23.09.2025
Beyond survival – why brand presence and strategic innovation matter for manufacturers in Europe
Over the past year, we’ve explored how manufacturers are grappling with global disruption. Tariffs, labour shortages, and shifting strategies around offshoring and nearshoring have combined with a widespread “wait-and-see” approach, leaving many firms hesitant to invest. These forces have not gone away. If anything, they have intensified.
As summer draws to a close, Europe’s manufacturing sector is under renewed strain. Companies are slimming down to stay agile: scaling back leadership, extending furloughs and announcing thousands of job cuts. Germany, long considered the industrial anchor of Europe, shed more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs in 2024, shrinking its industrial workforce by nearly two percent. Forecasts warn of a further 70,000 jobs at risk by the end of 2025. Elsewhere, businesses are relocating production or trimming costs to offset rising energy prices and volatile global demand.
Restructuring can deliver short-term agility but it carries hidden consequences. Among the most damaging is the erosion of brand presence in manufacturing. Marketing budgets are often the first to be cut, communications go quiet, and visibility fades. When that happens, firms may survive today but struggle to regain ground tomorrow.
The cost of silence
We have seen this before. After the 2008 financial crisis, companies that kept investing in their brands rebounded faster and captured more market share than those that went quiet. One long-term study found that firms maintaining or increasing marketing during a downturn achieved 275% sales growth over the following five years, compared with only 19% growth for companies that cut back.
When a brand disappears from view, competitors fill the vacuum. Trust erodes because customers and stakeholders look for reassurance and hear nothing in return. And when conditions improve, rebuilding presence takes far more time and resources than it would have taken to maintain it.
This is why visibility – and maintaining brand presence in manufacturing – matters. It is not a luxury, it is the bridge between today’s survival and tomorrow’s resurgence. The question is: how can manufacturers maintain that presence when resources are stretched thin?
Agencies as inventors, not just executors
The answer lies in working differently and this where agencies come in. In times of uncertainty, agencies must do more than deliver campaigns. They can also act as inventors, creating new pathways for visibility and growth. Traditional media, with its high costs and declining impact, no longer guarantees results. Fresh thinking is needed.
Interactive digital showrooms that let prospects explore products virtually. Short-form storytelling that humanises manufacturing on platforms the sector often overlooks. Data-driven campaigns that adapt in real time to audience behaviour. Even building niche communities and hybrid experiences that extend the impact of a trade fair long after the lights go down.
Of course, invention has to be matched with accountability. Agencies should take the guesswork out of marketing. Every campaign needs to show what is working, what is not, and how every pound of budget is pulling its weight. ROI and ROAS are not just numbers, they are the evidence that gives stakeholders confidence to keep investing.
Agencies also bring agility. In-house teams may be stretched thin after restructuring but external partners can pivot quickly. Underperforming campaigns can be rebalanced in real time. New opportunities can be seized the moment they appear.
And beyond day-to-day responsiveness, agencies bring perspective. With the experience of analysing performance across weeks, months and years, they can identify patterns that individual firms might miss. This allows them to be proactive, anticipating shifts in customer behaviour, advising when to double down or hold back and speaking with authority when shaping campaigns and assigning budgets. The result is marketing that is both creative and evidence-led, giving manufacturers the confidence to move forward.
Of course, no discussion of innovation today can avoid the role of artificial intelligence.
Innovation and the AI dilemma
AI promises extraordinary potential: rapid content creation, personalised campaigns, predictive insights into customer behaviour. But when misused, it can damage trust instead of building it.
Recent examples highlight the danger. Activision faced backlash when promotional art for Diablo Immortal, apparently created with generative AI, showed warped and careless details that alienated fans. In Glasgow, the much-mocked “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” relied on AI-generated images to sell a magical family day out, only for visitors to find an empty warehouse with a few props. Even Apple has stumbled, recently admonished by regulators for advertising AI features as “available now” when in fact they would not appear for months.
In each case, the problem was not AI itself but its misuse: overpromising, under-delivering or removing human oversight.Customers can forgive a delay but what they do not forgive is feeling misled. For manufacturers, the lesson is clear. AI should amplify insight and creativity, not replace them. It can help scale production of content, personalise customer journeys or test ideas at speed, but it needs the steady hand of human strategy, ethics and brand alignment. Agencies have a crucial role here, helping clients to explore AI responsibly: building pilot projects before scaling, vetting outputs for accuracy and tone, and ensuring compliance with emerging regulations such as the European AI Act. Used in this way, AI becomes a tool for resilience rather than a reputational risk.
Navigating disruption requires not just new tools but also the judgement to use them well. That is what separates businesses that merely survive from those positioned to grow.
