Advertising in times of Covid 19

The novel COVID-19 virus has brought unprecedented changes in the lifestyle of an Indian consumer and the drastic changes have been immediate and for an unknown time period. Under these circumstances, while people (read: customers) have decreased their time spent outside due to lock downs which had an adverse effect on transportation, theater, xxx industries, this situation had led to increase in the average screen time a person on various social media sites and the dynamics of brand interaction on digital landscape has and will experience a drastic change in coming times. 

#StayHome has forced people to stay inside their homes thus leaving social media to be their only connection to the outside world. The sources of entertainment have been confined to screens, phones and interaction with people living together. 

Amid lock down, Doordarshan reintroduced “Ramayan” serial which broke all time TV viewership records with around 7.7 cr views. Around 46% of people with Television watch daily, with huge jumps seen in news channels (164 % jump as compared to pre-covid time) and children channels like Pogo( viewership increases by 20 times as compared to pre-Covid). The time spent by an average user on smartphone using social media averages around 3 hours now which includes platforms like Whats App, Instagram and Facebook have seen a huge surge. 

As compared to Pre-Covid times, the brand interaction is focused on digital platforms. Let’s have a look at some companies who went with the flow and took some changes in the way they advertise or interact with people. 

Lifebouy : FIGHT Corona ads 

Lifebouy as a company, they have taken a plunge and asked their advertisement viewers to use any kind of soap to wash their hands frequently amid corona virus lock down. They also have worked towards educating their advertisement viewers about the correct way of washing hands, clearing myths about the virus and many more. 

HDFC : Social Grids 

Even in lockdown, people get out to buy groceries and other essential items and to prevent the spread of #Coronavirus, it is requested that people follow #SocialDistancing. HDFC launched #HDFCBankSafetyGrid to address this issue and to inform people who go outside about social distancing by drawing HDFC logo on the ground. These drawings were made at a WHO prescribed safe distance from each other and to act as a reminder to follow #SocialDistancing. 

HDFC used a simple and elegant way of informing their customers and their brand stayed in the minds of the people who interacted with these markers. 

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HDFC urged their digital social media followers to maintain and follow social distancing by beautifully altering their logo

Zomato : Changes in touch point interactions

Zomato is an online platform to order food which is home delivered by Zomato delivery boys, This entire process included a lot of human interaction. But people looked in their houses were going to need food, and thus, to keep their delivery executives and customers’ minds at ease regarding safety instructions (social distancing ) followed throughout the delivery touchpoints and came up with multiple initiatives as listed below. 

Loksatta - Aarogyaman Bhav Webinar 

Loksatta is a marathi daily and it had tips and tricks to deal with lockdown mentioned in different articles on a daily basis but they in times of increased screen time, they introduced a Zoom webinar session with a famous psychiatrist to take doubts of the readers on how to maintain low stress levels while living in house and to maintain a healthy state of mind amidst the negativity of the situation surrounding us. This was a new way of interacting with their readers.  

Source: https://www.loksatta.com/mumbai-news/for-everyone-in-the-family-today-loksatta-arogyam-bhav-1858023/

Naukri.com -Step up initiative 

Naukri.com understands the stress of the people who are searching for jobs in this bearish market. They came up with a blog which has resources for job seekers like hiring trends, online courses and career guides to keep their users updated about the job market scenarios and help them find jobs of their dreams. 

Source : https://www.naukri.com/step-up-job-opportunities-during-coronavirus-covid-19?utm_campaign=gnb&utm_source=stepup_welcomenotification

Asian Paints - #StayHomeStaySafe Videos 

Asian Paints launched multiple videos addressing the lockdown issue and urged their viewers to stay home and enjoy their family time and cultivate new hobbies. 

These videos are emotional and are straight to the point. 

Also, to keep their viewers entertained, they called in viewers to join them in an instagram live quarantune session with Shankar Mahadevan, Neeta Mohan, Shaan and other artists. The brand also asked their customers to share their lockdown stories, lockdown cooking experiences and much more. 

What did these brands do? 

• Stayed Relevant during the lockdown thus increasing their recall.. Brands that stay relevant during these calling times hold a special place in consumers heart and have a huge impact 
• Concentrated on one single aim either - providing help (donating), spreading awareness, increased safety measures in product delivery, increasing touchpoints, etc and delivering impact. 
• Understood customer needs and acted immediately - eg. Mental health webinar because people get frustrated or people fight when they stay indoors for longer duration. 
• Focused on giving back to the customer: thus increasing emotional bond between the brand and the customer. This also increases trust of the customer in the brand as the customer believes that brand cares for the difficulties these harsh times bring.

Thus, the golden words in advertising, Understand customer needs, hold true. 

Do you know of any other companies whose #Corona time advertisements have impressed you? Do share in the comments below!

Does digital changes in brand outlook sound interesting? Let me know!