Media Buying Briefing: Auto marketers aren’t slowing ad spend in face of tariff tension

But Honda offshoot Acura is sticking to its plan. The brand’s team has been working towards the debut of its latest compact SUV model, the Acura ADX, this month with a full funnel media approach planned out by media agency RPA.

“We’re at the green light [to] go forward,” Todd Knepp, assistant manager, Acura Marketing, told Digiday. New model launches are huge moments for auto manufacturers, and Acura’s launching the ADX right into the teeth of an emerging economic crisis. Knepp indicated its team is holding the course, though: “Our focus is on launching the car with the most success that we can have at this moment.”

“I’ve watched it across other industries, and I don’t think [carmakers] have changed the way they’re working – I think they’re watchful,” explained the head of planning at a holding company agency who works with a foreign car brand, and who declined to speak on the record. “Perhaps people in sales ops are more mindful of [the tariffs] than people in marketing right now. But right now, they haven’t pivoted or changed anything that they’ve been doing” regarding ad spend.

‘It’s rough out there’

Auto brands are still among the largest spenders on media and marketing. U.S. auto ad spend is expected to rise to $31.77 billion this year, up from $29.48 billion in 2024, according to eMarketer, including investments made by manufacturers and dealerships. They provide 13% of Publicis Groupe’s revenues and 10% of WPP’s.

Last week, Trump set off a bomb in the industry, announcing a plan to place 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and parts. It’s the latest in a series of tariffs – some levied by executive order, some merely floated – from the current administration, which has been unblinking in its efforts to upend business as usual across a number of economic fronts.

Though the proposal targets foreign-made automobiles specifically (which make up half of cars sold in the U.S., per S&P Global Mobility), both domestic and international auto companies are feeling the effects; at the time of writing, Hyundai’s share price had fallen  2.61% on the news, Stellantis’ 1.14%, while Ford’s dipped 3.4% and General Motors’ dropped almost 9%.

And when times get tough, marketing budgets are often among the first source of spending to get clawed back to the bottom line. According to research conducted in February by consultants Borrell Associates, 47% of small business owners and local advertisers – a category that includes auto dealerships – believe the economy is set to worsen, while 22% say they plan to pull back advertising spend.

“It is rough out there right now … we know that a lot of local businesses are not in love with the chaos,” said Corey Elliott, evp, local market intelligence at Borrell, in an email.

Tariffs clearly have business owners, and marketers, spooked. Despite those concerns, few media buyers or brand marketers said they expect plans to shift in the short or medium term.

Acura is pressing ahead with a plan to use March Madness as a springboard for the new model, sponsoring Yahoo’s digital coverage and running ads against linear and streaming coverage of the tournament. Following the competition’s end, the brand expects to refocus on streaming TV as well as social (Meta, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube), plus podcasts on Spotify, and digital display on Goop, Blavity and Vox Media.

Knepp declined to share the campaign’s budget or a specific channel breakdown. He said the company was determined to move forward with the rollout of new model, and its accompanying campaign.

“I don’t know what the business impact will be overall, but right now we’re moving forward and launching our ADX as they arrive at the dealerships,” he said.

Acura’s not alone

The automotive category was already keeping a close eye on Trump’s tariff policies, given that earlier proposed tariffs targeting steel and aluminium would likely expose manufacturers to higher production costs. (Acura’s owner Honda had already promised to move production from Canada to Indiana in response to those tariffs).

“Rising costs could lead to automotive marketing and advertising budget cuts, and global car brands may pause U.S. campaigns or delay launches,” warned eMarketer analyst Gadjo Sevilla. 

Per a February IAB survey of 100 advertising decision-makers, 57% of U.S. marketers are “extremely concerned” about the impact of tariffs on ad spend. Three-fifths of that sample expected their own budgets to shrink 6-10% in response, while 26% pointed to automotive as a sector particularly exposed.

The holdco planning head who spoke on background noted that any kind of tariff will likely hurt all car brands, given that no company makes every part of every car in the U.S. “The supply chain is going to affect them – all of those pieces are going to raise costs,” said the planner. “And if people are more skittish to buy new because of those tariffs, perhaps they’ll go to CPO” or certified pre-owned cars. And CPOs still need to advertise in order to move product.

But according to Gartner analyst Ewan McIntyre, Acura’s position is similar to the one being taken by CMOs across the marketing world. “We’re not seeing significant pullbacks on media spend yet. We’re not seeing people pull away from campaigns and programs,” he said.

