The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
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Licensed for individual use only
The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
by Shar VanBoskirk, Tina Moffett, Rick Parrish, and Brandon Verblow
May 6, 2020 | Updated: May 14, 2020
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways
The next two years will be difficult, no matter how A Mid-2021 Recovery Is Most Likely
quickly the COVID-19 crisis ends. In our most Forrester used three scenarios to model US
optimistic scenario, Forrester projects a 28% marketing spend: a late-2020 recovery, a mid-
drop in US marketing spend — including media, 2021 recovery, and a late-2021 recovery.
services, technology, and internal headcount — by
Marketing Technology Will See Slight Growth
the end of 2021. Offline media, agency services,
A mid-2021 recovery predicts a 3% increase for
and staff payroll will suffer most. But today’s dire
marketing automation tools by year-end 2021.
situation will also force the pivot to more adaptive
planning and operations that many CMOs had CMOs Will Adapt To Survive
delayed during better days. Read this report to Leaders who embrace a “sense and respond”
understand the expected marketing budget cuts approach to communications and daringly adjust
and how to remain agile as the situation unfolds. their product, placement, and price will weather
the storm.
This PDF is only licensed for individual use when downloaded from forrester.com or reprints.forrester.com. All other distribution prohibited.
forrester.comFor CMOs
The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
by Shar VanBoskirk, Tina Moffett, Rick Parrish, and Brandon Verblow
with Keith Johnston, Jim Nail, Collin Colburn, Bret Sanford-Chung, Lori Wizdo, Nick Monroe, Sam
Karpinski, Lexie Lawhon, and Rachel Birrell
May 6, 2020 | Updated: May 14, 2020
Table Of Contents Related Research Documents
2 Marketing Priorities Shift As The COVID-19 The Model For Modern Marketing
Crisis Unfolds
The US Digital Marketing Forecast, 2018 To 2023
US CMO Budgets Will Lose $222 Billion, Even
The US Marketing Technology And Services
With A Late-2020 Recovery
Outlook, 2017 To 2022
Budget Cuts Will Deepen In A Mid-2021
US Tech Budget Outlooks In A COVID-19
Recovery Scenario
Recession
Recommendations
11 Adopt An Adaptive Approach Now
13 Supplemental Material
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
Marketing Priorities Shift As The COVID-19 Crisis Unfolds
The world turned upside down for all of us in March 2020. And with COVID-19 still spreading,
shutdowns expanding, unemployment rocketing, business spending curtailed, and consumers staying
at home buying essentials only, everything feels uncertain. CMOs can’t help but ask: What in the world
do I plan for now? To develop guidance in response to this question, we considered how US marketing
budgets and priorities will change under three possible scenarios that Forrester developed to anticipate
changes to enterprise technology spend (see Figure 1).1
›› Late-2020 recovery: a best-case scenario. With a 30% probability at present, this scenario expects
the incidence of COVID-19 infections in the US to peak in Q2 2020 and economic recovery to begin
in Q4 2020. Businesses will reopen in late May to June, beginning with coastal cities that have the
highest number of cases but will be the furthest along in leveling out the occurrence of the virus.
›› Mid-2021 recovery: a more damaging scenario. With a 60% probability, this scenario sees
the pandemic continue to grow throughout 2020. Consumer confidence, which declined sharply
in March 2020, will be in free fall for the remainder of the year.2 An extended — or repeated —
shutdown will continue the economic downturn, leading to deeper, longer-lasting budget cuts.
Recovery will likely not begin until late Q2 2021.
›› Late-2021 recovery: an even more severe scenario. If the pandemic persists, health concerns
and the descending economy will extend well into 2021. Having suffered through months of
pandemic-induced stress and lost wages, consumers will prioritize saving and only cautiously
begin spending, slowing the recovery. We consider this a 10% possibility, but we have not yet
modeled this out.
