Month: April 2020

The first thing we did was to find ways to help in whatever way we can. Not with ads but with doing things. We’ve been making donations to hospitals to health care workers, offering free food for volunteers and first responders. We have a wide range of examples of our brands [Burger King, Tim Horton’s and Popeye’s] jumping in to help people. So, step one for us was really taking action.

What about advertising?

We had to quickly adapt our entire plan. Our original plan was business as usual with advertising promotions and limited-time offers. When we saw the lockdown coming and the behavior of people changing in our category, we knew we had to pivot to this new scenario. We created new assets within 72 to 96 hours. All of our partner agencies mobilized themselves and we created assets which show to people the different procedures we’re using to reassure them they can come to Burger King, Popeyes or Tim Horton’s and they’ll be safe. 

The work you released last week for Burger King touts delivery. Is that something you wanted to make sure to address?

We’ve advertised the drive-through [more] because we knew that channel would become the go-to channel for people to buy products. We also increased our investment in delivery because we knew as people were staying at home more delivery would increase. We put some investment behind mobile delivery and payment as a way to pay that’s contactless. 

Burger King is a global brand. How does that impact marketing?

The markets are in different stages. You have China, which was in total lockdown, coming out of that now. You have many countries in Europe, like France, on total lockdown, which means our restaurants are totally closed. Then you have the U.S., where takeout is an option so delivery along with drive-through is one of the key channels for us. So we created more assets around that. We have to be creative around how we create assets. We did some that were made up of user generated content because we don’t want our agency partners or production companies to be unsafe. We have also leveraged stock footage. 

How did the new campaign come together?

For “Stay Home of the Whopper,” we had actually filmed three or four months ago for a different purpose. We had it on our back burner. We were thinking of using it for the Fourth of July or for President’s Day. But when the situation hit us FCB New York was very resourceful and they said, “Guys, what if we use this film and change the ending for this specific purpose?” [The new work] tied back to our strategy [now], which is to focus on delivery and ordering through the app. Then we adjusted the film and launched it.

In the coming weeks and months, I think you’re going to see many brands be resourceful and creative with how they use assets, use stock footage, stop motion, leveraging social media influencers and UGC.

How has the media strategy changed?

The media strategy really varies by the country that you’re in because the countries are in very different stages of the pandemic. In France, it doesn’t make sense to have TV. The restaurants are closed. So they are doing a lot of digital to keep engagement level high because people are really big fans of the brand in France. In the U.S., it still makes sense for us to be on TV because our restaurants are still open [for drive through and delivery]. So then, we just adjust the message. In China, we’re coming back from being closed so the media mix needs to adjust a bit depending on which stage of the pandemic of you’re in and the situation in each specific market. 

On television, Burger King often advertises around big sporting events. Where’s that investment going now?

We do invest a lot on TV in certain sports. We need to find a different approach in terms of media to achieve the reach and frequency we’re looking for. We’re working on sorting that out. It’s going to be redeployed and renegotiated. We have targets in terms of reach and frequency in terms of TV and digital. Things are changing. But overall we continue to advertise. When you turn the TV on your will see Burger King and Popeye’s in the U.S. The ads keep running but they’re adjusting to the new reality. 

Overall, would you say the amount you’re spending has stayed the same?

Our marketing investment is proportional to sales. So the moment I have a market where all the restaurants are closed or the moment I have a market like the U.S. where in-restaurant dining is closed, that definitely affects sales a bit. Overall, in a given year, we will probably end up spending a bit less total. But it’s still too early to say.

What has the impact been on the business so far?

I can’t comment on sales yet. We haven’t made the first-quarter results public. Globally, it’s going to affect the restaurant business negatively because in many markets businesses are closed. It’s definitely not going to help the industry as a whole.

Some companies are asking agencies to extend payment terms. Are you? 

We haven’t discussed payment terms with agencies yet. We’ve been very focused on helping our franchisees in terms of liquidity and their cash flow; on keeping the people who work in our restaurants and offices as well as the guests safe; and on adjusting our plans so that we can leverage and push sales as much as we can through the right channels. I’m sure there will be a time where people here are focusing on how we can optimize the budget as much as we can but as far as I know we haven’t discussed payment terms or agency fees. 

Many marketers are putting coronavirus content on blocklists. Are you?

When I turn my TV on, if I watch for more than thirty minutes someone will talk about COVID-19. Instead of relying on a block list, I would personally rather have us focus on making sure that whatever we put forward takes into consideration the context and that’s exactly what we did. Of course, we monitor and if there’s something we don’t like we may [change]. But I can’t think of an example in the recent past of when that’s happened. We’re more relaxed about that because of the content we’re putting forward.

