70% of marketing professionals report that this year’s disruptions will have a lasting impact on their normal marketing efforts in the long term.1
Across the entire year, we’ve been thrown into a unique situation where most of our prospects are unexpectedly in their home and our marketing teams are working from home. This has caused some drastic changes to the way we manage our work and reach our target audiences. In some areas like events, the changes have been extreme. In other situations, it’s been as simple as tweaking our brand messaging.
Despite our best efforts, not all of our intentions to keep new habits will stick. For instance in my personal life during quarantine, like many, I spent more time with my family playing board games, baked started making pickles, and spent more time introspecting; all of which I have promised to maintain as life finds its new normal. So, I remind myself it takes 21 times to make a new habit.
A stronger motivation than repeating something 21 times is certainly by finding joy in it, where you simply want to continue doing it and will find time no matter what else is going on. I will continue to carve out personal time, because the return on the investment of this activity provides balance to set a more positive mood for the rest of my day.
The same will be true for some of the changes in marketing this year. They will continue because they provide a ‘joy’ for the business; or simply, the return on investment (ROI.) Three marketing changes that are having an environmentally-friendly impact (our eco-ROI) are Online Events, Empathetic Messaging and New Digital Technologies.
Online Events
Webinars and Virtual Forums are not new; they have been a consistent component to most B2B marketing plans for a long time. But as tradeshows, roadshows and other in-person events were forced to cancel, marketers worldwide scrambled for replacements to stay connected with their audiences.
According to results of a survey conducted in April 2020 among event professionals and their suppliers, it was found that due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, 87% of respondents had to cancel their planned events and 66% postponed them with a significant rise March – June. The reasons for cancellations included social distancing and travel bans but also fear of putting participants at risk. 2
As B2B marketers turned to webinars to fill the gap left by cancelled events and decreased face-to-face contact with prospects, the number of B2B brands running webinar ads more than doubled 3and from April to May, 14% more companies ran webinars, a dramatic one month shift.4
Online events provide some unique benefits:
- They are not geographically bound, so you can reach anyone (with an internet connection), anywhere.
- They do not require attendees much planning to attend. Just a click and the link is saved to the calendar. To attend, simply a 2ndclick. No extra time away from home or office, or even getting dressed for that matter.
- And for most, online events can be attended anytime on-demand via the recording of the original event made available afterwards.
Given many companies are now shifting to more work-from-home culture, target audiences will expect they can attend events from home too. We’re already seeing this option made available via live online streaming for onsite events in Japan and China today.
What about ROI? Easy math – cost is minimal and you’re reaching more people. And for Eco-Friendly? No travel, no single-use giveaways for attendees, no printed brochures, no wasted food and the list goes on.
Onsite events won’t be cancelled forever. But online options will certainly continue to be a larger part of the overall event plan in the future.
Empathetic Messaging
This has been an unprecedented year for socially-focused messaging. In the first half of the year, as quarantine and COVID-stress became reality, companies altered messaging from selling their products to humanizing their brand. So prevalent, it was often difficult to differentiate one ad from another — as Microsoft Sams shares in this clever compilation. But it did provide a much needed break from traditional ‘purchase-now’ ads, particularly as no one needed reminding that they weren’t going to stroll through a mall anytime soon.
In the second half of the year when Pride Month and Black Lives Matter came to the forefront, brands again shifted their selling messages to summoning togetherness. Was this simply a selfish ploy from companies wanting to join a conversation during a dramatic time to create brand preference? Perhaps. But like online events, 2020 is creating a new normal with new consumer expectations that are deeper than ‘simply joining a conversation.’
In the past, US consumers have been known to put their trust in companies that value social responsibility and not just the bottom line. As such, 8 in 10 (79%) CMOs say they have experienced greater acknowledgement of companies’ attempts to “do good.” And, while B2B companies have been making a concerted effort to embrace purpose as part of company-wide initiatives, the report shows that B2C companies have experienced this customer behaviour change more than B2B companies.4
The dramatic events of 2020 are also driving more empathy in most people. Expectation for perfection has decreased while the need for authenticity has increased. Think about when workmates or even professional newscasters have their kids interrupt their presentations on video calls. We accept it, we’re all ‘in the same boat.’ And as a result, consumers are expecting a more human component to the brands they value. As this year passes, COVID-19 and demographic messaging will likely fade, but companies will need to be thoughtful in replacing them with ongoing philanthropic and community service efforts to maintain this relationship with their audience.
These are areas that have been consistently important in eco-marketing. Sharing true sustainability and social-responsibility messages with consumers is an important piece of the overall eco-marketing program. Based on the rise of empathetic messaging this year, consumers will further expect it in the future, providing an increase in this component of eco-marketing.
Digital Technologies
Video was already on the rise but as 2020’s pandemic limited some of the other messaging alternatives, video’s popularity skyrocketed. (YouTube is expected >5% continued growth in 2020 of its already 2 billion users.)
But it’s not just video, CMOs have observed several consumer behaviour changes of note during the coronavirus outbreak. A majority have seen an increased openness to new digital offerings introduced during the pandemic (85%) and an increased value placed on digital experiences (84%).5
When the COVID-19 pandemic began and cancelled my own marketing plans, I wondered what lessons I could take from Asia’s response to 2003’s SARs pandemic as a use case to direct my updated plan. One of the more interesting articles I read described Alibaba’s rise during SARs, primarily due to the adaptation of their platform, responding to business and consumer needs for an online marketplace. In short, evolve and prosper.
Indeed, many marketers have used this year to try new marketing technology and features with at least half investing in technologies such as site/mobile chat (56%), mobile app functionality (55%), email (51%) and video (50%).6
Why is this digital evolution important to the environment? Two reasons. First, digital requires no printing, no shipping, no travel, essentially zero footprint (I’m obviously assuming the prospect’s device has been built, shipped and powered whether there is digital marketing or not.) Second, eco-marketing must evolve to prosper. To drive eco-marketing, it must be at the forefront of technology in order to reach the audience when, where and how they want to receive information. If the medium feels old-fashioned, it will be difficult for its message to be conveyed as future forward.
In Summary
This year will soon end and while the world will look forward to putting many parts of 2020 behind, there will be some lasting effects in marketing that provide an environmentally-positive impact including a higher percentage of online components in the event mix, more philanthropic and socially responsible messaging and further use of new technologies to modernize green marketing and reach more people effectively.
These are not habits that will fade. They will continue because they provide an ROI for the business and are this year’s opportunitiesto evolve and prosper. Even better, they also allow us to improve our eco-ROI.*
- Data Source: Bynder. Published by MarketingCharts.com, May 2020.
- Data Source: MediaRadar.
- Data Source: MediaRadar.
- Data Source: The B2B Purpose Paradoxby the ANA.
- Data Source: The CMO Survey, June 2020.
- Data Source: Marketing Charts June 2020 survey of 400 marketers at major US and UK brands.
*Author’s note. It is my belief that there is no good news to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Absolutely no upside from any human life damaged. This article only aims to highlight eco-marketing changes in 2020 and is not intended to convey any benefit from the devastating circumstances behind them.