10 media channels brands must try in the new normal

2020 marks a turning point in global media history. The coronavirus has brought about a radical increase in the consumption of digital media channels around the world. So, brands need to adapt their channel strategy, fast.

Of course the crisis is damaging for many businesses. Yet, with audiences more captive than ever (no pun intended), it presents a unique opportunity for brands to make a real impact through creativity and experimentation with new channels. And while the coronavirus crisis will not last forever, it’s set to alter attitudes towards media consumption long term, with a faster shift to a virtual way of life.

After weeks of global lockdown, here are our top 10 media channels to invest in during the coronavirus crisis (and after). We hope it helps you with your marketing content planning: 

The channels

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest… as you can imagine, the usual media channel suspects are booming in terms of social usage. It’s not surprising, since 45% of global consumers are now spending more time on social media (source: GlobalWebIndex). 

With social distancing measures likely to be in place for many months to come, it’s worth investing in these social media channels. But consider where to place your content carefully. Right now engagement rates on Instagram are 7x higher than that of Facebook (source: Campaign). However, with the situation always changing, you’ve got to keep up your eye on the figures.  

Shifting audiences 

There’s also an emergence of new social media players to consider. Houseparty, launched back in 2016, has experienced a huge boom. In April, it became the no.1 social media app in 82 countries, with 50 million new signups (source: TechCrunch). TikTok, although already hugely popular with Gen Z, has also seen a rise in use, with more and more older generations signing up to the platform. TikTok achieved 315 million downloads between January and March, the largest app download figure for a single quarter ever (source: Sensor Tower).

So with more and more people scrolling to pass the time, and social distancing measures likely to be in place for many months to come, now’s the time to get active on social. 

Trending formats

What creative opportunities do these channels have to offer? There are lots of trending formats that brands can experiment with. On Instagram, AR quiz filters on Stories continue to spark excitement amongst users globally, and AR face filters remain incredibly popular. There are also numerous branded effects to explore on TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat. 

This playful and interactive type of content can be beneficial to the brands in 2 ways. Firstly, it offers fans of the brand with a form of entertainment when they need it most. Secondly, if executed creatively enough, this content can be an extremely effective vehicle for brand awareness. 

New types of content

Obviously brands have had to massively pivot their comms in reaction to their consumers suddenly staying at home 24/7. And while the situation is likely to ease-up over the next few months, they won’t be returning to “normal” life anytime soon. So, content must remain “home-based”, adding value to consumers as they lead their socially-distanced lives. 

Stats from search tools Pinterest and Google support this theory. In Spring 2020, Pinterest has seen a 45x increase in the search for ‘yeastless bread recipes’, a 2.9x increase in the search for ‘home workouts’ and a 128x increase in the search for ‘easy lunch ideas for kids’ to help feed home-schooling children.

In the first two weeks of May alone, Google saw a 1150% rise in the search for ‘easy desserts to make during quarantine’, while the search for ‘buzz cut’ and ‘garden’ reached an all-time high worldwide. Clearly, consumers want content to help them maximise their time spent at home – cooking, gardening, trying new activities – but also to help them stay healthy and feel good in themselves. So when you’re planning your marketing content, keep the latest trends in mind. 

The influencer situation

When it comes to influencers, the road ahead is fairly unclear. In North America, influencers have seen consistently declining engagement rates since coronavirus started hitting hard, and there’s no current sign of improvement. 

However, some brands are finding that collaborating with the right type of influencer is helping them to gain traction. In an effort to encourage Gen Z to follow social-distancing regulations, P&G reached out to Charli D’Amelio to help them with their #DistanceDance campaign. D’Amelio choreographed and shared her #DistanceDance on TikTok, gaining 8.7 billion TikTok views and 1.7 million videos in response. 

With influencers, it all depends on their industry and the type of content they’re producing. A pivot towards relatable, home-based content – like D’Amelio’s dance routine – is still likely to amass a lot of viewers. So, if an influencer can provide meaningful content that can add value to consumers lives as they social distance then it may still be worth collaborating. 

Brand opportunity

Despite social usage being on the rise, there are less advertisers on social media channels. Companies affected by the crisis have been decreasing their marketing budgets, resulting in a drop of up to 47% in CPM and CPC prices, due to a decline in competition (source: Match2One). This offers an ideal opportunity for marketers to capture more eye-balls at a lower cost than before the crisis.

There are 2.5 billion active gamers worldwide, most of whom are now at home 24/7. So, it makes sense that gaming is booming right now. Add to that the millions of people trying out games as a way to pass time. As a result, weekly game sales have increased between 40% and 60% (source: Futurescore). 

