In the Time of COVID-19, You’d Better Be Relevant or Be Quiet.
There isn’t a corner of the globe unaffected by the worldwide COVID-19 crisis. In ways unseen by many of this generation, the pandemic affects the personal and collective psyche in profound ways.
Unlike historical financial crises, environmental disasters, or foreign wars, there’s not one person that can put their head in the sand, push what’s happening to the back of their consciousness and plod on with daily life and business as usual.
COVID-19 impacts everyone.
This doesn’t mean everybody is impacted equally. It’s definitely harder for some groups, like those on the medical front-lines, or those who have lost people they love, or those who have lost their jobs and have little financial security to fall back on.
Some may be experiencing more benefits than cons under this situation: Businesses that are witnessing growth during this time, those that relish more time with the family and more communication with their friends, time to learn, time to reflect…
Neither the challenges or benefits are equal or common to all because everyone’s needs are different.
In ‘Peacetime’
People’s needs are always different — this is obviously not a new thing. But there are many companies and public figures who usually fudge the task of really understanding their audiences and proper deep thinking in terms of delivering the right message.
The difference is, right now, you can’t get away with half-baked messaging or an underdeveloped understanding of the people you are speaking to. People’s emotions are heightened, people have more time to engage with and digest content; at this time, people are not going to respond nicely to uncompassionate and poorly executed messages.
Almost like no other time, COVID-19 shines a spotlight on the importance of actually understanding and speaking to the needs of the people you are addressing.
COVID-19 Messaging Fails
A number of famous faces have missed the chance to really grasp what their audience is going through right now, contributing to a widespread ‘celebrity tune-out’. These folks are all probably regretting their lack of empathy and consideration before putting their messages out.
1. Pharell’s Poorly Worded Fundraising Campaign
Pharrell recognized the pressure faced by health systems and wanted to do something about the medical supply shortages — so he took to Twitter to call his fans to the cause and donate.
Unfortunately, where he noticed the unfolding health crisis, he failed to acknowledge the simultaneous financial crisis across many households— as more than 26 million became unemployed in the USA.
His call to arms prompted thousands of angry responses requesting he donate some of his $150 million instead.
2. Gal Gadot’s Mistimed Philosophy
Gal Gadot’s rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ under lockdown has been slaughtered in the realm of social media public opinion:
One commenter from Youtube:
imagine being so rich and disconnected that you’d rather sing a stupid song instead of actually helping
3. Frito Lay’s Hypocrisy
Frito-Lay, Inc. is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods.
The brand decided to come out with a video that essentially ‘brand-shames’ other marketers who think about advertising right now, rather than ‘taking action’.
The framing of the message starts off OK but quickly turns into a vapid self-advertisement which doesn’t actually provide the viewer with any value other than a sense of the brand’s ‘holier than thou’ hypocrisy.
COVID-19 Example Strategic Wins
Here are some examples of thoughtful messaging that I think have landed slightly more successfully:
1. TripActions Rewrites Everything
TripActions is a travel platform combining AI technology with flight, accommodation, and rental car inventories designed to make corporate travel easier. The travel industry has probably been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis — rather than give up, TripActions considered how they could be of real value to their customers during this time.
By recognizing the financial and real HR strains many businesses might be under, they’ve shifted the entirety of their messaging away from ‘having the best trip possible’ to ‘ways to safely manage business travel & control costs’.
2. Nike Motivates Fans to Follow Public Health Policy
Rather than push their own initiatives, Nike recognized the best way to leverage its huge exposure and following was to encourage the public to follow social distancing rules.
Their messaging has been responded to positively and shared by multiple sports stars like Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
3. BreezoMeter Informs on Keeping Indoor Air Healthy
(For full disclosure, I work at BreezoMeter but this webinar is not my initiative and I think the messaging and approach deserves a mention here).
By now, many of us have heard about the crazy links between air pollution exposure & COVID-19. Logic also dictates that breathing in toxic fumes in the midst of a respiratory disease pandemic is not a great idea.
BreezoMeter specializes in outdoor air quality data but most of their customers are indoors right now. Still, this doesn’t mean the threat of unhealthy air has vanished. So, how best to provide people with the knowledge and information they need at this time?
By partnering up with indoor wellness experts, Delos, the team launched a webinar to provide practical and actionable tips for keeping safe and staying healthy while cooped up inside.
I think there’s a reason the signup rate for this session has been the best ever!
4. Beyonce Goes Quiet
Did anyone else notice that the Queen of Pop’s main Twitter account went silent on March 17th until this week when she announced a COVID-19 charitable effort?
Other than donating, this is probably the safest thing many wealthy celebrities can do right now.
These are some things that stood out to me. Any more good examples of wins or fails? Share in comments!
The Takeaway: Think Public Service
In this time, you better be relevant or shut up.
If you don’t have anything suitable to offer your audience at this time, it’s OK not to offer anything! Plan for the day after instead — if you can’t meet needs now, plan how you’ll speak to your audience and actually address their needs later.
If you’re not 100% sure what your audience’s needs are now, or what they will likely be in the near future, it's definitely time to dust off your audience research process and flesh out some updated and actually realistic content personas.
