60% of people believe that the majority of brands have made offers and messages adapted to the context of the health crisis.
We have analyzed, in recent weeks, the uses of social networks during the Covid crisis but also the communications and speeches of brands during confinement and during deconfinement.
Let's now look at the changes envisaged by the brands for the next world, and the opinions and habits of consumers in relation to them. All these themes are detailed in the study “Covid-19 and World after | Brand communication trends: back to the abnormal?” which inspects brand communication on social media and consumer opinions for more than 290 brands.
Priority to social networks and loyalty
Among advertisers who have maintained their campaigns, 13% have implemented crisis-specific campaigns, in terms of messages or channels (2). They favored social networks (60%), ahead of Search (40%), Display (33%), and TV (13%). Nearly one in two brands (47%) say they took advantage of this period to rethink their communication strategy.
Indeed, 52% of brands plan to maintain or even increase (for 13%) their investments in communications. But 60% of them foresee change: the new priority will be branding (42%) positioned as the first item of communication expenditure in a post-pandemic situation, slightly ahead of the acquisition strategy (39%). It is therefore a question of reassuring and building loyalty via an elaborate and easily memorable brand image.
What do people think of brand communication during the Covid crisis?
For 62% of consumers, most brands have indeed offered, on their sites and mobile applications, quality information on the arrangements and measures linked to the current crisis, which reassures them.
Nearly 60% believe that many brands have offered offers and messages adapted to the context of the health crisis.
But the pressure and the new demands on brands are there: nearly one in three people intend to boycott brands that have not been up to scratch during the Covid-19 crisis and one in two people plans to favor committed brands. during the crisis.
Respect for values useful to society, therefore, seems to be an essential axis for the communication of many brands. Moreover, as of mid-May, the advertising agency Clear Channel proposed new campaign measurement indicators for advertisers which relate to the perception of the values of brands and companies in terms of CSR, consumer commitment, and perception between “saying” and “doing”.
An affirmation and confirmation of the social role of social media
Brands must also consider the major role of social networks in exceptional times such as confinement, and this is even more so for 15–24-year-olds. Thus, The Harris study shows that social networks have been useful for discovering new leisure activities (cooking, DIY, mask-making tutorials, etc.) for 77% of Generation Z. In addition, for 73% of this generation, it was important for brands to continue to speak to them on social networks during this period.
