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Brands and agencies are bracing for economic turbulence.
Amidst the Trump Administration’s shifting tariff announcements, budget reallocations, massive federal layoffs, and other emerging economic policies, global ad spend forecasts have been reduced by nearly a full percentage point. Consumer spending is also slowing due to economic concerns, with consumer sentiment declining for the third consecutive month in March—and down 27% year-over-year.
Unfortunately, this uncertainly appears likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Rather than waiting for stability, brands and agencies must take proactive steps to ensure their media investments remain efficient and effective in a shifting landscape. To help advertising leaders stay ahead, Basis experts outlined the following recommendations for navigating the current landscape:
“The most challenging thing for advertising leaders right now is the uncertainty,” says Grace Briscoe, EVP of Client Development at Basis. While leaders can’t predict exactly how this uncertainty will pan out, they can mitigate risk by analyzing potential economic conditions and preparing strategic responses in advance.
“In times of uncertainty and economic downturns, we know that advertising and marketing budgets are a line item that can be cut quickly,” says April Weeks, Chief Investment and Media Officer at Basis. “Forward thinking brands and agencies are assessing the potential outcomes of today’s economic uncertainty and planning strategically for success in each one.”
Scenario planning can help businesses respond more swiftly when the economy takes a clearer direction. Leaders should reflect on past economic downturns, analyze the strategies they used during those periods, assess their effectiveness with historical data, and apply those insights to prepare for varying degrees of future economic challenges and ensure the highest likelihood of success.
“There’s a lot of appetite for visibility into how media dollars are invested and for using that knowledge to optimize spending,” notes Briscoe. This was true even before economic volatility became a concern, as transparency has long been a point of tension between agencies and brands.
During an economic downturn, stakeholders’ already high demand for transparency will only intensify. If advertising budgets shrink, marketing leaders will need robust, reliable reporting systems to help demonstrate the impact of their spend and, when necessary, advocate for more investment.
“In times of economic uncertainty, it’s critical to be able to show that marketing isn’t a cost center, but rather a revenue-generating asset,” says Weeks.
For agency leaders, staying tightly aligned with clients on KPIs and leveraging historical data to communicate the potential impacts of budget cuts across specific channels or platforms will be key to serving as effective strategic partners to their clients.
Amidst economic volatility, it’s especially important for brands and agencies to keep tabs on the competitive landscape specific to their sectors. In particular, marketing teams should keep a pulse on how their competitors are reacting to economic conditions.
“Especially when it comes to things like discounts and limited time offers, advertisers should be ready to match competitors or implement alternative strategies to protect their brand or client,” says Weeks.
One clear insight has emerged throughout economic downturns over the past century: Brands that continue spending fare better and recover more quickly than those who don’t.
“Pulling back on advertising in a time when a lot of other brands are taking that approach isn’t necessarily the best strategy,” says Katie McAdams, Chief Marketing Officer at Basis.
When businesses scale back on advertising, they reduce brand awareness—the financial impacts of which may not be immediately apparent, but will be felt over time.
“Branding and revenue are intrinsically linked. When we’ve heavied up on brand awareness tactics, we’ve seen performance metrics like lead flow spike,” says McAdams. “That, in turn, drives other key metrics like revenue growth and the expansion of new customer bases. When marketing teams pull back on brand awareness efforts, those metrics inevitably decline.” This relationship between brand awareness and performance has been observed beyond the B2B sector as well.
In the face of economic volatility, advertisers should reevaluate the tone of their communications. During these periods, consumers are often more stressed and more deliberate about their spending decisions, making sensitivity in marketing communications crucial.
“You want to be sensitive to what is happening and how it’s impacting people,” says McAdams. “It’s essential to stay aware and listen, as even a poorly chosen word or phrase could alienate your audience.”
To avoid this, McAdams emphasizes the importance of robust internal review processes. “Getting multiple perspectives on marketing and advertising materials before they go live helps ensure messaging stays relevant and resonates with audiences.”
