Marketing Briefing: How the current chaos affects influencer marketing

Marketers may be expecting, and prepared for, chaos but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate yet another round of economic uncertainty — especially when the last one was just a few years ago. The replanning, re-forecasting and expected budget cuts has the marketing community on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

While President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are currently on pause for 90 days (aside from the 145% China tariffs, the 10% global tariffs and those on aluminum, steel and cars), there’s an expectation that could change any minute. The repercussions, should there be a change in policy, would of course have ripple effects for the advertising industry. So far, as marketers look for areas to cut their ad budgets or push for flexibility (the F-word is back) built into contracts, influencer marketing hasn’t been a prime focus for those reductions, according to agency execs, who say the combination of performance and brand as well as the flexibility of the channel is why marketers have maintained the channel.

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