‘Things can change quite quickly’: Marketers, agency execs keeping a close eye on regional changes due to COVID-19

By Kristina Monllos

This story is part of ‘Now What?’ Digiday Media’s 2021 fall preview, a look at how media, marketing and retail have changed over the past 18 months, and what it means for their futures. Check out the rest of the stories here.

At the on-set of the pandemic in 2020, marketers were caught flat-footed. Unsure of what was to come, many briefly pressed pause on ad buying. That quickly gave way to the coronavirus response ads with a flood of “we’re all in this together” messaging, making ads indistinguishable and ultimately annoying people, as they didn’t need to be reminded of the pandemic with each ad they saw.

Those early days of uncertainty were followed by advertisers turning to data — i.e. tracking infection and unemployment rates as well as mask mandates, stay at home orders and, eventually, vaccination rates — to understand the impact of the pandemic in a particular region. That data helped advertisers understand consumer behavior, giving insight into where to buy ads as well as what to say.

With the Delta variant on the rise, particularly in areas of the country with lower vaccination rates, advertisers are once again looking to regional data to understand how they should be tailoring messaging as well as ad buying to the impact of Covid-19 in that area. For example, when it comes to out-of-home ad placements and experiential, advertisers are leaning into digital OOH rather than billboards and steering clear of major experiential efforts as they are trying to avoid encouraging large gatherings now.

Indeed, hyper-focusing on regional data to understand changing consumer behavior has likely given marketers and agency execs an far better sense of how they can use that data to tailor messaging and ad buying to what’s happening in that area.

“We look at geographical data overlays to understand everything from restrictions, to relocation, travel, shopping, dining and delivery to understand people and patterns,” said Tina Allan, global head of data science and connections at FCB, adding that she expects the use of regional data to continue post-Covid. “‘Where’ is more important than ever in understanding ‘who’ is our customer today and tomorrow.”

Building in flexibility into ad deals, having back-up plans in place and being able to retool messaging on a dime has become the norm. So too has accounting for regional shifts in consumer behavior due to Covid-19 rates in said regions.

“Early Covid was a different beast,” Geraldine Szabo, strategy director at dentsu X. “It was extremely new and no one knew what to expect, so there was a halt [in ad buying]. While the Delta variant is bringing new challenges, we (both agencies and clients) are a little more confident in what to expect moving forward, and it has gotten easier to prepare accordingly.”

Tracking infection and unemployment rates, as well as various state and county regulations, helps marketers understand consumer behavior in those areas, and how to tweak advertising to account for that. For example, touting curbside pickup …read more

Source:: Digiday