Economic uncertainty presents challenges, but there are ways for advertising leaders to get ahead by taking a proactive approach. Scenario planning, prioritizing transparency, tracking competitors, learning from past downturns, and keeping an eye on tone can are key to navigating the current landscape with confidence.
Automation and data-driven strategies drove $4.6M in revenue and a $23 ROAS, showcasing the power of precision-driven digital marketing.
THE CHALLENGE
A Fortune 500 medical technology leader sought to enhance its digital marketing strategy with a data-driven approach to:
The company needed a strategic partner to execute and refine its media strategy to achieve these goals.
THE SOLUTION
As the company’s partner since December 2020, Basis implemented a sophisticated, technology-powered approach to digital media activation. Our strategy included:
Comprehensive Cross-Channel Media Activation
Leveraging search, social, digital out-of-home (DOOH), programmatic display, video, connected TV (CTV), and audio streaming to reach and engage key healthcare professionals.
Advanced Analytics & Optimization
Delivering real-time performance insights through custom dashboards, allowing for ongoing optimization and agile media adjustments.
Audience Targeting & Data Activation
Partnering with LiveRamp and TransUnion to activate the company's first-party data and supplementing it with third-party insights for precise job title and industry targeting.
Seamless Ad Operations & Automation
Utilizing Basis Technologies’ automation tools to streamline ad trafficking, pacing, creative QA, and billing.
LASTING RESULTS
Across all campaigns, Basis’ data-driven approach and automation tools delivered exceptional business results:
$23 ROAS achieved in the-commerce campaign, showcasing highly efficient ad spend.
1,770 qualified leads generated through Always On campaigns, ensuring a strong pipeline of potential customers.
$4.6 million in combined tracked and closed revenue, reinforcing Basis’ ability to drive tangible business outcomes.
Team Wins:
Digital advertising has long promised relevance through data. As the industry has grown more sophisticated, the wealth of available data has allowed teams to craft increasingly personalized messages, pinpoint the ideal individuals to deliver those messages to, and measure the results of their efforts.
But as privacy regulations tighten, signal loss accelerates, and consumers continue to push back on tactics perceived as invasive, the industry is evolving to prioritize privacy. At the same time, with access to some kinds of data growing more restricted, advertisers are rethinking how they deliver relevance at scale. In this context, community-based marketing approaches are gaining momentum, offering ways to engage meaningfully with consumers while staying ahead of the shifting data landscape.
Taking a community-centric approach to marketing can include identifying and targeting a specific group based on a shared identity (i.e., sports fans, pet lovers, or gardeners)—rather than hyper-personalizing ads based on more sensitive personal information. It can also mean building a sense of community among groups of consumers, whether that be in person or online. Through both approaches, marketing teams can forge meaningful connections with target audiences and deliver personalized messages in ways that respect individual privacy and meet evolving data privacy standards.
In many ways, community-based marketing represents a return to advertising’s roots, where community played a central role in shaping brand perception and consumer behavior. From iconic campaigns tied to sports fandoms, regional culinary pride, or social movements, brands have long sought relevance through shared identity. Today, advertisers can layer in modern data signals to these approaches, enhancing the precision of such strategies while respecting consumer privacy.
Personalization in digital advertising is no longer as simple as it used to be, particularly as the industry contends with the growing challenges of signal loss and consumer privacy demands. A staggering 95% of data and advertising leaders across brands, agencies, and publishers predict continued signal loss and privacy-focused legislation in the coming years, and almost 90% of ad buyers say they are reorganizing their personalization tactics, ad spend, and data mix to adapt to increased regulation and signal loss.
At the same time, consumers are more resistant to hyper-targeted ads than advertisers may expect. Over half have occasionally thought, “Who approved this?” when coming across targeted ads, and many say they are uncomfortable with how much personal data companies have and feel that companies overdo prepurchase personalization. Even more, 62% of consumers say they object to ads based on sensitive personal data, and nearly half feel they’ve been targeted by an ad that offensively stereotypes them. These sentiments are forcing marketers to reconsider their approaches and rethink how they engage audiences without crossing privacy boundaries.
