David Ogilvy, who is often called the “Father of Advertising”, encourages to advertise products in times of downturn. ew people follow his advice now: according to Bloomberg advertising rates on YouTube have fallen by 50%, and the CPM indicator (Cost per mille) has decreased by 10–30%, and bloggers complain about this. Bloomberg also reports that a quarter of advertisers stopped buying ads completely in the first half of 2020, and 46% of brands have reduced their spending on them. So is it worth saving on advertising, or is it better to listen to David Ogilvy and, instead of saving, make a bet on optimizing expenses? Mediacube, an official YouTube partner network and marketing agency that has been working with influencers for 5 years, explains how brands can work with influencers in the middle of a pandemic.
Go online or go home
Quarantine, self-isolation, and appeals from doctors and politicians are forcing people to spend more and more time at home. The Internet in this environment becomes vital: there is entertainment, available lessons on any subject, online shopping… Everything.
Life is increasingly moving to online, and this is evidenced by the numbers. According to research by the marketing platform Fohr the average time spent by a user by the screen per day increased by 18% over several weeks to 5 hours and 40 minutes. Facebook also shares data: users of Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp have increased communications in the company’s apps by 50% over the past month. YouTube data generally suggests that no one can do without their platform in quarantine: CPO of the company Neil Mohan said that the number of news views has increased by 75% in recent weeks, compared to the same period last year.
In such circumstances, there is no point in spending money on billboards, even the center of New York City is now empty. But it is logical to follow your audience to where they now spend the most time — on the Internet.
What is important when choosing an influencer for advertising:
When preparing advertising integration and selecting influencers during a pandemic, just determining the target audience is not enough. Age, gender, hobbies, and overall profile are still important, even though the coronavirus affects users’ interests and the popularity of certain types of content.
Google noted a few topics that have become popular especially during quarantine and self-isolation. These videos get significantly more views.
Studying together. Since January 2020, videos about joint studying have become more popular by 50% compared to the same period last year. Schoolchildren, students, and adults who have decided to engage in self-improvement are looking for educational materials and training videos, as well as motivation that is like-minded people with whom they can study together.
Cooking videos. During self-isolation, many began to cook and, in particular, to bake more — this is evidenced not only by YouTube data, but also by flour sales. For example, in Uzbekistan it has become so popular that prices have increased by about 30%, and local flour has generally become difficult to obtain. Citizens of St. Petersburg also began to sweep flour off the shelves during self-isolation — its sales increased by about 27%. The popularity of cooking videos jumped by 45%.
Videos that help you deal with stress. Quarantine, daily news about new cases and deaths — this is long-term stress for everyone, and people cope with it with the help of youtubers. This category includes videos about yoga, meditation, and ASMR videos. They are now watched by 35% more.
Training at home. The inability to visit gyms and training grounds forces people to go for fitness content on YouTube: sports channels began to upload 55% more videos.
Moreover, you need to pay attention to the hashtags that influencers use, and the words in the video titles. Mediacube experts noticed that videos containing words “at home” in the title received 50% more views, the same data YouTube itself gave in March this year.
Official YouTube recommendations
Mediacube partner network received recommendations from the platform for content authors. YouTube advises creators to continue making content involving famous personalities, but do it online. For example, a talk-show with a host can be recorded at home, and interviews are also easy to take online.
Among the popular formats, YouTube named podcasts, reviews of movies/series/shows, full-length series, online interviews and group discussions, home monologues of influencers, lifestyle videos with stories about everyday life and daily routine, videos with reactions to existing content, and selections of the best moments from already released shows. YouTube separates a category of videos with the hashtags #stayhome #withme.
Bloggers who used to shoot challenges in the city or outdoors, run travel blogs, and shoot in public places are now being repurposed to continue producing content in the face of a pandemic and retain an audience.
Not saving, but improving efficiency
Advertising during a crisis can be and should be done. The secret is not to reduce the advertising budget, but to increase the efficiency of spending money. If a brand stops advertising during a downturn and its competitor doesn’t, then the competitor who stayed in the spotlight will win during the upturn, not the brand that went into the shadows to save money.
According to the experience of our own marketing agency, many companies risk throwing money away, not understanding how to choose the right influencer for advertising. Brands still lose 25% to 70% of their advertising budget due to ill-considered spending on advertising. The problem is solved by careful preliminary research and collaboration with an experienced Agency that creates advertising campaigns with full responsibility.
As before the crisis, the main ingredient of a successful advertising campaign on YouTube is a well-chosen influencer. We will talk about how to choose the right blogger and successfully communicate with them in the next article.
