Saika Co., Ltd. conducted its own advertising research and research report, “Survey on the impact of the second wave of the new coronavirus on marketing activities, asking 320 corporate advertising managers” and announced the results.
The results of this survey revealed that the influence of the new coronavirus on marketing activities has tended to decrease during the second wave compared to the first wave.
Comparing corporate advertising activities during the first and second waves of the new coronavirus
During the first wave of the new coronavirus (infection spread between April and May 2020), the government declared a state of emergency. Consumer behavior has stagnated nationwide, and advertising activities have been greatly affected, with companies reducing their advertising accordingly.
After the first wave, the new coronavirus subsided, but infections began to spread again from July onwards. Many people consider this a second wave. The second wave is different from the first wave in that the government has not declared a state of emergency, and each local government is taking measures such as refraining from going out.
Taking into account these differences between the first and second waves, this survey looked at changes in corporate advertising activities.
In the second wave, the impact of the new coronavirus on advertising activities will decrease
The pie chart below compares companies’ response to advertising activities during the first and second waves.
It can be seen that during the first wave, the majority of companies stopped “all” or “most” advertising.
In contrast, in the second wave, the total percentage of companies that stopped “all” or “most” advertising decreased to 39.4%. This shows that in the second wave, regulations on advertising were relaxed compared to the first wave.
In addition, in the first wave, 25.0% of respondents said they “placed all ads,” but this increased to 32.5% in the second wave.
Next, the pie chart below shows the results of a survey on how the advertising placement situation during the second wave compared to the first wave.
More than half of the respondents, 51.8% of the total, answered, “We have not reduced the number of ads as much as during the first wave,” “We have not stopped advertising,” and “We have increased advertising.” In contrast, only 10.4% said they have “reduced their consumption since the first wave.”
Based on these results, it can be said that the influence of the new coronavirus on advertising activities is decreasing during the second wave.
The main reason for not reducing advertising is that we expect that stagnation in consumer behavior will be limited.
Why did many companies not reduce the number of advertisements placed in the second wave compared to the first wave? The graph below shows the results of an investigation into the reason.
The most common reason was, “The stagnation in consumer behavior in the second wave is expected to be more limited than in the first wave.”
However, the reasons were “because we judged that suspending advertising for a long period of time would cause great damage to the brand in the medium to long term” and “because suspending advertising during the first wave caused great damage to the business.” They also came in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
This suggests that companies experienced a decline in sales due to a reduction in advertising during the first wave, and are concerned about a decline in awareness and favorability of the company due to a reduction in advertising.
The reasons for not reducing advertising during the second wave seem to vary by industry.
