For agencies, the summer season is not only a time when team members often take time off to recharge but also prime time for fall planning. While businesses gear up for back-to-school shopping and the holiday gift-giving that follows soon after, their marketing teams and agency partners are working in tandem with them to prepare campaigns that will ensure healthy returns on their marketing investments.
With the end of summer fast approaching, agency teams are busy strategizing the best ways to reach target audiences during the second half of the year. The members of Forbes Agency Council are taking their own distinct approaches to prepare for the 2022 fall campaign season. Below, 14 members share what their agencies are doing right now to get ready to make the most of it.
Forbes Agency Council members share what their agencies are doing now to prepare for fall campaigns.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Looking Ahead At Video-Platform Trends
Normally, this is the time to begin working on holiday content and campaigns. However, with the vastly changing video climate on Reels as well as TikTok, we have pivoted most of our structure to be split between big-picture and biweekly updates. While this used to mean crafting polished Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas content, now we’re looking ahead at trend creation for these video platforms. – Kelly Samuel, Snack Toronto
2. Planning Out The Best Products And Pricing Strategy With Each Client
We start now; we are looking at the trends of the economy and distributions/fulfillment, which is going to be a challenge for many. We’re working with each client to plan out the best products and pricing strategy, as this year it’s going to be important to lead with value. Consumer shopping patterns are going to change this year, and agencies need to help clients get ready for what’s to come. – Dawn Sinkule, Digital Dawn
3. Focusing On Uplifting Messaging With Dual Benefits
Fall 2022 is unique, considering consumer behavior is heading into a downturn and many brands and businesses are struggling to acquire top-level talent. The result is uplifting messaging with dual benefits: a focus on helping clients connect with consumers—making their current team feel good about the brand—while also helping to attract new, top-level talent to get on board with the company’s goals and vision. – Scott Harkey, OH Partners
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4. Hosting Holiday Planning Workshops With Clients
In June and into July, we started hosting second-half/holiday planning workshops with clients to plan revenue goals, campaigns, inventory, promotions and content. We are now working with them to define a day-by-day execution plan for the second half of the year to ensure that marketing budgets are aligned to key sales dates and profitability goals and that we have a good plan to build holiday remarketing pools. – Tucker Matheson, Markacy
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5. Strategizing For Clients Six To Eight Months Ahead Of Schedule
As a standard rule of thumb, we’re looking out six to eight months ahead of schedule to strategize for clients. By the time fall comes around, we will have already successfully put together deliverables on what we need to be implementing for both client and agency success. While not everything can be planned ahead of time, putting in the time and effort ahead of schedule ends up making all the difference. – Josh Perlstein, Response Media
6. Prioritizing High-Level Goals And Streamlining Campaign Plans
We are prioritizing high-level goals, such as performing market segments and lead generation funnels, and streamlining plans for other marketing campaign elements, such as content creation, videos and webinars. We are also focused on strategizing innovative marketing approaches that can handle changing consumer behavior trends and keeping track of previously delivered campaigns. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
7. Fine-Tuning Walmart And Amazon Strategies
We are ramping up our efforts to prepare for a busy fall season by fine-tuning our Walmart and Amazon strategies. To prepare our beauty clients for the holiday season, we’re crafting impactful campaigns that will reach shoppers during their busiest time of year. So our clients will be not only able to capitalize on the fourth quarter but also set up for success heading into the first quarter of 2023. – Denny Smolinski, beBOLD Digital
8. Compiling A Recap And A Plan To Align Around Clients’ Goals
At the end of every quarter, our teams compile a recap and a plan to ensure we’re working toward clients’ goals and aligning on our plans to get there. While it’s pertinent to anticipate changes in the media landscape each season, it’s also integral to have a framework you can use to inform your strategy and upcoming campaigns. – Heather Kelly, Next PR
9. Preparing To Roll Out Our New Brand Identity
In the fall, we’ll be rolling out our new brand identity, a rehauled website design and refreshed website copy. We’re all excited for the new PopArt Studio, with new goals and challenges yet the same quality and creativity. The plan is to shift the direction of our social efforts as well, especially in the employer branding aspect. – Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio
10. Launching A SaaS Method Of Follow-Up For Clients
We plan holiday campaigns for clients in June and build these campaigns in July and August. Internally, we’ve launched a software as a service offering to make clients’ fall campaigns even more successful by providing a means of follow-up that is organized in the exact same way we would do it for them, but with “done with you” or DIY options for some smaller clients. – Vix Reitano, Agency 6B
11. Scaling Efforts And Leveraging Momentum Created Earlier
It’s time for a refresh! We are no longer “settling into the new year”—we are preparing brands for the coming months, during which time the majority of revenues are made. For new clients, it is “make or break” time if they hope to capitalize on the rest of 2022. For current clients, this is the time to scale efforts and take advantage of the momentum created during the beginning of the year. – Bernard May, National Positions
12. Planning Social And Editorial Content Through The End Of October
We’ve contacted potential partners, created social media templates and have already planned out editorial calendars through the end of October. That said, we always leave space for of-the-minute social posts and curated content that is relevant and timely! – Beth Newton, alpha | BRAVO
13. Understanding Social Trends And Narratives That May Affect Clients
Marketing happens in the context of society, so it is always good to step back and understand what social trends and narratives may affect your clients. How should brands take part in the conversations we all have every day (if they should at all)? How can these narratives and trends affect planned messaging and spend? – Mark Skroch, BCV Social
14. Forecasting Demand, Media Costs And Results
This year will once again be an anomaly, as we reset benchmarks and try to predict both consumer behavior (with the threat of a recession) and costs (knowing that digital competition is the highest we’ve seen yet). All of these things are vital to driving the best results during what is a “make or break” time of the year for many brands. – Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
