How can brands plan their spend Post-Covid?
It is pretty evident that India will not open with a proverbial flick of a switch— it will be gradual and full of stops and starts, state-by-state, region-by-region. As such, we're expecting a much larger emphasis on local media like regional TV, radio, out-of-home and localized digital.
I look ahead at the new normal and how we should try to interpret post-covid era of advertising.
I believe the new normal is going to be phygital ;
In the post-pandemic era, virtual and physical environments are colliding to create seamless experiences for customers in every industry. These experiences represent a multitude of opportunities for creating interactive communications that take into account the customer’s journey. To win over a stellar customer base, marketers must look at building trust and aim to influence customer sentiments.
While planning your marketing campaign for the next 90 days may ,it might feel like you are in quicksand but you should most certainly look for having an omnichannel approach. The consumer behaviour is dependent on India’s lockdown situation, however there certainly is a hack for taking your campaigns PhyGital.
1. Globally, Phygital is the way forward for marketing which refers to Physical + Digital Marketing . Using phygital to connect the online and offline world, allows a marketer to create closer, more efficient, and human customer experiences, something that is vital for an industry subservient on crafting unique and unforgettable experiences for their customers.
2. Hyperspace Advertising - The local Kirana store is where all the audience lies in the post pandemic world ! Getting cracking with these Modern Trade, Retail Stores along with brand placement can really prove your brand’s presence in everyday life.
3. The new normal will revolve around tech, virtual brand activations, becoming contactless and hence, will be built on more accountability of clicks.
4. For the next 12 months , my bet is that virtual events are going to be the new normal .
The ever changing digital landscape along with the advent of AI & VR is asking contemporary marketers to be more savvy with their creative ideas. Combining a number of emerging creative disciplines and technologies to entail marketing campaigns is slowly going to become the thumb rule of the advertising world.
To achieve a genuinely phygital experience, it's critical that there is technology that facilitates the campaign. Technology plays a huge role in making a customer’s journey highly customized and convenient. Gamification is where the spends are happening and advertising embedded within mobile games is soon to be a crucial part of a brand’s journey.
In the years ahead, there will be references to a pre-pandemic and post-pandemic world.
For the event marketers , planning would more likely involve curating virtual events, summits, conferences or sales meetings. I recently saw a virtual IPO being implemented and a bell ringing ceremony going virtual at NASDAQ. Consumers are relying on online and contactless experiences more than ever, which is creating a surge in digital marketing. This has created an opportunity for brands to modernize business models to focus more intently on digital experience and ecommerce strategy. For some marketers, this is a natural acceleration of digital business transformation. For others, it’s a whole new world to explore and capitalize on. For all, data has become more important than ever to further understand high value customers and their new behaviors, and to create new services, products and experiences that serve their needs.
We are already seeing some shifts from national to regional or local budgets, and a higher interest in hyper-local geo targeting. Planning of a brand campaign should no longer be nationwide; it should be focused on the R-O-G concept which emphasizes planning across Red, Orange and Green Zones. Preferably campaigns should be run only in Orange and Green Zones and geo-targeting should be done at a micro level .
