The resounding question advertisers are asking right now is if they should advertise. In fact, many advertisers have chosen to reduce their ad volumes and spend—whether that’s due to the pandemic’s economic impact on businesses or as a choice to dissociate from wall-to-wall coverage of death and infection. However, this strategy of limiting advertising is not sustainable with coverage of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) here to stay for at least the medium term. And reducing advertising now could have long-term consequences. 

Some forward-thinking marketers have taken the initiative during this difficult time and are creating cross-platform ad content strategies to tastefully reach these large and highly engaged audiences. With clarity into which channels and tactics influence a specific audience, marketers can orchestrate the optimal consumer experience across channels and devices and optimise spend to maximise business results. Managing advertising and marketing channels separately using siloed, channel-specific strategies, tactics and metrics is no longer effective. Brands that have a cross-media audience strategy yield better results. 

For marketing research analysts, brand managers and channel managers, measuring your campaign provides powerful insights into the consumer segments and campaign elements that are driving the greatest response, so you can make smarter decisions going forward. Testing your advertising will help you answer critical questions about the performance of your campaigns:

• Did my campaign have a positive impact on in-store and online sales?
• Did my campaign have a positive return on ad spend?
• What impact did it have on existing brand buyers versus new brand buyers?
• Is the campaign driving more buyers, higher purchase frequency and bigger basket size?
• Which audience segments had the strongest response?
• What impact did the campaign have on my market share?

To better understand how advertisers are engaging with audiences in the midst of the pandemic, we’ve identified the top industries by spend during the COVID-19 period. 

In moments of crisis, creativity can flourish. The advertising industry right now is feeling a thorn in its side, but increasing time spent online and watching TV provides a great avenue to show the value of effective advertising to grow your brand reputation and revenue.

Learn more about Nielsen’s Ad Intel solutions.