In today’s privacy-centric digital landscape, brands and advertisers are discovering (or, more aptly, rediscovering) that engaging audiences through shared values, experiences, and interests is an effective way to build connections—without compromising privacy.
“We’re seeing brands embrace this idea of connecting with communities and also fostering community with their own consumer base,” says Susan Mandell, VP of Brand Development at Basis. “When brands align with communities, consumers don’t just buy into the product—they also buy into a shared identity and sense of belonging.” While this idea isn’t new, the vast amount of data available to marketing teams today allows these community-driven strategies to be more precise and effective.
A financial services company, for example, could use first-party data to segment customers with a shared interest, such as retirement planning. Beyond delivering personalized tools and messaging based on that shared financial goal, the brand could foster deeper engagement by offering spaces for these individuals to connect, ask questions, and share tips, such as through an online forum or members-only webinars. By taking such an approach, the brand isn’t just targeting individuals based on a data point, but rather cultivating a sense of belonging around a shared need.
Alternatively, a local retail brand could use customer data or media placements like digital out-of-home (DOOH) to connect with a geographically defined community: people who live nearby, work in the area, or regularly visit the store. By offering this local community special benefits and experiences—such as a local loyalty program or neighborhood events—the brand can help foster a sense of community, build brand loyalty, and ensure their messaging resonates with local audiences.
For community-based media strategies to work, brands must start by thinking about who they are, what they stand for, and which communities it makes the most sense to show up in and connect with.
“We’re in a moment where smart brands are really thinking about their personality, persona, and core values, and then translating that to the communities they want to connect with, either tangibly or in an aspirational way,” says Mandell.
From there, marketing teams can layer on the right tools, tactics, and partnerships to bring those strategies to life:
Research where communities are already spending time and find opportunities to reach them in key moments of impact across multiple channels. For instance, advertisers might use CTV to connect with avid sports fans cheering on their home team, then reinforce that message through social content tied to influencer-led fan groups or DOOH placements around the stadium. Podcasts can deepen connections with listeners who share a specific passion, while social media can extend that engagement with interactive content or community conversations. And location-based media—like DOOH highlighting iconic regional drinks or local college loyalty—can work alongside geofenced digital campaigns to reflect the identity and culture of the community being reached.
Move away from third-party data dependency and toward first-party data unification and enrichment. Seek out partners that make it easy to collect, store, and integrate disparate data sources—such as website interactions, loyalty programs, and commerce platforms—into a single, privacy-safe environment. A unified view helps brands and marketers better understand the communities they connect with, allowing them to activate more relevant, privacy-friendly media strategies.
Focus on values-driven storytelling and community moments over hyper-targeted, one-to-one messaging. When creative speaks to a shared identity—whether it’s a commitment to sustainability, pride in a hometown, or a shared love of gaming—it builds emotional connection and trust. Meaningful messaging should reflect the real-life aspirations, interests, and values of a community, not just assumptions based on demographics.
As personalization changes amidst increasing signal loss and heightened consumer demand for data privacy, community is emerging as a powerful lever for building long-term brand connection—particularly since marketing teams can leverage data in privacy-friendly ways to better understand where and how people come together around shared passions and target them, as communities, more effectively.
By leaning into relevance, resonance, and real connections through community, marketers can elevate personalization in a way that feels more human and more durable in a privacy-first digital environment. This approach helps build trust, cultivate long-term loyalty, and create deeper emotional connections that ultimately lead to stronger brand performance in a rapidly evolving, increasingly competitive market.
A Fortune 500 company partnered with Basis to optimize its recruitment marketing, resulting in 71% more qualified applicants and an 11% reduction in hiring time.
OVERVIEW
A telecom company struggled to scale recruitment amid a competitive labor market. With a small team and limited budget, they faced challenges in tracking performance, filling high-demand roles quickly, and gaining insights from fragmented data. Their goal: A data-driven strategy to streamline hiring, reduce time-to-fill, and improve applicant quality.