Why not? Well, marketers know that going dark during dicey economic times isn’t a great idea. They’ve led their brands through recessions and pandemics and learned the lesson that while consumer spending might dip, there are opportunities in times of crisis. “A lot of brands don’t know exactly how this will play out, but they know that there will be challenges for their brands one way or another. Protecting media spend makes a lot of sense,” added McIntyre.

Still, marketing expenditure could be shaved if costs go up significantly – for both domestic and foreign brands, said the planner. “If the cost goes up to make the car, and then ultimately the MSRP would then go up, and marketing would go down to offset some costs,” said the planner. “It’s just the nature of the beast. But do you take spend out of certain markets? Do you drive more lower funnel? There are other ways to curtail spend.

And for companies hoping to connect with a consumer base that’s likely taking longer to decide whether or not to buy a new vehicle this year, upper-funnel marketing strategy isn’t such a bad fit. McIntyre suggested that if ad spend does fall, it’ll be investment on channels which aid consideration, rather than conversion or brand awareness, that bear the brunt.

“They’re investing in early stage awareness and investing in late stage conversion,” he explained. “Mid funnel investment is being slightly squeezed right now. It’s still a question of trade offs, and that seems to be the trade off we’re observing so far.”

Finally, it’s worth remembering that Trump’s administration has not even reached its 100th day – and that its tariff policies have already whipsawed back and forth several times since his inauguration.

As such, without more details, or an assurance that automotive tariffs will actually be in place for a meaningful amount of time, Knepp said there were few reasonable course changes available. “We’re still in that limbo stage… you couldn’t slow business down,” he said.

— Michael Bürgi contributed to this story.

Color by numbers

With more pressure than ever before for media and creative to work effectively together, something apparently is rotten in Denmark. A recent study, The BetterIdeas Project (conducted by BetterBriefs and research agency Flood + Partners in partnership with the World Federation of Advertisers and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), surveyed 1,034 marketing professionals in the U.S., U.K., Australia and elswhere, finding significant flaws in the process of evaluating creative ideas. — Michael Bürgi

Some highlights —or lowlights, depending on your POV:

• More than half of marketers (54%) believe creative work doesn’t stand out, while 75% of creative agencies agree.
• Nearly half (47%) of marketers feel the quality of creative work is not improving; 76% of agencies agree, despite greater access to industry tools and understanding of creativity.
• Only 36% of marketers and 26% of creative agencies feel proud of their creative work.
• There’s a disconnect between marketer and agency — half (52%) of marketers believe their feedback is clear and constructive, while only 30% of agencies agree. 
• Finally, only 27% of marketers and 30% of agencies feel well-trained in evaluating ideas.

Takeoff & landing

• Comvergence released its final 2024 Global New Business Barometer,declaring Omnicom’s PHD as the No. 1 global media agency network with a new business value of $3.8 billion. GroupM’s Mindshare ranked second, thanks to its retention of Unilever business, followed by Omnicom’s OMD. In terms of net new business results (which excludes retentions), Publicis’ Starcom ranked as the best performing network (up $1.4 billion in incremental billings), followed by Publicis’ Zenith and OMD. 
• VaynerMedia landed social media and influencer marketing agency of record duties for retailer JCPenney, starting with an Instagram promotion. Dentsu remains the retailer’s media agency. 
• Crossmedia inked a strategic partnership with Vertiqal Studios Corp. to create digital content for Gen Z and millennial audiences for the media agency’s clients. 
• Personnel moves: Havas promoted Dan Hagen to global chief data and technology officer for the entire holdco, up from the same post at Havas Media Network. Filling in his HMN role is Jamie Seltzer … Independent agency Innocean tapped Tracy Morrissey as its svp of media; she most recently was global head of analyst relations for advertising & marketing tech, media & entertainment at AWS (Amazon).

Direct quote

“People are starting to get religion that it’s not just a downstream execution tool to replace creatives and productivity, but actually is a tool to be able to look at the market strategically and see it at scale that you can’t with a quant study or qual study.”

— John Connors, CEO of Boathouse, on changing perceptions among marketers of the role of AI. 

Speed reading

• Tim Peterson’s Future of TV Briefing laid out the game plan behind why sports will play such a big role in this year’s upfront marketplace. 
• Marty Swant dug into how agencies are unhappy with Google sales reps’ pressure on them — and directly on their clients — to increase their commitment to Google services like Performance Max and generative AI services. 
• Krystal Scanlon and Seb Joseph broke the news last week that Meta is officially in the principal media selling business.