What should brands be doing in this moment?

Brands should be trying to help communities by doing things — real concrete things that are going to help. They should be helping and doing so in ways that aren’t opportunistic or exploitative. For us, we’ve stopped being so strict about whether or not something makes sense for our brand positioning. We did what we thought would be helpful to people. In the case of Burger King, we gave away free kids meals. Why? Because we know that many peoples’ kids eat at school. Without kids in school, we know many parents struggle to put something together. We have provided roughly a million meals in the U.S.

Below, according to Digiday Research, are the early impacts of the crisis.

Visibility is a real problem for execs across media and marketing. It’s unclear how long this crisis will last, and the feeling in the first few weeks that this would be as simple as flicking a switch back on once things go “back to normal” has largely dissipated. 

A whopping 88% of publishing executives said they expected to miss their business goals this year due to the outbreak. Ninety-five executive-level publishers were surveyed in a snap poll to understand the effects of the outbreak on their business. Of them, 85% said also that they expect to see a decline in ad revenue due to the pandemic. 

40% said spending more resources on building their subscription businesses is their biggest priority, while 32% of them also indicated that branded content programs and “virtual events” are now taking up more of their attention and resources.

For brands and retailers, it’s similar: 83% of them said they will miss their business forecasts for the year. As the majority of retail stores have shuttered, it’s been harder for companies to make sure e-commerce operations (if they even had them to begin with) actually make up for that revenue.

And while online buying is increasing, it’s not across the board: About 38% of Digiday respondents said they’re seeing an increase in online sales, while 54% said they’ve seen a decrease in physical sales already. 

Every business is focused on cutting costs. For some companies, it’s meant furloughs or layoffs of employees, especially those who are in roles where the business has ground to a halt, such as retail store operations, events and others.

The massive economic impact of the coronavirus is already being felt across the country. With physical retail largely shut down for many companies, the commerce department has found that sales declined 0.5% in February, the biggest drop in the past year. The expectation from marketers now is that March, and April, there will be even larger drops. Plus, as supply chains and distribution gets disrupted as people stay home and more people get sick, that’s going to have an impact on operations.

Among brands and retailers, 39% of top execs expect to have layoffs due to the crisis. The same percentage among publishers said they expect to have layoffs. 

Much of the pandemic’s biggest impacts have been on the acceleration of trends that were already happening. It’s been the same for the way of work.

We asked execs across media and marketing, as well as retail, about the biggest effects they expect to remain after the coronavirus pandemic has been contained. About 66% of them said they expect looser work from home policies, while there will also be a significant reduction of business and work travel. 

“My motto is ‘enter smiling,’ and I believe there is opportunity in everything,” CCO Kate Lewis said on the inaugural episode of The New Normal, a weekly interactive discussion show from Digiday focused on how media adapts to a new reality.

For Lewis, the biggest takeaway from the pandemic is that “we now live in a multiplatform world.”

“Anyone who thinks they are going to produce media in a singular stream is mistaken, and I think you really see that now,” Lewis said.

Below are some highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

Make do on the fly

“We’re capitalizing on the creative talent that surrounds our employees. This is how we’re getting cover shoots done. They’re being shot by friends of the celebrities. They’re a two-men shoot. It’s a whole new world.”

Experiment to learn

“We have a four points of life mantra at Hearst edit. The first one is to grow audience, the second one is to generate buzz, the third one is to collaborate (which has been incredibly useful for our org for a long time), the last one is experiment to learn. For the past seven years we have had experiment to learn as a point of light for us and something to aspire to has put it in the DNA of the creative team, everything from routing proofs of the magazine on Slack to getting your sister to appear in a cooking show with you. It’s a whole different kind of ingenuity that’s been fundamentally engrained in the Hearst edit team and is now being pushed to its limits.”

Celebrities can also adapt

“We were very concerned everyone is in hiding. We often have celebrities come in and we shoot multiple videos a day. It’s turned out celebrities are phenomenal shooters. We almost have so much footage coming in we can’t edit it fast enough.”

Low-fi video will stick around

“There will be a hybrid. The one thing we haven’t undertaken is a huge well fashion story for a brand like Bazaar or Elle. I imagine we’ll continue put a lot of effort behind those shoots. But I think you’ll find a hybrid of video. Much of how video distributed is YouTube-like in nature. It doesn’t have to look that polished. We’ll definitely look for the opportunity to look for these big productions, but it’s opened our minds to the quick and dirty version of things.”