SOLUTION
Acting as an extension of the company’s team, Basis implemented a closed-loop analytics solution that transformed the recruitment marketing strategy. This approach delivered:
• Seamless Data Integration: Unified insights from job boards, social platforms, and Google Analytics for a comprehensive performance overview.
• Advanced Predictive Analytics: Regression modeling revealed the true impact of both paid and organic efforts on applicant behavior.
• Real-Time Performance Visibility: A custom dashboard with real-time key metrics, including cost per application, creative effectiveness, and channel influence.
The client gained unparalleled efficiency, transparency, and strategic control by aligning paid and organic efforts, optimizing media spend, and shifting to performance-based partnerships.
THE APPROACH
• Data Integration & Measurement Framework
• Programmatic Innovation & Real-Time Insights
• Deep Collaboration & Flexibility
BUSINESS RESULTS
11% Reduction in Time-to-Fill
71% of All Quality Applicants Influenced by Paid Media
100% YoY Increase In Website Traffic
100+ Hours Saved in Monthly Reporting
$263 Cost Per Qualified Applicant (Outperformed $300 Benchmark by 13%)
Connected TV has become a driving force in digital advertising, with many media buyers now bringing over a decade of experience to the table. Yet, the landscape continues to evolve rapidly, as new technologies, shifting consumer habits, and advancements in measurement reshape how advertisers approach the space.
In this webinar, Comscore Vice President of Emerging Solutions Becca Marco joins host Noor Naseer to break down essential strategies, best practices, and trends to help advertisers make the most of the CTV opportunity in 2025.
Reaching the right person with the right message at the right time has long been the cornerstone of advertising strategy. But in an era where misinformation spreads quickly and consumer trust is difficult to earn, advertisers must also consider the integrity of the content their ads appear alongside.
According to the World Economic Forum, experts across the globe have identified misinformation and disinformation as the most severe global risk over the next two years. While this threat affects everyone, it poses unique challenges for the advertising industry. More and more AI-generated content is flooding the internet, and AI is increasingly being used to create made-for-advertising sites (MFAs), which are filled with low-quality content at best and blatant mis- and disinformation at worst. In this context, marketing teams must double down on brand safety efforts. At the same time, advertisers have a responsibility to ensure their budgets don’t inadvertently fund the spread of misleading or harmful information.
That responsibility has grown harder to fulfill amidst recent content moderation rollbacks. Several platforms have eliminated or reduced their programs for regulating the spread of mis- and disinformation, instead opting for community-driven approaches that outsource content moderation to users rather than dedicated teams of professionals. Meta, for instance, recently removed its fact-checking program, instead adopting a user-sourced “Community Notes” approach (similar to the one used by X). The company also updated its Hateful Content guidelines to allow previously banned content to remain on the platform. These changes signal a broader industry trend—one that puts more onus on advertisers to ensure their media dollars align with brand safe, responsible content.
Amidst these challenges, it’s no surprise that brand safety and suitability are at the forefront of advertisers’ minds. In fact, 60% of programmatic advertisers say that it’s their biggest concern. The question is: How can advertisers take a proactive approach to misinformation to not only protect their brands but also build a safer, more trustworthy digital ecosystem?
Noor Naseer, Basis Technologies’ VP of Media Innovations & Technology, explored this challenge in detail in her presentation at SXSW 2025 in Austin. She unpacked how association with misinformation impacts brand perception and consumer trust, shared strategies for maintaining authenticity and credibility, offered tips for ensuring brand safety, and more. Check out the video below for all her insights and recommendations on how marketers can tackle advertising in the misinformation age:
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Want to dive further into Noor’s presentation? Click here to download the slides from her talk.
AI and misinformation are shaping up to be two of the most disruptive forces in advertising today.
