Understanding the nature of ad spend at a time of crises.

1. HOW SHOULD MY
BRAND BEHAVE
DURING A PANDEMIC?
TO SPEND OR NOT TO SPEND. THAT’S THE QUESTION.

2. Empathize, guys!
Behaviour of both businesses and people has
shifted to caution and concern. Brands should
be sensitive to this and build reputation
through helping their audience get through
the virus.

3. Budgets slashed? Breathe.
● Marketing is seen as a cost centre and is,
therefore, one of the first parts of a business to
see cuts. Young startups don’t have the
runway to spend on marketing without a
stream of revenue coming in usually.
● Despite this, there are areas of strong growth
and are forecasting e-commerce advertising
spend to grow by 17.7% and social media
spending to rise by 22.2%.
Source: thedrum.com

4. Reorient your Focus
● 22% businesses in China have changed their
creative and regional focus due to the virus.
● With people spending more time at home,
brands have responded by shifting spend
from offline media to online, with 14% moving
their budget from offline media.
Source: thedrum.com

5. Your Audience is Online!
● With social distancing on the rise, and more
working from home - you should think about
leveraging this increased time spent online by
increasing budgets to social media channels.
● Ensure the right content and social assets are
available (made for mobile, vertical, short-
form video, etc).

6. Be Authentic
Can’t stress this enough. Always be authentic to your
brand positioning, values and tone of voice. Your
audience will smell bullshit from a mile away.

7. Have an open, honest discussion
with your agency or freelancer.
Chat with your ad agency about what strategy to
adopt within revised budgets. Most of them would
be happy to draft an alternate content plan for you
given a lower budget.
Remember, we’re all in this together.