Two years later

The key hits:

• The truncated timelines from RFPs to campaign execution are expected to stick around.
• In-person events are coming back with a vengeance, but the role that virtual will play is still up for debate amongst publishers.
• Local media has become a white whale for national publishers thanks to the pandemic.

Two years have come and gone since the pandemic was first declared. During those first few months, media companies took reactive measures, like canceling events, pausing ad campaigns and improving work from home culture, as people grappled with the fact that two weeks of quarantine would turn into an undefined number of months and years.

Since then, publishers’ businesses have shifted greatly to accommodate those earlier changes as well as incorporate more proactive strategies, like creating virtual events, becoming more amenable to advertisers’ needs and responding to audiences’ wants.

But with COVID cases dropping and the possibility of meetings and events being able to happen in-person again, there is a question mark around which pandemic practices will stick around, and which were always meant to be temporary stopgaps. — Kayleigh Barber

The publisher-marketer relationship is moving faster than ever

Advertising took a hit in the first few months of the pandemic when there was so much uncertainty with how this would impact the economy as well as brand image. But once that business rebounded, publishers were ready to serve their advertisers in any way imaginable with flexibility and speed becoming two of the most desirable assets a sales team could offer.

It was an effort for publishers to win back as much business as possible and stabilize their businesses — and gave them an outlet to channel the immense amount of time on their hands. For nearly two years, people didn’t have a lot going on that kept them away from their computers, said Gallery Media Group’s CEO Ryan Harwood. “There was a lot more bandwidth and brainpower and ability to get things done. I think people took advantage of it.”

The timeline from receiving a request for proposal (RFP) or brief to execution on a campaign decreased from one to five months to anywhere from five-days to one month, Harwood said. A year ago, publishers sensed the shortened pitch window had become standard practice; a year later, their senses have proved to be spot on. Now, it’s a regular occurrence for Harwood’s team to hear from a CMO or an svp about an idea for a campaign that’s “got to be done in the next two weeks, or else it’s not worth it to us,” he added.

“I don’t think that’s going away anytime soon. The expectations are now like, ‘You guys have shown us this is possible; why would we ever want to settle …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron