Times Of Adversity Are Ultimate Stress Test For Relationship Between People And Brands

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Originally published at AW360 by Alan Nay.

Brands should be asking what we as a company can do to help?

The relationship between brands and consumers has grown increasingly personal over recent years. Through social media, experiential activations, festivals and more, it’s gotten easier for brands (who know themselves well) to create deeper connections with people by attaching a voice, personality and cause to their brand. In the good times, it’s all fun and games: memes, Twitter wars and tongue-in-cheek campaigns play a huge role in developing a rapport with consumers. But with the global spread of COVID-19, we now find ourselves in challenging times. If prosperity makes friends, and adversity tries them, then this global pandemic has created an unparalleled stress test for the modern brand/consumer relationship.

The difference between brands who are building solid, long-lasting relationships and those who are struggling to keep up is the ability to walk the walk and instill trust. For consumers, and humans in general, trust is incredibly precious–especially when things get tough and the path forward is shadowed in uncertainty. With a global pandemic in full swing, there’s no doubt the going is getting tougher and the path forward harder to see. This means the relationships that brands have devoted so much time and resources to building are now more important than ever.

In the short months since COVID-19 entered our vocabulary, the virus isn’t the only thing that’s spread far and wide–uncertainty and anxiety have made their way into our homes and our daily lives. Conditions on the ground are changing hour-by-hour, cities and states are shutting down and panic and pessimism are at an all-time high. Sprinkle some rumors and misinformation on top of that, and we have a panicky global mess on our hands. It’s in these times of duress that consumers look to brands they love for a little help and maybe even some guidance. That’s part of the reason that we’re seeing an uptick in video consumption, ecommerce orders and yes, of course, trips to the store to stock up on toilet paper.

So, what do brands do when they’re seeing their customers flock to them in order to feel better in times of turbulence? How do you pass the stress test?

In Seattle, where the virus outbreak got its head start in the states, we are seeing brands quickly step up with a sense of responsibility to their employees, vendors, and customers. For instance, Alaska Airlines is offering free ticket exchanges, Amazon has set up a $5 million fund to help vendors whose businesses are disrupted by employees working from home and Microsoft is continuing to pay hourly workers who are affected by the company-wide shutdown.

This, of course, is not a new idea and is certainly not the first time that brands have stepped up beyond their direct corporate interests in times of need. For example, in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida, Home Depot reimagined their retail stores as headquarters to assist citizens, first responders and relief organizations. It was a swift action that was entirely motivated by the urge to help people, and Home Depot has been at the front lines of natural disaster defense and rebuilding efforts ever since.

There’s a simple common thread among these examples; executive leadership taking the time to ask, “What can we, as a company, do to help?” Then, acting with sincerity to make a bad situation a little bit better. For brands, this means taking action within your means to help communities as though every person is your most treasured customer.

However, it’s not enough for brands to merely think of their own employees, vendors, or customers. This is a chance for brands to embody their values through action, to be a positive influence in their community and to continue to build trusted relationships. The more brands that participate in these small, tangible acts of assistance, the larger the collective impact.

Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 crisis is happening on a scale that we haven’t seen in generations. It’s like five hurricanes, three oil spills and a giant financial meltdown all rolled up into one big global disaster. But the virus is only fueling one part of our fear. The other–maybe larger part–is the uncertainty of what’s ahead. This is where the strength of the brand/consumer relationship is being tested because dealing with the unknown is much easier when we’re not having to go through it all alone.

Brands have a responsibility to stand up and take action. Whether it’s a program to help affected people in your community, a donation to well-researched and relevant causes or an internal policy to protect your employees, brands need to demonstrate that they’re there in the good times and the bad. People are watching and waiting to see who is joining the cause to help make things at least a little bit better and keeping note of those who aren’t. When this is all over, the brands who acted responsibly and did the right thing during this turbulent time will reap the rewards of having earned strong, trusted relationships with their customers.

And at the end of the day, relationships are our lifeblood. These moments build the bonds that we end up valuing most, and the strongest, longest-lasting relationships are those that weather storms without faltering.

So, with the unprecedented times of adversity in front of us, are we alone or together?

US Spending On Search Advertising Will Fall By Between 8.7% And 14.8%

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According to eMarketer, US spending on search advertising will fall by between 8.7 percent and 14.8 percent in H1 2020, $6 billion to $8 billion less than the researcher previously expected on March 6—a 14.4 percent increase in search ad spending for 2020.

A closer look reveals that search ad spending was uniform in Q1 as a result of stable performance in early 2020. However, ad investments in Q1 saw a year-over-year spending increase of 2.8 percent and a decrease in 0.2 percent, indicating major spending cuts started in March.

EMarketer estimates ad investments in Q2 will decline by between 20.2 percent and 29.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, with the most dramatic reduction in spend from travel advertisers and the media and entertainment industry. The impact of the lowered search ad estimate in H1 will vary from sector to sector.

Though search is often viewed as recession-proof, the current crisis is impacting the performance marketing channel in two ways: Many of the conversions that would occur as a result of search are affected by business closures and stay-at-home orders, causing inventory shortfalls. Additionally, search budgets can be paused or pulled at any time because they aren’t committed in advance.

Amazon’s decision to suspend shipment of all non-essential products, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, has made it difficult for consumers to buy multiple items online. This is decreasing the share of search ad spending ecommerce activity usually drives.According to tinuiti, since the end of January Amazon has been dramatically pivoting away from Google Ads across a variety of product categories, and as of March 11, has turned off all of its text ads.

Coronavirus Pandemic Impact On Ad Spend And Earned Media Values

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Stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, people have been forced to live life online, resulting in a counterintuitive effect: a surge in social media usage but a drop in ad demand, inventory pricing and earned media values (EMV). 

Preview data from the upcoming Ayzenberg Earned Media Value Index (a.EMVI) indicates significant pandemic-related decreases across all measured platforms, in the 18-40 percent range for key metrics including VPM (value per thousand impressions), VPV (value per view) and value for various engagements (comments, likes and shares). 

According to Vincent Juarez, Ayzenberg CMO and a.EMVI author, the trend was first identified in preliminary analysis of the healthcare, gaming and consumer electronics verticals. The trend is expected to carry over to the retail, automotive, travel and other key verticals his team is currently evaluating.

Depending on the specific industry vertical, earned media actions and actual social content engagements could be higher than ever, especially with content related to the current pandemic. However, values are down because paid social inventory is more readily available in the auction-based pricing system. “It’s basic economics: An over-supply of inventory, coupled with a drastic drop in marketing budgets and inventory demand, made the price drop inevitable,” Juarez tells us. 

Given the pandemic’s volatility, Ayzenberg’s findings could shift in the coming weeks. What isn’t changing is the rate at which brands are slashing ad budgets, thereby further affecting EMV. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, eMarketer lowered its 2020 global ad spend forecast from $712 billion to $691.7 billion. On earnings calls, brands across many different sectors have called out reductions in marketing spend while others implied marketing budgets will remain unchanged. Uber, for example, said in a period of just two weeks it will have pulled back $150 million in incentives and marketing. In addition to pausing all hiring, Zillow has paused most marketing spend. Darden Restaurants, Marriott and Williams-Sonoma have also dramatically reduced ad spend. 

On the other hand, Slack will continue running ad programs and marketing programs while General Mills’ cited brand building as a long-term investment with plans to continue building its brand “in appropriate ways.”

Social media usage is soaring as people seek out ways to stay connected. New data from Kantar revealed WhatsApp saw a 40 percent increase in usage. The Facebook-owned app has grown by 51 percent in countries already in the later phase of the coronavirus crisis. 

Still, the rise in social media usage has been offset by a decline in EMV on top paid platforms like Facebook and Instagram, in part due to platforms giving users more control over ads. For example, Facebook rolled out tools to allow users to stop seeing ads based on advertisers’ Custom Audiences. It also introduced a new tool that let users reduce the number of political and social issue ads they see. The platform decided against ads in WhatsApp Status, the app’s version of Instagram and Facebook stories.

