The advertising, media, and creative industries are responding to the hostilities in Ukraine by canceling participation in festivals, pausing or postponing advertising campaigns and digital communications.

The Association of Communication Agencies of Georgia has declared solidarity with Ukraine, its people and the creative industry. It was decided that the Georgian agencies will stop providing services to companies from the Russian Federation, and will not take part in the Belarusian festival White Square.

Also, the creative festival Ad Black Sea, which is held in Georgia, closes the doors for participation of Russian creative agencies and limits the possibility of participation in the festival for Russian companies.

Russia's National Advertising Alliance has warned advertisers about imposing fines for failing to fulfill obligations under contracts for advertising placement on Russian TV channels during the current crisis, Kommersant reports, citing sources in the advertising market.

Three sources in the Russian advertising market have confirmed that some advertisers are taking campaigns off the air, but there is no definite trend. One of the interlocutors of Sostav explained that advertisers are still silent, waiting for instructions from the management. “Some are slowing down their planned campaigns, and some aren’t thinking about it, so it’s too early to talk about any trend yet,” said a source in a large advertising group.

The largest groups in the Russian advertising market are affiliated with foreign entities. They consult with their global offices to make certain business decisions.

The dentsu Russia group explained that the Russian office continues to work as before and remains in touch with the headquarters. The Russian division primarily acts in the interests of business, which means that the primary task is to take care of customers and employees, dentsu emphasized.

“Now the dentsu Russia team is busy preparing comprehensive brand safety recommendations for customers. This allows to flexibly approach the placement of advertising in different channels, taking into account the rapidly changing situation. The group has already taken urgent measures to make it safe for the presence of our clients' brands in the current content,” the group’s press service emphasized.

Sources in other major advertising groups also said they are in touch with headquarters. As one of them pointed out, there are no special instructions from the global office at the moment. According to another one, phone calls to foreign headquarters to clarify the situation took place yesterday. Another interlocutor indicated that the global office asked not to make public statements until the overall situation is clarified.

OMD OM Group explained that they “have taken a week of silence” and therefore “do not come out with any comments on the consolidated management decision.”