Dive Brief:

• After voters in the U.K. decided to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum last week, advertising industry leaders expressed disappointment at the result and optimism that the global economy would weather any uncertainty, according to Adweek.
• After the vote, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced he would be stepping down while the British pound fell, hitting a 31-year-low versus the U.S. dollar. 
• In a statement, WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell called the news "disappointing" and "not good news, to say the least," while adding that the agency would "make the best of it." The CEOs of Interpublic Group and Omnicom also issued statements, both acknowledging the increased "uncertainty" and "volatility" while adding that they expect the markets to "normalize" over time.

Dive Insight:

While the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. in the popular referendum held last week, there remains uncertainty around the process of leaving, as the Parliament has yet to formally vote on the matter. But the result is having an immediate impact on the advertising industry and, more broadly, the global economy. As Ad Week noted, stocks of publicly-traded advertising companies were all down on news of the vote. 

Companies in all industries are largely expected to be more conservative in their decision-making due to the increased uncertainty in the global economy. As with any economic uncertainty, that is expected to have a cooling effect on the advertising industry. 

Of the statements from industry leaders, Sorrell was the most blunt about the impact the Brexit would have on advertising. He called the resulting uncertainty "considerable" and conceded it would "obviously slow decision-making and deter activity."

"We must deploy that stiff upper lip and make the best of it," Sorrell said. "Four of WPP's top 10 markets are in Western Continental Europe and we must build our presence there even further. It just underlines the importance of implementing our strategy: fast-growth markets (BRICs and Next 11), digital, data—and horizontality, which ironically means getting our people to work together, not apart."