Is it too soon to consider messaging and assurances outside of COVID? Elliott Millard, head of strategic planning at Wavemaker doesn’t think so.
“We live in a marketing world where the obsession around relevance has reached saturation in the current Covid-19 crisis. There are now so many brands assuring us that they are ‘here for you / your family / the country’ in this ‘unprecedented time / time of uncertainty / challenging times’ that they have become anodyne.”
Meaning these general assurances are falling flat. So advertising around these messages are not being heard and are often ignored. What are consumers looking for? An escape.
“The desire for escapism and the desire to spend time with the things you care about at a time when so much of our experience has been monolithic and universal is a powerful driver. And it’s one that as advertisers we should be attuned to. In the last economic crisis, the most successful brands were often ones that leant into distraction and emotion rather than reminding us of how bleak it was – the T-Mobile flashmob ad is the poster child for this.”
Positive messages are important. Magazines are especially good at this with “30% of readers seeing advertising as positive vs 21% for TV in 2nd” allowing magazines to deliver amazing advertising campaigns to their audience.
Advertisers want to reach their audience. Want to be remembered. Why not deliver those messages for those advertisers to an audience that welcomes those ads. Magazines are trusted to deliver great messages.