Should You Stop Advertising Due To Covid-19?
Lockdowns, gatherings of no more than 2 people, a strange lack of toilet paper and pasta, these are mad times we live in (mad). You could be excused for thinking that your advertising needs to take the back seat for a while. I’m here to tell you that it should not, as the implications of pulling your ads when your competitors keep firing can well outlast a pesky (Chinese) virus.
If the last financial crisis of 08 was anything to go by, the winners were the ones who adapted their campaigns and changed their angle. The losers both in the short and long term were the brands who shut up shop and stopped advertising. Trying to claw back market share after the economy comes good again is an uphill battle that will cost your business a lot more in the long run than it would have to stick to your guns and keep the ads pumping.
“When times are good you should advertise, when times are bad you MUST advertise”
Brands should look at opportunities here, and I’m not saying be exploitative of a bad situation. I believe we have an economic responsibility as marketers to empower brands to grow or even just retain their staff by continuing to deliver sales through advertising. We as an agency are not watching Tiger King all day or moving into a bunker, we are working harder than ever (from a distance) to provide clients with solutions and work with new brands that want to thrive and not just survive the storm.
I can show you case studies that go back nearly a century, that lay out in no uncertain terms the inherent advantages of advertising when maybe some of your competitors aren’t for the very reasons you are contemplating not doing it yourself. For lack of a better phrase, I know times are tough, pull your finger out, get on the phone to your team or agency now and advertise.
Why Specifically Should I Allocate Budget Towards Advertising When Times Are Slow?
Nothing Turns Down ‘The Noise’ Like The Threat of Recession
We are bombarded with brands, from nearly every product category daily. From soft drinks to electric cars, the world we live in is a turkey shoot for advertisers and we are the turkeys gobbling up their content like it’s whatever it is that turkey’s actually eat.
The kicker is, when times are tough and some of your competitors crawl back into their shell, there is naturally less noise in your product category, meaning it is the perfect time to reposition your brand or launch a new product to market. Take advantage of their lack of vision and bring the pain (taking their market share, don’t attack them physically).
You Can Peacock The Size Of Your Brand And Show Off It’s Stability
It is a show of strength, size and firepower to advertise during slow times. Look at it logically, if you see a brand launching new products, coming up with reactive marketing campaigns, your brand looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator to your audience.
The Price Of Advertising Takes A Drop
During economic growth, advertising is very much a ‘seller’s market’, meaning online, and offline advertising platforms can essentially set their price.If you want to play you have to pay whatever price they set. During a recession this reverts to being a ‘buyers market’. This means advertising becomes cheaper and more accessible to more brands, why? Well this is the world rewarding you for having the guts (or balls) to get out there when others are spooked.
Don’t Sell Your Brands ‘Share of Mind’
When your brand cuts back on spending, you lose the kind of top of mind awareness that generates the lionshare of your leads and sales. Losing this ‘share of mind’ can take years to recover leaving you worse off than if you just took a page out of Winston Churchill’s book advocated for your marketing team to ‘keep calm and carry on’ during the tough times.
There you have it, my unbiased opinion (as someone in marketing) as to why you should not fire your marketing team and cut your advertising budget to zilch because you sense a beer year coming up. I say the champagne year is there to find, the vineyard has just moved.
