As a Marketing student, I think that its important to look at how marketing has changed dramatically over the past few months and assess whether or not this marketing challenge might become the new normal.
For large businesses, most if not all have paused any advertising campaigns that were in the works, the thought is that these companies are going to cut down marketing budgets and do so for a long period of time. However, this time could've been used to increase promotions online. Everyone over the lockdown period had turned to social media with interactions going up worldwide over the past two months. This time could've been used by companies to generate interest with consumers online to build brand awareness or even boost any online sales companies that were still working.
What's interesting for marketing thats still being carried out is the images presented in advertisements has changed. Pattern89's study has shown that brands have cut down on images showing human interaction by 27%. Instead images of people cleaning their hands and face, and other along those lines has risen 6 times compared to the normal rate.
This could be the new normal. It's only now that we are able to meet up with people- while still distancing- in groups of 6. The idea of watching/seeing advert after advert of people enjoying themselves with friends isn't particularly inviting. What I have seen from my own advertising insight is a lot of ads focusing on connecting through various Facetime apps. For example Virgin Meida's "Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Connected" has been the main ad I've seen over the past few weeks. It does make me questions whether or not these types of adverts have started to become annoying for us stuck at home; in the beginning it was warming, it must've got people setting up quizzes and catch-ups left right and centre, but two months in, these adverts aren't quite making me feel 'warm' anymore- I'm English, so therefore, I'm fed up.
For two months everyone everywhere has been talking about the pandemic... apart from brands. For big named brands, apart from there updates, any advertisements they have done excludes the use of naming 'Covid-19' or 'Corona Virus', along with any other similar worlds, such as 'pandemic' etc. This might work in leaving the negative connotations out of relations with brands, but it also means that brands who depend on keyword tools have missed out on at least 1.5 billion impressions. Despite the connotations, Corona Virus has managed to stay one of the top trending topics over the past couple of months, obviously.
It's not only brands that have seen cuts on marketing terms, Influencers have also seen a dip in potential earnings. From the end of March to the middle of May every type of influencer has seen dips, with 65% actually posting less (this brings in the argument are Influencers only posting for the pay-check at the end?) It's micro-infuencers that are being hit the most, 72% of them have lost earnings along with travel influencers, who can't create the content they're used to an therefore are collectively posting 79% less.
My post last week went into detail about TikTok and it's dramatic rise in downloads, but the pandemic has definitely been a factor in this. It's now common knowledge what TikTok is and the online 'challenges' that come with it. TikTok has been a source of entertainment for everyone over the past few weeks and social engagement has soared.
At the beginning of the post I spoke about how companies could take this opportunity to invest in marketing. A survey has discovered that only 7% of brands have decided to invest in marketing. This inclines that these brands have decided to focus on online profits as offline media by brands has taken a cut of 57%. The survey also seems to suggest companies have been working based on instinct through-out the past couple of months which could be something brands take on in the future, especially as the end of the pandemic is still a little hazy.
Overall, the way marketing is perceived, funded and presented has had a significant change, and I believe that the effects of these changes will be effecting the way marketing works for a number of months, potentially for the next few years to come. While I'm nervous as a marketing student to see such a quick and uncertain change for marketing, I also find it exciting, its something new (I'm always a fan of something new) and I'm most excited to see where marketing can go now these changes have occurred- will we go back or take a chance move forward?
Comments