Marketing in 2020
MARKETING IN 2020
IPSUM AGENCY LTD ADMIN - JUNE 17, 2020
Don't mention the 'C' word and don't cancel your marketing...

IT'S TRUE THAT THE WORLD, HOW WE INTERACT, BUSINESS PROCESSES AND HOW WE GO ABOUT OUR DAILY LIVES WILL MOST CERTAINLY CHANGE AFTER THE EVENTS OF Q1 AND Q2 2020. BUT DOES IT MEAN THAT MARKETING SHOULD STOP OR CHANGE AS WELL?

Stopping all marketing activity in times of crisis...No, No, No, a thousand times No...

Well, this is my opinion in any case! Throughout my 26 year career, in times of crisis whether it be financial, political, pandemic or something else I have seen marketing teams be raised to the ground and all activity curtailed or stopped almost immediately. This is  fundamentally the most incorrect thing for any company to do if they want to come out of the crisis with any sort of meaningful impact both on the business, its employees, clients and prospects. In times of crisis this is exactly when your marketing team comes into its own. Marketers are highly adaptable, resilient and creative people and very often the marketing department is not given the credit it deserves. We very often work to ambiguous briefs, impossible deadlines and receive the highest amount of scrutiny of any department. 

I have seen for myself and spoken to many people over the last few months who share my opinion; marketers who have been furloughed, made redundant, agencies and researchers whose projects have been put on hold, and return on investment results generated by marketing projects that would actually make your eyes water.

Imagine reducing the cost per acquisition in an instant during a crisis? Possible or not?

It's a scary thought when a crisis comes along, you immediately look to see where you can cut costs. So where do some senior leaders turn to - Yep, you've guessed it - the marketing department! An exceptional marketing department that has a seat at the top table and the tools in place can be your biggest driver of growth and profit if you let them do what they know how to do. One client of mine has been prolific with advertising through social media channels such as Facebook and I persuaded her to have faith in my decision to continue the advertising even through the peak of the crisis. An FMCG brand running two similar campaigns, one before the pandemic. The second at the peak of the pandemic. Both campaigns were run over the same time for the same financial cost and to a similar target audience. These were some of the results:

CAMPAIGN ONE

TARGET AUDIENCE REACHED - 5,426
ENGAGEMENT WITH CONTENT - 441

CAMPAIGN TWO

TARGET AUDIENCE REACHED - 53,968
ENGAGEMENT WITH CONTENT - 12,328

The website analytical data also showed some staggering results, over the last 90 days the number of users to the site increased by over 470% on the previous years visitor numbers. The number of sessions increased by over 640% and visitors were spending above average amounts of time perusing the website and as you can imagine enquiries and sales went up on the website and across other online sales channels.

Now, you might question why the peaks and troughs in the graph? Well, that's easily explainable; the client in question has received many requests now from wholesalers wanting to order and stock the products in their online and physical stores and so the marketing strategy has shifted somewhat and new products are being conceived to meet the new demand.

I appreciate that this is just one recent example based on the most recent crisis. But I can recall a few years ago when I was working for a financial services organisation around about this time of year in actual fact; Brexit day! 23rd June if I recall correctly. I was leading a marketing team who were launching new products and raising brand awareness into many new countries in Europe. I think it's fair to say that no-one in the city of London actually expected the Brexit result to go the way that it did. Our commentators, fund managers and economists were all expecting a very benign Friday webinar to discuss the results. Then...the result came that the UK would leave the European Union. That day the highest number of subscribers to our Brexit webinar attended the call. In fact, so many people dialled in it crashed our IT systems across the company! Not such a great result and yes marketing or rather me, got the blame! But, it just goes to show that in times of crisis your clients want you to communicate to them.

So, this is a plea from me and on behalf of marketers around the world. Next time there is a crisis - don't immediately look to marketing to cut costs. Your marketing team can reach more people, more quickly with timely and relevant marketing communications at the best of times and at the very worst of times.

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