Advertising Industry Pulse Releases Research After Six-Month War in Ukraine

The All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (VRK), the biggest association in the advertising and communications market in Ukraine, conducted a survey among its members about the state of affairs, in order to understand what is happening with advertising agencies and the advertising market in the sixth month of the war in Ukraine.

The research was conducted by online targeted interview of representatives of the companies that are VRK members. 112 companies of various specialisations took part in the survey. Period of implementation is July 2022.

According to the results of the research, the vast majority of VRK member companies (94%) continue to work. This applies to all types of companies that participated in the survey: communication agencies, media agencies and media companies.

The amount of work has significantly decreased in 81% of companies of all types.

Most of the companies that almost stopped their work came from media segment (13% of media agencies and 14% of media companies). At the same time, the amount of work of 14% communication agencies remained at the same level or even increased. 

Most of the respondents (71%) have a low or average workload compared to the same period last year. Only 9% of respondent companies note a very high workload. These are mostly communication agencies (11%) and media companies (14%). 

The total number of employees of all responding companies decreased by 24%. 30% of companies decreased the number of employees in a range 10-30%. A rapid layoff (from 70% and more) occurred only in 7% of respondents. 

51% of companies indicated that nearly a third of their team are currently located outside of Ukraine. 30% of respondents indicated that all or nearly 90% of their employees are currently located in Ukraine.

Significant changes in cooperation with clients occurred in communication agencies (72% of companies): they partially or completely suspended cooperation with clients that they had until February 24th, 2022. At the same time, more than half of media agencies (53%) continue to partner with their 'pre-war' clients.

Many respondents (74%) started cooperating with new clients during the war. This relates to communication agencies (87%). Perhaps this is related because of the cooperation with foreign clients. After all, today the majority of respondents (71%) have international partners (clients or agencies). Communication agencies have many clients in foreign markets (75% of respondents), more than half of media agencies and media companies also have international partners.

More details of Ukrainian Advertising Industry Pulse research is via the link. 

All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition is the key association in the advertising and communications market in Ukraine (25 years on the Ukrainian market). It brings together the leading players of the market (more than 150 companies), including creative, marketing, PR agencies, media companies and advertisers. The coalition is an organiser of key international and local advertising contests and events in Ukraine (such as – Effie Awards Ukraine, Kyiv International Advertising Festival, The Night of Ad Eaters and etc.) and local representative of all international contests (such as Epica, ADC*E, Gerety Awards and etc.). It is a member of European Association of Communications Agencies.  https://vrk.org.ua/