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Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378For CMOs May 6, 2020 | Updated: May 14, 2020
The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 1 Two Scenarios For US Spend On Media, Marketing Services, Martech, And Internal Marketer Headcount
US marketing spend will fall in any scenario
($ millions)
$900,000
$800,000
$700,000
Late-2020 recovery
$600,000
Mid-2021 recovery
$500,000
$400,000
$300,000
$200,000
$100,000
0
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: Forrester forecast
US CMO Budgets Will Lose $222 Billion, Even With A Late-2020 Recovery
Our most optimistic scenario expects economic resurrection within nine months. But even if recovery
happens this fast, spend on media, marketing technology, marketing services, and internal headcount
will decline well into 2021, as marketing trails macro trends by three to four months. As Anthony
Fauci reminds us, rebounding from a shutdown of this scale will happen slowly, market by market:
“[The economy] isn’t like a light switch, on and off.”3 Marketing regrowth, when it does come, will
be conservative, leaving overall marketing spend starting 2022 nearly 30% behind 2019, when
unemployment was at an all-time low and the economy was booming. In this scenario:
›› Media money will move to branding in the short term. Already, 81% of large advertisers are
deferring or cutting campaigns because of the COVID-19 pandemic.4 We translate this into a 23%
decline in media spend in 2020, reflecting the rapid drop in GDP expected in this scenario (see
Figure 2).5 Promotions and offline media will be the hardest hit, with offline media falling 30% this
year. Even with more people at home, brands won’t commit to advanced media buys or to drive
sales when demand and supply chains are so volatile. Retailer 4X400 expects to pull 25% to 50%
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
of spend due to declining conversions.6 Comparatively, social media will dip just 12% as marketers
redirect promotions or events budgets into support-oriented branding campaigns, gaining share of
voice and goodwill.
›› Tech budgets will hold for essential tools. In this scenario, the combined categories of data and
analytics, advertising technology, and marketing automation will grow 2% by the end of 2021 (see
Figure 3).7 Unlike media, which can be immediately shut off, multiyear campaign management
contracts lock CMOs into paying terms negotiated in 2019, even if they need to consolidate.
For this reason, adtech — which is tied to online media volume — will falter by 15% in 2020 as
programmatic ad investments plunge. Demand-side platform (DSP) MediaMath laid off 8% of its
staff in early April 2020. Data and analytics tools will see a 2% lift over the next two years as CMOs
maintain market mix models, churn, and ROI analytics but cut nice-to-haves like visualizations or
virtual reality analytics.8 Marketing automation — which counts for more than half of all martech
spend — will grow 7% through 2021 while it supports vital brand and retention emails.
›› Agency and strategy contracts will be sacrificed to save internal headcount. Agency,
strategy, and operations services will tumble 12% by the end of 2021 in this scenario, with
agencies suffering the most because their business depends on advertising (see Figure 4). In its
Q1 2020 earnings release, Publicis announced €500 million in cost-saving measures in response
to pandemic-related revenue declines. Other holding companies are making similar reductions
through layoffs, cuts in executive pay, or deferred dividends to shareholders. Strategy services
spend will also dip over the next two years to the tune of 3% as brands delay payment or
move projects to in-house resources. In contrast, database, customer insights, and campaign
management service providers will grow 1% before 2022, as they measure marketing efficiency
and analyze customers to prevent churn.9
›› Headcount spend will dive, even with the federal stimulus. The remaining months of 2020 will
see the loss of 469,000 marketer jobs, subtracting $162 billion from CMOs’ payrolls. Through 2021,
we expect the number of businesses with marketing staff to drop as nearly 20% of midmarket
firms and 1% of enterprise companies never reopen. We estimate that surviving enterprises will
cut staff by 10% and salaries by 25%, based on what big brands have done so far. In April 2020,
Sotheby’s furloughed 12% of staff; Class Pass laid off 22% and furloughed 31%; and Condé Nast,
Coty, and Tailored Brands implemented 10% to 50% pay cuts.10 Midsize businesses will cut teams
by 7% with similar salary declines. The short shutdown expected in this scenario should allow for
some reimbursement against this immediate cost conservation by year-end 2021. GM ambitiously
expects to repay salary cuts for furloughed and paycheck-reduced employees by March 2021.11
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 2 US Spend On Digital And Offline Media In A Late-2020-Recovery Scenario
Offline media and promotions will see the largest drop in a late-2020 recovery
(Percent change from 2019)
40% All advertising
Offline media
30%
Search
Social
20%
Display banner
10% Display video
0%
-10%
-20%
-30%
-40%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: ForecastView Marketing And Advertising Spending Outlook, 2020 To 2022 (US)
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 3 US Spend On Data/Analytics, Adtech, And Marketing Automation In A Late-2020-Recovery Scenario
