---
title: Why You Need to Keep Advertising During a Slowdown
description: When the economy is in a rough spot, it’s time to keep your advertising steady, if not increase it.
image: https://blog.skyad.com/hubfs/Women%20shopping%20online%20with%20coupon.jpg
---

[![Sky Advertising](https://blog.skyad.com/hs-fs/hubfs/SkyAdvertising%20-Jun2017/Images/skyLogo.png?width=246&height=245&name=skyLogo.png "Sky Advertising")](http://www.skyad.com/)

- [About Us](http://www.skyad.com/#skyway)
- [Strategy](http://www.skyad.com/#meetyourgoals)
- [Solutions](http://www.skyad.com/#solutions)
- [Team](http://www.skyad.com/#ourTeam)
- [Portfolio](http://www.skyad.com/#portfolio)
- [Blog](http://www.skyad.com/#) 
    - [Real Estate](http://www.skyad.com/blog/real-estate/)
    - [Recruitment](http://www.skyad.com/blog/recruitment/)
    - [Marketing](http://www.skyad.com/blog/marketing-2/)
- [Contact Us](http://www.skyad.com/#contactus)

# Sky Marketing Blog

Learn about the latest in traditional and digital marketing.

- [Digital Advertising](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/digital-advertising)

- [Social Media](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/social-media)

# Why You Need to Keep Advertising During a Slowdown

 by [Janine Jones](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/author/janine)  |  April 29, 2020  | [Advertising](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/advertising), [increase awareness](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/increase-awareness), [beat competition](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/beat-competition)  | [0 Comments](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/you-need-to-keep-advertising-during-a-slowdown#comments-listing)

[![](https://blog.skyad.com/hubfs/Women%20shopping%20online%20with%20coupon.jpg)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/you-need-to-keep-advertising-during-a-slowdown)

With an economic slowdown, and a possible recession, the first instinct is to cut expenses right and left. However, time and time again it’s shown that if you stop advertising, you’re going to lose out in the long run. When the economy is in a rough spot, it’s time to keep your advertising steady, if not increase it.

Last recession, there were significant drops in spending on all types of advertising. But studies show that maintaining or increasing advertising leads to gains during and after the recession.

### Why you should keep advertising

Uncertain economic times can be an opportunity in disguise. During a slowdown, your competitors are likely advertising less, which means you can stand out and claim their customers.

At the same time, the cost of advertising will be down. It becomes a buyers market for brands. This makes it a great time to develop relationships with media who are likely to have strong deals, packages, and channel placements for you.

With the right messaging, you can also position your brand as a stable force during rocky times. People instinctively look for a sense of normalcy and security, especially in a recession. Going dark and losing touch with customers will lose you current and future sales.

### Take a lesson from history

In the 1920’s, Post was the industry leader for dry cereal. But during the Great Depression, they cut back on a lot of ads, while their rival Kellogg’s doubled ad spend. Kellogg’s profits increased by 30% and they became the industry leader for decades.

In the recession of 1973-75, Toyota maintained their ad spending and surpassed Volkswagen as the top imported carmaker in the U.S.

And then in the early 90’s, McDonald’s dropped their ad spend. Pizza Hut and Taco Bell took that opportunity to seize more of the market share, and increased their profits 61% and 40% respectively. McDonald’s profits dropped 28%.

### Adjust your messaging

While you continue to advertise, it’s also time to adjust your content. Your audiences have shifted their emotions around money, and spending habits. During a slowdown or recession, income changes and people become more conservative about spending. There is also a feeling of lack of faith in the economy.

Since people are looking for good deals, a tried and true advertising strategy is to offer coupons, special promotions, and price adjustments to reflect the economic times. You can go back to regular prices when the economy has bounced back.

There are high expectations for brands during a crisis, and all messages need to have an appropriate and sensitive tone. Many brands have pulled advertisements from even a few weeks ago that no longer are relevant to the new social distancing reality, such as removing ads with people at restaurants, or even shaking hands or hugging. While messaging should reflect how your brand is responsibly handling the pandemic, hollow messages of safety and wellbeing will rub your audience wrong. Make sure you have the substance to back it up.

