HELLO COVID ROUND TWO...HOW TO ADAPT MEDIA PLANS FOR CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

Rebuilding or adapting media plans for resilience during COVID-19 and an upcoming recession is at the forefront of media planners’ minds.

There is no more critical time than right now to pivot and protect our clients' businesses, as media consumption habits have seemingly changed overnight.

Here are some tips ~ arm yourself with insights on consumer behaviours, channel trends, and brand reactions!

Consumers - what are they doing and how do they feel?

Channels - how is usage changing right now, and can we predict these things will stick for a while. Take note of immediate changes, like video content consumption being up by 60% and a boost in streaming numbers.

Brands - how are brands within and outside your category reacting to the situation?

Before making changes, try to extract maximum value from what you have.

Find opportunities in the moment. It may be a great time to do that test you have been putting off

Reprogram your measurement strategy accordingly to track success. This step may sound obvious to some, but shifting initial measurement strategies alongside plan shifts can be an afterthought, especially in chaotic times. As you are thinking about making changes to your media plan, during COVID-19 or beyond, you may need to recalibrate your measurement strategy, data sources, and run feasibility checks with your measurement partners.