US marketing technology budgets will stay fairly whole in a late-2020 recovery
(Percent change from 2019)
20% Total marketing and
technology spend
15% Data and analytics
tools
10% Ad technology
Marketing
5% automation
0%
-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: Forrester forecast
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 4 US Spend On Marketing Operations, Agency, And Strategy Services In A Late-2020-Recovery Scenario
US marketing services will see a two-year decline in a late-2020 recovery
(Percent change from 2019)
10% Total marketing
services spend
5% Operational
services
0% Strategy services
Agency services
-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
-25%
-30%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: Forrester forecast
Budget Cuts Will Deepen In A Mid-2021 Recovery Scenario
Recessions create a vicious cycle: Limited business in one sector reduces workforce income, which
decreases consumer and business spending and forces cutbacks in other areas. This means that
even if the pandemic and associated shutdown ends by December 2020, high unemployment, small-
business failures, and lower confidence will delay recovery in consumer spending and business
investment. Broader economic recovery will start in mid-2021, but CMOs will deepen budget cuts
throughout 2021 in response to months of near-zero revenues for many industries. In this scenario:
›› Radio, print, and out-of-home will collapse. Offline media has been ceding share of ad budgets
to digital media for two decades. After the nearly 12 months of no commuters, stunted foot traffic,
and empty airplanes likely in this mid-2021-recovery scenario, remaining investments in these
media will plunge 34% from 2019 (see Figure 5). This will increase the share of search, social,
banner ads, and display video to 61% of all advertising by 2022. Major publishers like The Wall
Street Journal and Meredith are already guaranteeing outcomes to try to counter declining print
ad revenue.12 When advertising does pick up in mid-year 2021, buys will be almost exclusively
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
for digital media including digital out-of-home, because of its flexibility: Consider how the CDC is
releasing location-specific virus announcements through digital billboards, retail kiosks, and truck
displays as guidance changes.13
›› Marketing automation will save martech from decline. In a mid-2021 recovery scenario,
marketing technology will decline by 4% before 2021 ends. Already under threat because of third-
party cookie depreciation, cuts to demand-side platforms and data management platforms will
accelerate. Marketing performance management, customer analytics, and customer feedback
platforms won’t lose as much ground as CMOs seek efficiency and optimization. And marketing
automation will grow 3% as marketers use these applications to offload work previously done by
people (see Figure 6). Automation tends to advance in economic shocks, when people become
relatively more expensive as firms’ revenues decline.14
›› Services will lose 22% in two years. By year-end 2021 in this scenario, $15 billion will have
fallen out of the marketing services space (see Figure 7). Prolonged strain on supply chains and
negligible discretionary travel and retail will cut entire sectors from agency rosters. Multiyear
contracts will terminate and not renew. Analytics tools will replace operational services partners to
automate customer modeling. And strategy projects will stall. Bain and LEK Consulting have halted
internships or reneged MBA offers already.15 The turnaround will start in Q3 2021 when strategy
shops start seeing RFPs for business model innovations to help surviving CMOs rebuild their firms.
›› Organizations will run skeleton teams. In this scenario, marketing headcount will fall 30%
over the next two years and salaries will decline 30% in 2020 and an additional 5% in 2021 as
CMOs have no choice but to cut deeper to stay afloat. These steep cutbacks will test customer
experience (CX) and marketing program quality; consistently demonstrating brand promise at
scale could be difficult with smaller teams. One bright spot: Constrained resources and drastically
different customer habits will force innovations that will push marketing beyond where it was in
2019. For example, the UK’s Nationwide Building Society has shifted to agile methods. Paul Hibbs,
the director of advertising and media there, explains, “We are literally planning week to week at the
moment, but with a view that we want to come out of this stronger than we went into it.”16
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 5 US Offline Media Spend In A Mid-2021-Recovery Scenario
US offline media spend will collapse in a mid-2021 recovery
(Percent change from 2019)
20% All advertising
Offline media
10% Search
Social
Display banner
0%
Display video
-10%
-20%
-30%
-40%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: ForecastView Marketing And Advertising Spending Outlook, 2020 To 2022 (US)
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 6 US Spend On Data/Analytics, Adtech, And Marketing Automation In A Mid-2021-Recovery Scenario
A mid-2021 recovery will send US martech into decline, except for marketing
automation
(Percent change from 2019)
10% Total marketing and
technology spend
Data and analytics
5% tools
Ad technology
0% Marketing
automation
-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: Forrester forecast
