The UK was put into lockdown on March 23rd. In the beginning there was confusion, the normal way of doing things stopped, and we all learned what social distancing meant. A couple months down the line and whilst we’re still in the guts of a pandemic, things have moved on.
Communities have come together, the VE Day celebrations, the clap for carers, virtual quizzes - we’ve learned how to live and socialise differently. And so have brands. They’ve had to learn how to communicate differently with their customers.
Some brands have given back. UBER has given discounted rides to key workers, Brewdog has offered them cheaper beers and LEON has sent free meals. Some brands have pivoted to change their entire offering. ChargedUp, Europe’s phone charging network has rebranded as CleanedUp, to facilitate freestanding sanitisation stations keeping UK workers safe. Likewise, safety-tech company Tended (#client) has moved away from accident detection wearables, and launched a wearable with social distancing technology so big manufacturing projects can still go ahead (it alerts workers when they’re within two metres of each other).
However not all brands have to change what they sell to have ‘success’ during Covid-19.
Communicate well with your existing audience and they’ll stay loyal. Communicate well with a new audience and they’ll come to you. At the heart of great communication is culture, tapping into culture creates opportunity and brands that are culturally relevant succeed. We’ve got to make sure we keep up with how lockdown culture is moving.
Covid has changed culture (for the medium term). The world has changed, consumer habits have changed, the platforms we use are changing, where we get our information from is changing - and the challenge for brands is whether they can keep up with the pace.
Take Netflix. We’ve all been stuck indoors, and binged the shit out of it. The Last Dance basketball documentary is the show of the moment. Take Two Interactive, the creators of the NBA video games recognised this and made NBA2K20 available to buy on PS4 and Xbox at a 95% discounted rate - (with a bargain like that it's no wonder the game has sold an overall 12 million units since its release in September, a 33% improvement on NBA2K19). It’ll be very interesting to see if EA Sports follows suit with FIFA20 once the Premiership gets back underway (they should).
What seemed like years ago, Tiger King went viral leading to D2C brand FireBox launching limited edition Joe Exotic condoms. Now I can’t imagine a lot of people buying this product, but that’s not the point. The point is, before those condoms launched I’d never heard of FireBox, after the product launch and the coverage it received - I know about FireBox.
Everything is still weird and constantly changing, but what refuses to change is the opportunity to engage with an audience. Change with them, echo how they’re feeling, pivot, entertain, give back - just don’t stop communicating.
Ryan O'leary