Covid-19: How brands are getting more bang for their advertising buck
The pandemic may have caused major disruption to the ad market as global brands pulled spend, but cheaper media prices offer an opportunity for savvy companies to do more with less.
With audiences displaced, consumer behaviour altered and advertiser budgets constrained, now is a challenging time for media owners.
Over the past couple of months several global brands have pulled back on advertising in a bid to save money. In April Coca-Cola paused marketing spend across its business, citing a lack of ROI caused by the coronavirus outbreak, and only ended its ad spend hiatus in August.
Likewise, McDonald’s cut investments in most markets during the first half of the year, with marketing spend down 70% in the US alone. The fast-food giant only recently felt ready to “reinvest” in marketing, although it is working with an incremental $200m saved during the lockdown – equivalent to one additional month of media in every owned market.
While this has undoubtedly been a time of disruption and changing priorities, the last few months have created opportunities for some brands to get more bang for their buck and try out marketing tactics not open to them just a few months ago.