Category: In the News

Curated Performance Marketing News – Consumer and Industry Trends-Affiliate Networks, Business Insights and more.

Five Top Performance Marketing Strategies as We Return to the ‘New Normal’

As the world went into lockdown, consumer behaviours changed almost overnight. As we emerge into a post-lockdown world, the changes are expected to develop at a slower rate, with the threat of localised lockdowns making people cautious around getting back to their old ways of life.

Understanding these shifts in behaviour against different stages of economic and broader recovery will help brands determine ‘where to play’ and ‘how to win’. 

1. Stay close to the trends, activate and test accordingly

Staying close to consumer behaviour in your sector, both domestically and internationally, can be achieved by close integration of your search advertising, wider Google trends and social listening. 

The emergence of new trends should fuel testing programs. It is impossible to say exactly what a new normal will look like, as some lockdown habits remain, some return to a pre-COVID state, and even more, are new to develop. With all this uncertainty, there is no guarantee that the marketing tactics which worked in 2019 will work this year. Therefore, a continuous approach to testing and iterating will stand any advertiser in good stead.  

2. Flash sales & discounting

Flash sales are a great way of getting a fast revenue injection into businesses that are already set up to sell direct to consumer, using performance channels such as affiliates search and social. The associated time limit and availability of inventory can be used to drive demand against specific audiences.

Flash sales can be controlled by smart usage of first-party data to hit only the customers you want to reach and bring a controlled revenue boost. It is also a great way to build affinity to a brand’s DTC (direct to consumer) proposition and build a customer base for later reengagement. Flash sales can also be a very effective way to reduce excess stock quickly, to free up warehouse space or reliance on items that will be going to be out of season. 

3. Virtual showrooming

Even as shops reopen, footfall is expected to be lower than pre-lockdown, as consumers’ regain confidence to hit the high street.

Immersive showroom experiences across performance channels are a great way to get your products in front of customers virtually, with VR (virtual reality) advertising opportunities available from the likes of Facebook and Snapchat. Returning to the ‘new normal’ has accelerated our path to future retail and can be used to remove typical buyer seller friction associated with in store visits (e.g. bad weather, motorway traffic) and delivering greater convenience and increased scale through virtual footfall. 

With increased demand and customisation, performance marketers will need to ensure experiences are agile, and creative is personalised according to customer centricity. Virtual showrooming should also make more customer data available to analyse and feed into performance and business planning optimisation, particularly within shopping feed promotions.

4. Pivot to retention

For many entertainment and DTC subscription brands, COVID-19 has seen a huge boom in new acquisitions. You only have to look at the rapid growth of Netflix and Disney+ over this period to see the largest examples of this, while many smaller more niche businesses also seeing a similar period of growth. The key driver for this is increased time spent at home.

The challenge post-lockdown will be to keep these customers engaged and loyal to the brands. This should be tackled with a data-centric strategy focused on CRM and paid media tactics to reach these customers before they become disengaged. Performance marketers will need to ensure that frequency and messaging is useful for the consumer, and increased engagement and loyalty is being driven by a value exchange.

5. Focus on SEO by building ‘peace of mind’ led content

With many brands re-evaluating their marketing budgets, now is a great time to ensure your SEO programme is fit for purpose and focused on driving long-term, sustainable growth. A well run SEO programme will pay dividends over time, especially as particular verticals reach a new normal.

Brands should be using this time to generate ‘peace of mind’ content in a world where consumers are more cautious about price promises, protected deposits, cleanliness and speed of delivery. Prominently promoted USPs and information that is easy to find and digest will reassure customers which, in return, will help brands win. 

The post Five Top Performance Marketing Strategies as We Return to the ‘New Normal’ appeared first on PerformanceIN.

,Read More

‘Being intentional with how you are coming in’: A running list of when, how —and if — publishers return to the office

Five months into the coronavirus crisis, the media industry has figured out that it can operate its key functions remotely almost entirely. But being a creative and collaborative industry, there are some jobs and projects that must take place in a studio or collaborative environment and those necessary in-person functions have media companies contemplating when and how its safest to do reintroduce those environments.

A lot is still up in the air. Depending on a company’s location, governmental restrictions are still in effect for nonessential business and whether or not they are allowed to have employees come into an office.

