Have you communicated differently since the onset of Corona Virus? Have you become more empathetic? more customer focused? More service focused? More willing to share your brand purpose? If you haven't changed, then why not? The world has changed, customer behaviours have changed, surely your customer insights must have changed too. Branded content must continually adapt to reflect the markets and people that we serve. If you haven't changed, then you are probably in the minority.
But don't just take my word for it (although I feel I am in a good place to comment as a digital marketing consultant and trainer that probably speaks directly to over 50 marketers a week, from different countries, industries and brands). I have worked in over 50 countries and in pretty much every market sector. So, what does the data tell us?
Discover.ai has complied a fascinating report, analysing how the messages and themes communicated by brands have evolved since lockdown. This free report is entitled "100 projects since lockdown". In the report, discover.ai analyse the key messages conveyed across these campaigns and summarise the key themes and approaches taken. I would advise you to take a look for yourself. That link will take you to a page where you can register to request a free copy. As a teaser, here are some of the key findings and a sample of the ideas contained within it.
This shows the communication themes that have increased and decreased in usage since Lockdown. You can see that brands have been keen to portray themselves as empathetic and reflect how people are feeling.
We can then see what keywords match to these themes, to help us understand what each theme represents:
Then discover.ai has analysed each of these in more detail and clustered the messaging into 7 key themes. These themes are:
- Wanting more texture from life
- Voicing a renewed purpose
- Gaining in poise
- Peering over into the wild other
- Grasping after possibility
- Finding their spiritual home
- Riding on the waves of solidarity
For each of the themes, they have outlined what the key messages are, with examples of brands articulating them. I recommend you download the report here to understand what each one means in more detail.
From my own personal experience, working with my client contacts, I have noticed a greater emphasis on two of these in particular. That is "Voicing a renewed purpose" and "waves of solidarity". An example of waves of solidarity, could be a brand like Japanine Games, who have offered to give bricks and mortar retailers 50% of the revenue when someone buys on their brand eCommerce store, even though they are fulfilling the order directly, because they realise how important it is to their customers to have physical stores that they can visit to meet friends and discover new products, once lockdown finishes. To give you a flavour of what is in the report, here is an example:
I have been reassured at how most brands have listened and reacted to the changing needs of their audiences and adapted their messaging. This report is an excellent piece of evidence, which underlines the importance of customer insight and agility in marketing.
I would love to know how your messaging has evolved and the reaction that it has had from your audience. Please share examples in the comments section.
