How Brands are playing an active role during Covid-19

Authored by Gautam Madhavan, Founder and CEO - Mad Influence.

The Indian Advertising and Marketing Agencies are no aliens to the chaos and devastating effects of the deadly Covid-19 Virus. The outbreak of the virus has spilled beyond the national boundaries and so the scenario is quite uncertain and at the same time unpredictable in the way how the industry is going to work between widespread travel restrictions and a terrifying pandemic prevailing all over the globe. And this has taken the industry to an inflection point which will be looked back as a total transformational system.     

Certainly this large-scale turmoil has forced brands and agencies to find out newer ways in reaching out their publics. Since they are bound to adapt to options which let their staff work remotely and create virtual events as and when required. Clearly, there are four facets of the industry that will be affected the most because of the virus, the key parts being, Ad Spends, Experimental Marketing and the Agencies and Production Companies. The time has come to embrace change for the hard core traditional agencies as it’s the age of adopting the digital tools of co-working.

No wonder the corona virus has brought a lot of marketing campaigns to an indefinite halt and postpones. It has not only slowed down brands, but even social media influencers, who are now shooting their content while they are self-isolated at their homes. But the job needs to be done, so continuing the show, many brands have already initiated their campaigns over various platforms, the most trending and influential being Tiktok.  Amid the chaos, many brands are launching creative campaigns, encouraging people to stay at home and stay safe.

As confirmed novel corona virus cases have reached a whooping figure of 551 as of now in India, brands across different sectors have started creating social awareness campaigns to educate consumers in relation to the pandemic. Big Brands like Netflix, Zomato, Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy, Reckitt Benckiser’s Dettol and Amul, etc. are on their way in expressing unanimity with people during these crucial times of Covid-19.

Undoubtedly the current situation is too much frustrating for marketers but opportunities do exist and one just has to make the most of it. Some marketers have really found the way and are interacting even better with their consumers. Since people are isolating themselves either at homes or quarantined areas, this makes it all the way easier for brands to capture their audiences by the means of television commercials, digital and social media based advertisements campaigns and Public Service Messages.

In order to aware the public and sensing the need of personal hygiene many brands are actively coming up. HUL’s Lifebuoy for instance has taken quite an active stand in promoting its alcohol based hand sanitizers. The best part of this advertisement was that the campaign urged the public to buy such products no matter which brand they might opt for, mentioning the name of its competitors itself in the ad. Interesting! , isn’t it? Also it partnered with Paytm in crowd funding campaign to donate soaps and sanitizers to the poorly and needed ones.

Another big brand Dettol came in with a superb behavior change communication drive. In fact the #HandWashChalllenge as a result partnership of Dettol with TikTok to raise awareness among the people proved to be a milestone in the prevailing situation.

Who can miss the Dairy brand Amul from the chance to stand out on all social platforms? The Amul Girl is portrayed washing her hands and the advertisement goes with the caption: “Better saaf than sorry!”

Next in the list comes Pidlite’s Fevicol. The brand came with up with the same iconic logo of two elephants and marketed the same ad by increasing the distance between the two, depicting beautifully the notion of social distancing, “Kal ke mazboot jod ke liye, aaj thodi doori maintain karona”. Wow!!

Even the famous food delivery app Zomato, had a notification that if consumers wanted to maintain social distance, it had a provision for the delivery person to leave the packet at the door via special instructions. Even it added a message on washing hands before eating anything.

Encouraging people to stay at home and stay safe, Dineout India changed its Instagram user name to encourage people to not eat outside. Nice!

These are a few out of many examples by which brands are doing their part of stimulating awareness amongst common folks along with marketing themselves. This is the time when the emotions and sentiments of the public can be aroused and using such chosen words can render an awesome response and a win your brand a great deal of consumer loyalty. Yes, it definitely can!

And Marketing teams of brands and agencies like Mad Influence are deja on the path. They are continuously working on designing such creative content in aligning them for not an aloof future.

So, with the underlying message “Stay Safe, Stay Healthy”, the Advertising and Marketing Agencies are on their toes to market their brands and at the same time caution and aware the public about their health, hygiene in such devastating situation.