How Brands Are Adapting During a Pandemic

by | Mar 30, 2020 | Industry Insights

With audiences spending more time at home and consuming content, streaming videos, and increasing their overall screen time, advertisers are adjusting their campaign strategies and exploring advertising channels they may not have previously prioritized. For brands that are still new to digital, it may be smaller adjustments like stepping up their social presence or content strategies, while for more seasoned advertisers, it could be exploring OTT/CTV or dabbling in audio for the first time. This “new normal” is challenging brands to find their audiences again, and get in front of them in new ways that are relevant to the current climate. 

Now that the initial wave of shock and panic brought about by COVID-19 is starting to pass, companies are beginning to settle into their new reality while working towards actionable strategies to face the uncertainty of the weeks (months??) ahead. The unfortunate reality of the situation is, no one knows how long this will last. And while this time can be challenging, frustrating, and most certainly scary for advertisers across the country, it is instances like this that force them to see where they fit into the conversation, while keeping a delicate pulse on how society is navigating and reacting to this period of uncertainty. 

With the rules, recommendations, and social practices in place to combat the greater issue at hand, businesses across industries have witnessed a shift in consumption patterns from the communities affected by these mandates. Big name retailers continue to succeed by providing essential items, and smaller businesses have seen a lot of grassroots support from their local communities during this difficult time. However, as patrons grow increasingly wary of in-store experiences, and regulations limit the businesses allowed to operate during this time, mid-level brands are challenged to evolve alongside with their customers’ behaviors. 

Above all else, businesses now have the opportunity to rally behind the growing sense of community that we have seen in recent weeks to try and do their part. While the economic implications of this weighs heavily on all organizations right now, the most important thing for advertisers and business owners is maintaining the safety of their employees, and promoting the health and humanitarianism within their communities.

We have already seen many advertisers figure out a way to get themselves in front of audiences in a relevant way and evolving their strategies to serve the current climate:

Change The Channels

Not only are audiences turning to streaming, social, and audio for entertainment purposes, but it is where they are consuming their news as well. The CDC has been running OTT ads, and members of the White House coronavirus task force have been partnering with influential podcasts, celebrities, and social media platforms to keep digital audiences as educated as possible on the evolving situation surrounding COVID-19. For multiple reasons, it is clear that this is where people are engaged during this confusing time, giving advertisers a chance to rethink where they need to be in order to reach their target, even if it means trying something new.

Rewrite The Narrative

With regulations rapidly changing to protect the public, many products, businesses, and services are being shut down and labeled as “non-essential,” which presents a challenge in the market, and in the psyche of the consumer. Which leaves this question for many advertisers; how do you make yourself essential during this uncertain time? 

This may seem like a limitation to brands, but it actually presents an opportunity to broaden your target audience, understand the changing needs of the consumer, and reposition your narrative on who you want to reach. With many people now working from home, everyone is their own office manager, and advertisers need to discover how ki they can become relevant, helpful, and essential for these new, every day lives. Brands like Poppin are offering large discounts for individuals who need to completely outfit their “work from home” space, providing a one-stop-shop to meet all of their home office needs. PELETON, who was being mocked mere months ago for being a pretentious alternative to the standard gym membership, is offering a trial of its subscription workout app, allowing people to access their online classes for free. As gyms around the country have closed for the foreseeable future, this has created an opportunity for PELETON to seem less of an extravagance, and more of an essential asset for people’s mental health and wellbeing during this time. Advertisers should take this opportunity to rethink their narrative, and shift messaging towards how they can be useful to audiences in this specific situation, right now.

For ecommerce retailers, while you may not be viewed as “essential” to the government, people who are still looking for comfort during quarantine would beg to differ. In the wake of forced closures of stores, people are bunkering down and online shopping categories like electronics have seen a 91% increase in purchases from March 10 to March 17, right alongside health items who have increased by 109%, highlighting that consumers are just as worried about having entertainment items, as well as medical essentials, during their quarantine.

Shift The Business Approach

Some companies have taken to shifting their entire business approach, even halting regular operations to prioritize the essential needs of the public during this crisis. On a local scale, many businesses are giving away free products or discounts to healthcare staff and emergency workers who are working on the front lines to combat COVID-19. While on a more global level, luxury brands are shifting their productions to fill the gaps in medical equipment needs. Luxury brand LVMH, who is France’s largest company and owns labels such as Dior, has transformed their perfume factory to produce sanitizing gel in just 72 hours. Apparel brands and fashion designers such as Christian Siriano are working around the clock to create hospital masks in order to address the mass shortages hospitals are facing in the United States.

