Rachel Forde on media buying as a force for good | LinkedIn | Open Mic | The Drum

With businesses buying into advertising as a growth driver, the CEO of UM says purposeful media choices can be the key to winning hearts and minds. For most industries, the two years of the pandemic have felt like an unprecedented shock. Rachel Forde, who’s spent half of her four-year tenure as CEO of UM helping the agency and its clients to navigate the pandemic, sees things slightly differently. For media agencies, the impact of Covid-19 has been less damaging than it might have been – because of the experience of another crisis just over a decade ago. “I think marketers have always known that we need to look beyond short-term metrics to the future,” she says. “The crucial difference this time is that everyone understands it – and that’s because of the impact of the global financial crisis. CEOs and CFOs can see that brands that continued advertising in that recession went on to build long-term brand growth. They understand that media is a long-term driver of business growth, and so marketers were more empowered and didn’t panic as much about pulling spend this time around.” Consensus on the enduring value of advertising means that great advertising ideas have enduring…
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