The success of digital campaigns no longer depends only on the triad: plan, implement and execute, now, also on contextualizing.
Seth Godin once commented “Change is relentless and relentless; therefore, the best strategy is to accept it and evolve. ” It seemed like it was describing 2020 to us.
Get out of your comfort zone.
Before the pandemic, brands planned their long-term strategies, having defined objectives in a timely manner, however, COVID-19 came to change the rules, what were annual actions became quarterly or weekly actions, the world was changing and the campaigns had to.
“We had a three-year plan for digital evolution, the pandemic forced us to do it in three months. We take risks and use creativity to adapt. The approach of our brand with consumers is mostly physical, so we had to do it online “
Mónica Michel, global DIRECTOR Tequila Don Julio
One of the breaking points was the isolation, before this moment, the brands depended on the product / human interaction. Now, users spend more time consuming products and content online, the internet gurus were right “Having an online platform is more relevant than ever.” Although being online has always been important, more important was the experience that is generated when interacting with the brand.
Empathy as the guiding principle
Users need to know that brands take action in the current context:
“64% of Internet users in Europe said that brands should run advertising campaigns that refer to or are related to the pandemic.”
Emarket
Helping and being empathic with the user’s needs became the guiding principle, brands were forced to make a 360-degree turn to their campaigns, from now on communicating measures and actions against COVID-19 is essential, and any information that encourages interaction human or contagious actions would be totally restricted or punished by the audience.
Sectors such as tourism, mobility, services and restaurants had to change their strategy overnight.
3 keys to understanding the new digital normality in campaigns
If we could summarize the most important points of the new digital campaigns they are:
- Everything is changing: We know that annual plans can help us manage in the long term, however, in the face of a changing scenario such as COVID-19, it is important to understand the needs of our audience and the relationship with our product or service, we provide relevant information with the time they are living and the circumstances. It is important to undertake complementary campaigns that meet these needs and that are optimizing for new needs.
- Everything is digital, but not passive: Let’s not try to digitize everything, this means that we do not pass our communication to the digital aspect without contextualizing, there are formats or platforms that make it much easier to understand our value propositions, our digital communication has to be active , now users need to know our product first-hand without interacting with it. Generating experiences with our value proposition will facilitate the relationship between the user and our brand.
- Be empathetic & human: The new normal requires us to take care of our user from the first interaction more than ever, co-responsibility with their needs and the current context will make us have a more meaningful company with them, we lose the fear of calling for unity and to work together to get through these times. Let us take care of the user as we would take care of our business.
A blacksmith’s house iron knife:
Would you like to know how BBS Brands has run a campaign in the new normal?
Click here.
