Covid brings a number of challenges in communication. Understanding how to talk to your audience is crucial. I do wonder whether brands & creative agencies are working on relevance & meaning because so many TV adverts seem to be following a set formula, possibly making the same errors as banks did in the financial crisis.
In 2009 a number of banks were still chest beating, trying to rebuild trust rather than managing distrust - shouting 'Trust Me' when you are distrusted doesn't work.
Today we can second guess an advert because the same hackneyed phrases or images are replicated. "Now more than ever", "Here for you", "Working to keep you safe" added to zoom meeting images with everyone being chirpy, parroting the same message.
I'm sure that within the cosy environment of a board meeting some of these ads give a wonderfully warm feeling. But try putting 5/6 different adverts together, one after another for a 3 minute TV ad break and consider this..
- People may be watching more TV than usual (general trend - at least in the UK) despite some programming fatigue.
- A consumer could be sitting & watching a larger number of ad breaks than usual
So.. How do you expect consumers to react when a number of adverts for competing as well as different brands are all saying the same thing?
