As people remain locked down in their homes because of the unprecedented Covid-19 health crisis, they are mentally exhausted and bored—leading to an increase in digital content consumption to kill time. While this has increased the scope of brands to reach out to their audience and engage with them even more, consumers don’t want to consume typical ads selling a product. They demand more information, education and entertainment from brands, if at all they want to engage with them. At this point in time, the most important thing that matters to them is only the availability and continuous supply of essential items.
Prasad Shejale
Prasad Shejale, Founder and CEO, Logicserve Digital, said, “During this time, when the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we live, and the lockdown period, consumers have a huge appetite to consume content. They want to know everything about things they weren’t aware of. This is also an excellent opportunity for brands to use this time wisely and understand their customers well. Know about their fears, demands, understand their feelings and design communication on the basis of this data. It's all about rightly following the ‘Feel, Think, Act’ model.”
In fact, brands too cannot shoot large-scale videos and TVCs. Experiential marketing and event collaborations are also out of sight for quite some time. Coming to the rescue is content marketing on digital. But doing it right is the key. Creating content that does not match the audience’s need at this point in time is a waste of resources. BuzzInContent and a few content marketing experts analyse various successful content trends on the digital medium that are helping brands win the hearts of consumers.
Shejale said, “Brands should invest some time to analyse and understand what kind of content is being read or used mostly; this is where you will discover the core of consumer needs. But then, don’t stop at that. Give them what they want, don't keep them waiting, act and create content basis their requirements. If they consume a particular type of content more, it means they like it more or find it most helpful/ relevant. In the long run, brands can measure how the consumer behaves, their actions across varied forms of content and various channels, etc. This is what will help you later and will be crucial to devise your marketing strategies.”
One essential form of authentic and credible marketing is user-generated content. A lot of brands are engaging with their audience in the form of contests and challenges and fetching a significant amount of crowd-sourced content online to keep the game going. They are collaborating with influencers to amplify their UGC campaigns on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and others.
Vishal Gupta
Vishal Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Momspresso.com, said, “Since brands can't shoot new ad films in the current scenario, they are now focusing on creating communication pieces through UGC. Thus, there is an increased demand for text and video content that is user-generated. Being a UGC platform, we are fortunate that we do not need to rely on old or refurbished content,” said Vishal Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Momspresso.com.
Pocket Aces’ channel FilterCopy recently launched an initiative, #FCHomePuns, where the platform crowd-sourced content in which it asked users to make puns using house objects. Through this activity, FilterCopy was able to garner more than a thousand UGC content pieces in just two days.
Honda, too, generated a UGC campaign where Honda car users sent videos of them doing household chores and how much they miss driving their Honda vehicles.
According to Arvind RP, Director, Marketing and Communications, Hardcastle Restaurants, McDonald’s India (West and South), most brands and agencies are focusing on launching creative campaigns that aim to reassure, educate and engage their followers in a gentle way. “Secondly, the industry seems to be coming together to encourage community welfare and do their bit to help those in distress,” he added.
McDonald’s brought its famous Instakshri (Antakshari) back on Instagram and has been posting engaging content in the form of games, puzzles and even routine recommendations.
Recently, in the US, Dove too launched its campaign ‘Courage is beautiful’, adhering to its broader brand philosophy of ‘Real Beauty’. The campaign showcased faces of healthcare workers marked with the protective gear they’ve been wearing while doing their jobs in helping the world in this crisis period.
Dove’s Courage is Beautiful film:
Most brands have stalled their marketing activities and shifted focus towards creating awareness around healthy habits and generating compassion and empathy in the world.
Shradha Agarwal
Shradha Agarwal, COO, Grapes Digital, said, “Where on the one hand coronavirus has made the entire world stop and campaigns have shut, brands (except FMCG and Pharma) have moved all their attention towards being responsible; by pleading and commanding their followers to stay home and keep themselves as well as the world safe.”
According to Grapes Digital team, brands are creating content around the following content themes:
1. Be Thankful: To medical fraternity, police, media, etc.
2. Stay home: Stay inside, don’t come out, don’t use your car, cycle, shoes, etc.
3. Be safe, follow rules: Handwash, wear the mask, sanitise hands.
4. Activities at home: Workout from home, chill at home, watch at home, play at home.
5. Rekindle relationships with family.
The current ban on all outdoor events has seen brands come up with innovative solutions to reach out to the audience right at the comfort of their homes. One can also notice a trend of a few brands collaborating with music artists and stand-up comedians to keep the entertainment quotient of consumers high.
Kingfisher, the beer brand from the house of UB Group, has turned to a digital music festival and launched ‘Sunburn @ Home’ and ‘Kingfisher Storm’s Bollyboom @ Home’ streamed live. Sunburn@home provides the audience with a chance to view their favourite artists such as Paul Vandyk, Maddc, Lost Frequencies and so on from across the globe perform live every day on Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and Youtube. Bollyboom @ Home with Kingfisher Storm will also provide a virtual platform for music lovers with popular Indian musicians streaming their music.
Sunburn @ Home video:
Recently, Asian Paints launched the campaign #LiveFromHome, featuring artists across categories performing Live from their homes.
In these unprecedented times of the coronavirus pandemic, Diageo’s Black Dog collaborated with Vir Das for a digital video extension of its intellectual property Black Dog Easy Evenings. As part of the initiative, the brand partnered with leading comedians across India to launch a series of videos dipped in subtle, self-deprecating humour to bring out the brand message #SavourThePause, for a few years now. The current video encourages one to #PauseWithVirDas while he unravels Shakespearean plays the millennial way as all of us #SavourThePause together.
#PauseWithVirDas video:
A few brands are picking up fitness as an angle to connect and engage with the consumers. Bajaj Allianz Life has rolled out “Fitness from Home” initiative, where fitness experts will be seen conducting virtual fitness sessions on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
On the other hand, brands such as Reliance Fresh, Aashirvaad flour brand and Kellogg’s are creating engaging content by sharing recipes and contests around food.
Kellogg’s has curated snackable content of ‘21 recipes for 21 days’, developed by Consulting Chef Ranveer Brar. The campaign was launched digitally by Chef Ranveer himself along with his son through a live session titled #KidsKitchenWithRanveerBrar on user-generated content platform Momspresso Hindi’s Facebook page.
The video:
Shejale ended, “The crux is that consumers want to consume a lot of content, so give them what they want in a way (format) they like. Analyse and use insights for future strategies. That’s the way you can ace your content marketing game.”
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