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
FIGURE 7 US Spend On Marketing Operations, Agency, And Strategy Services In A Mid-2021-Recovery Scenario
US marketing services will continue to decline well after a mid-2021 recovery
begins
(Percent change from 2019)
0% Total marketing
services spend
-5%
Operational
-10% services
Strategy services
-15%
Agency services
-20%
-25%
-30%
-35%
-40%
-45%
-50%
2019 2020 (F) 2021 (F) 2022 (F)
Source: Forrester forecast
Recommendations
Adopt An Adaptive Approach Now
You’ve long needed to shift to a people-led planning approach that is continuous, relies on ongoing
measurement, and has flexible budgets.17 Well, facing down a pandemic requires assuming this
approach immediately, as conditions are evolving so quickly.18 CMOs who make this pivot will:
›› Shift to a sense-and-respond mode. A modern marketing organization owns customer
understanding: listening for what individual customers value.19 In crisis circumstances, you
must listen as granularly as possible. Field personnel, distribution partners, consumer sentiment
monitoring, and third-party data at the DMA level can help monitor how quickly business picks
up — or gets shut down again — as stay-home orders are lifted.20 From this information, commit
media in select markets but for no more than two weeks at a time. IRI informs real-time CPG
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
category trends, stock availability, and consumer sentiment, while Nielsen’s Total Audience Report
provides media insights and technology usage.21 Both can help you sense immediate results in
order to revise your marketing mix and multitouch attribution models.
›› Model possible outcomes on a rolling basis. The marketing optimization models you have in
place that integrate media allocation, content, and audience targeting can help you understand
how current circumstances are affecting your customers from one location and family situation
to the next, if you apply them in a more dynamic way. Do small tests, regularly varying customer
needs, routes to market, and product availability, in order to find what works for your budget and
delivers against customers’ changing needs. ANZ, a financial services company based in Australia,
found that involving its data scientists in its marketing planning made this type of agile scenario
planning easier.22
›› Prioritize CX improvements to drive loyalty. Fixing common customer problems yields three
strong returns in a time of crisis. First, it provides critical insight into customers’ needs, which are
likely different now than in non-crisis circumstances. The CX team at Australia Post specifically
looks for points of value destruction to correct.23 Secondly, prioritizing CX now also cuts costs: Call
centers are pricey, as is the cost of losing a customer due to a disappointing experience. CMOs
who do root-cause analysis on the list of problems that customers frequently call about will find
ways to create new value. This will reduce inbound calls and accomplish a third benefit: keeping
customers from cancelling, a big risk when market demand stalls. Customers who believed that a
business solved their problems quickly were seven times more likely to stay with the business.24
›› Align actions and communications. Authentically demonstrating your brand promise always
matters.25 But customers in a fragile emotional state will be even more sensitive to a brand’s
reliability.26 This means matching messaging to the current climate: In response to CDC guidance to
avoid touching your face, KFC paused a campaign showing people licking their fingers.27 Commit
only to what you can deliver: A major pizza chain turned off customers by touting contactless
delivery when some franchisees still required signatures on paper receipts. Stay up on government
guidance: United Airlines faces a class-action lawsuit for offering vouchers instead of cash refunds
per requisite shelter-at-home regulations.28 And market based on what your supply chain can bear:
Reese Witherspoon’s fashion label Draper James damaged its brand when it registered 1 million
teachers for a free dress offer when it only had 250 available to offer.29
›› Not stop marketing. The counterintuitive advice in a report analyzing difficult budget cuts is
that increasing marketing efforts during a recession will actually return you to growth faster.30
This doesn’t mean continuing with a media plan that isn’t affordable or relevant; it does mean
considering if you should revise your pre-crisis products, placements, or prices in order to create
the value customers need now. Lena Roland, managing editor for WARC knowledge, explains:
“Brands that provide solutions [that] help alleviate people’s anxiety . . . in hard times will have
an advantage when the recovery begins. This can be done without an ad campaign — the best
approach is to just get on with it.”31 Peleton now offers “family fit” programming for customers’
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
new routine with kids at home.32 Aman Home Services, a cleaning business, pivoted to sterilizing
commercial building lobbies when its demand for household cleaning dried up.33 And even local
YMCAs are offering hundreds of online exercise classes for free to YMCA members.
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Supplemental Material
Online Resource
Click the link in the download box at the beginning of this report on Forrester.com for an Excel
spreadsheet detailing the model behind the forecasts in this report.
