As a matter of course, when a recession strikes a sudden and annoying many businesses, the marketing budget is the first to be cut. But Covid-19 is nothing like a recession in the past. It is not as "normal" as many recessions have passed, because right now, people still spend most of their time consuming goods and interacting with brands. And although sectors such as travel and retail have been cutting costs, almost every brand soon redrawn all marketing activities to adapt to this new situation, and soon achieve success. work in varying degrees.

As everyone spends more time at home, Digital Marketing quickly seizes the opportunity to thrive, plus the revival of cable TV, it has become more essential than ever. , creating a positive impact on sales and brand image, and accelerating the digitization process in the customer experience.

But even when the epidemic has not yet taken place, the adtech (advertising & technology) industry has experienced systemic issues such as transparency and accountability; Third-party cookies are overly dependent on closed ecosystems (walled gardens - like Facebook's customer network), and many other problems. Covid-19 appeared and exposed the darkest corners of the industry, prompting demand to change as the budget dwindled. It makes marketers think, what do they need to do now to ensure long-term success?

In the program Drum's Can DoMarketers have come together to discuss how we can navigate a pandemic, develop an enterprise's marketing strategy, embrace agile marketing, attract existing customers, and reach out. Out of crisis in the image of a stronger brand. Now let's MarketingAI Check out these 3 crucial tips gathered from this discussion!

Invest, invest and invest to increase transparency in the supply chain

It is estimated that only about 50% of the advertising budget goes to publishers, the rest is allocated to items such as: technology taxes, costs for DSPs. (online advertising exchange that allows customers to exchange ads on a real-time auction basis), Trading Desk fees (systems built by a large number of Agencies to manage campaigns for customers) and other similar expenses.

Obviously, issues related to transparency and accountability existed long before in the Ad-tech industry before the pandemic. But now, when advertising budgets are starting to be tightened, businesses can no longer "swing their arms over their forehead" as before.

(Source: thuengay)

Peter Markey, Chief Marketing Officer of TSB said, “We have to constantly test, measure and test exactly where our advertising budget is going, and whether it is worth the results you get or not. That means we need to be more and more certain and confident in our upcoming investments, where the money will go, and what returns we will get. ”

Philip Acton, UK country manager and Adform's Benelux also agree. He added that out of the remaining 50%, 15% will always go to an unknown area - that is, no one knows where the budget went.

Background is "king" when it brings a consistent user experience

Over the years, marketers have used third-party cookies to find customers and tailor their messages. But with Google announcing that it will remove 3rd party cookies on Chrome browsers, it is likely that it will greatly affect MKT online by 2022.

Problems surrounding data collection, due to regulatory compliance or the collapse of cookies, have led many marketers to steer their advertising campaigns based on user context - focusing on targeting. the context when the user sees the ad, instead of targeting a specific audience like before. For brands that don't want to emerge alongside stories about pandemic death or doom, the resurgence of Context Marketing at this right moment has proved to be beneficial. Useful for Content Marketing.

(Source: Youtube)

"More and more people are paying more serious attention to the context of inventory marketing.", Acton said, “Whether it's the specific context of the page or things like dealing in the private market with other ad publishers. For that reason, we have agreed that always choose a specific type of context for all the content that will run on the pages. ”

"It's not ideal at all.", he added, “But actually, in many respects we still need to remember that the demise of third-party cookies will still bring many benefits to the end-user. And that's what we want - a consistent user experience - that offers a lot of benefits, not just for advertisers. "

TSB's Markey adds that consistent user experience is increasingly proving to be an important role in the context of brands having to reach customers in special times like the current COVID-19. He gave an example of the TSB application and website, where ad placement was all researched based on first-party insights:

“This is a fairly obvious point, but we found that the campaigns will work best when they are implemented based on the insights we have: people are using their accounts like how can we best help them, based on the services we have. ”

Listen and learn

If reaching users at the right time and at the right context is more important than ever, brand message is equally important. Three fourths [người tiêu dùng Adform đã trò chuyện] says they want to make sure that the message the brand delivers is valid in the "new normal" moment now, as this is also considered a melody that reassures their minds. Acton says: "Provide customers with really useful values, do not try to plug in the intention of exploiting anything from them right now."

(Source: Stealthmedia)

Now, he explained, is the time for brands to sympathize with the challenges consumers are going through, and to use their amazing creative power to constantly update and change the message. appropriate, showing customers that they are getting brand support in this turbulent time.

To be clear about this, you have probably seen many creative recipes being copied recently, right? In fact, balancing the two options: building a brand and responding directly to difficulties is always a big challenge. But in this case, TSB has succeeded thanks to its market research efforts, the social situation as well as consumer sentiment.

“In the past 14 weeks, the advertisements we have implemented have been implemented in a new style, with creativity tailored to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It's great that we finally get to know how those ads work. Honestly, the process of researching users and target audiences before releasing those ads has faced a lot of difficulties, because the team's working speed has been partly affected by the pandemic. . But all have learned a lot from each other during that time together. And it has really brought about a powerful effect ", Markey said.

(Source: Marketing Amor)

After implementing his Digital Marketing strategy, he concluded that: “There are many people nowadays using the creative platform we create. That's understandable when the platform allows you to build an audience for yourself, then distribute the content accordingly, and also understand which parts are working well and which are not. In addition, you can enhance the performance of that process by reviewing and analyzing data, so deciding on where to invest the budget will be the key. ”

Conclusion

In short, brands take advantage of this opportunity (COVID-19) to spread the messages related to their products and services to their customers. And the target audience will see real success once you are able to bounce back strongly, out of this crisis.

To Linh - MarketingAI

According to The Drum

>> Maybe you are interested in: The Impact of COVID-19 on Marketing: Should Brands Cut Their Advertising Budgets?

The post Digital Ads Tips for Brands in the Face Covid-19 appeared first on Marketing Admicro.