This can be a time for audiences to rediscover your brand, and for you to shift their perception. You want to position yourself as an ally that can be relied upon, offer reassurance, and make connections with your audiences.

 

If you go dark, you risk a 20% drop in sales, according to ThinkVine. Now is the time to keep advertising, and to be smart about it, with data tracking and measurable goals.

Share this:

- [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share)

Search

### Recent Posts

### Archives

- [November 2017 (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2017/11)
- [March 2018 (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/03)
- [September 2018 (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/09)
- [October 2018 (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/10)
- [January 2020 (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2020/01)
- [August 2017 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2017/08)
- [December 2017 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2017/12)
- [January 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/01)
- [February 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/02)
- [May 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/05)
- [June 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/06)
- [July 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/07)
- [November 2018 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/11)
- [January 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/01)
- [February 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/02)
- [March 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/03)
- [April 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/04)
- [June 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/06)
- [September 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/09)
- [October 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/10)
- [November 2019 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/11)
- [February 2020 (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2020/02)
- [June 2016 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2016/06)
- [September 2016 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2016/09)
- [March 2017 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2017/03)
- [April 2017 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2017/04)
- [April 2018 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/04)
- [August 2018 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/08)
- [December 2018 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2018/12)
- [May 2019 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/05)
- [July 2019 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/07)
- [August 2019 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/08)
- [December 2019 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2019/12)
- [March 2020 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2020/03)
- [April 2020 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2020/04)
- [May 2020 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2020/05)
- [February 2022 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2022/02)
- [April 2022 (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/archive/2022/04)

see all

### Categories

- [marketing strategy (29)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/marketing-strategy)
- [Marketing (23)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/category_marketing)
- [marketing (20)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/marketing)
- [strategy (12)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/strategy)
- [Digital Advertising (8)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/digital-advertising)
- [Social Media (8)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/social-media)
- [facebook advertising (8)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/facebook-advertising)
- [Social Media & Digital Marketing (7)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/social-media-digital-marketing)
- [marketing objective (7)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/marketing-objective)
- [Advertising (6)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/advertising)
- [content marketing (6)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/content-marketing)
- [Industry Trends (5)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/industry-trends)
- [facebok ads (5)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/facebok-ads)
- [Email Marketing (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/email-marketing)
- [video (3)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/video)
- [2018 trends (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/2018-trends)
- [LinkedIn (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/linkedin)
- [instagram (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/instagram)
- [market research (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/market-research)
- [productivity (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/productivity)
- [small business (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/small-business)
- [technology (2)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/technology)
- [B2B (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/b2b)
- [CTR (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/ctr)
- [Covid (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/covid)
- [Digital & Social Media Recruiting (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/digital-social-media-recruiting)
- [Employer Branding (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/employer-branding)
- [Sky (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/sky)
- [Sourcing & Recruiting (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/sourcing-recruiting)
- [ad spend (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/ad-spend)
- [beat competition (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/beat-competition)
- [change (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/change)
- [chatbots (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/chatbots)
- [click-through rate (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/click-through-rate)
- [email drip campaign (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/email-drip-campaign)
- [email open and click-through rates (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/email-open-and-click-through-rates)
- [generation z (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/generation-z)
- [increase awareness (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/increase-awareness)
- [integrated marketing communications (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/integrated-marketing-communications)
- [lead generation (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/lead-generation)
- [millennials (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/millennials)
- [mobile strategy (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/mobile-strategy)
- [new normal (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/new-normal)
- [non-profit (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/non-profit)
- [non-traditional candidates (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/non-traditional-candidates)
- [online marketing (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/online-marketing)
- [purchase funnel (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/purchase-funnel)
- [rich media ads (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/rich-media-ads)
- [sales (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/sales)
- [youtube (1)](https://blog.skyad.com/marketing/topic/youtube)

see all

Share this:

- [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share)

- [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/Sky-Advertising-Incorporated-75688124575/?fref=nf)
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/SkyAdvertising7)
- [Google](https://plus.google.com/+SkyAdvertisingNewYork)

Sky Advertising, Inc. 2022