Ms Emily Poon, executive group director of Ogilvy, remembers how during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis, digital services saw a huge acceleration.
"Covid-19 is no different. While we have certainly seen a tightening of belts in marketing budgets especially in harder-hit sectors such as travel, tourism and aviation, clients' need for help and consumer appetite for content and virtual experiences are greater than ever," says Ms Poon, who heads the public relations, influence and social division of the integrated creative network.
"We are seeing a double-digit growth in our fast-paced short-form content production as client partners pivot towards more nimble and agile production forms and delivery."
Digital advertising has not lost its shine as more brands look for creative and more cost-effective ways to tell their stories.
Mr Jeff Cheong, deputy president of DDB Group Singapore, says there is hunger for original, entertaining digital content, which not only attracts page views, but also brand engagement through daily interactions.
An example is the company's irreverent but catchy community website called "I am a Community Circuit Breaker" (try saying that again using the acronym), which addressed a host of issues from what to eat to what to do to how many more days to "CB liftoff".
"The site had seen 291,318 unique visitors and had 499,466 page views just five days after the April 7 announcement," says Mr Cheong. "As of today, we have 400,000 unique visitors, with 50 per cent of them returning. In total, 830,000 page views – and counting."
No doubt, numbers that advertisers will be watching closely too.
For Mother's Day, DDB's TribalWorldwide organised Homemade for Mum, an online concert for Families for Life Council, which seeks to build resilient families.
The entire video was shot with zero contact – the crew dropped off the equipment and the artists helped set up the lighting, sound and camera with instructions through a video call from the videographer, who was situated at a safe distance. The show saw more than 200,000 viewers tuning in.
This problem-solver mindset in the face of disruption is what advertising types call their stock-in-tRead More – Source
[contf] [contfnew]
