COVID-19: The Changes It Wrought To The Advertising Industry

When COVID19 reared its head, what was considered the norm has now become obsolete. What started out as a health pandemic slowly but surely turned into an economic upheaval. Companies all over the world have gone through major changes and those that didn’t have unfortunately gone under.

Since business and advertising go hand in hand, naturally, the advertising sector has also been affected by the pandemic. Similar to other industries, the advertising industry has been largely impacted due to the considerable decrease in advertising spending. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 24% of brands, media buyers and planners have temporarily halted their spending till the end of Q2, and 46% have stated their plans to fine-tune their ad spend in the same time period.

To project the advertising trajectory in the next following months, let’s dive into some of the aspects that have encouraged this shift.

Change In Consumer Behaviour

It comes as no surprise to know that consumer behaviour has changed during COVID19. This change doesn’t limit itself to just the prioritisation of essential goods but it also hints at the increased indulgence in digital media. Whether it’d be the usage of social platforms and streaming services, e-commerce has also enjoyed a steady increase.

Whenever consumer behaviour shifts, advertising spend will follow almost immediately. After all, it doesn’t make any sense for advertisers to pump in money on media that has little to no audience. With the implementation of confinement and circuit breaker measures, out-of-home and print advertising shrivelled almost immediately. Instead, advertisers have acclimated to the shift in consumer behaviour by prioritising digital advertising.

To many brands and businesses, a virtual space is highly favourable as they provide an avenue for direct response to their campaigns, which in turn will lead to sales. Even for those that don’t engage in e-commerce find the value in investing in the online scene as it’s an opportune time to increase their brand awareness. Of course, this fact needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as the consumer behaviour is always susceptible to change and we can’t predict how and when it will do so. The products that consumers prioritise now may not be the case in the near future. Thus, data used to inform marketing and advertising spend will need to interpreted with reservations.

Not All Advertising Is Equal

In the midst of a global pandemic, brands are not only shifting to their mode of advertising, but also rethinking the kind of campaigns they’d want to run on these platforms. This usually leads to focus spending on strategies that’d give the most benefits in the near-term. For instance, lifestyle advertisers are focused on acquiring customers that they’ve lost, whilst others are busy adapting their marketing strategies and changing their message altogether. Many brands are also taking this opportunity to harp on the mission of the company. Some are also avoiding any form of associations with content related to the novel coronavirus by blocking keywords across all channels and withdrawing expenditures.

As a company, you’d need to know which areas you’d wish to prioritise to understand which channels you’d spend more in and how to go about it.

Long Term Transformation

As with many industries, this change is most likely to continue even once the pandemic is over. Businesses may be prioritising survival at the moment but the new strategies and navigation tactics that are born during this pandemic will be regarded as new ways for brand building. On top of that, the shift to digital advertising means that there are more benefits to invest your advertising and marketing spending on ad-supported streaming services instead of Pay-TV. With widespread increased usage of smartphones, tablets and laptops, this is a natural change. The advertising industry will have to improve how it measures the return on investment across the varying sorts of media, devices and platforms.

To better assist in your business ventures, we are offering virtual office services to help you better utilise your business expenditures. With these services, you’d be able to cut down on your business office rental expenses and focus more resources on things you deemed important for business survival during the pandemic. With greater efficiency and better utilisation of resources, you’d get right back on track soon enough!

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