Donald Trump’s Return Will Bring “A Lot More Volatility” To Business World, But “We’ll Survive,” Ad Agency Execs Say

Two veteran ad agency execs didn’t wave the same pom-poms as other business leaders have after Donald Trump‘s re-election, but they took solace in the tech sector’s strength and deregulatory sentiment.

At the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, GroupM Global President of Business Intelligence Kate Scott-Dawkins and Magna EVP and Managing Partner of Global Marketing Intelligence Vincent Letang reviewed their 2025 forecasts. During a Q&A period after their presentations, they were asked about the business impact of the election.

“Advertisers have been existing in and marketing in times of uncertainty for the last few years,” Scott-Dawkins said, but “the administration change this time is going to add a lot more volatility to that.” Nevertheless, she said she is “fairly bullish on the American exceptionalism of the tech industry that exists here and how much that will continue to be a driver” of growth.

Letang acknowledged it won’t likely be a straight-line path through the next four years. Still, he reasoned, “Trump is still a Republican, so it’s still the GOP, that’s supposed to be pro-business, low tax, a laissez-faire approach to competition, so we can expect that indeed more consolidation will happen.”

Trump’s pledge to wipe out the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicles is “something to watch,” Letang said, as it is likely to leave a mark on the auto sector.

“Overall,” however, “we’ve been through that. I think we’ll survive,” Letang said. “We can see that the confidence of Americans will increase, as we saw in 2016 because whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, everybody likes low taxes and a laissez-faire approach to business in this country. So, I think it will be OK.”

The UBS conference has annually featured insights on the advertising landscape timed to forecasts issued by major ad firms for the following year. On Sunday, WPP’s GroupM predicted total ad spending would surge more than 9% in 2025 to top the $1 trillion mark for the first time. Interpublic-owned Magna estimates a slightly lower total of $990 billion next year.

The merger of major ad holding companies Omnicom and Interpublic was announced later Monday morning, so panelists did not weigh in on the topic.