The enduring power of events and exhibitions
For all the advances in digital, nothing matches the energy of face to face. Ask anyone who has walked a trade fair floor – the deals get made where the handshakes happen. And the data backs this up.
More than half of business leaders say trade shows give them better ROI than any other channel. Some companies report up to a five to one return on spend. Leads generated at exhibitions close faster too, needing only 3.5 sales calls compared with 4.5 from other sources. And because the conversations are direct, they are cheaper, around 38 percent less expensive to convert than a typical sales lead. Trade shows also contribute roughly one third of annual new business for many companies.
Cleary, exhibitions should not be viewed as optional, they are a vital part of the marketing arsenal.
But turning up is no longer enough. Exhibition halls are crowded and the risk is ‘sameness’ – too many brands telling the same stories in the same ways can lead to audiences tuning out.
This is where experience comes into play. Augmented and virtual reality can turn a static demo into something immersive and memorable. Live data visualisations and interactive displays spark curiosity. Gamified features pull people in. And hybrid approaches, extending live activity through apps or on-demand content, can keep the conversation alive long after the stand is packed down.
These are not gimmicks. They are the difference between being remembered or forgotten. In times when every marketing pound is under scrutiny, experiences ensure exhibitions deliver not only leads but lasting impact.
From survival to positioning for growth
The immediate instinct during turbulence is survival: cut costs, protect margins and wait for conditions to improve. But survival alone is not a strategy. What separates companies that merely endure from those that thrive is the ability to prepare for the rebound while still in the storm.
Maintaining brand presence is central to this preparation. Firms that stay visible, even modestly, carry an advantage into recovery. When markets stabilise, they do not start from zero. They begin from a position of continuity, with customer trust intact and awareness already secured. Competitors who went quiet must first rebuild credibility before they can chase growth, leaving them a step behind.
Positioning for growth also means shaping the right narrative. Manufacturing is undergoing profound change: digitalisation, the transition to net zero, and the integration of new technologies such as AI and advanced automation. These themes are not just operational, they are reputational. Customers, investors and employees increasingly judge firms on their ability to adapt and innovate. Agencies help manufacturers tell these stories in ways that build confidence, demonstrating resilience and vision even in difficult times.
There is also a competitive opportunity. Downturns are rarely experienced evenly. Some companies pause investment entirely. Others maintain a thread of activity. Those that stay present can capture disproportionate attention and market share, often at a lower cost than in times of high competition. Studies confirm this effect: brands that increased marketing share of voice during recessions were up to five times more likely to see positive business outcomes, with around 60 percent reporting stronger ROI.
And the benefits extend to product innovation. Research shows that new products launched during downturns often outperform those launched in boom times. In the automotive sector, vehicles introduced late in a recession remained on the market 19 percent longer on average than those launched in periods of growth.
By thinking beyond survival and investing in presence, manufacturers can turn turbulence into a platform for growth. Agencies are key to this process: safeguarding visibility today, shaping strategic narratives and positioning their clients to accelerate when the upturn comes.
Conclusion
This article continues the journey we began with tariffs, offshoring, and the wait-and-see mindset. Today, Europe’s manufacturers face a new chapter: restructuring for agility, but at risk of invisibility.
In these conditions, agencies are not just service providers, they can be stabilisers, inventors, and guides. By safeguarding presence and fostering strategic innovation, they help manufacturers remain visible during disruption and ready to lead in the rebound. Because survival alone is not enough. Presence, trust, and creativity are what will determine who emerges stronger when the turbulence passes.
We began this series talking about tariffs, offshoring and the ‘wait and see’ mindset. The challenges have shifted but the lesson is still the same – Europe’s manufacturers are facing disruption on every front. Restructuring brings agility, but it also brings the risk of invisibility.
In times like these, agencies are not just valuable service providers, they are stabilisers, inventors and guides. Their role is to keep brands visible, to give clarity in the fog, and to help companies move from survival to growth.
When survival is not enough, presence, trust and creativity are what decides who comes out stronger when the storm finally clears.
Book a consultation with Oyster and see how we can help your business thrive.
Appendix: References
Germany lost over 100,000 industrial jobs in 2024, with further 70,000 at risk by 2025 (The Finance Story).
German economy contracted for the second consecutive year in 2024 (Wikipedia).
Firms that maintained or increased advertising in the early 1980s recession grew sales 275% over five years (Event Vesta).
Brands with increased share of voice during downturns were up to five times more likely to report positive outcomes, with 60% noting improved ROI (Frontify).
Companies that continued marketing in downturns achieved up to 340% sales growth during recovery (Single Grain).
New product launches during recessions enjoyed higher sales, longer lifespans, and greater share of market (Northeastern University).
