Today in Digital Marketing - 130: What Consumers Want to See in Ads During a Pandemic

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

How consumers want YOUR brand messaging to change during the pandemic YouTube releases a tool to make video ad creation EASIER And Instagram Live gets a welcome upgrade Today’s episode is sponsored by Tresta.com Can you help spread the word? Review this podcast at https://ratethispodcast.com/today AND/OR click https://ctt.ac/o713H to preview a tweet you can publish Today in Digital Marketing is produced by engageQ digital. Can we help you with YOUR brand’s digital marketing and social media? Let’s chat. http://www.engageQ.com TOD’S SOCIAL MEDIA: Tod’s web site: http://TodMaffin.com Tod’s agency: http://engageQ.com LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/todmaffin Twitter: http://twitter.com/todmaffin Instagram: http://instagram.com/todmaffin Facebook: http://facebook.com/tmaffin TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@todmaffin Mixer: https://mixer.com/HappyRadioGuy SOURCES: https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2020/42714/advertising-during-the-covid-19-outbreak-what-audiences-want https://www.marketingdive.com/news/publicis-ceo-says-ad-spending-fallout-from-coronavirus-could-dwarf-08-cris/575996/ https://www.blog.google/products/ads/youtube-video-builder/ https://services.google.com/fb/forms/videobuilderbeta/ https://wersm.com/reddit-makes-big-changes-to-its-political-ads-policy/ https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-live-streams-can-now-be-viewed-on-the-web/575949/ https://wersm.com/no-new-emoji-in-2021-due-to-covid-19/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/todayindigital/messageOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Tuesday, April 14th, 2020. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Today, how consumers want your brand messaging to change during the pandemic. YouTube releases a tool to make video ad creation easier. And Instagram Live gets a welcome upgrade. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing, brought to you by Tresta.com. Okay, first, the bad news. Publicis says the coronavirus pandemic

will shrink ad spending at a scale not seen in modern history. Even more severe a pullback than the so-called Great Recession. Here's Marketing Dive quoting Publicis' CEO, measuring the situation against the Great Recession, which at its worst point led to a 10% drop in ad spending, does not capture the scale of the problem. There is no comparison,

and the pandemic reverberations will be steeper. 2020 was previously expected to provide a boost to marketers eager to capitalize on events like the Olympics, but any optimism has been sidelined in the wake of mass postponements and cancellations. Anxiety is particularly high for marketers and their agency partners, since marketing departments are often the first to experience cuts in a downturn. 65% of CMOs are already stealing themselves for reduced budgets, according to a recent Gartner survey. Agencies could have it worse. The category for years has struggled with returning to growth and achieving digital transformation.

Okay, so that's the bad news. But there is a glimmer of hope here in the form of word that consumers actually want to see your advertisements right now. New research from Unruly shows consumers just want you to change your tone and content a bit. Change how? The report says consumers want to see, in order of preference, first, how your brand is supporting your staff and customers. Then they want to see informative messaging about COVID-19. They'd like a positive or funny distraction. And in fourth place, something that provides a sense of continuity and normality.

In fact, only 7% of people they asked said they didn't want brands to make messaging specifically about COVID-19. As for the tone they want, way out in front with nearly half the respondents, they want you to make them feel informed. Then 37% say they want warm and happy tones, and a third want to feel inspired. Only 2% of respondents said brands should stop advertising entirely during the pandemic. The data was collected last month among 489 consumers in the US. YouTube has launched a new tool for brands that don't have the resources to create videos from scratch. It's called Video Builder, although to be fair, it really should be called Video Ad Builder since it makes YouTube ads. It's in beta right now, but it does things like animating

static assets like images and text, and you can throw in license-free music. There are also some layout templates, color and font customizations, and so on. After you've created a video, it will spit out a short YouTube video of either 6 or 15 seconds. If you'd like to kick the tires, there is a link in the description for the application form. Still ahead, Instagram Live got perhaps the best upgrade brands could ask for and the unlikely impact the pandemic is having on emoji. That's in a minute when Today in Digital Marketing continues. I want to talk to you about one of our sponsors, Tresta. Tresta is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that lets you do business calling and texting from anywhere.

With Tresta, you can set up your business phone number, download the app, and start calling and texting unlimited right away. Tresta is the best business phone app on the market. Whether you're just starting your business or you're already established, Tresta offers the call management features that empower you to communicate smarter and more efficiently. One of the best things about Tresta is it's so flexible. If you just need a business phone number, you can set up a local or toll-free number instantly. If you're looking for a complete business phone system, all their powerful call management features are included. Everything from auto attendance to call recording to user groups and so much more. It's just $15 per user per month with no contract and you don't need any special equipment, just the smartphone you're already using. Start your free 30-day trial today at Tresta.com slash today.

That's T-R-E-S-T-A dot com slash today. was already there. Reddit already forbids untrue or misleading ads. Political ad creatives are manually reviewed. And ads that come from outside the U.S. are not allowed, regardless of the content. And here's what's new, quoting WeAreSM.com. Now, political advertisers will need to work directly with Reddit's sales team to create ads. Also, they will need to leave comments on for at least 24 hours from the moment their campaign begins. Reddit is also launching a new subreddit at r slash reddit political ads that is dedicated to political ads transparency. The Reddit political ads transparency community will list all political ad campaigns running on Reddit dating back to January 1st, 2019. It will also offer information about the individual advertiser, their targeting, impressions, and spend on a per-campaign basis. Unquote. Many brands these days have been turning to live broadcasts to keep in touch with their

customer base, and Instagram has just released a new feature that is bound to help you expand your reach if you have dipped your toes into the live stream waters. Instagram live broadcasts are now viewable on PCs. That is to say, desktop and laptop computers. And maybe the best news, it comes with a consistent URL that you can promote. You just add slash live at the end of your Instagram URL. So in my case, Instagram.com slash Todd Maffin slash live. And since it's just a web page, people don't need the Instagram app or an Instagram or Facebook

account to watch. This new desktop live stream comes with pretty much everything on mobile, including comments. Instagram says it's also working on a donation system to help support creators who use the platform. The COVID-19 outbreak has postponed a lot of things, but I did not see this one coming. The Unicode Consortium says that Unicode 14.0 will be delayed for six months. What does that mean for you and me? No new emoji in 2021. The president of the consortium saying, under the current circumstances, we've heard that our contributors have a lot on their plates at the moment

and decided it was in the best interests of our volunteers and the organizations that depend on the standard to push out our release date, unquote. However, that delay does not affect emoji that were announced last month. Those will still come out on time in the fall. And finally, some brands just don't get it. I was excited to read this morning that the Jaguar

and Land Rover car brands had released a pack of virtual backgrounds that you can use on Zoom. And I thought, hey, that's clever. Well, maybe videos inside a car factory or make it look like I'm in my luxury car garage. But no, it's literally just their regular image bank. Hot woman standing in front of car, executive smiling with his arms crossed, the interior of a car taken from the ceiling perspective down, even a pack of tools that's on the ground. Like, how does it even make sense as a background unless I'm suspended at a 90 degree angle? And yeah, well, whatever.

I had a restful long weekend. I hope you did too. Don't forget to check out Tresta.com, that's T-R-E-S-T-A.com, business calling, texting, and call management in an easy to use app. And I will talk to you tomorrow.