“We’re seeing that values are going down on some channels because advertisers are pulling out and saving their money. But usage of these platforms is up significantly. That’s why you’ll see depressed ad spend in most of the social platforms’ forecasts,” Ayzenberg associate director of marketing science Piotr Urbanski tells us.

According to an Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) survey of US media planners, buyers and brands, digital ad spending in the US is projected to drop by 33 percent between March and June. While travel and leisure, experiential and the automotive industries grapple with the financial burden from coronavirus, gaming is seeing newfound growth. For March Twitch reported a 20 percent boost in traffic, or 1.1 billion hours watched. Consumers’ natural propensity to start gaming has led some marketers to cut advertising.

“The increased demand for home-based entertainment, streaming, connected TV services and gaming are ‘givens.’ What isn’t a given is how marketers in verticals such as gaming are going to react. Will they increase ad budgets to chase demand or cut back and rely on organic demand, owned channels and earned media to further justify budget cuts?  It’s a fine line based on survival vs. being overly opportunistic and risking backlash during this unprecedented social crisis,” Juarez says.  

Ayzenberg is currently updating the a.EMVI to reflect changes in Q2 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic in mind.

Created in 2016, the a.EMVI provides marketers with an industry-standard resource for valuing engagement and earned media on top social platforms.

If you’re interested in seeing how your social campaigns stack up, a.network developed the Social Index tool with the goal of becoming the industry standard for measuring earned media value (EMV) and campaign ROI. 

Social Index 2.0 leverages a combination of expert analysis, machine learning algorithms and vast amounts of proprietary and public data. The index helps brands and agencies take engagement and earned media ROI measurement to the next level.

For more information: https://earnedmediavalues.com/

How To Lead Compassionately In The Time Of Coronavirus

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Coronavirus layoffs surge across the US, overwhelming marketing leaders on how to proceed in the face of uncertainty. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published a story entitled, “The Coronavirus Doesn’t Have To Equal Layoffs” sharing tips on how to lead compassionately amid coronavirus. We spoke with executive coach and founder of MER Leadership Design Marie Elena Rigo about how to apply these best practices in the real world. With over 25 years of experience as a leadership and executive coach, Marie Elena sees the HBR article as an opportunity to embrace a growth mindset. Here she shares recommendations on how leaders can thoughtfully navigate layoffs, if need be, and maintain open communication with employees.

The HBR article says, “those who manage the economic effects of this crisis in a clear and compassionate way create more value for their companies and will come out of this pandemic stronger than ever before.” What’s the first step leaders should take to achieve this?

As an executive coach, I see this as an article on leadership and an opportunity to embrace a Growth Mindset. Be intentional—responding versus reacting means slowing down enough to make sure you are making decisions from the rational part of your brain (prefrontal cortex) versus the area that holds fear (amygdala). It’s critical for leaders to recognize their “responsibility” as Steven Covey defines it: ability to respond. Reflexive actions can mean rash decisions and in an ever-changing landscape like the one we are in, what you think you know today will be different tomorrow.

How To Lead Compassionately In The Time Of Coronavirus
Courtesy of Marie Elena

The article also says higher management should consider crowdsourcing with employees. What’s the best way to go about this?

Yes, ask staff about their ideas and create a clear container for the feedback. Give them available options and ask if there are others they would like the company to consider.  Then, once agreed upon by senior leadership, give them a choice (if this is possible). This creates a sense of control and empowers them to choose what is best for them in their situation—versus having something “done to them.”

What are some ways leaders can compassionately manage the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis?

Be transparent: Sharing higher-level financials and relevant information about areas of the company that might be affected will help employees process real information versus creating their own version of the truth—which often results in a negative future fantasy, one more dire than the real information. Additionally, lead by example: If the company is cutting costs and cutting staff, leaders should be the first to reduce their compensation. It’s important that the ratio is higher for more senior-level employees because it’s a percentage of their salary. Stepping up in this way shows staff that leaders are not immune and are willing to weather the storm with others.

