Economic pressure is rewriting the marketing playbook. I say this as we find ourselves again in that familiar place where economic pressure exposes weaknesses in how we operate as marketing partners.
Bongi Mvuyana, strategy partner at Connect, part of The Up&Up Group, look at why economic pressure demands closer collaboration to solve marketing challenges (Image supplied)
I was relatively new to marketing when the global financial crisis hit in 2008/2009. A few years later, working on the publisher side of digital advertising, I remember the lingering effects of that tumultuous period.
Every placement mattered, budgets were constrained, and close collaboration was crucial to developing tailored solutions that delivered. Then came the 2020 pandemic. Once again, disruption challenged our comfortable silos.
Brands, agencies and media partners had to adapt quickly, share intelligence and develop solutions that helped businesses pivot in a matter of weeks.
2026
And here we are again, in 2026, navigating another period of economic pressure.
South African consumers are feeling the strain. The FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index fell sharply in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting mounting pressure on household finances and a declining willingness to spend.
While confidence recovered somewhat in the third quarter, it remained firmly in negative territory. Consumers are becoming more discerning, marketing investment is under greater scrutiny, and businesses are increasingly focused on demonstrating value from every rand spent.
The conversation at Loeries
Beyond celebrating outstanding creative work at Loeries Creative Week, I had the opportunity to reconnect with industry peers I've worked with throughout my career.
Many of our conversations turned to the commercial realities facing our businesses.
Publishers spoke about declining spend, the increasingly transactional nature of their relationships, and wanting to be brought into strategic conversations as partners again.
Agency peers reflected on the need for closer collaboration to develop work that earns recognition while delivering effective business results.
Brand marketers expressed a desire to participate more actively in developing solutions, rather than only encountering them at the presentation stage.
Despite different roles and perspectives, it was striking how much common ground there was: everyone was expressing a desire to work more closely together.
We’ve managed this through difficult periods before, yet somehow find ourselves slipping back into our silos. Perhaps there are lessons worth revisiting.
Lessons to revisit
- Moving beyond the familiar marketing process
There is a familiar rhythm to life as a marketer. A brand team issues a brief. Agency teams retreat into their respective disciplines, and everyone reconvenes weeks later for the big presentation.
Along the way, valuable commercial, strategic and creative perspectives can arrive too late to meaningfully influence the work. In a constrained economic environment, we have less room for these inefficiencies.
I believe there are three relationships where more intentional collaboration can make a meaningful difference.
- Elevating brand-agency relationships
Consumers rarely announce when their financial circumstances change. Their shifting realities become visible through purchasing behaviour, brand choices and changing priorities. Understanding these shifts is critical for brands trying to maintain relevance and deliver sustainable growth.
Across the marketing ecosystem, brands and agencies have access to a wealth of consumer, category and behavioural intelligence. Different disciplines bring different tools, datasets and perspectives to the same business problem.
The opportunity lies in connecting that intelligence. There is tremendous value in brand teams and agency partners getting into the same room more frequently, examining different sources of information, challenging interpretations and shaping strategic direction together. These conversations don't always require another formal presentation.
Sometimes a focused working session, with the right people and the right information, can move a business challenge forward more meaningfully.
The objective is to develop solutions collaboratively, with commercial realities, consumer intelligence and specialist expertise informing decisions throughout the process.
- Elevating inter-agency relationships
Different agency disciplines naturally approach a brief through their own areas of expertise. That specialisation is valuable, but it can also create blind spots when perspectives are developed independently.
I've experienced how intelligence from disciplines outside media, including communications, sports and cultural marketing, can enrich audience understanding and reveal behaviours, passions and communities that may not emerge from conventional segmentation alone.
Imagine the difference when these perspectives are shared while the strategy is still taking shape, rather than after each discipline has already developed its recommendation.
More intentional inter-agency collaboration requires a shift from protecting individual pieces of a brief to taking greater collective ownership of the business outcome.
- Elevating agency-publisher relationships
During my conversations with publishers at Loeries Creative Week, I was reminded of a time when our relationships were more consultative, with agencies and publishers developing strategic thinking and bespoke solutions together.
There is value in strengthening that approach again, rather than beginning and ending our conversations with available inventory. Publishers bring far more to the table than advertising space.
They have specialist knowledge of their audiences, consumption behaviours, platforms, technologies and the commercial possibilities within their environments.
Those willing to collaborate on new propositions, adapt existing capabilities to specific brand challenges and contribute behavioural intelligence will be particularly valuable partners in the times ahead.
But collaboration works both ways. Agencies need to involve publishers early enough for their expertise to influence the solution, while publishers need to bring ideas that strengthen our collective response to the brand's business challenge.
Bongi Mvuyana 12 Mar 2026 The next evolution of partnership
Economic pressure has repeatedly reminded our industry of the value of collaboration. Yet as conditions change, it’s easy to return to familiar silos and transactional ways of working.
And while technology, including AI, is making us faster and more efficient, human expertise remains critical to connecting intelligence, challenging assumptions and solving complex business problems.
The industry has been here before. Perhaps the opportunity this time is to sustain the partnerships that help us navigate difficult periods, rather than rediscovering their value every time the economy puts us under pressure.
We've found our way through challenging times before.
The difference we can make now is to emerge with stronger partnerships, better outcomes for our brands and greater collective value across our industry.
