Month: May 2020

For the first three and a half weeks after shelter-at-home orders went out in mid-March, Vox Media saw its viewership dominated by videos like a Vox explainer posted on March 16 on why quarantining is important for containing the outbreak, which has accrued 6.5 million views on YouTube. But after that period, the media company has seen viewership begin to veer to more familiar fare, such as Eater’s April 4 video about an award-winning chef’s restaurant inside a strip mall, which has received 4.4 million views.

“We’re starting to see a return back to normal or less and less of the proportion being dominated by [coronavirus] as a theme,” said a source at Vox Media.

Other media companies have also observed this shift. Hearst Magazines vp and head of video development and content strategy Zuri Rice has seen viewers “digging into wanting their content comfort food,” such as celebrity news videos and remote versions of existing shows like Elle’s “Song Association.”

For Complex Networks, which has been remotely producing derivative versions of its existing shows, viewers’ gravitation to what they were watching has led to instances where the derivative series can outperform their originals. Case in point: the most recent season of “Life at Complex” averaged roughly 250,000 minutes in watch time per episode, whereas the derivative series “Sneaker Battle from Home” has averaged roughly 750,000 minutes in watch time per episode, said Aaron Braxton, head of business intelligence at Complex Networks.

“We’re past the moment now where people are looking to see the shows they’re normally used to viewing or derivatives thereof. It’s almost like a new normal. People are no longer in this phase where they’re just watching different content because they think it’s going to last two weeks,” said Justin Killion, gm and evp of operations and content services at Complex Networks.

In response to the viewership shift, media companies are adjusting their programming mix to tack back to their regular fare.

In March, Vox had prioritized producing more explainer videos, detailing why social distancing can help to contain the virus’s spread and debunking the perception that coronavirus is just a form of the flu. But in May the property is planning to supplement those videos with more counter-programming, such as videos related to design, music or history that had been a more regular part of its programming mix, according to a second Vox Media source.

Group Nine Media’s news property NowThis continues to cover the news but is augmenting that coverage with lighter programming. In late March, NowThis debuted a new series “In This Together” that concentrates on more positive stories, such as a grandma making face masks for health care employees. “We are starting to see some fatigue on some of the topics that had been trending early on in the quarantine process,” said Noah Keil, svp of strategic insights and growth at Group Nine. 

The return to regular programming has coincided with the start of a return to normal viewership levels. After publishers’ video views across platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram spiked in mid-March as people went into quarantine, viewership among U.S. audiences in April ebbed slightly but has remained above pre-quarantine marks on YouTube and Facebook, according to data from Tubular Labs.

The April slip in viewership is not unique to video platforms. Traditional TV and streaming services have also seen viewership dip week after week in the month following the quarantine’s start. 

While the amount of time people spent watching traditional TV and streaming services increased week over week in the first two weeks of the quarantine — the weeks of March 16 and March 23 — total TV watch time has dropped for each subsequent week in April but remained above pre-coronavirus levels, according to Nielsen. For the week of April 20, the amount of time people spent watching TV overall slipped by 3% compared to the previous week and streaming watch time slipped by 5%, per the measurement provider. 

Viewership may have ebbed, in part, as people adjusted to working from home and schools adapted to remote learning, eliminating some of the extra watch time that audiences may have had available in the initial weeks of the lockdown. “If I extrapolate [the viewership trend], and I don’t know you could do that [given all the uncertainty], it would get back to where it was before in like a month. It seems like it very closely does mirror the shut-in,” said Tubular Labs CEO Rob Gabel. 

Apple’s mobility trends data appears to support that conclusion. According to Apple’s data, people locked down the most at the end of March — when Tubular Labs saw social viewership peak — but have increasingly left their homes to drive or walk around throughout April.

However, people fatiguing on coronavirus coverage and leaving their homes more often in April are likely not the only factors to have affected social video viewership in April. Another factor may be the volume of videos that publishers posted.

Group Nine and Hearst have increased the number of videos they upload each week, and both publishers’ weekly viewership in the U.S. has remained high on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter while increasing on Facebook.