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
Forecast Methodology
This model predicts spend in US media, marketing technology, marketing services, and internal
marketing headcount in two different economic scenarios that are possible because of the recession
caused by the 2020 global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first scenario represents
a recovery beginning at the end of 2020. In the second scenario, recovery begins in mid-2021. The
model is an aggregate of three different models.
Endnotes
1
See the Forrester report “US Tech Budget Outlooks In A COVID-19 Recession.”
Following an increase in February, the Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply in March. Source:
2
“Consumer Confidence Survey®,” The Conference Board, April 28, 2020 (https://www.conference-board.org/data/
consumerconfidence.cfm).
3
Source: “Dr. Anthony Fauci on How Life Returns to Normal,” The Journal Podcast, The Wall Street Journal, April 7,
2020 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/dr-anthony-fauci-on-how-life-returns-to-normal-11586298725).
4
Source: Lucy Handley, “Major multinationals are postponing ad campaigns and slashing marketing budgets, new
report finds,” CNBC, April 7, 2020 (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/07/multinationals-postpone-marketing-and-
reduce-budgets-due-to-coronavirus.html).
5
Looking at recessions over the past 50 years, we found that advertising spend decelerated by one time to five times
the rate of deceleration in GDP.
6
Source: Anna Hensel, “DTC brands are tightening up how much they spend on digital advertising,” Digiday, March 23,
2020 (https://digiday.com/marketing/dtc-brands-tightening-much-spend-digital-advertising/).
7
See the Forrester report “The US Marketing Technology And Services Outlook, 2017 To 2022.”
Data visualization company DOMO announced a $30 million cost reduction plan on April 9 due to the economic
8
slowdown because of COVID-19. Source: Eric Avidon, “Economic slowdown due to COVID-19 leads to DOMO
layoffs,” SearchBusinessAnalytics, TechTarget, April 13, 2020 (https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/
news/252481536/Economic-slowdown-due-to-COVID-19-leads-to-Domo-layoffs).
9
Source: “Deloitte buys 20-strong data analytics consultancy Bistech,” Consultancy.com.au, March 25, 2020 (https://
www.consultancy.com.au/news/1808/deloitte-buys-20-strong-data-analytics-consultancy-bistech).
10
Source: Marianne Wilson, “Tailored Brands furloughs all U.S. store workers, extends closures, cuts exec pay,” Chain
Store Age, March 26, 2020 (https://chainstoreage.com/tailored-brands-furloughs-all-us-store-workers-extends-
closures-cuts-exec-pay).
Source: Taylor Borden, “The coronavirus outbreak has triggered unprecedented mass layoffs and furloughs. Here are
the major companies that have announced they are downsizing their workforces.” Business Insider, April 30, 2020
(https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-layoffs-furloughs-hospitality-service-travel-unemployment-2020).
Source: “LA Times Furloughs Non-Editorial Employees,” Ad Exchanger, April 16, 2020 (https://www.adexchanger.com/
ad-exchange-news/live-industry-updates/) and “Fortune Lays Off 10% Of Staff,” Ad Exchanger, April 15, 2020 (https://
www.adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/live-industry-updates/).
Source: Allison Collins, “Coty Cuts Executive Salaries by 25%, as Coronavirus Impacts Business,” WWD,
April 14, 2020 (https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/coronavirus-coty-cuts-executive-
salaries-1203560401/).
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The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
11
Source: Hannah Lutz, “GM cuts white-collar salaries 20%, furloughs 6,500 in U.S.,” Automotive News, March 26, 2020
(https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/gm-cuts-white-collar-salaries-20-furloughs-6500-us).
12
Meredith has seen its competitors significantly decrease prices to lure more advertisers. In response, they are
guaranteeing advertisers outcomes like product purchases and website visits. Source: Max Willens, “‘Focus on
singles and doubles’: Publishers’ revenue heads emphasize short term as coronavirus drags on,” Digiday, April 13,
2020 (https://digiday.com/media/focus-on-singles-and-doubles-publishers-revenue-heads-emphasize-short-term-as-
coronavirus-drags-on/).
The Wall Street Journal is leveraging increased user attention by offering ad recall guarantees to advertisers. Source:
Sara Jerde, “The Wall Street Journal Offers Ad Recall Guarantee to Print Advertisers,” Adweek, March 31, 2020
(https://www.adweek.com/digital/the-wall-street-journal-offers-ad-recall-guarantee-to-print-advertisers/).
