“Should we keep advertising? What if we appear insensitive? How do we activate our audience?”
These are questions that clients and agencies are asking themselves as we all continue to navigate the ever-evolving communication landscape of COVID-19. While many traditional corporate brands (think: retail) may be pulling back, there is no greater time for associations and organizations in the public affairs space to lean in to digital advertising to influence legislation and drive change.
You don’t need to have a huge advertising budget to make an impact, though we do recommend adhering to these best practices for advertising during a crisis:
- Be authentic and relatable while staying true to your core mission and values. Users are craving this type of content. Talk about your CSR efforts in communities and the resources you are providing your stakeholders.
- Humanize imagery to appear more organic in a user’s feed. You know those Ring doorbell and Microsoft Teams commercials showing real people in real life moments? That’s the sweet spot.
- DO NOT neglect to review your messaging and update where necessary. If your messaging is about driving sales while we are living through a time of social distancing and isolation, the last thing that will resonate positively is messaging about buying a new car.
- A/B test multiple versions of copy and creative to determine what resonates best.
- Try out a new-to-you platform while media costs are at historic lows. During this time of social distancing and isolation, we are seeing unprecedented levels of site traffic on news sites, people using streaming devices (i.e., Spotify, Hulu, etc.), and users on social media driving national conversations.
