The pandemic perspective: 4 things I’ve learned about digital marketing during Covid
I’ve hesitated to write about digital marketing and Covid mainly because it’s been hard to put my experience into context whilst the situation is still evolving. But I figured it would be interesting to reflect on what’s happened so far and to evaluate the Covid campaigns I’ve worked on at Wellcome during 2020-21, even if my thoughts later change.
More generally, I hope there will be some wider discussion and positive changes across social media as a result of the pandemic, whether that’s building on some of the progress that’s been made to tackle misinformation or determining how to (safely) amplify the voices of high-profile scientific experts.
1 - Covid doesn’t lend itself to nuanced marketing
This isn’t necessarily a Covid-specific challenge; in many ways it’s similar to other health & science advocacy campaigns I’ve managed at Wellcome. But what is different is the strength of feeling (and anxiety) around Covid that makes it harder to engage people with more complex or nuanced messaging.
Whereas the government and NHS have used digital marketing during Covid to get across simple and effective public health messages, e.g. ‘Hands Face Space’ or ‘Get Tested’, it’s a bit different for advocacy organisations because generally they’re not trying to communicate directly with the public. Instead, they’re often seeking to inform and/or influence policy, by explaining how the science works (for example Wellcome’s vaccines guide) or highlighting the wider impact of the pandemic (for instance see this piece on the social and economic impact of Covid).
Often the messages are complex and hard to distill down to the short snappy content required on social platforms. And it’s hard to find the right tone, level of detail and appropriate creative that make for successful ads without being click-baity.
2 - Tech platforms are (rightly) cautious of who they let advertise using Covid related terms
Tech platforms have, quite understandably, prioritised messaging from public health bodies, e.g. the government and NHS, and reputable news sources (like the BBC). But it’s made it tricky for advocacy organisations to use digital marketing for any kind of Covid messaging as many platforms have implemented a total ban on ads deemed to be related to Covid.
I’m not sure what a solution here could be, but given it looks like Covid will be around for a while yet, the medium and long-term answers might look different to the existing short term solution. I hope over time it might be possible to move to a case-by-case evaluation of ad content, although whether that’s feasible from a platform-resourcing perspective is difficult to estimate at this stage.
3 - How much harder it makes things if your brand isn’t recognised as a trusted/reputable source of information
Some advocacy organisations are not particularly well known which can lead to scepticism, suspicion, and at worst hostility towards the content being shared. As I’ve written about previously on Medium, I believe it’s important for advocacy organisations to start by explaining who they are and their credentials for campaigning on particular issues, i.e. creating a strong foundation before directing people to focus on their policy recommendations.
4 - The volume of responses and how to manage the negativity
This has been a really tough one. There are some very strong views about Covid and, in general, The Internet™ is not well known for its calm and respectful exchange of views. Anecdotally I’ve found that LinkedIn tends to attract fewer outright conspiracy theory comments, perhaps because it’s a more ‘professional’ platform where it’s harder to be anonymous. Twitter’s reply moderation feature has also been extremely helpful to manage the volume of replies.