As generative AI rapidly evolves, it is transforming nearly every part of the advertising workflow—spanning creative development, audience targeting, personalization, media planning, and beyond. But alongside its various benefits, gen AI also brings risks. Brand safety is among the most pressing, with a whopping 100% of marketing professionals believing the technology poses a threat in terms of brand safety and misinformation.
Generative AI is a significant driver of the spread of low-quality content and mis- and disinformation online. As gen AI tools become more widely available, bad actors are using them to rapidly produce low-quality content, such as made-for-advertising sites and misinformation-filled webpages designed around popular search terms. The challenge of misinformation is compounded by the recent trend of social platforms eliminating or rolling back their content moderation efforts.
For brands and advertisers, this raises significant brand safety concerns, including damage to reputation, wasted media spend, and erosion of consumer trust. And with the current administration signaling a pro-AI, deregulatory stance, the landscape is becoming more complex, leaving brands and advertisers to navigate both new opportunities and rising risks without much federal regulatory guidance.
In this context, it’s critical for industry professionals to stay informed. Keeping up with these evolving threats isn’t just about gaining a competitive edge—it’s essential to leveraging innovation responsibly and building trust with consumers. To that end, here are several essential resources to help digital advertisers navigate misinformation and AI in 2025:
After years of increased regulatory scrutiny, advertisers face a starkly different environment under the Trump Administration. With its pronounced pro-AI stance and lighter regulatory approach, this new landscape presents new opportunities and challenges that stand to significantly reshape the marketing industry.
How do marketing and advertising professionals really feel about AI? From insights on how teams are leveraging the technology, to its impact on efficiency, to how industry professionals believe the tech will impact the future of marketing, this comprehensive report offers an in-depth look at the current sentiments, challenges, and opportunities surrounding AI in marketing.
AI introduces a range of new risks and considerations for advertisers, including potential legal challenges related to data privacy, deceptive advertising, and copyrighting, as well as consumer distrust of the technology. Learn how advertisers can balance these challenges while still leveraging AI’s benefits.
How does association with misinformation impact brand perception, audience trust, and consumer behavior? And how can advertisers embrace media strategies that build and maintain brand authenticity and credibility? In her 2025 session at SXSW, Basis’ Noor Naseer offered a deep dive into these topics.
Amidst a broader trend of content moderation rollbacks, Meta announced they will no longer use fact checkers for content posted to Facebook, Instagram, or Threads. The company has also updated its Hateful Content guidelines to allow users to post controversial and/or offensive content that was previously banned. Together, these actions introduce new brand safety risks for advertisers.
Social media is a critical part of any brand’s marketing mix. But with the rising proliferation of hate speech and mis- and disinformation on these platforms, compounded by recent content moderation rollbacks, advertising leaders must stay informed and proactive in monitoring and addressing the issue to protect their brand/clients.
Connected TV is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels. Yet with its rapid growth has come increased risks, particularly around brand safety. To harness the full potential of this booming channel, teams must take a proactive approach to prioritize consumer trust and brand safety from the start.
Jaime Vasil is Group VP of Candidates and Causes at Basis
Political advertising’s connected TV (CTV) evolution was in full effect during the 2024 US elections. The trend that started to show life two cycles ago is now a regular part of the media plan for candidates, campaigns, PACs, and other organizations looking to reach and influence voters.
CTV’s emergence as a political powerhouse has been developing steadily over the last four election cycles. In 2020, we saw a dramatic rise in programmatic advertising and the awakening of CTV for elections. In 2022, candidates and causes began taking CTV more seriously and lifting direct spending, as that was the primary tactic for buying inventory at the time. This development continued to evolve in 2024.
Based on an evaluation of more than 1,400 campaigns for state, local and national races that managed their digital ad buying through Basis’ advertising automation platform—accounting for more than $130 million in political ad spend across video, display, native, audio, and text ads—we saw that:
We may not need to wait until 2026 to see how these trends develop further. With key state and local races in 2025, and seemingly ever-increasing political spending, political marketing practitioners can apply and optimize what they’ve learned recently. There is no rest in political campaigning, and this may well be the new normal.