Virtual interactive gaming

New releases like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Call of Duty: Warzone, which allow players to meet up virtually in-game have helped boost game sales. These games present a great opportunity for brands, thanks to in-game advertising. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players can download branded virtual goods. In China, Net-a-Porter has created avatar outfits inspired by its Spring/Summer 20 range for Animal Crossing players to wear, while Getty Images has created an Animal Crossing Art Generator meaning users can create art for their island homes. Brands should jump at this opportunity, sharing their products and services in-game across both new and old releases.

In-game advertising

The great brand collaborations don’t stop there. With live sports fixtures off the cards, Adidas is working with EA Games to provide an alternative. Their ‘Uncancelled Cup’ is an in-game recreation of the cancelled European tournament, taking place inside Fifa. Full of in-game Adidas branding, and guaranteed to capture the attention of both games and sports fans, it’s an effective way to boost brand awareness during the strange times. Something for brands to think about. 

Mobile gaming

Mobile gaming is also seeing a huge rise in interest. According to POKKT, March saw a 39% increase in global mobile game downloads, with users spending an extra 15 mins (on average) playing these games. POKKT also revealed that ad requests for mobile gaming increased by 31%. Clearly many global marketers are refocusing their marketing content strategy into mobile gaming during the coronavirus crisis. A wise strategy to follow. 

Insight from BounceX suggests that, during the early weeks, email open rates increased by 40% as people went into lockdown mode. However, website visits and conversion rates are now 10-20% lower.

A consensus among consumers seems to be that brands’ emails during Coronavirus can often feel more opportunistic than genuine, which might explain the reduction in conversion rates. Brands should tread carefully when it comes to email marketing. Here are a few tips:

– Rather than make your email about coronavirus, just reference the situation in a note, especially now that consumers are starting to grow tired of “coronavirus content”.
– Ask your consumers what they want to see in emails and what they’d like to be informed about right now.
– Keep up to date with what’s happening and change your tone to stay relevant to the local situation. Make sure an automated email from last month isn’t going to suddenly hit consumers inboxes by mistake. 

Direct messaging

Naturally, people are turning to direct messaging platforms and video calling media channels to stay connected while social distancing. Activity on Facebook’s messaging apps has increased more than 50%. Voice and video calling has more than doubled on Messenger and WhatsApp in the countries hit hardest by the crisis (source Facebook). Similarly, a study of Italian media consumption showed that time on group calls (with 3 or more participants) increased by over 1000% in March. 

Video calls

But one channel that seems to be zooming ahead of the rest (excuse the pun) is, of course, Zoom. In the first 3 months of 2020 – when Covid-19 started to take hold globally – Zoom’s daily active user base increased by 67% (source: NewStatesman). 

Microsoft Teams is also seeing a huge rise, with a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes taking place a day. Microsoft Teams is also reaching a new demographic – students and teachers – with 183,000 users in 175 countries now using Teams for Education. (Source: Microsoft).

Brand interactions

So, how can brands maximise on this trend? Well, many are providing branded backgrounds for hit messaging platform Zoom. Audi, Lego, Nickelodeon,Yorkshire Tea, Oatly are just a few of the big brands offering up their own exciting backgrounds. With messaging and video call platforms, brands can cater to different demographics, from the more professional, to the educational, to the purely social. Content is fairly easy to produce (even in lockdown) using existing product shots and graphic design. Branded backgrounds are a simple yet effective way to raise brand awareness and to reach different audience types during this crisis. 

With stores unlikely to operate as normal for some time, and many consumers hesitant to return to stores once they open their doors, e-commerce will continue to play a vital role for many months to come.

Of course, with such economic uncertainty right now, it’s tricky to get consumers to commit to their purchase. A way to reduce cart abandonment rates is to include more promotions into your e-commerce offering. According to a survey by Global WebIndex, around 1 in 3 people worldwide are waiting for sales before buying certain products. This is especially true in Brazil, Canada and Singapore. One promotion certain to grab consumers attention is free delivery. The same report revealed that free delivery has become more important to  51% of consumers. 

Since the current economic situation is so uncertain, reassuring customers that their online orders will be safe and that they are buying the right thing is essential. One way to do this is to give your brand community the opportunity to share more of their customer experiences and product reviews. As a result, potential customers will feel reassured. 

The world’s future remains hard to predict. But now is the time for brands to be brave and try new media channels. There’s no one-size fits all to the current situation, but we hope these insights into current trending media channels will help you try and test new formats and make the most of a difficult situation.

If you found these insights useful and want some more help with your marketing content strategy for the coming months, please feel free to get in touch.