即使世界开始永久性地重新开放，大流行病显然也会对消费者行为和品牌与消费者的互动产生持久影响。
My advice: Learn to embrace uncertainty. After all, the only constant in today’s media ecosystem is change.
The good news is that 2020 offered us a wealth of evidence of what did and didn’t work, how brand messaging has shifted and how consumer behaviors accelerated. But the question for tomorrow is: which consumer behaviors will stick and which will revert? Here are three lessons.
数字优先终于无处不在
During peak pandemic months, Nielsen saw a rise in digital game purchases, 分流 video engagement, online ordering, and working from home. Out of necessity, businesses quickly moved not just their workforces but their services and more of their advertising online.While digital advertising was not immune to the knee-jerk reaction of reducing ad spending at the onset of the pandemic, brands quickly began to reinvest on digital platforms to keep a line of communication with consumers. Even with the reduction in ad spending, advertising grew nearly 4% in 2020 over the prior year according to a Nielsen analysis done with BIScience.
In 2021, that shift could be even more significant as brands continue to navigate uncertainty and consumers embrace their digital lives even more. GroupM estimates that digital advertising will account for 55% of ad spend in 2021. As advertisers adapt to the latest ad trend and cross-media currency becomes a reality one thing is for sure, digital-first has truly become ubiquitous with advertising.
Many of the digital-first behaviors consumers adopted during the pandemic will be permanent. Already, many companies are planning to allow their employees to continue to work from home, according to The Nielsen Remote Workers Consumer Survey, 80% of respondents said they would like to be able to work remotely from a location of their choosing.
These changes have begun to alter the economic and demographic landscape and will continue to have a significant impact on consumers’ media behavior and free time.
随着世界的重新开放，人们将逐渐回归到亲临现场用餐和购物，但网上订餐和路边取货的便利性仍将是许多零售商和餐馆的重要服务。
沉默是致命的
When the pandemic hit, some brands chose to go silent, while others doubled-down or tailored their messaging. In the first half of 2020 TV ad spend dropped 15.3% in the U.S. and 10.1% across France, Germany, Italy and U.K., compared with the previous year.
最大的损失出现在 4 月份，法国、德国、意大利和英国的广告支出同比下降了惊人的 31.8%。
While reducing ad spend was a necessity for some, it was risky considering that it can take three to five years to recover both brand equity and revenue. Small and large brands that chose to continue advertising took different approaches, shifting media spend, messaging and tactics.
例如，尼尔森Ad Intel NielsenAd Intel ）发现，与前一年相比，在英国，联合利华（Unilever）等广告商在 2020 年上半年积极增加了支出。该品牌加倍投入，将投资转向数字和电视，因为消费者更倾向于这些渠道。
在美国，汽车广告商在大流行的最初几个月谨慎缩减开支后，于今年下半年开始增加本地电视支出。
根据尼尔森Ad Intel（NielsenAd Intel）的数据，通用汽车公司（GM）作为本地电视的头号广告商，11 月份的广告支出从 6 月份的 1,970 万美元增至 7,240 万美元，增长了两倍多。丰田汽车和福特汽车等公司的广告投资也有类似的增长。不足为奇的是，通用汽车在第四季度的表现优于同行业。
这些明智、灵活而又大胆的选择帮助这些品牌继续成为消费者心目中的首选，有助于减少对销售的整体影响，并为 2021 年的发展奠定了积极的基础。
COVID 疲劳症确实存在，并将卷土重来
在大流行病爆发之初，许多品牌立即发布了健康安全信息，这有助于与消费者建立信任。
随着时间的推移和品牌对大流行病协议的建立，COVID 疲劳症开始出现，品牌开始将信息传递的重点更多地放在希望、对医护人员的支持以及拥抱大流行病生活中的新常态上。
美国以 COVID 为主题的电视广告比例从 2020 年第二季度的 18% 下降到 2020 年第三季度和第四季度的 12% 和 11%。
尼尔森Ad Intel（NielsenAd Intel的数据显示，在全球范围内，与 COVID 相关的广告创意在 2020 年第二季度达到顶峰，占广告总量的 48%。现在，围绕疫苗和持续健康安全的一系列新信息正在不断涌现。现在，围绕疫苗和持续健康安全的新一轮信息传播正在加强。与此同时，许多消费者正期待着从大流行病的世界中走出来。可以肯定的是，随着越来越多的人接种疫苗，随着封锁期满一年，另一波疲劳期也将到来。广告主需要继续认识到哪些社区和消费者受大流行病的影响更大，需要更多的帮助来重建他们以前的生活。
了解这些趋势、接受不确定性并保持灵活性，是 2021 年广告和信息战略取得成功的基石。
当遇到新的挑战时，利用这三个指导原则来保持航向：
- 灵活迭代
- 保持一致的话语权
- 随时随地接触消费者
This article originally appeared in MediaPost.