13
Source: Ian Dallimore, “How DOOH is Helping Handle the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Digital Signage Connection, March
25, 2020 (https://www.digitalsignageconnection.com/how-dooh-is-helping-handle-the-covid-19-pandemic).
14
Source: Mark Muro, Robert Maxim, and Jacob Whiton, “The robots are ready as the COVID-19 recession spreads,”
Brookings Blogs, March 24, 2020 (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/03/24/the-robots-are-ready-as-
the-covid-19-recession-spreads/).
15
Source: Nathan Allen, “Companies Begin To Freeze And Rescind MBA Internship & Job Offers,” Poets&Quants, March
27, 2020 (https://poetsandquants.com/2020/03/27/companies-begin-to-freeze-and-rescind-mba-internship-job-
offers/).
16
Source: Sarah Vizard, “Nationwide: We want our brand to come out of this stronger than it went in,” Marketing Week,
April 14, 2020 (https://www.marketingweek.com/nationwide-marketing-coronavirus-brand-strength/?cmpid=em~news
letter~breaking_news~n~n&utm_medium=em&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_news&eid=1310429
6&sid=MW0001&adg=E605E061-E2C0-45B1-B987-60B4F04C3668).
17
See the Forrester report “Forget Everything You Think You Know About Marketing Planning.”
18
See the Forrester report “Build Your Adaptive IT Operating Model Iteratively.”
19
See the Forrester report “The Model For Modern Marketing.”
DMA: designated market area.
20
21
Source: “Nielsen Total Audience Report,” Nielsen, February 2020 (https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/client-learning/tv/
nielsen-total-audience-report-february-2020/).
22
See the Forrester report “How To Apply Agile Methodology To Marketing.”
23
See the Forrester report “Value For Customers: The Four Dimensions That Matter.”
24
See the Forrester report “CX NYC 2019 Day One Highlights: Your Guide To Radical CX Innovation.”
25
See the Forrester report “Marketers Versus Customers: Opposing Forces Erupt.”
26
Source: Rick Parrish, “Getting Digital CX Right Amid The Pandemic,” Forrester Blogs, March 20, 2020 (https://
go.forrester.com/blogs/getting-digital-cx-right-amid-the-pandemic/).
27
Source: Lucy Handley, “Major multinationals are postponing ad campaigns and slashing marketing budgets, new
report finds,” CNBC, April 7, 2020 (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/07/multinationals-postpone-marketing-and-
reduce-budgets-due-to-coronavirus.html).
28
Source: “United Airlines is sued by passenger for refusing to refund fare,” Crain’s Chicago Business, April 6, 2020
(https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airlines-airports/united-airlines-sued-passenger-refusing-refund-fare).
© 2020 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 15
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378For CMOs May 6, 2020 | Updated: May 14, 2020
The 2020 COVID-19 Crisis Will Stun US Marketing
CMOs: Apply An Adaptive Approach To Manage The Downturn
29
Source: Vanessa Friedman, “Reese Witherspoon’s Fashion Line Offered Free Dresses to Teachers. They Didn’t
Mean Every Teacher,” The New York Times, April 15, 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/fashion/reese-
witherspoon-draper-james-coronavirus.html).
30
Source: Mark Ritson, “The best marketers will be upping, not cutting, their budgets,” Marketing Week, April 6, 2020
(https://www.marketingweek.com/mark-ritson-marketing-spend-recession-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=Weekly%20
Newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=85962550&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8nNs8Hsfjbfdsl1H
vgEICMg4RX3Mh2ZTWTV1J7FKd-SA9TabKoOry70jKKRlxISzs2eq74nvNlOdmXSkGPql7qM1xglQ&_hsmi=85962657).
31
Source: Lena Roland, “Responding to COVID-19 and preparing for the global recession,” WARC, March 30,
2020 (https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/responding-to-covid-19-and-preparing-for-the-global-
recession/3492).
32
Source: Chris L, “Peloton Adds New Peloton Family Classes,” Peloton Buddy, April 3, 2020 (https://www.pelobuddy.
com/peloton-adds-new-peloton-family-classes/).
33
Source: Deborah Tennen-Zapier, “5 creative ways small businesses are succeeding during the COVID-19 quarantine,”
Fast Company, April 12, 2020 (https://www.fastcompany.com/90489203/5-creative-ways-small-businesses-are-
succeeding-during-the-covid-19-quarantine).
© 2020 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 16
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378forrester.com
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