I will be continuing from where I left in my earlier post on this subject; if any of you have not read my previous post, here is the link: Pandemic – A New Way of Life Part 1.
The pandemic has changed the way we live and behave, let us explore what else has happened in the advertising world due to it.
False news
Some unknown people spread the false news that eating chicken and non-vegetarian food can cause the corona virus. As a result of which sales of poultry products dropped; poultry producers had to launch an advertising campaign to inform the public that corona virus is not caused by eating poultry products. The All India Poultry Development and Services Pvt. Ltd. and National Egg Co-ordination Committee went one step further and advertised that eating poultry in fact develops immunity.
Home deliveries and fear of infection
One important aspect of the lock-down is about staying at home. It was advised that as far as possible, unless it is absolutely essential, one should not go out of home; instead home deliveries began to be encouraged especially for cooked food and groceries.
In case of home delivered cooked food there was a problem. During the lock-down, restaurants were closed, even now they are in most places; so home delivering cooked food became the only option left for restaurants if they wanted to stay in business. Many were anyway doing home deliveries before Covid-19 happened, those restaurants who did not do home deliveries were forced to start it. What is interesting is that even five star hotels got into the act, they offer fine-dining experience in their home delivered food.
But a sizable number of customers were too scared to order, many still are even now, I am sure. The thoughts which came to mind are: Does the restaurant follow proper hygiene standards? What if the deliveryman is infected with the coronavirus? As a result of these doubts and suspicions home delivery orders nosedived.
Netmeds.com is an e-commerce pharmacy site in the business of home delivering medicines. their press ad (see below) has adopted an interesting approach, they have taken the patriotic route by saying that by staying apart (social distancing) we can keep our motherland healthy.
Stranded at home or families coming together
During the lock-down outdoor activities virtually came to a halt and families came together, so new ads were created with ‘the family bonding at home’ theme in mind. OTT platforms like MX Player and Voot got into action expecting families to look for entertainment on TV to occupy their time.
Advisories
The pandemic is new to all of us and has taken us by surprise, initially we knew very little about the disease and how to avoid it, so we were open to any information and advice which would help us deal with the disease. Some advertisers decided to talk about their products and services by taking the advisory route. For example Bank of Baroda has been promoting their digital services while advising its customers not to use cash and not to visit branches; Indian Banks’ Association also advises on the same lines while emphasizing the importance of washing ones hands; Indusind Bank advises people about the various options available in these times of social distancing; The Himalaya Drug Company has released a special ad telling us how to prevent Covid-19 by following certain hygiene practices while indirectly promoting its hand sanitizer brand – Pure Hands. SIDBI does not give any advice to people as such but gives hope, in their ad the benefit under their new scheme Covid-19 Startup Assistance Scheme has been explained.
Education
Covid has changed our loves in many ways and education has been severely impacted. Students have been left with no other choice but study online; some educational institutions are forced to go online and for others this presents a great opportunity.
I am not finished
with this subject yet, but I will stop here and continue later. In my next post Pandemic – A New Way of
Life Part 3, I will talk about new Covid specific products.
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