Neil Patel – the digital marketing genius, while paraphrasing a quote by Warren Buffet said something spectacular about marketing during the COVID-19 outbreak that’s worth actioning.
“And as for your marketing, this is the time for you to double down. Don’t be fearful when others are also afraid.”
These are trying times not only for businesses but more importantly, people across the globe. We’re already seeing brands re-evaluating spends based on the assumption that the economy is predicted to take a 2.7 trillion dollar hit. People on the other hand are more hungry than ever. Hungry for news, and of course hungry for content.
Percentage of people who say they have started consuming or are consuming more of the following content since the outbreak
Why Video Content?
As you can see, Broadcast TV and Online Video have two large spikes across demographics. Marketing Strategists have already pinned down digital and videos to be two of the hottest marketing commodities to bid on, in the current and coming quarter.
Contrary to what some businesses believe, this is not the time for your business to go dark on content. Kantar Group – the data insights and consulting conglomerate published a study on consumer sentiments and implications for brands during COVID-19. By using analytics and time-series data to stimulate three different spend scenarios for a real beer brand, they saw that if the brand was to go totally dark it could lose about 13% of existing volume sales.
Going dark on content and media investment could implicate a loss of market share across industries that would be very hard to recover from in the future. Now while you put your thinking caps on, here’s the first strategy to get you started –
Actions. Not Just Words
What you say is extremely important but what’s just as important is what you do. Take Ford’s Built to Lend A Hand Campaign for example.
Or, take Marriott President Arne Sorenson’s message to the Marriott International associates for example. This heartfelt message had a profound impact on people and businesses around the world. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma was so moved by the message, he announced that he was going to forgo two months of his salary to help the Paytm staff.
This is just one example of the impact that brands can make when this strategy is deployed well. Remember – consumers may not always remember what brands say but they will always remember how brands made them feel.
While we’re on the subject of emotions, here’s another strategy that never fails to bring consumers closer to your product
Live And Breathe Your Brand Values
When your content marketing efforts fall in line with who you are as a brand, it builds a sense of camaraderie that can’t be shaken. The community you’ve built grows organically because people associate themselves with the overarching message. Apple’s Creativity Goes On Campaign does just that. Not only does it show how the brand products connect people in these troubled times, but it does so while staying true to the brand archetype – Explorer – The creative innovator
Nike’s Content Strategy has been long considered the gold standard to a number of marketeers. With their latest campaign Play For The World, they shed a new light on their brand archetype – The Hero.
The third and final strategy to keep your content cycle running is one of the most challenging to pull off but is just as rewarding.
THOUGHTFUL ENTERTAINMENT
We’re living in an era where memes and content with entertainment value yield unexpected virality. Take a look at Tata Pravesh’s Stay Safe Behind The Doors Of India Campaign – creating a very musical soundscape with nothing but their product – doors.
And how could we forget Burger King ‘couch potatriots’ saluting healthcare workers with their Stay Home Of The Whopper Campaign.
All said and done, the biggest question marketersmarketeers are asking right now is how realistic is it for us to build these video plugs within our content framework considering lockdowns. The answer to that is – super realistic. What’s very interesting to notice is that all of these references (barring Burger King) were either made using stock footage or live action shot on phones and stitched together.
At Red Bangle, we’re working non-stop to do everything we can to help contribute towards making sure this pandemic doesn’t slow us down as a community. While animated video content is on the rise for obvious reasons, we’re also noticing a shift in creative execution – we’re weaving stories for brands across the globe by making full use of post production cycles that don’t rely on live-action shoots with high production value such as these examples.
Let’s show customers that we’re all standing shoulder to shoulder as we navigate through the challenges COVID-19 has put in front of us. Let’s have meaningful conversations, and let’s show the world what we’re made of.
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