How client-centric thinking drives growth

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The economy is something of a rollercoaster and consumer behavior is shifting just as fast. From fluctuating costs to changing shopping habits, today’s market represents a real opportunity to support transformation for brands.

As trusted marketing partners, our role isn’t to predict what’s next but to help clients confidently navigate the complexity, adapt with agility, and stay closely attuned to what their customers need right now. The evolving climate requires media and marketing professionals to develop a deeper understanding of how macroeconomic forces directly impact their clients’ decision-making processes. For example, when tariffs increase for say, a tequila producer targeting the U.S. market, the ripple effects are immediate. Those costs must be accounted for, either through increased pricing, which affects consumer purchasing patterns, or adjusting allocations elsewhere, including ad and marketing budgets.

It is imperative to maintain client-centricity. So how can we, as agency leaders, support clients during unpredictable economic times and show up as more strategic business partners?

Stay informed

Every business is dealing with unprecedented shifts in how people shop, plus inconsistency in the market and supply chain. Everything is moving faster, and agencies need to move with agility, forecasting marketing plans for clients in real time. There’s HUGE opportunity out there, but also high risks.

Clients consistently tell us they value partners who adapt quickly to changing circumstances and who not only keep pace with the changing tides, but anticipate the shifts. Earlier this year, one of our retail clients faced potential sales losses when a major publication was ending print circulation in a key market. We responded with a proposal to shift advertising based on data insights that could potentially exceed the lost sales. The ability to respond to shifts in real time can provide a competitive edge in client service.

Instead of resisting this uncertainty, embrace it. Stay informed and stay current in the news—ready to adapt, innovate, and lead the conversation. While we can’t control market fluctuations, we can control our response.

Focus on human, not just machine

While businesses race towards AI adoption and automation, it’s easy to get swept up in the speed and scale of technology. It’s important to remember that while these tools offer insights and efficiency, they don’t provide the creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking that only human connection and emotional intelligence can provide.

At Havas, we show up with a mindful understanding of what our clients are going through on a day-to-day basis. The heart of our approach is a commitment to people-centricity. Professionals are seeking environments where they feel genuinely valued, where personal and professional growth are nurtured, and contributions recognized in meaningful ways. Creating a culture where employees feel heard, supported, and empowered is essential in this market.

This same value extends to client partnerships; our strategy emphasizes human expertise and technological capabilities working in harmony. Technology and automation are a means to an end (not the end itself!). Clients want more diagnostic data tools and increased media data optimization so their reporting can be more accessible and actionable. However, these tools enhance but don’t replace the creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking that forge meaningful connections.

Our clients are real humans, looking at data points of real customers. This requires their agency partner to go beyond the numbers, partnering with real people at the helm to interpret customers’ needs with empathy and humility.

As businesses face constant recalibration with every news alert, they need their partners to care about the things they care about. By gaining a deeper understanding of their unique challenges and daily nuances, we can offer better visualizations, data granularity, collaborative insights, and recommendations, ultimately turning numbers into stories, patterns into strategy, and clicks into brand affinity.

Act in real time

Speed is currency in today’s market. By staying informed and monitoring the market, you’ll be able to quickly recognize and respond to organic waves of market conversation.

Success lies in agility. For one fashion client, this meant accelerating planning cycles from weeks to days to capitalize on a product’s viral moment, leading to increased budgets and stronger future campaigns. Because we spent the time building a trusted and collaborative partnership with this client, we understood their audiences, objectives, and goals. We established media and culture monitoring processes to better react in real time which allowed us to swiftly activate because of our shared understanding.

Spot the trend and seize the momentum because in a world that moves fast, the brands that act in real time to consumers’ wants and needs gain consumer share.

When wildfires hit Los Angeles earlier this year, the combination of global media attention, celebrity-driven social coverage, and AI-generated images of Hollywood in flames exacerbated the problem and led tourists to believe the city—and maybe even the state—was closed for business, sparking a wave of misinformation.

For Visit California, a nonprofit 501(c) corporation with a mission to market the state as a premier travel destination, speed was essential to deliver a powerful message of hope, resilience, and community during the Oscars. We were able to produce a meaningful moment for our client in several weeks. Leveraging agency connections, the campaign coordinated a strategic integration with award season, providing an empowering message that California is open for business, rolling out the red carpet for visitors from around the world.

Activating celebrity ambassadors, strategic media buys, and perfectly timed messaging helped negate misinformation and bolster the state’s tourism and the livelihoods of countless workers who depend on visitors.

By staying informed about market conditions, not shying away from client pressures, demonstrating adaptability, and maintaining empathy, you can deliver better, stronger results for your clients. Tomorrow’s successful media agencies will embrace this and build meaningful partnerships that last longer than any economic turbulence.

We only exist because our clients trust us. Understanding their business is our business and agile actions in times that are changing faster than ever before, is how we win together.

Greg James is North America CEO of Havas Media Network.