By comparison, Complex has maintained a consistent output dating back to the weeks before the quarantine while Vox Media has reduced its weekly video uploads compared to the pre-quarantine period, and both publishers have seen weekly U.S. viewership dip in April compared to mid-to-late March.

Cut.com’s viewership seems to sum up the importance of publishers not only maintaining their video output during the quarantine but also putting out their regular programming.

Because of the physical production shutdown, Cut.com has not been able to produce new episodes of its namesake YouTube channel’s tentpole series “Lineup.” Those episodes receive 5 to 10 million views on average and lead people to view the channel’s other videos to represent 30% to 40% of viewership, said Chris Rudy, chief strategy officer at Cut.com, which has seen its YouTube CPMs drop by 20% to 40% but has seen its commerce business offset that drop to push total revenue above its pre-coronavirus forecast. Without that series, the channel’s viewership is down by 20% to 30%. 

By contrast, Cut.com’s HiHo YouTube channel has been able to produce its tentpole series remotely and seen its viewership increase by 30% to 40%, according to Rudy. “When we can produce the formats that we know people love, we’re rewarded with a consistency of viewership,” he said.

“People put on the fake optimism face because it attracts clients,” said a media agency executive, adding that he’s heard about agencies doing that and laying off employees as they “say one thing and do another.” The tactic may be one way agencies are trying to save face in this moment as the precarious nature of their businesses intensifies.

Agencies have always been precarious businesses. Being dependent on the whim of clients isn’t easy. But prior to this global pandemic, if agencies lost a big client or had a one stop spending on advertising for a quarter, they could go and pitch someone new or find some way to stand out and get new business. (Some agencies are still doing that. An independent agency CEO told me he’s doing pro-bono work right now to hopefully attract new clients even though he in need of clients who pay.) Now, whatever safety net they had doesn’t seem to exist.

“Some clients are spending, some have slowed down and some have gone dark,” said Nancy Hill, founder of The Media Sherpa and former 4A’s president. “The agencies will have to wait it out to see who comes back and how strong.”

Still, agency leaders are hopeful that being beholden to their clients’ whims will pay off.

“With the months and years to come, agencies will also be rewarded – or at least they should – for their loyalty, their help and the fact they stood by,” said Frederico Robert, executive creative director for Interweave. “That’s how you forge long-lasting strategic partnerships.”

3 Questions with Cory Berger, CMO at Grey Worldwide

Some clients aren’t advertising at this moment. What should agencies be doing for those clients now?

We’re in a moment where advertising agencies have a real opportunity to show the value they are able to provide clients. The ones that can do that and are doing that will be the ones coming out of this crisis in a stronger position. A lot of businesses are in flux right now. Some companies aren’t selling a lot of [their] products. It’s given them time to step back to think about their brand and not just their product. There’s a moment here where agencies could do what agencies do really well which is thinking about what the brand stands for and what it needs to stand for moving forward. 

Awards shows as we know it likely won’t happen this year. How will that affect agencies?

On the one hand, advertising award shows are very important because they recognize the best thinking that’s happening in the industry. On the other hand, they’re not important at all — nothing will be greater or more rewarding than the recognition and acknowledgement we could get from clients right now about the work we’re doing for them.

With everyone working from home, work/life balance issues may be more intense than ever. Are you doing anything to try to help your team?

We’re telling people to use the days off they would normally use. It’s hard because it’s not like you’re going to take a vacation so it’s very easy to not use those days right now because you have nowhere to go. But even if it’s just to take a day to recharge, that’s important. We’re telling people to take days off if they need to take them for themselves. 

Paid search and social slowdown

During the first quarter, advertisers decreased how much they were spending on paid social and paid search versus the previous quarters. According to Kenshoo’s recent Q1 2020 Quarterly Trends Report, advertisers spending on paid social and paid search increased year-over-year but decreased quarter-over-quarter. For paid social, advertisers spending increased 25% year-over-year but decreased 18% quarter-over-quarter. As for paid search, spending increased 1% year-over-year but decreased 19% quarter-over-quarter.

Quote of the week

“Selling is super easy but retention is incredibly difficult,” said Kevin Simonson, vp of social for Wpromote, when asked what’s most important for agencies to focus on in this moment.