We’re heading into month 3 of embracing this new reality we find ourselves in, and whilst many businesses rightly hit pause on the campaign strategies that were developed prior to COVID-19, maybe the biggest challenge marketers are now facing is to make content that is both appropriate to the brand and relevant to the consumers (and not tone-deaf).

Data as your guiding light

It’s no surprise that media consumption has increased significantly as a result of this crisis, with a recent survey showing that Social Media time allocation has increased by over 30% in the UK and the US. Increased consumption means that there are definitely new data trends that can give some guidance to your digital brand comms.

An example particularly relevant to Victorinox, the cyclical trend of “How to” searches on Google shift from DIY face masks and making bread to cutting hair.

Source: Vayner Media London (Google Search Trend Data – UK, US, FR, ES, AUS)

Capitalising on the data 

Victorinox e-commerce saw our Hairdresser’s Scissors product (which I have yet to try out on myself) sell out within the first 2 weeks of lockdown. Correlating with the search data around ‘how to cut hair’ we identified an opportunity for us to pivot and create content around a particular consumer challenge: Owning hairdresser’s scissors but having no clue how to use them!   

I appreciate that pivoting at speed in this way is easier said than done due to organisational barriers or an uncertainty about what the role for the brand is. Or that some of the current needs of consumers may not necessarily align with the core product or service offering for a brand. Scissors is definitely not a core product offering for Victorinox, and not something we were focused on in any of the content and digital communications efforts pre lockdown. So how did we do it? 

Nimble execution is key.

It takes a confident brand manager to challenge the norm and find new ways to adapt and make their content relevant. Your content output may no longer all seem like a glossy campaign, and there is data to back up that consumers are not expecting that any longer. Surely this is the time to push the creative boundaries, since we have data to back up why? There is an opportunity now to revert back to more nimbly produced content. Away from the overly slick, high production values and back to the creative and vibrant grassroots that has made Instagram in particular, so popular today. 

Essentials, comforts and connections

Lockdown is accentuating various emotional drivers, like the need for comfort.

A desire to feel connected is seeing many consumers shift from buying directly from the likes of Amazon to a brand’s own website. This plus Amazon’s decision to only ship essentials during this period, has meant that across various categories, D2C brands selling ‘comfort’ items have seen conversion rates on their e-commerce sites at levels close to Black Friday, almost every single day for the past few weeks!

At Victorinox, we’ve seen the conversion rate for our core collections increase over 50%.This new categorisation of products into essentials and comforts provides new opportunities for brands to build trust and enhance relationships with consumers. As part of our digital brand comms approach, we’re creating content that resonates and is in line with these needs of our fans. I am sure that companies that do this WILL stand out post-COVID-19.

These are unprecedented times we are living through and there is no blueprint available on how to run marketing campaigns, let alone a business. However, the guiding principles at Victorinox on how to navigate this challenge has not changed much from how we would previously view things – the consumer remains at the core of what we want to achieve. We’re approaching this period of change with courage and confidence, behaving decisively and being consistently agile.