Just 8% of consumers think brands should stop advertising due to the coronavirus outbreak, states MarketingWeek in an article based on a Kantar survey of more than 35,000 consumers globally.
"The vast majority of consumers do not think brands need to stop advertising during the Covid-19 outbreak, although they do expect companies to think about their tone and messaging, and communicate around values."
Brand responsibilities
The survey underlines that consumers believe staff welfare should be a company’s first priority, but also points to brands having a role to play in support of governments and society through the crisis.
Unfortunately, many companies are pulling or postponing their ad campaigns during the pandemic, the Kantar data shows that this is not expected by most consumers.
Completely refraining from sensitive brand-supportive advertising can lead to a long-term devaluation of the brand, and with very little value in return.
“Brand health becomes vulnerable when companies stop advertising. If they do this for longer than six months it destroys both short- and long-term health.”
- Jane Ostler, Kantar Insights global head of media
Kantar ran a theoretical test on an unnamed, but real beer brand:
"The team found that if the brand cut all its ad spend during the crisis, this would have a 13% impact on sales in the long run and make market share hard to recover. However, a 50% drop in ad spend would result in just a 1% drop in sales."
The Long Run
Brands can (and should, if possible) maintain a "healthy" presence with brand-supporting advertising during the Coronavirus pandemic when it is:
- sensitive to both the local and global virus crisis level
- supportive of guidelines from governments and health specialists
- using value-based/situational messages to reach the relevant consumers
If you can benefit from a talk with us on how to adjust your media planning and/or your audience composition during the COVID-19 crisis, please feel very welcome to reach out through our short Contact form.