Managing the message

Three weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic and brands have quickly understood that messaging once considered appropriate last month has lost entire relevance, or worse, could be viewed insensitive and offensive.

Industry leaders have already started to shift the conversation away from product-specific marketing towards customer service updates.

Programmatic and paid search have also quickly become more useful ways to get some messages across with more people at home and engaging with online publishers and streaming platforms.

Here's how Telstra and Suncorp are tackling messaging in the COVID environment. 

Telstra dials up new mentality:

• The brand has already pulled ads involving airports
• Has extensively reviewed all new work going to market with a "fine-tooth comb"
• CMO Jeremy Nicholas says the same rigour is being applied to the media mix
• Telstra is focused on delivering a message of support, while also keeping customers updated on key changes to services, data allowances and offers
• The telco has adopted a "universal service obligation mentality", which Nicholas says is similar to the strategy taken during the bushfires
• He says nothing has been paused as far as spend goes, however, it has been shifted to other channels

"We’re constantly reviewing all the work going into market. Some of the things we're looking for include context changes - the meaning of your message may be unintended or different from what was originally intended," Nicholas says.

"You need to be absolutely attuned to that and going through everything with a fine-tooth comb, looking at where media investment is, what channels are right, where people are spending their time, how does that look and then also just from what products and services we're likely to be selling more of or less of in this period of time as well."

Nicholas detailed the social responsibility Telstra has to a huge customer base and to the country at large.

He says there is a universal service obligation at the heart of Telstra’s charter.

This is why the telco has changed its offers to include additional data, putting everyone on unlimited home broadband plans and additional service benefits for pre-paid customers. 

"These sorts of things being put in place are really, really important in just trying to help people get through it," says Nicholas.

He says Telstra has reviewed all its messaging.

"It might be a really simple thing – you have a piece of creative which is someone downloading content before they get on a plane and a family sitting there. That involves travelling so that’s obviously out of tune," Nicholas says.

"Changes need to be made accordingly and you’re worried about missing something.  You’re worried about doing the wrong thing.  In these situations, we all just want to do the right thing."

Telstra says it hasn't paused any activity for the moment but is instead shifting where it puts out its message.

"We haven’t seen wholesale cancellation of things from our part as well but I appreciate we’re affected differently because we’re a different industry to what I would be if I was a retailer," he says.

Suncorp's trio of tactics

Major sport sponsorship shake-ups, a sharp turn to brand over acquisition and three key cornerstones of consumer communication form Suncorp CMO Mim Haysom's approach to financial services during COVID.

Speaking on the Mi3 podcast, Haysom outlined how her marketing strategy had been turned on its head like so many other brands. However, Suncorp is clear that it won't cut marketing activity.

The key changes for Suncorp:

• Restructuring its strategy with the AFL - as a major sponsor, Suncorp is looking for ways to leverage existing ambassadors while adjusting its media schedule.
• While there is no intention to cut marketing budget, the brand has been forced to look at reshaping its plans around key events, not just ones it sponsored but others it had integration deals with.
• Mim Haysom says it's more important than ever for brands to have a really strong presence and to ensure that they maintain their brand equity.
• Suncorp has broken its COVID-19 strategy down into three approaches - visibility, relevance and optimisation.
• In response, the marketing department now has core teams focused on the above - reassurance messaging, business-as-usual and proactive ideas
• The company has conducted an audit on every campaign that it's taking out to market, whether above-the-line media or through direct channels.
• This has resulted in a shift towards brand messaging as opposed to acquisition.
• No sweeping generalisations: as consumers navigate this period, brands are better suited to mindful and considered approaches to changing needs.

"In this environment, it's more important than ever for brands to have a really strong presence and to ensure that they maintain their brand equity," Haysom says. "That way, when we all do come out of this situation, we're in a really strong position to move forward with the [portfolio of] brands, consumers and with the business."

A core part of this plan is a three-stage approach to how Suncorp communicates with customers and adjusts its message to meet the changing conversation.

She says the first factor is being visible and making sure that all the brands under Suncorp continue to have a really strong presence.

The second is about being relevant - working in essential services, each brand needs to make sure that it's talking to customers about the information that they want to know "right now".

The third theme revolves around optimisation, which Haysom says will come through in the media plans that Suncorp is working on currently.

"The optimisation piece is really been around making sure that we're continuing to achieve our reach and frequency," she says. "But doing so through the channels that are most relevant and right for us at the moment, because the world's changed really significantly in the space of two weeks.

"To help achieve all of those changes, we've literally had to do an audit on every campaign that we're taking out to market, whether it's above the line or in our direct channels, to make sure that the content feels relevant, offers feel relevant for this point in time, and that we're also talking to the current environment."

Haysom says to deliver this, Suncorp has broken its team up into "three squads". One squad is focused on what is the re-assurance messaging - how the company is changing some of its brand communications to talk more around financial support packages that it's put in place.

The second team looks at business-as-usual communications and delving into their relevance and whether they need to be adjusted according to environmental changes.

The third team is looking at proactive ideas, which will be generating new content to keep consumers up-to-date etc.

"We have shifted the weighting more to brand messaging and an even higher percentage than we already had to brand messaging versus acquisition," she says. "We do still have acquisition messaging in market because people still do need insurance. What we are looking at is what are the offers that we're putting into market and do they feel relevant now? 

"A month ago there were some double-up and saves, for example, that we might not put into market now. So it's not so much selling a product. It's talking to what we do as an organisation and as a brand."