At Nonsense we’re all about building brand credibility. Over the last 10 weeks we’ve looked specifically at what we consider to be credible brand responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of product/service innovation as well as ads/comms, and wrapped them up into weekly updates available for public download.
This work has sparked some interesting conversations and identified some trends that we’re sharing here.
As always, we love talking about this stuff so reach out if you’re interested in chatting some more.
Theme 1: Actions speak louder than…
A flurry of brands offered sympathy and vague allusion to their relevance “now, more than ever…”. Problem was, everyone did the same thing.
But a lot of brands made genuinely helpful gestures…
Morrisons: £10M pledge to restock Britain’s food banks
Morrisons pledged £10M to restock Britain’s food banks. AND then rolled-out a dedicated telesales service for vulnerable shoppers.
Instagram: “How can I help?”
Just 24 hours after Musa Tariq Tweeted Instagram, their default question sticker was changed from “Ask me a question…” to “How can I help?”.
EE: Here to serve you
EE provided any NHS workers that had an EE pay monthly plan with unlimited data until 9th October.
Google: Emergency relief funding
Google offered emergency relief funding for local newsrooms & publications.
ITV Hub’s “Shout outs”
ITV Hub gave away 3–5” slots for businesses to communicate crucial Covid-19 related information.
Camden Brewery: Beer for Heroes
Camden Brewery re-branded Hells lager as “Thank you lager” and pledged all profit to help healthcare workers (who could also get a free 6-pack!).
Theme 2: Staying “True”
Some of the biggest wins came from within the brands’ DNA, with excellent examples of brands staying true to their (actual) purpose.
Budweiser: Whassup Bud?
One of the things that actually does matter “now more than ever”. And a brilliantly done re-make to boot.
Red Bull: Home Office
Red Bull fuel high energy moments and sponsor extreme sports athletes to do amazing stuff. Why let lockdown get in the way? Great collab with Fabio Wibmer.
NSPCC: ‘Speak Out and Stay Safe Virtual Assembly’
At Nonsense we worked with the NSPCC to broadcast their much loved ‘Speak Out. Stay Safe’ school assembly online. With many schools being closed and children being taught from home, the NSPCC are not able to deliver their usual assemblies in person.
So, along with some help from Ant & Dec, David Walliams and the Minister of Children and Families, Vicky Ford, we took the assembly to homes across the country by airing on Facebook.
We tackled difficult conversations and distilled important information regarding COVID-19 into digestible facts that are child-friendly.
Within the first week we gained a reach of 150k, over 9k engagements (likes, comments, views & clicks) and attracted over 30k video views (many of whom would have been streaming to classrooms. We also saw a significant uplift in followers to the NSPCC Facebook Page.
Water Wipes: #earlydaysclub
Water wipes are all about caring for little ones. #EarlyDaysClub gave home-bound parents of newborns a replacement for NCT meet-ups via Zoom.
Nationwide: Voices Nationwide
Nationwide are the people’s bank. So they let people talk each other through lockdown with a UGC extension of their excellent Voices campaign.
Three: “Monster Hunter”
Three champion the power of phones and content for entertainment. Irish ad “Monster Hunter” is a heartwarming lockdown-themed campaign extension. (They also removed usage limits on data. For all customers… FOREVER!
Maltesers: “Big Night Out”
Maltesers see the light side of life. They pretty much had to make a Zoom-based-Lockdown-ad.
Theme 3: When others zig…
The brands that really generated credibility went the extra mile to do something different to the competition… while still delivering value.
Waitrose & Partners — Pick for Britain
Waitrose could have done food banks, or early-opening, or NHS perks… but they found a way to show they still care about the quality of food… while doing their bit to tackle a real issue of finding 70,000 fruit & veg pickers.
Lego: “Be a Hero”
Lego’s “Be A Hero” work is so noticeable because when everyone else was sympathising with us, they glamourised lockdown and distancing.
Emily Snacks: “Our first ever poster”
When everyone else was pulling ad-spend and OOH ads were dropping into a black hole, snack food brand Emily Snacks found an opportunity… to do the one OOH ad we’d all share online.
Ace Hotel: “Staycation” digital care package
Ace Hotel found a way to bring a hotel experience to lockdown, when the rest of the hospitality industry went very quiet. And such a simple use of media. A Dropbox folder full of resources for a ‘Staycation’.
Our View
To win in a crisis, do all 3!
- Brand: Stay true to your (actual) purpose
- Customer: Actions speak louder than words
- Market: Don’t follow the herd
Mind your 4 Ps: A look at the wider narrative
We are often taught “the 4 Ps of the marketing mix” with this hierarchy.
- We design a brilliant product…
- …then we work out how to distribute it to customers…
- …then we get the pricing optimised in-market…
- …then we advertise the hell out of it!
This isn’t really relevant in this crisis*…
- Promoting a mere product seems distasteful.
- Customers are very worried about money.
- Half the distribution network shut down.
- And none of us can iterate product fast enough!
(*let’s be honest, it’s never that relevant)
The Credible way: “Easiest lever first”
- Brands change pricing/plans/value to ease burden.
“We’re actually in this together!” - Brands innovate how to distribute product/services.
“Now available via Zoom/Delivery!” - Brands innovate entirely new products.
“New Lockdown Flavour!” - Brands return to type… with a campaign at the right time.
“We’re BACK!”
Next Steps: So what will “New Normal” be like then?
Like this 👇, but really really fast…
Lots will stay the same
Predictions of fundamental change after Covid-19 are driven by the biased perspectives of those making them — in reality, most things will go back to how they were.
- Mark Ritson
A few cultural shifts will be accelerated
- Remote working will become more expected and valued.
- Air travel will go back to being expensive.
- Sanitation & hygiene will become a bigger part of our lives.
What does this mean for brands?
We believe customers have had a taste of authenticity. They have had a taste of companies acting responsibly. They will demand this more.
And what will we be doing?
Continuing to build brand credibility for our clients, of course!
- Drop us a line if you’d like to talk about a free Brand Credibility workshop
- Whilst our weekly wrap-ups will continue to focus on Brand Credibility, we’ll no longer be looking at CV19 related work only. Subscribe to weekly updates here. The world has many issues and we believe brands can be more conscious of those and find credible ways to make a difference. This series will be dedicated to celebrating the best examples of those — and any other activity that we feel builds brand credibility too.