In a Digiday survey of media companies, BuzzFeed and Reuters had the earliest return estimates of October 2020 for when they will start bringing nonessential workers back into its global offices, if legal and safe to do so. Meanwhile, many other companies said they would not require employees to be back in office until at least January 2021, or they said they didn’t have a solid timeline at all.

Regardless of when companies are able to reopen their offices, the way shared workspaces will look and operate is likely going to be very different.

According to Natalie De Paz, manager of culture and engagement at agency Landor & Fitch, the expectations that employees have for their workplaces has changed.

“It’s not as simple as working X more days at home, but being more intentional in the office space,” said De Paz. “It’s not just for the sake of coming in, but being intentional with how you’re coming in.” 

Therefore, companies need to “define the activities that would make the most sense in a workspace,” meaning the office spaces should be seen as collaboration environment versus a place where individual workers filter in and out on a daily basis to sit at a desk.

However, De Paz notes that some employees will still require that option if their home set up is not conducive to productivity and interacting with external clients or sources. 

“There’s a lot of positives that have come out of working from home and hopefully they can be retained,” said De Paz, pointing to productivity and technology advancements.

There was an initial dip in productivity, De Paz said, that came from employees learning how to use technology that they were initially reluctant to learn. “A lot of people didn’t see the need to adopt new tech,” she said but not having access to whiteboards or manual materials forced them to learn.

Tech will also be playing a large role in the transition period where some staffers remain at home while others are back in the office, De Paz said. Conference rooms, for example, will need to be equipped with cameras and microphones that cover the entire room to keep people who remain remote connected to the in-person staffers.

Publishers have a lot to consider as they move staffers back into the office and it’s going to take time to make the proper adjustments from a safety capacity and a productivity capacity.

Here are the tentative timelines for some of the major media companies. This list will be updated and expanded periodically.

Bonnier Corp. (U.S.)

  • The earliest the company would return to its office in New York City is early 2021, according to a company spokesperson. Offices outside of New York are open for employees to access on an as-needed basis, but staffers are not required to be there and can continue working from home for the foreseeable future.

BuzzFeed

  • The slow reopening of its offices will begin October 1 at the earliest where legally possible and safe to do so, according to a company spokesperson.
  • Currently, “position 1 employees” are allowed in its offices. This includes office services, facilities, security, IT and studio operations, as well as specific production team members, the spokesperson said.

CNN

  • The majority of CNN’s staff will not be back in its offices until 2021. Has of June, approximately 15% of the staff was working in an office, according to an internal memo from CNN president Jeff Zucker at the end of May.

Fox News

  • Fox News has had essential staffers in their offices since March, but the plan to move the rest of its staff back into its offices is still fluid, according to a company spokesperson and there is not an exact date for that return.

Group Nine

  • Group Nine extended its work from home status for the majority of employees through early 2021, according to a company spokesperson.
  • Essential news staffers and business-critical production employees should be available to return to the company’s office or remote field assignment with seven days notice, if they have not already returned to work. Employees who are considered to be a part of “essential revenue support” might be asked to return to work sooner than early 2021, but will be given 30 days notice, the spokesperson said.

Meredith Corp.

  • Nineteen of Meredith’s 20 U.S.-based offices — 16 of which are television stations — are currently open to certain degree. The other three offices are its headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa and its offices in Shelburne, Vermont and Stamford, Connecticut. The open offices are operating at a 10-20% capacity, according to a company spokesperson.
  • The majority of Meredith’s workforce continues to work from home and there are no immediate plans to open any additional offices at this time.

Reuters

  • Globally, nonessential employees are still work from home until October, though that date is still under review, according to a company spokesperson. The reopening process will take place on a local business rather than a global basis, however. 
  • Certain global offices, like Hong Kong and the Philippines, have reopened their offices only to have to close them again according to government mandates on coronavirus. 

The Guardian

  • The Guardian does not have a definitive timeline for returning to its U.S. offices, but according to a company spokesperson, staffers will be working remotely until at least the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

The New York Times

  • Staffers will not be asked to return to the office before January 2021, according to a company spokesperson.

Time

  • Time’s offices will remain closed and staff members will continue to work from home for the rest of 2020, according to a company spokesperson.

The post ‘Being intentional with how you are coming in’: A running list of when, how —and if — publishers return to the office appeared first on Digiday.

,Read More