Part 1. The job at hand.

Finding relevance in a changing world.

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© Radley Yeldar

Part 1. The job at hand.

There’s a ‘new’ for every cliché under the sun right now. There’s a new normal. Mood. Order. Next week there’ll be a new zeitgeist and a new paradigm.

Unquestionably businesses need to adapt. They need to find new ways of delivering products and services (and, in some cases, new products and services). Marketers need to find new ways to engage – of staying close to both customers and stakeholders – and maintain share of voice to come out the other side, ready to recover and grow.

All that is fraught with challenges: businesses have been turning themselves INSIDE/OUT over the last month, but there have been as many missteps as triumphs. It can’t be done by resorting to cheap sentimentality or pretending you are what you aren’t: we’ve already seen superficiality deliver the most violent of backlashes.

Recession looms, and as the tide slowly begins to turn in a health crisis, so attention gradually turns to the economic impact and how, as a global community, business begins to recover.

So how can it be done? How can businesses and brands find new relevance, in a new world, without becoming entirely inauthentic?

This is the first in a quickfire series of thought starters on the big questions emerging for marketers. We want this to feel different to the groundswell of agency marketing – we want to respond to the questions you’re wrestling with at the moment and will continue for months to come. We want it to be a conversation.

For now though, let’s get stuck in…

Finding relevance? It just got tough(er).

Part 1. The job at hand.

© Radley Yeldar

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World trade is expected to fall by between 13% and 32% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts normal economic activity and life around the world.WTO Trade Press Forecast, April 8th 2020

© Radley Yeldar

Binet & Field’s famous analysis suggests that, while short-term activations drive short-term sales, long-term brand building gradually cultivates emotional associations with customers that stand the test of time.

All very well when customers are buying and marketing coffers are overflowing, right? But what happens if, when recession looms, you batten down the hatches?

Well, evidence suggests that a brand’s share of voice will convert to share of market. In the long-term this pattern is as true during a recession as it is during boom periods: customers still consume media whether you’re there or not.

Kantar Millward Brown’s 2018 report ‘what happens when brands go dark’ suggests the short-term effect of ceasing marketing is relatively low – but a prolonged period of silence directly reduces purchase consideration.

Sure, this is marketing 101. But the important question for the here and now is this: if visibility is key to sustain growth, how can marketers maintain it when budgets are on the slide and their customers’ worlds look different every day?

© Radley Yeldar

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Sales Uplift over base

Rational messaging Short-term sales uplifts, but brand perceptions

unchanged. No long-term increase in sales or reduction

in price sensitivity

Emotional priming Brand grows stronger, leading to long-term volume increase and

reduced price sensitivity

Emotional effects dominateTime

Rational effects dominate

Source: Long & Short Of It, Binet & Field 2013

Maintaining share of voice? Challenge accepted.

Part 1. The job at hand.

© Radley Yeldar

Part 1. The job at hand.

© Radley Yeldar

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“There’s limited effectiveness in broad-based brand marketing (now)… we have reduced our direct consumer communication, and paused sizeable marketing campaigns.”

“We saw it as an amazing opportunity to play an incredibly important role for the nation beyond trying to sell things.”

“It’s not the time to come off the air.”

“It’s our responsibility to continue advertising.”

Seven weeks into lockdown (here in the UK, at least) and the response to the share of voice challenge has been mixed.

Brands have cycled through various phases of activity, messaging and marketing including promises of operational pivots, charity hook-ups and solidarity campaigns. As many of these campaigns have been vilified as have been lauded.

But the stark reality is this: just seven per cent of brands have seized the opportunity to invest more and, in total, UK marketing budgets have declined at their fastest rate since the 2008 financial crisis.

The story so far: A mixed response

© Radley Yeldar

Most agencies will be making the case for continued marketing spend right now. We’re not at odds with that, but think the conversation should be more considered. Finding relevance right now will take a nuanced, sensitive and targeted approach.

A deeper, more flexible understanding of where audiences are at. Balancing internal messages with external ones. Re-evaluating stakeholder comms, transparency and how to treat other businesses in the supply chain. In tackling all this, a number of questions should define your approach.

Finding relevance: the defining questions for the months ahead

Part 1. The job at hand. 6

ContentPeople are looking for sources of comfort and reassurance. It’s a double-edged sword though – sensitivity is high. Those who get it right will be remembered – but so will those who misjudge the mood.

What can we say which has meaning and relevance at a sensitive time?

Is there a risk that continuing normal comms practices could be insensitive?

How do we evolve our messaging and tone?

How do we adapt our channel strategy to cater for new habits and tastes?

What channels will give me bang for buck?

AgilityThere is no ‘new normal’: what is normal is changing every day. Companies, brands and marketing need to embrace agility to flex operations, products, services and messaging with the times – and strike a more meaningful note in the world.

Can (or have) we pivoted our operations to make a meaningful contribution to the response?

How do we go beyond corporate philanthropy?

How is this affecting our culture?

How is our customer base changing, and what trends provide short and long-term opportunities?

Recovery and purposeSome brands have been quick to respond with a gimmicky ad campaign, initiative or set of promises. Others are struggling to find a strategy. Both find themselves open to scrutiny and without a role to play. Now is the time for purpose to start showing value beyond words.

What role can we play in wider societal recovery that could provide hope and reassurance?

How can our values provide guardrails for marketing (and commercial decisions)?

What is our strategy in a ‘post-COVID’ world when economic recovery will become the focus?

/radley-yeldar @radleyyeldar @RadleyYeldar© Radley Yeldar

Up for a conversation?

What do you make of all this?

Do these questions and challenges feel familiar?

What others would you add to the mix?

How have you gone about tackling them?

What’s working?

Get in touch

These are the fundamentals we’re going to be pondering over the coming weeks through this INSIDE/OUT series. We’ll take them one by one in simple, bitesize chunks (starting next with some thoughts on how you might find new relevance through switching up your channel mix).

We won’t have all the answers, but we’ll offer practical advice from seasoned comms specialists. Hopefully you’ll see some inspiring ideas. But we don’t want this to be just another agency spewing content into the ether.

We want this to be a conversation – and to have each new chapter be shaped by what’s on your ‘to do list’ right now.