It was not long ago when we were sitting in restaurants with family or going to a local bar with some friends, many people miss this, including businesses. These businesses being hit the hardest are forcefully finding new ways to adapt using coronavirus advertising tactics.
These tactics include but are not limited to using social media marketing, TV ads, search engine marketing, or any other advertising avenue to bring your business message, services, and products in front of your costumers with a relatable or comforting message in regards to the coronavirus.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries and companies have eliminated large crowds gatherings and encouraged people to work-from-home, these shifts are having a huge effect on consumer behavior. We will show what these shifts are, what businesses are thriving and how you may adapt.
Advertising During the Coronavirus - What is Happening
According to 74% of media buyers, planners, and brands, Coronavirus will have a greater impact on advertising than the 2008 financial disaster.
70% of buyers have already arranged or paused their planned ad spend, while 16% is still deciding what actions to take.
Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents have put a halt all advertising spend during Q1 and Q2, while 46% indicated they have adjusted their ad spend for the same time duration.
73% of buyers are indicating that the coronavirus will have an influence on the Upfront 2020/2021 spend commitments and expect a 20% decrease in Upfront spend vs their original plan.
In the near quarter, digital ad spend is down 33% and traditional media is down 39%
The majority (63%) of businesses have already modified the messages they are promoting in-market, increasing:
Mission-based marketing (+42%)
Cause-related marketing (+41%)
More than a third (35%) of businesses are focusing on their in-market tactics and are increasing:
Audience targeting (+38%)
OTT / CTV device targeting (+35%)
32% of businesses are turning to social media advertising
These numbers should show you what you need to do for your business and how to adjust to the trends.
What Industries are Flourishing During the Pandemic
Toilet Paper Industry
This one is obvious. Unreasonable shortages of both have been rumored about constantly on social media, in zoom calls, and in the family living rooms. For a week or so everyone’s messaging apps and social feeds were commanded by smartphone-shot videos of people wildly panicking and fighting over a 4 pack of toilet paper.
Even though the toilet paper industry did not have anything to do with the toilet paper crazy (or maybe they did), using social media and having those videos go viral would be considered coronavirus advertising. This method is definitely not recommended.
Insurance
Being quarantined inside your house and watching the news for more than 8 hours a day, it’s natural to think about your own health. In the United States one of the biggest insurance markets, this has led to a huge spike in traffic to insurance websites.
Any insurance firm that’s able to make purchasing extra cover as easy as possible is at a big advantage and it’s no surprise to see the message “done easily from the comfort of your own home” beginning to pop-up (literally) on any insurance website.
Food Delivery
Unfortunately, many restaurants are closing down due to the drastic revenue decline. However, this seems to have been balanced by a large increase in the use of food delivery services such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.
Many restaurants are trying to adapt to this change in the industry and turning to online advertising, especially social media advertising in order to keep the lights on. Using tactics such as other industries using messages such as "Order quickly and from the comfort of your home" or running never before seen promotions to their email list using their social media channels.
This has also led to more drone delivery trials to be fast-tracked and just as SARS back in 2003 led to innovations in early e-commerce in China – COVID-19 could spark a quicker adoption of innovative retail approaches that may become commonplace in the near future.
Music Industry
With everyone working from home, people are able to rest a bit more and aren’t compelled by the stifling open-office setting, or their boss hovering over their shoulder.
One astonishing stat is the huge boost in music streaming especially on Spotify. Without anyone else around to disturb, people are compiling reports and editing spreadsheets to their favorite music with the volume turned up!
Coronavirus Advertising & Digital Marketing
The service or product your business is offering during the coronavirus pandemic may not be for everyone. Until you accept the perception that you need to focalize on the niche at hand and keep your market focus on the right areas, you’ll constrict your business’s ability to grow where you would like it to be.
Knowing your perfect client and jotting down their behaviors, attributes and wants will be a great help to relay to whoever is in charge of your digital marketing efforts. Having this information will give your content and advertising a leg up on your competitors.
Make a list of your best clients and reach out to them and get to know them.
Write down some key points about them and project these points to your social platforms to attract your ideal customers. Make sure you use your social media channels to convey your business' message and to advertise using those channels with comforting messages.
Once you know more about who you want to reach, you can use data to laser target your message. Facebook is invaluable for exploring audiences that are interested in your product or service during these times. Facebook can narrow down to your exact audience. It can actually be quite fascinating and also a bit scary.
Being a marketing company that specializes in this, we can not stress the importance of digital marketing during the coronavirus. Many businesses are paralyzed to due the economy's state. Take advantage of this opportunity and try new ways to advertise to keep your business running. Using coronavirus advertising may be very helpful not just for your company's image now, but in the future
Obviously we all hope things get back to normal as quickly as possible – so do stay safe and wash your hands often. We are in this together.