Advertising during the COVID-19 lockdown
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had a number of conversations around the ongoing pandemic and the reoccurring subject seems to be about ways to cope with life in self-isolation.
I noticed that there had been an immense amount of advertising around COVID-19 from different sources with different messages – no surprises there.
The most prominent one is from the government about staying home – which makes perfect sense to me. Then there are supermarkets who advertise to remind people not to panic buy and purchase their groceries normally. And perhaps the most entertaining ones, in my opinion, are the ads from retailers such as JB Hi-Fi with headlines saying “Keep the kids entertained with JB!”. Moreover, the countless email blasts from businesses I’ve engaged with in, what seems to be, my lifetime – since they come from companies I engage with often, every once in a while, and even the ones I’ve purchased items from just once.
COVID-19 seems to be the most trending word of the year so far. But have companies capitalised on the pandemic? What about non-essential businesses? How has this virus affected advertising as of late, and how will it affect the future?
There are very strong advertising messages around prevention, hygiene, and health. Do I think businesses are going to continue advertising about their health and safety measures after the lockdown? Perhaps not, unless the pandemic miraculously disappears overnight – but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. Realistically speaking, this is our new normal. Whether it be for now or forever, all I know is the world will never be the same.
In saying that, I think advertising will change and adapt if and when this pandemic is over – it simply has to. With meat, flour, yeast, and even seedlings flying off the shelves – people have reverted back to making their own food and growing their own fruits and vegetables. This could mean that there will be people who’d realise that we can make our own food without needing takeaways or deliveries, we can exercise without needing a gym, and we are perfectly capable of having our own means of entertainment at home instead of going out.
Another probable scenario is that non-essential businesses would have a sales increase after the lockdown is over. I imagine advertising messages such as “we’re back in business”, “reopening sale”, and post-quarantine discounts might be something that non-essential businesses are already looking into now. With convenience at the forefront, people can simply go back to exchanging money for ready-made goods and services that make people’s lives easier.
Whether the change is from the first post-lockdown scenario I’ve depicted or the latter, I can see advertising still playing a huge role in affecting how the future, post-coronavirus, will be. My hope is that advertising messages don’t forget the efforts and sacrifice of today’s front liners – especially the ones whose jobs we tend to overlook and perhaps even undermine at times. The likes of truck drivers, delivery people, grocery attendants, and custodians. We sit, working from home, considered as non-essential business workers, while they constantly risk their health just so that we can still live comfortably amidst the pandemic.
A smart advertiser would realise and remember that the economy is built on the efforts of the workforce. A wise advertiser would recognise and thank the aforementioned essential business workers (amongst others such as healthcare workers, police and military, food services, and bank workers – to name a few). Telling a story around how your company appreciates the people who are most at risk to contract a major disease just so you can stay home so you can eventually go back to business, (because most of us have the luxury to stay home) is not only good advertising, but it’s also a way to build our world back up again.
My hope is perhaps after this pandemic, if and when we all get through this – the world will be more human again. Not numbers, figures, and statistics – but human. Optimistically speaking, advertisers should find a way to make sure that good news are told through storytelling where companies seek relationship over revenue. After all of this blows over, whether people choose to make their own stuff again or go back to exchanging money for convenience – I hope that advertisers have a mind shift where the word “reach” is not a mere figure, but an actual act to “reach out” and create a genuine and good influence in people’s behaviour.
