Last week we provided information on how the current health crisis is affecting Hispanic consumer behavior and media habits. This week we offer evidence on the importance of maintaining advertising during times of disruption, followed by examples of brands that are building their equity among consumers by being proactive.
On the topic of advertising during a recession/crisis, there have been studies going back a century insisting the same thing. Whether it was the Harvard Business Review (1920s), the American Business Press (1970s), McGraw Hill Research (1980s) or the Journal of Advertising Research (2009), the studies stress the advantages of maintaining – or growing – advertising spend in a downturn.
Here are some contemporary comments:
- From Kantar: “[B]rands that hold their nerve while competitors reduce spend are likely to benefit strongly.” In the same study, they ran simulations for a beer brand and concluded “if [the brand] were to go totally dark, it could lose about 13% of existing volume sales – [and] market share that would be very hard to recover in the future.”
- From MNI Targeted Media: “When and if a recession hits, the best course of action is protecting your investment. Brands that safeguard the hard-earned equity won in their marketing and brand campaigns will preserve the foundation they need to grow and rebound. If companies cut deeply into advertising and communications budgets in a down period, the cost to regain share of voice in the market once the economy turns may cost four or five times as much as the cuts saved.”
- From digital agency Augurian: “Cutting marketing costs will decrease brand awareness, search result ranking, and brand loyalty. Once those things are gone, they are very expensive to get back. The worst thing a business can do is sabotage their revenue by not advertising, and then try to recover with less money and more competition once the economy improves again.”
As for brands who are doing it right, we highlight two of our partners: Ford and McDonald’s.
- Ford displayed its commitment to our country in other challenging times and offered help to its customers. They aired these great spots concurrently, in English and Spanish media. Click here to watch one spot, and here to watch another spot.
- McDonald’s saw an opportunity to partner with food delivery services to bring its food to consumers’ homes. Working with their Hispanic agency ALMA, McD’s developed a fun and clever campaign to communicate the message. Click here to watch.
We at Univision remain committed to partner with you to ensure your brands and clients come out of this in a position of strength. Please let us know how we can help.
Stay well,
Steve Mandala
President of Advertising Sales and Marketing, Univision
