But some execs said they're concerned travel requests could devour again to pre-pandemic levels, threatening flexible work schedules people have gotten won’t to. Some executives said they were pressured to travel before they felt ready. One company exec said they started travelling back in June 2020 because one client was back to working face to face. The exec wasn't able to travel but said it's generally understood within the industry that agencies must attend to the clients. 

Steven Seghers, CEO of Hooray Agency in Irvine, California, said he's been travelling regularly since January because many purchasers are in hospitality, which has opened copy. "We're respectful of the requirements of our clients," Seghers said. 

"In Vegas, for instance, we're handling an outsized integrated resort that's opening. they have to possess their agency presence there to brainstorm, strategize, engage on an intimate level. I even have yet to satisfy someone that believes Zoom meetings or Google Meets are the perfect replacement for a private engagement." But some agency execs said they were prepared to keep off on the weekly travel demands that were expected of them before the pandemic when it had been common to possess five or more in-person meetings for one pitch. This means that much of production like creating digital assets are often done remotely while broadcast ad shoots are often reserved for on-site production. 

LA-based Justin Moore-Lewy, a partner at advertising agency HeLo, said he wont to fly hebdomadally for clients but would challenge that going forward. He said the agency would only travel for brand spanking new business when a deal is within the final or closing stages, not for each meet-and-greet with a prospective client. Jordan Fox, head of Wasserman agency Laundry Service, said the corporate is handling travel requests on a case-by-case basis and allowing employees who are uncomfortable travelling to try to meetings via video. He foresees this hybrid approach being a part of most in-person meetings and pitches going forward. 

Al Moseley, global chairman and chief creative officer of advertising agency 180LA, said the agency became more aware of the pandemic of the carbon footprint and expenses tied to travelling and doesn't want to travel back to the "madness" of getting everything done in person again. “I foresee that client meetings will change," Moseley said. "We'll have a quarterly workshop for our clients where we enter depth, mention culture ahead and ambitions for subsequent three months. 

Then we'll work remotely during a workshop environment, for the delivery aspect of it." Still, there's concern that if some agencies return to pre-pandemic travel schedules, others will need to imitate if they need to compete. Chris Staley, founding father of experience firm Horizontal Digital, said his agency has been flying for the past few months which he expected to visit resemble pre-pandemic levels once the office reopens within the fall. "The reason we started travelling again was for private connection," he said. "It's vital and shows how committed we are." "In a [new business pitch], clients always say you do not need to do that or that but as soon as somebody goes the additional mile and does it, suddenly most are evaluated thereon," MDC's Media Kitchen CEO Barry Lowenthal said. "That is strictly what is going to happen with travel. Whoever shows up will get the additional point."