Media buyers are looking forward to next year’s budget as this year’s volatility still leaves a lasting impact

“One person – anonymously – can post something on their own social network and the stock market plummets,” Ringel said. “And a day later, it changes again. How do you operate in an environment like this as a brand? You have to be really careful.

“We see a direct correlation between how many deals are reached in a week – on days when the government is silent or doesn’t do anything earth-shattering – or the government does something that could destroy the world. There’s a direct correlation between those numbers.”

Both April, when Trump announced the suspension of certain tariffs, and August when those tariffs went into effect, were a “disaster,” said Ringel, who earlier in an onstage discussion listed a client list of more than 250 that includes Nespresso, Google, IBM and Moët Hennessy. The client list spans categories including CPG, healthcare and financial services.

CPG and retail are “much more exposed,” Ringel said. “Even in Q4 where you have to have their days off [marketers are] still being a little cagey about it.” Notably, CPG is bullish on spending as a way to navigate tariff uncertainty.

During the summit’s Town Hall event, where agency participants were asked to anonymously provide challenges they saw, only one deliverable related to the news cycle was charged: “rates and volatile market conditions.”

This is a critical time to avoid news — as publishers face the challenge of losing referral traffic from both social media platforms and AI. But the topic of the news cycle, and brand safety and the tools that can solve those problems, all get new life under the Chatham House Rules. For one of the parties who contributed to this discussion, the issue of tariffs is included in the topic of education.

“Every time someone talks about tariffs, you will see a big spike or dip in performance,” said one participant, especially in categories like manufacturing.

They added that they must educate clients about this trend, and communicate it to sales teams. “It’s a big problem if we try to say, ‘Hey, these market problems are actually affecting performance, for better or worse.’ But sales don’t want to hear it. They just want to hear, ‘Hey, we want results,’ and that’s the big deal.”

“Data helps,” they added.