BULLET POINTS
How Pandemic Affected Marketing
Covid-19 badly affected very business but those who performed well in marketing are the users’ first choice now. Surely, companies could not follow their regular pattern of marketing and they have to rethink according to the need of time.
Ad spends decrease 9% in Europe, According to stats before Corona, it was USD 646 billion and expected to touch USD 865 billion till the end of 2024.
But, Covid-19 created a twist in the marketing industry and forced the marketer to plan something new.
Is Marketing Required During Pandemic?
Marketing is a vital part of any business. A gap in your advertising can take you far behind from your competitors.
Indeed, any business was not able to follow the regular strategies but you have to plan according to the time. Let’s check out how businesses improved their position with marketing strategies during Covid-19.
Users Experience & Stats during Covid-19
39% more users’ engagement noticed on social media networks during the lockdown.
According to Impact My Biz, blog content creation increased 57%, Social content 66% and video production increased by 50%.
That was the good marketers who chose the active platforms for the promotion.
According to another research in the USA, 87% of customers like the brads that give Corona awareness.
And, if we talk about marketers… 42% marketers say that their teams are not capable to quickly adopt the changes as well as creative content creating abilities.
These were a few stats collected just after the pandemic. You can find lots of relevant statics but for me, these are just enough to give me the courage of rethinking in marketing terms.
You are ready for the next step if you have these required tools.
Covid-19 Effects on Marketing Industry
Like the other industries, marketing industry also went down during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are the ad industry’s stats for three countries.
- Germany’s ad industry fell 7%
- Europe’s marketing industry fell 9%
- France’s industry fell 12%
According to Influencer Marketing Hub; 69% of brands were sure that their marketing budget will drop in 2020 and that happened. We still listening such words for 2021.
But, all the advertising is not alike. We would review category by category.
Following stats are furcated by “International Ad Forecast ” & “Adspend Database”
1. TV Ads
During the Covid-19, TV ads marketing dropped 13.8%. Luckily, it is not one of the top 5 most affected advertising methods.
According to my personal experience, TV ads affected just because industries like real estate that were shut down during pandemic.
2. Radio Ads
Radio ads are at no. 5 on the list of most affected advertising categories. It was expected to increase by 1.8% but due to coronavirus situation, it went down by 16.2% all over the world.
3. Search Engine Advertising
You might not be surprised to know that the internet advertising industry’s growth did not stop even in Covid-19. Search and display ads growth was 0.9% and 2.1% that was expected to be 12% and 14.3% respectively.
4. Social Ads
Social media ads are the least affected advertising industry and we know the reason. Social media sites got users’ activities during pandemic more than ever.
As a result, those were the good platforms for marketing and its growth rate was 9.8% that was being expected to be 20%.
5. Other Marketing Channels
Here are the stats about remain media categories:
- Cinema industry affected the most and went down by 31%
- Magazine ads were lower by the rate by 22%
- Newspaper ads are 4th on the list and affected by the rate of 21.5%
What Marketing Strategies Did We Learned from the Pandemic
Covid-19 Pandemic was a hard period especially for small businesses but even a hard time can teach you something helpful. Marketers learned to the new ways to capture the audience.
Especially Physical businesses understood the importance of the digital world and online advertising. Below are some common marketing strategies that big brands use.
1. Help others regardless of the output
We can name it as “Pay-back for Society“. A good business helps the society when the time comes and as a result, it gains popularity.
For example: During Covid-19 Pandemic, there are hundreds of hotels all over the who devoted their places for Covid-19 patients especially the people coming from our countries. Hotel businesses were close so, they also do not need to invest in marketing. But, this method helped them to keep their name alive.
For a common man, this was humility but from a marketer point of view, they have captured a big audience for the future.
On 17 April, Parade an online underwear store started a campaign that they will give $1 to Feed America for one photo tag. This was a good helping spirit as well as a marketing strategy.
2. Awareness Campaigns
Those who could not provide products or services gave awareness campaigns. A simple ad telling the tips from Coronavirus protection. This was probably the most used marketing method by the brands to keep showing their products to customers.
Companies, whose products were related to the disease, take the whole advantage. For example, a soap brand started the campaign that our soap not only protects from diseases but also from Coronavirus.
The soap advertisement was good but I also see some failed marketing TV ads such as a cloth brand telling me what to wear to stay safe from the coronavirus. Do not be silly and do not go beyond the limits.
3. Educate Your Audience to Show Your Kindness
It is the advance part of the awareness. In which marketers started proper campaigns to tell how the dangerous coronavirus is. They showed the stats and the condition of patients to create fear in people so that they take care of themselves and others.
4. Deliver at the Door
As the physical markets were close during the Covid-19 pandemic so, local businesses including retailers and brands too started offering home deliveries. This marketing and audience-capture strategy helped them to keep their businesses alive.
Conclusion
In this article, we see the marketing rate fluctuation and look at some marketing strategies that local businesses used to target audiences. Marketers applied used new methods to overcome the competition and some worked hard for survival.
The only thing that we can conclude from the pandemic is, the marketer must have a creative and quick-adaptation approach. A creative marketing team can help to gain more audience, reduce the campaign costs and can keep your brand alive for long.