How should companies approach layoffs if they must make them?

Be clear, kind and definitive. Be willing to be vulnerable and show your human side. That’s a big part of empathy. If you must do layoffs, HR will provide the words. And, remember that the words are only seven percent of what the listener takes away. Your tone, volume and inflection are 38 percent. Body language, eye contact and facial expressions are 55 percent. So, just as Maya Angelo said so astutely, “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

How To Lead Compassionately In The Time Of Coronavirus
Courtesy of Marie Elena

What are some characteristics of a successful leader that are especially important during a time like this?

Avoid polarized thinking. Any good problem-solving strategy includes multiple options. When the brain is stuck in fight, fright or freeze, it seems like everything is black or white. Get in a room with your trusted colleagues and advisors and brainstorm ideas. Know that there are always many more options available than what you initially thought. 

Remember to also stay centered. Slow down. Create time to think. Do your five-count belly breathing, take a walk, avoid the news, meditate—whatever keeps you grounded and connected. It’s from this space that possibilities show up. This is because you are able to see things from a different point of view when anxiety and fear aren’t running you. Remember your mindset and be willing to shift your lens. Twenty percent of the workforce may be losing their jobs, but 80 percent are keeping them.

What are some books or resources senior management should reference to navigate the crisis effectively?

DTC Ecommerce Sales To Reach $17.75 Billion In 2020

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EMarketer has released an inaugural forecast on direct-to-consumer ecommerce sales showing that sales will grow by 24.3 percent to $17.75 billion in 2020, up from $14.28 billion in 2019.

EMarketer defines DTC companies as digitally native brands that began as independent online retailers selling directly to consumers. The estimate excludes travel and event tickets, payments, food and drink services, gambling and other vice good sales.

Despite strong DTC ecommerce sales growth, eMarketer says brands should anticipate hardships in the coming months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Sales will continue to shift from nice-to-have products to must-have products, with D2C brands falling under the nonessential category. Disruptions in the supply chain are also likely. That will mean slower shipping times, normally a distinguishing factor for D2C products,” eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco says.

EMarketer’s data suggests that from 2016-2019, DTC ecommerce increased at three to six times the rate of overall ecommerce sales. Due to intensified competition and maturing of the sector, however, the researcher says DTC’s growth in 2020 is less than two times that of total ecommerce—24.3 percent vs. 13.2 percent, respectively. Other reasons why growth rates are starting to moderate include the rise of acquisition costs, tighter funding and more focused profits.

This year DTC ecommerce sales will account for 2.6 percent of the US ecommerce market, indicating most retailers’ struggle to capture significant market share. Led by Amazon at 38.7 percent, the top 10 ecommerce brands will represent nearly 60 percent of ecommerce sales in 2020. 

EMarketer estimates 87.3 million people ages 14 and older in the US will buy on a DTC platform this year, up 10.3 percent year over year. Additionally, DTC spend per buyer will grow 12.7 recent to $203. By 2022, the researcher says the number of DTC ecommerce buyers will reach a new milestone, 103.4 million. 

A mix of new buyers entering the DTC segment and increases in purchasing per shopper will contribute to DTC brands’ future ecommerce growth.

SEO Will Be A Priority For Marketers Amid Coronavirus

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New data from Conductor reveals over half of marketers believe SEO will be more important during the coronavirus pandemic. In “The Impact of COVID-19 on Marketing,” Conductor examines how marketers plan to navigate their goals amid the crisis.

According to the findings, marketers plan to reduce overall spend while increasing investments in low cost-high return on investment (ROI) channels like search engine optimization (SEO). Sixty-five percent of respondents anticipate decreases to their marketing budgets while 27 percent say they will stay the same.

Despite lowered budgets, 40 percent say their marketing goals will increase and 32 percent say their goals will stay the same. 

When asked how a global recession would affect their marketing strategy, 58 percent of marketers say they would lower their budget while 34 percent say they would increase investment in low cost channels like SEO.

Sixty-three percent of marketers anticipate SEO will become more important during the coronavirus pandemic while only four percent say SEO will decrease in importance. Data from Google confirms this finding as it shows a recent surge in searches for SEO.