Key Takeaways:
Video ads in their multiple forms are a staple for political advertising as it allows for rich story telling about candidates, opponents and issues. It has been the majority of ad spend ever since we started tracking it in 2018. With CTV ad opportunities growing faster than ever, more availability through programmatic buying, and multiple targeting and measurement options, there may still be more room to expand video’s ad spend share.
Key Takeaways:
Availability of CTV ad opportunities is compelling political marketers to spend on these devices. There are more ways to buy it today than two years ago. In programmatic channels, marketers have more choices for publishers, vendors and tactics. With CTV, private marketplaces and programmatic guaranteed deals that are much more prevalent today may be suitable for campaigns that were buying ads through direct publisher engagement in 2022.
Key Takeaways:
Basis’ programmatic CPM index showed steady, albeit below average, pricing in the first five months of 2024. It began increasing gradually beginning in July and then peaked in the last 35 days of the election. The index compares the average pricing per month to the average CPM for the whole election cycle for political marketers. Video was the driver of CPM increases, as display pricing dipped to average level in the summer and early fall.
Considering the competitive spending in the last months of the election, political advertisers could alleviate the inflation by locking in deals in programmatic channels through private marketplaces and programmatic guaranteed deals.
Key Takeaways:
Based on political advertising sales, Basis data shows the top suppliers in open bidding programmatic, top exchanges and SSPs that sell PMPs, and top curated deal groups that Basis pre-arranged for all elections advertisers. The presence of CTV was spread throughout the leading suppliers.
Basis curated 50+ deal groups that were approved for political advertising. The deal groups were assembled from one publisher, multiple publishers, or multiple PMPs.
Our previous reports focused on direct sellers, which were dominated cycle-over-cycle by YouTube, Hulu and Facebook, and also showed the increasing popularity of CTV vendors.
Key Takeaways:
Political campaigns are saving half of their money until the end to reach undecided voters and get out the vote. This is the same pattern as in previous election years. However, as voters gain more opportunities to submit ballots early, this number eroded slightly this cycle—even when the country was energized for a presidential election. A pattern to watch for the future is whether or not campaigns will continue to encourage early voting.
Key Takeaways:
California and Michigan garnered the most ad impressions. Of note, California had large proposition campaigns in 2024 and Michigan consistently has been a swing state for the past few cycles. They were followed closely by battleground states, as well as Washington.
Beyond the top 14 states, the rest of the country’s states received minuscule shares of ad impressions, even in populous states such as Florida, New York and Illinois.
Basis served more than 560 million programmatic ad impressions in the final 10 days of the election cycle and served more than 800 billion programmatic CTV ad impressions for the entire 2024 cycle.
The collision of programmatic and CTV has transformed elections advertising. The next evolution of these trends will revolve around the use of private marketplaces, programmatic guaranteed buying and curated inventory. The targeting within these methods is poised to improve, setting the stage for significant use of audience data in the next election.
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Basis has been trusted by agencies and consultants in politics, public affairs, and advocacy for over 17 years. Basis is a comprehensive advertising automation platform with an integrated suite of modular applications, each specializing in unique areas such as planning, operations, reporting, and financial reconciliation across programmatic, publisher-direct, search, and social channels. Since 2007, Basis has helped power digital media for thousands of political campaigns, independent expenditure committees, and issue advocacy advertisers. Basis is headquartered in Chicago with clients throughout North America, South America and Europe, including in Washington, D.C., with its Candidates + Causes team.
Learn more about Candidates + Causes advertising with Basis
In a time of obsession over AI and automation, are too many media buyers choosing to set it and forget it? Albert Thompson, Managing Director of Digital Innovation at Walton Issacson, thinks so.
In this episode, Thompson shares how bringing more human insight to programmatic campaigns is vital for optimal media performance. Together with host Noor Naseer, he explores how buyers can blend automation with human expertise to drive more successful campaigns.