The Consumers of the Future: new Media and ADV strategies

In a crisis situation like this, it’s important to talk about our future.  A future that can base its rebirth on 3 keywords: communication, creativity, and trust.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed all social systems and daily communications highlight this change. Since a couple of weeks, we are able to measure the evolution of these changes through the Consumer Trust Index, a new AI-powered tool designed thanks to a collaboration between PWC and KPI6. 

Based on the emotions monitoring of conversations on social networks and the web, CTI allows understanding how social systems will redirect to post-COVID changes.

While the virus continues to spread and makes the world more unstable, it’s important for brands to remain relevant to consumers. This crisis has influenced the way companies communicate, so brands have to adapt the messages and communication strategies to the sentiment of the people. 

The world of advertising is living a challenging moment, for the creative industry and for those who manage the budgeting.  Planning & Buying must quickly adapt to new needs and different distribution of audiences on media/channels. In the meanwhile, Creativity must adapt in real-time to new contexts and lifestyles to be relevant and above all not to be out of place.

That’s why we have reunited different professionals in a webinar to talk about the crisis caused by the impact that the “lock-down” is having on our lives and how to use the opportunities to get ready for a fast recovery, with a focus on how consumers trends are influencing ADV industry and creativity media.

An hour talk with:

Do you want to know more about the consumers of the future?

Watch the 16 April 2020 webinar “The Consumer of the Future”.

This webinar will be held in Italian.

The impact of the virus has changed our life habits and there is a “social tension“, especially on the web. Why is this happening?

People begin to have imbalances in their lives, they no longer bear the business models imposed by companies and their way of communicating.

Everything has also changed in the advertising investments, leading to a lot of loss. Brands still don’t understand the opportunities they can get from this scenario. Brands can take advantage from:

So, there is just a  question for companies and agencies: How to communicate?

Actually, consumers expect brands to empathize with their emotions, and not merely sell products. Brands must review their best practices, understanding how the consumer feels in real-time and getting a solution through technology and creativity.

Some brands have changed their logo, there are no more adv spots of aggregate people or people who dance. Brands don’t have to be irreverent, they have to adapt to the context, with maximum use of their creativity.

A word that could characterize this period is “Resilience”. An overloaded term, in any context, which finds a great response especially on social media, where a light way of looking at resilience is shown. We can explain this attitude through Kubler Ross‘s theory. 

According to the American psychiatrist, this model illustrates how men react to shocking events, as this unreality feeling that we are experiencing now. Everybody has lost important points of reference and this cycle shows that it is not easy to reach resilience because there are mandatory steps. 

The first reaction is the denial of the fact, the second is anger, while the third point is the most important, in where you can choose to accept this moment, moving on to the last two phases, or staying and not making a change.

The communication needs of this curve are different according to the steps. Publicis Italia has wanted to make a classification of web and social conversations, thanks to KPI6‘s Digital Consumer Intelligence tools, about the “angry users”.

Anger has got a problem: it is difficult to deal with communication. During this period it is important for companies not to minimize the problem.

The theme of anger is an emotional one, therefore concretization does not get results. There is the risk of an escalation between the listener and the communicator because an angry person could be scared and worried.

In an instability period, consumers looking for reliable communication and information channels. For example, from the beginning of the quarantine, people watch more television (30 to 50%). TV is experiencing absolute growth, as well as digital information.

Conversely, adv investments are falling in all media, in particular billboards and cinemas. The radio is experiencing great digital acceleration. It is usually used as an out-of-home tool, but now it has lost this appeal, so it was remodeled for digital listening from mobile or individual, at home. 

Companies should use these opportunities to gain long term shares and more competitive advantages.

Two important pillars on which all marketers and advertisers must base their strategies in the COVID phase are: understanding the consumer and adapting to the context. 

What role does a brand, that has made the history of communication, play in the social responsibility? We have asked to Valentina Torrusio – CEE Data & Productivity Connections Manager @ Coca-Cola 

The context has always had a strong impact on consumption and on consumer emotional state, so Brands must change the way they engage consumers. All companies seek the attention of their consumers. This strong competitiveness leads Coca-Cola to push visibility and relevance on a data-driven basis. 

For the company, this search for relevance and visibility takes place within the digital space and in the programmatic, within the personalized contents.

How to reach this goal? Turning the power of data into exclusive insights that are useful to create a competitive advantage. 

The power of data is that they have the possibility to influence the message that pushes on all platforms and allows a real-time change to be more relevant.

Coca-Cola has decided to remain silent in order not to bother consumers, not to be perceived as a brand that will take advantage of the situation. However, this does not mean that they did not try to send a social message in a simple and targeted way.

As we have seen, each company has understood the difficult period but above all the advantages that can arise from it, reacting in different ways, always with empathy and respect for its consumers.

The consumer of the future is also the consumer of the present or the consumer that we have known in the great moments of crisis of the past. A consumer who always seeks answers and comprehension from companies: everything that can be treated with a good dose of creativity.

Do you want to know more about the consumers of the future?

Book a Demo with KPI6 to get a hand-on demonstration of our platform