Is it sensible to shift budget spends between traditional and digital media during Covid-19?
Following is a bit of a summary of what we have heard and read recently. We hope this quick broad overview will be of assistance in contact with your clients.
Regional media has changed
CV appears to be the final nail in the coffin for declining print media, putting an end to News Ltd regional printed (more expensively for News) publications. Now they are online, how will the readership numbers trend? Will existing or new local publications step up or step in to replace the unmet need of the ‘nonline’ readership?
Regional TV rates remain good value. Viewing audience habits have been affected.
Will consumer behavioural change become the new permanent post CV?
The recovery is ahead but when?
Spends generally across all advertising have reduced along with many other expenses that necessarily have been reviewed for the economic decline. Going dark though could be dangerous. What are the ramifications of cutting advertising too far, too early, too late for the unspecified duration of the down and upturn?
What will be the effect on brand awareness and what timing is important to capitalise on sales when they rebound?
Timely regular review with your clients is as important as ever. So too is the discussion on the merit of spend shifts between traditional and digital. Businesses better equipped for the digital era perhaps have more options. Decisions to boost awareness of ecommerce capability can be directed towards traditional and digital media.
What are your client needs?
Marketing appears to remain a key to sales performance during the downturn. Cutting the advertising budget more than proportionately to other expenses may put a business further behind. There have been recessions in the past. Increasing returns on advertising and marketing spends can still be achieved.
Is the message still relevant during CV? Creative can be re-assessed to sympathise with the impact that CV is having on the consumer. Acknowledgement of the period of disruption and altered consumer behaviours can be taken into account.
Empathetic communication that informs and educates may be more relevant. In the UK, research from Dynata indicates that over 50% of ads that communicate how a brand is contributing to the needs of the crisis were appealing and 38% liked ads that reminded of the time before CV. Ads that use people seen as vulnerable were voted by 44% as unappealing. Images of people in close proximity did not appeal. Imagery of human interaction has declined 27% in social ads in the US.
Digital Media impact has changed
An IAB survey in the US suggests 63% of publishers have experienced a decrease in CPM’s (cost per thousand impressions) with lowered ad budgets cited as the largest cause. This appears to have decreased CPM pricing. 37% attributed this to cancelled media events and 31% lower face to face meetings. Display ads saw a 30% reduction in CPM rates across mobile and desktop devices. Connected TV devices were resilient to pricing change.
The global use of Google Chrome on desktop increased 23% in the first quarter of 2020. Changing habits like stay at home orders have been cited.
89% of multinationals paused their campaigns. Delays in resumption are now expected to last longer than originally anticipated in the US. That may not be the case for Australia and now with the blips in Victoria, may vary from region to region.
Connected TV appears to have experienced a large growth in impression volume in the US.
Broadly, other trend information indicates that:
– Kids are into Tik Tok as much as YouTube.
– Facebook daily users are up by 11%.
– Instagram influencers potential income has decreased.
– Misleading CV Twitter is not being removed to the tune of 60%.
– 34% of US 25-34 year olds listen to a news based podcast every month.
– Consumers are spending more time reading or watching the news, however, the sources are changing.
– Spotify recorded a 33% increase in monthly users.
– 22% of UK public now ‘often’ or ‘always’ avoid the news.
– Netflix subscriptions are well up.
Over the short term it appears there is a slight move towards online media probably due to digital media consumption increasing from forced lifestyle change.
The Sensible Conclusion
With dialogue geared towards the client’s needs regarding how much things have changed for their business and how things will look for them when it is over, increased digital solutions should be evaluated.
Online presence is as important as ever. Knowing the target audience as well as how their lifestyle has changed will help to identify how they should be targeted. Re-evaluate what your audience wants to hear with an emotional context and communicate with them empathetically.
During CV there are still opportunities not to be missed.