Additionally, 66 percent of marketers ranked SEO as their top-performing channel in 2019. According to Forrester, marketers are moving SEO in house while nearly two-thirds already manage SEO internally. 

Though nearly half say they plan to increase marketing goals, 86 percent of marketers admit their goals will be either more or slightly more difficult to achieve. 

Conductor’s findings are based on a survey of 317 respondents in business-to-business (24 percent), retail (12 percent), healthcare (11 percent) and media (10 percent). The remaining sectors span travel and hospitality, consumer technology, financial services, insurance, automotive, ecommerce and manufacturing.

Super Bowl, Sponsorships And Agencies With Quicken Loans CMO Casey Hurbis

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During this 202nd episode of “Marketing Today,” I interview Casey Hurbis, chief marketing officer at Quicken Loans.

Today we talk about the Super Bowl commercial that launched earlier this year and how that came about, the relationship with Jason Momoa and the company’s partnership with the NFL. We also discuss other sports sponsorships and the impact Quicken Loans is having on Detroit.

Hurbis begins by telling us what excites him about Detroit and updating us on Quicken Loan’s success as America’s largest lender. He provides a behind-the-scenes look into the process of creating an ad for the Super Bowl and building a relationship with Jason Momoa, who had never before taken on a paid endorsement. 

Hurbis showcases his team’s ambition when discussing their approach to partnerships. He says, “We have a history of doing things that have never been done before.” They have also used these sponsorships to improve their community. Hurbis explains, “We want to be able to do good by the community but also shine a spotlight on our city.” Then we hear Hurbis’s take on running a large in-house agency. This conversation gives us a look into a brand with ambitious campaigns and a commitment to their local community.

Highlights from this week’s “Marketing Today”:

  • Casey describes what excites him and the company about Detroit. (01:58)
  • Casey tells us how business is doing. (03:56) 
  • A behind-the-scenes look at his highly-rated Super Bowl commercial. (06:22)
  • How Casey thinks about sponsorships and their potential. (14:00) 
  • The partnerships Casey has been most excited about with other sponsors. (17:39)
  • Quicken Loans has one of the largest in-house agencies in the world and they are growing. (22:05)
  • Casey’s advice to other CMOs considering an in-house model. (26:34) 
  • The advice Casey would give to his younger self. (30:56)
  • The most impactful purchase he has made in the last 6-12 months of $100 or less. (33:52)
  • Casey’s take on the top opportunities or threats facing marketers today. (35:42)

Resources Mentioned:

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Connect with the Guest:

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:
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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on opportunities around brand, customer experience, innovation and growth. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine startups.

How Ayzenberg Is Adapting To Full-Time Teleworking

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(Editor’s note: AList is published by a.network.)

For the most part, organizations can’t control the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. They can, however, control the way their teams respond to it. It’s now critical for companies to tighten operations and develop work-from-home protocols that meet their businesses’ and workers’ needs with the nuances of virtual communication in mind. To understand how brands are adapting to this new normal, vice president of operations at Ayzenberg Jon Simon shares insight into how the a.network is staying organized, maintaining communication and re-creating office culture while teleworking.

What are some of the challenges that Ayzenberg is facing right now as a result of working from home?

For our business, our needs are exactly as we started: the core of communication and collaboration for the purpose of creation. Because this process optimizes the ability to make a connection and build something really beautiful, effective and impactful, the biggest challenge as a result of teleworking has been to shift our mindset and our practices of how we collaborate and how we communicate with each other. You can’t put a price on human to human connection and so right now we’re figuring out how to leverage technology to maintain the same integrity of communication.

What are some tools the teams at Ayzenberg are using while working from home?

The core of our operation is built on Microsoft products, specifically Outlook for email and calendar management, Microsoft Office for productivity and documentation, Excel for everything from budget management to accounting and operation and PowerPoint for presentation of the content. So even before the coronavirus pandemic, the core was already there for us to accomplish a lot of our goals.

