We hope that you found our previous discussion in Week 3 valuable and you were able to utilize some of the insights we have gathered to help you get through the weeks ahead.

If you haven’t had the chance to watch what we covered in Week 3, click here.

In this week’s installment, Chris and Adam continue their discussion on Advertising in the time of Coronavirus.

Another week in lockdown but potentially the first sign of stabilization in the market with both consumers and business potentially thanks to the Australian government Stimulus packages.

• What has happened with online advertising in the last 7 days?
• What have Brands done globally in these last 7 days?
• How can Brands respond in these next 7 days?

Continue reading to have these questions and more answered.

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Where are we at now? 

In the last 7 days, we haven’t seen any big changes. We are currently still in stage 3 lockdown. The curve in Australia at least has finally begun to flatten, which now begins discussions around starting recovery stages.

However, keep in mind that this can vary depending on the industry or category that you are apart of.

Search

• Summary
  • Desktop is back
  • Algorithms upset by COVID
  • Google suppressing ads/LPs for COVID
• Impressions Up
  • Essentials stockpiling done
  • Secondary order ‘non-essential’ medium-term searches now:
    • DIY haircuts, Blue light glasses, nail kits, seeds, puzzles, pipe cleaners
    • Creative Arts – guitar tuners, sewing tutorials, recipes
    • WFH still strong

Volume

• Volume = new normal?
  • Self isolation + WFM
  • More eyeballs = more inventory = CPMs down

• CPMs (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)
  • Top of Funnel: CPMs down by up to 50%. However, we are starting to see a slow rise
  • MoF: CPMs down, Conv Rate down
  • BoF: CPMs down, Conv Rate down
• Algorithm upset by CV
  • Potential to go back to Manual
  • Watch for conversion volumes at each stage in your Marketing Funnel

• Production
  • Limit of 2 person is stopping all production
  • Move to Stills/Stock production

Markets

Something we normally don’t talk about are the exchange rates. We have seen since the 1st of January that the AUD has dropped by 15% against the USD. If your brand is advertising in the United States and you manged to get a conversion there, what this means is your buyer’s essentially get a 15% discount.

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What are Brands doing?

Going back to Kantar’s research that we briefly mentioned in last week’s discussion, a lot of the research is still applicable. To get some more information on Kantar’s research, make sure to check out last week’s video and discussion.

COVID Creative: Research

• “Memes and selfies are normally frivolous and funny but it seems that in times of crisis they morph into something different.
• “Getting cosy and feeling safe with our pets and the people that we are close to. “
• “People love to share images of the things that are important to them. There are a while host of “new essentials” for self-isolation that people are sharing content around”

COVID Creative: How your business can respond creatively

• Ensure access and keep your customers informed
• Fuel connection, entertainment, and wellbeing
• Show support and alleviate practical concerns
• Shift production and encourage preventative measures

COVID Creative: Housekeeping

• Acknowledge our new reality, tone, copy, visuals, keywords, placements
• Credible, detailed & current information on operations during COVID-19

COVID Creative: Top of Funnel

• Is your brand’s in real life event cancelled or postponed? Pivot your event advertising to Public Service Announcements.
• What about partnerships with brands inside our outside your industry? Partner with your peers for the good of the wider industry.
• The home-made mood & tone where the corporate veil is dropped is perfectly okay and we will defiantly see a lot more of this!

COVID Creative: Middle of Funnel

• Host online equivalents of something you normally would do offline. For example, Free Virtual Style Rooms for fashion brands.
• Ever heard of the perspective exercise? Instead of having your message or copy directly talking to the consumer, instead, have your product be the one talking to the consumer.

COVID Creative: Bottom of Funnel

• Having stock or supply issues? Rally the community around your brand to help others within your industry. This opens the opportunity to essentially pre-order products if you are e-commerce.

We hope our last 3 discussions including this 4th one has helped you and your business remain ahead of the curve and up to date with the latest industry news.

If you want to read some more content, check out our next discussion on Google Analytics in the time of Coronavirus with Damion Brown from Data Runs Deep. Click here to read more.

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