Times are changing and so too should our advertising strategies

You’ve heard it all before. These are very uncertain times and thus it is no real surprise that marketers are grappling with the changing behaviours of consumers. Here we discuss the adaption and changes in planning from marketers and brands needing to connect with their target audience and implement new advertising strategies.

Marketers and brands are trying to plan for an ever changing consumer: 

• “The sudden increase of people being indoors has led to a change in lifestyle where consumers have shifted to spending more time online than before” – Jonathan Olsson from Match2One
• Consumers are online at times which marketers may not be used to. Shopping could shift from late night to mid-day, when activity (in normal circumstances is low).
• “Information, connection comfort and escapism are dominating the behaviour of Australian consumers as they get navigate the COVID-19 crisis”. Spark Foundry have collated key patterns and themes emerging across the behaviour and media habits of local consumers, discovering that 35% of Aussies believe brands should be advertising as normal.

Increase in messaging/communications

In many of the countries hit hardest by the virus, total messaging has increased more than 50% over the last month. Voice and video calling have more than doubled on Messenger and WhatsApp and we are seeing significantly more usage across Instagram Live and Facebook Live usage. Thus, it is becoming ever so important to encourage and challenge brands (and planners) to capitalise on this shift in consumer behaviour, and reconsider speaking to consumers via different mediums such as messenger.

UoPeople (tuition free online uni) ran a campaign using Facebook video ads that clicked to Messenger to cost-effectively increase student enrolments, and found that 20% of people who engaged with the campaign went on to complete an application.

• 51% of people who had a conversation with the bot for messenger started an application
• 62% overall decrease in CPA with messenger, in comparison to traditional Facebook Lead Gen campaigns

A shift from passive consumption to active engagement.

Let’s be honest, who hasn’t taken part in some kind of exercise/photo sharing challenge on social media during the pandemic. People are learning dances on Tik Tok, participating in push up challenges and showing off their cooking skills across all different social media platforms. As a result, brands are being encouraged to capitalise on these shifts in online behaviour and are navigate ways to speak to consumers across different mediums, such as Facebook Messenger and Tik Tok.

Talk to your ADMATICian about how you can navigate these digital paradigm changes and take advantage of new advertising strategies.