We actually had started using Slack during its early days of launch as an additional communications platform and soon realized that we already had integrated Teams into our ecosystem. We were able to make a very easy transition because we found that Teams was able to carry the majority, if not all, of the functionality that Slack had and integrate into the system. So integration is a key aspect here.

Asana and Trello specifically as it relates to project management allow us to lay out actual project and creative briefs so that everyone is working towards the same goals and against the same requirements.

Additionally, Workamajig, which ties together our project management, resource management and accounting needs for the business, is another key platform that represents a majority of what every employee is having touch points with multiple times a day. 

Workamajig and Paycom also work very much in concert, bringing together human resources, payroll and agency operations. Time entry helps inform the business to the performance of the teams, which helps us look for opportunities where added support is needed or adjustments to the best business is necessary to accommodate the work that we have in front of us now as well as projected opportunities.

Our teams are using a number of other platforms which fill specialty needs, such as Wiredrive for large file transfers; for creativity, the Adobe Creative Cloud and the virtual Whiteboard built into Teams; Autodesk or C4D, which are very specific to the computer graphics and animation work that goes into a lot of the content through which brands tell their stories.

How can teams ensure they’re making the most out of these tools while teleworking?

Most people are probably only using 10 or 20 percent of what these tools have to offer. I encourage a lot of curiosity to experiment with the tools, which could result in new ways to use features that perhaps even the developers didn’t imagine people would use.

While Teams was already at the core of what we were using for both short form communication like video conferencing and screen sharing, we definitely have encouraged deeper learning and have shared information and guides.

Are there any tools Ayzenberg has adopted only recently as a result of the pandemic?

While we were prepared for COVID-19 and the impact it would have on our business as well as the entire world, no one can truly prepare for that massive of a shift in the way everybody’s working.

Before coronavirus a good number of our staff was actively working off site and remotely due to the amount of live activations we work on. We’re also moving into a culture where new generations are challenging the status quo of the way we’ve always thought of work. A lot of the traditions and the norms are being broken down and looked at in new ways.

The area we saw change and impact directly as a result of coronavirus is the depth of which we use these tools. As a result we’ve dug deeper into the full functionality of what these tools have to offer, which strengthens our use and ability to be productive.

Overcommunication in the time of coronavirus is critical not just on the brand to consumer side but also within an organization. Other than overcommunication, is there anything teams should be doing to make the most out of their teleworking situations?

What some don’t realize is the serendipity that happens within a physical work setting—the random interactions that you may have with other employees while away from your desk. Those random interactions can have a butterfly effect to an idea that might end up becoming a tentpole for the business for the next six months.

Working from home has made it a lot more difficult to have those in-person interactions so what you need to encourage is more of that group interaction in a digital space, even if it’s not for the purpose of a meeting.

We have teams that are creating virtual common spaces where they go to while taking a break or as they’re working through some of their either administrative tasks. This way they can keep a live open dialogue in the same way that they would if they were sitting in the same area of the office together. This open sharing mentality is a new habit to develop. Human interaction is so integral that you need to shift your mindset and be intentional about creating those types of environments. 

I have a firm belief that this shift in the way we work is going to result in a beautiful increase in the way that a company like ours will tell stories or a company like retail business will deliver end products to their customers.

Has Ayzenberg implemented any other new protocols since the onset of the pandemic?

The first would have to do with security. We have a responsibility to protect our clients’ IP, which is so valuable to what they offer to the marketplace. That’s very easy to control in a closed environment where you can mitigate all risk on any outside access to those servers. That no longer becomes an option once your employees work remotely.

So thinking about the products you use and making sure that they meet the security requirements for the needs of your business is paramount. While that’s always been a practice we’ve done pre-COVID-19, we are making an extra effort to remain a secure and effective partner.

The other aspect is encouraging communication and check-ins. We actually have our teams maintaining the same pace of check-ins because I think it’s part of what makes an environment that’s as agile and as collaborative as ours succeed. A constant flow of communication and visibility helps us maintain pace, effective management and support for everything that our workforce is attempting to do.

