Sean Buckley, SpotX

While it is too early to understand the long-term impact, we see the Coronavirus outbreak having the largest impact on the travel vertical to date. Airlines and cruises are, in some cases, starting to reduce, postpone, or pause their advertising campaigns given the current climate.

Tony Rindsberg, Thankful

The wave of trade show and conference cancellations or delays
like Shoptalk are significantly altering our spend allocation. I plan to
leverage digital channels more aggressively, but strategically and with a
watchful eye on the CV spread. If the current trend continues, I would have to
seriously consider shutting down some campaigns until brands are ready to
discuss implementing new products again.

Jonathan Kagan, MARC USA

In my mind, a few things will happen, and it all comes down to the vertical. Travel especially international will likely plummet in spend, as advertisers work to prevent spending on what is likely just trip cancellations. We saw something similar in 2016 with Zika. Any advertiser driving traffic for brick and mortar locations will likely see a decline in effort, as confidence to go outside may even decline. I do however believe we’ll see an uptick in CPG efforts, grocery delivery, food ordering and all similar efforts, as folks’ ability to avoid panic buying will likely begin to fall. If this leads into an economic downturn, then I see automotive/luxury goods taking a hit on their investments (similar to 2007-2008). However, whenever there is economic downturn or widespread fear of health, pharma/healthcare and vices (i.e. alcohol) seem to thrive and grow.