Opinion Piece: Should you address the COVID-19 pandemic in your marketing?
If you haven’t heard it enough yet, here it is one more time: “We’re in unprecedented times.”
In these unprecedented times, brands, professionals, and the world have had to pivot and adapt. Marketing professionals are no exception to this rule, as we’ve seen not only our personal life affected by company policies such as work-from-home, but also everything we know about marketing best practices shift with the tide of the pandemic.
Let me give an example. Even before the pandemic, industry experts have been busily voicing their opinions that digital marketing is the future of marketing. While it’s a sure fact that the pandemic has at the very least sped this evolution up, it’s also arguable that our new lifestyles have changed even the way digital marketing should be approached.
For instance, Tik Tok has changed the game completely. With everyone stuck at home with nothing to do and not that keen to watch yet another Netflix documentary about tigers (or something like that), Tik Tok’s users and activity exploded in the last 1.5 years. And with that explosion, so did ad spend on Tik Tok.
Businesses targeting Gen Z have to be on Tik Tok, even if it’s just as a brand user. Engaging with the users on Tik Tok as a personable, genuine persona through your brand account is actually a crucial marketing strategy in social media lately. In a time where people are physically restrained and the majority of their social activity and interactions is online, it’s refreshing to see brands in the same space as them, just as human, just as affected by the pandemic, and just as stuck in the digital realm for social interactions as the rest of us.
Okay, so you get the point. Marketing – and digital marketing – has changed as a result of the pandemic. So then here’s the ultimate question: should a business’s marketing be addressing the pandemic at all?
Here are the arguments for why you should:
It’s affecting everyone in the world
People could use an awesome, empowering message from a reliable brand right now
Your business could help provide some value in overcoming this pandemic
Here are reasons why you shouldn’t include pandemic in your marketing:
It’s a fine line between marketing messaging and insensitive messaging
People have heard the same encouragements countless times by now
The pandemic is a difficult time for most – if not all – people
You can come off as trying to profit off of COVID-19, a horrible global pandemic that has killed a lot of people
COVID-19 has been infamous for being unpredictable in number of cases; you think it’s getting better, and then a new variant pops up
The state of the pandemic also varies by country and location
Vaccines and the pandemic in general has, sadly, become a political debate in many places
Many people have had different experiences during the pandemic
Some people have lost loved ones; others have not
Some have enjoyed staying at home; others have experienced mental health issues
Some have lost their jobs; others have voluntarily resigned to find a workplace that provides better work-life balance
Some have continued with their day-to-day as usual, with just a mask included
You can see there are many more reasons to omit COVID-19 and the pandemic from your marketing than pour your time and effort to make sure that one ad isn’t actually super offensive. You can see some pretty sad (and funny) pandemic marketing fails here.
Our opinion? Unless it’s absolutely key to your marketing campaign, avoid the pandemic as a central topic. (And if it is the central topic of your ad, what’s your messaging? Does it really require a mention of the pandemic?) There are many more risks than benefits to using these “unprecedented times” as your marketing material.
If your concern is staying up-to-date, there were plenty of things to signal to your audience that your brand was timely and trendy even before COVID-19 was a thing. Get on top of those Tik Tok challenges, or create a “Squid Game” parody instead.
Or contact us for a free consultation!