Do you think when the pandemic is over organizations could continue working from home full-time and still maintain efficiency?

Without question. If you ask anyone who works from home before all this, they’ll tell you they were able to be equally, if not more, productive. Now 100 percent of our workforce has experienced that for themselves. Exposure to this experience together opens our eyes to a brave new world, which is one where the physical and the virtual can coexist.
In addition to our North American offices, we’re operating with several global offices in Europe and Asia that help to service our clients and our partners. We now have this mindset that we’re operating with multiple local offices. Creating all these local offices increases the productivity and creativity and comfort of our staff. Beyond the business aspects, that equates to health and wellness benefits. The pandemic has made it so people can personalize the way they work in the same way one would personalize their social media page.

Consumers Spent Record $23.4 Billion On Mobile Apps In Q1

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App Annie found that mobile app purchases reached a record $23.4 billion in Q1 2020. Q1 also saw over 31 billion new app downloads, a 15 percent increase from Q4 2019. App Annie’s Q1 Global App Market Index suggests that users are exploring new ways to use their phones while on coronavirus lockdown.

Consumers downloaded 22.5 billion new apps on Google Play, a five percent increase year-over-year, and 9 billion apps on iOS, a 15 percent growth year-over-year. Non-gaming apps accounted for 55 percent of all downloads on Google Play and 65 percent on iOS.

Worldwide, weekly time spent in apps and games on Android phones increased 20 percent year-over-year in Q1 2020.

TikTok was the most downloaded app across iOS and Android, followed by WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. 

Facebook topped the list in terms of monthly active users (MAU), followed by WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat, Instagram and TikTok; Tinder came in first for most consumer spend, followed by YouTube, Netflix, IQIYI and Tencent Video.

Consumer spend on iOS grew five percent year-over-year to $15 billion in Q1 and on Google Play, five percent year-over-year to over $8.3 billion. Non-gaming apps accounted for 15 percent of consumer spend on Google Play and 35 percent of consumer spend on iOS.

The US and China led consumer spend on iOS while the US, Japan and South Korea led consumer spend on Google Play.

Games, tools and entertainment comprise the categories most downloaded on Google Play although consumers behaviors are changing to reflect growth in health and fitness, education and business, which all saw strong quarter-over-quarter growth in downloads of 40 percent, 35, percent and 30 percent, respectively. 

In terms of consumer spend, social and entertainment were the largest categories on Google Play whereas games, entertainment and photo and video were the largest categories on iOS. 

Games, photo and video and entertainment remained the largest downloaded categories on iOS with education and business seeing quarter-over-quarter growth of 40 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

Nearly Two-Thirds Of Marketers Anticipate Moderate To Significant Budget Cuts

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Sixty-five percent of chief marketing officers (CMOs) and marketing leaders expect to make moderate to significant budget cuts due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Gartner. The researcher conducted the poll among 176 marketers during its Gartner for Marketers Research Connections webinar on “Marketing in Uncertainty,” on March 20.

When asked what impact they expect coronavirus to have on their marketing budget in 2020 relative to their original plan, 32 percent of respondents said they plan to significantly decrease their budget and 33 percent said they will moderately decrease their budget. 

In comparison, 63 percent of CMOs surveyed in Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey, in summer 2019, said they anticipate a budget increase.

In terms of actions marketing departments have taken in response to coronavirus, 68 percent of respondents said they’re canceling or postponing customer-facing marketing events. Followed by 63 percent who said they’re launching special coronavirus communications to customers.

The results suggest that marketers must swiftly implement cost optimization plans to alleviate near-term and future impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

Another recent Gartner poll among 833 business leaders revealed that 34 percent of businesses expect reduced levels of operations due to the coronavirus, 10 percent expect operations to be severely restricted and two percent will halt operations altogether. 

To better prepare for the impact of the coronavirus, Gartner recommends marketers create specialized teams for the purpose of formulating and adapting cost optimization plans and building budget scenarios. Equipping these tiger teams with data and analytics that inform new costs associated with coronavirus will also prove critical.