Minfo Americas founder & CEO, Roland Storti examines the large audiences created by the COVID-19 pandemic, why brands should double down on their advertising, advertising technology that can help them capitalize, and what consumer behavior could look like after the pandemic.
From print to social media and everything in between, it might seem like advertisers have too many avenues to choose from. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has narrowed down their choices. With so many people asked to stay home to slow the spread of the virus, audiences are incredibly concentrated and reachable.
At one point in MarchOpens a new window , U.S. evening news broadcasts averaged 32.2 million viewers – about 10% of the country and a 42% increase from a year earlier. For additional context, in 2019, only the Super Bowl and two other National Football League (NFL) playoff games – perhaps the most coveted U.S. television events for advertising – drew larger audiences. With home audiences so large and attentive, this is a unique opportunity for advertisers.
One might deduce that these growing audiences have resulted in climbing advertising prices, but the opposite is true. Rates for advertisements sold in the scatter market – sold very close to the time of airing – dropped 39% for ABCOpens a new window and 34% for CBS. Astonishingly, advertisers have the opportunity to reach more viewers for less money.
Despite this historic surge in home media consumption and buying opportunity, 24%Opens a new window of brands completely paused their advertising spend for Q1 and Q2 2020 and collectively, they planned to spend 38% less on digital media in April and March. Now is not the time to shy away from ad spend – it is time to lean headfirst into it. To make the most of this moment, advertisers must also reduce the friction involved in the purchasing process.
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Capitalizing on These Larger Audiences
As many brands already know, large audiences do not guarantee conversions. Capitalizing on these audiences requires a lot of research and calculation, including carefully designed and placed ads, as well as tech that makes each ad more customer-friendly and helps maximize conversions.
This is a difficult time for many people, and advertisers would do well to make consumers’ lives easier. Advertisers’ ad tech strategies are key here, as the right ad tech partners can help them ensure each advertisement is customer-friendly and actionable for consumers.
Some brands are standing out with content that engages consumers and makes it as easy as possible for them to buy what they want or need. Some are deploying ads integrated with technology that allows consumers to follow up on video or audio ads that intrigue them from their phones and can take them directly to a company’s website or shopping cart. This allows potential customers to engage with each ad and reduces the number of touchpoints required to make a purchase and potentially reducing frequency for brands, dramatically simplifying the purchasing process. Reducing friction for consumers will undoubtedly lead to higher conversion rates, and higher conversion rates plus larger audiences equals huge surges in revenue.
Many advertisers have also nailed the design and content of their ads. During any given TV watch, you will notice many ads communicating how their products can be obtained or consumed safely from home and/or while social distancing, and what the companies are doing to alleviate consumers’ fears or concerns. They are respecting the gravity of this global situation while taking on a very neighborly role, assuring consumers that this too shall pass and that they have their safety and health in mind.
What This Suggests About Future Consumer Behavior
After the world resumes movement, we will see advertising and commerce return to what we consider normal but in some ways, they have already been altered forever. Consumers have seen the future and for them, it looks pretty convenient.
The on-demand economy – delivering goods and services to consumers’ homes on their terms – is certainly not new, but its growth has accelerated during the pandemic – in mid-April, U.S. retailers’ online revenue was up 68% year-over-year. There were definitely brands with only one foot in this model, and the pandemic has greatly expedited their migration to it. Few could have imagined the world being closed for as long as it has been, and we have learned (the hard way) that brands that are not prepared to do business in the on-demand economy put themselves and their workforces at tremendous risk.
On top of meeting consumers’ in their homes, brands must make customer experiences quicker and simpler. Adtech will play an even larger role after the pandemic, as brands look for opportunities to reduce touchpoints and stretch every advertising dollar further with more precise consumer targeting.
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Brands and businesses will also look to dematerialize their products, offers, and services. They now clearly understand that anything that will simplify or reduce friction in the purchasing process between physical experiences and digital purchases will be critical.
All at once, brands must adapt to doing business with the at-home-only audience and consumer, while planning for any necessary post-pandemic changes to their business models. But first things first: if brands do not seize the opportunity and highly-concentrated audiences in front of them, they may not have futures to plan for at all.