While this may not fill an immediate business need in terms of revenue, consumers will remember these brands and what they accomplished for the great good. Consumers who see brands on a human level, stepping up to support healthcare workers and putting their own product development aside to rally behind a common cause, will inherently want to support that brand down the line, if not right away. Whether it is a local coffee shop donating caffeine and pastries to doctors and nurses, or massive brands shifting their operations to support their country, taking a completely different business approach during these times allows companies to stand out for a very good reason, and could pay off in greater ways in the long run.

Purposeful Partnerships

With the confusion and uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought to many different markets, we have seen companies face scheduling changes and delayed product launches, and even musicians postponing tours and album releases. On the other hand, we find many brands and influencers surging forward with their business plans, while making a point to incorporate purpose-driven elements and decisions moving forward. From giving away a portion of their proceeds to organizations like the Food Bank for New York City who are working hard to ease the burdens that this situation has presented to many communities, to companies like Heyday who had to close down their salons for the foreseeable future, but are relying on their online product sales not only to keep their business going, but to support their staff that had to be let go. This communicates to customers that they still have access to the products they know and love, and that loyal client purchases will contribute to the overall wellbeing of people behind the brand during this uncertainty.

For those businesses that are still able to continue running as usual, this is an opportunity to be mindful   that not every company is in the same position. Because of that, many brands are finding ways to leverage their stability to lend support to their surrounding communities.

Following The Rules

What is important above all else during this pandemic, is for the community, including businesses, to follow the rules and recommendations being set in place by the World Health Organization and the CDC. We have already seen multiple chain brands jump on board by enforcing social distancing by regulating the number of people who enter their store at a given time and removing furniture to discourage dining in. Not only are they enforcing the rules that are being put in place, they arealso able to continue operations and serve the community simultaneously.

We have also seen brands like McDonalds, Audi, and Volkswagen separating their logo to promote social distancing, and even Nike creating a universal message for athletes to share on their social channels. This united front allows companies to reinforce the important messaging the consumers need to be reminded of, while keeping their brand top-of-mind and in front of audiences at the same time.

While no approach is perfect during this confusing time, and many advertisers will no doubt face criticism for how they engage with audiences in the weeks ahead. The overall takeaway is that in times like these, marketers need to realize that there is an opportunity here to take a step back, reevaluate what consumers need right now, and how can they best provide that to them. For some brands, that may mean finding a way to help the greater community. For others, it could mean completely rerouting marketing plans and discovering how you can make your customers’ new normal, your new normal as well. 

We are going to see more and more creative messaging as the weeks progress, and perhaps see some brands in new channels that we have not seen them in before. This historical moment  we find ourselves in will forever change how advertisers navigate their space, and redefine crisis management for many industries. But on the other side of this, whenever we get there, brands will emerge more resilient, agile, and prepared for the unpredictable road ahead.

Mike Seiman

Mike Seiman, CEO & Chairman, is the founder of Digital Remedy, a digital media solutions company leading the tech enabled marketing space he co-founded while still a college student at Hofstra University in the early 2000s. The company has grown quickly and is now a major player within the crowded digital advertising landscape. The rapid growth of Digital Remedy, formerly CPXi led to its inclusion on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing privately held advertising/marketing companies in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014. Mike was selected as a semi-finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year initiative in 2010 and 2013 and as a finalist in 2009 and 2014. In his free time, Mike serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Hofstra University. He also focuses on numerous philanthropic initiatives including sitting on the boards of the H.E.S. (Hebrew Educational Society non-profit community center) and Children International, where he spearheaded the development of community centers in both Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2010 and Barranquilla, Colombia in 2014.

David Zapletal

Before graduating in 2005 with degrees in Retail and Consumer Science (with an emphasis in eCommerce) and a Minor in Public Business Administration at the University of Arizona, David Zapletal had already successfully grown a start up ad network from serving an initial 1 million impressions per day to over 10 million impressions per day. It was his deep understanding of internet advertising during the industry’s beginning stages that led him to another start up at the time, CPXi. More than 8 years that have passed and Zapletal currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Digital Remedy. In that role he continues to help grow and implement optimization tactics across various ad serving platforms, oversee daily operations of the account management and trafficking groups and maximizes ROI for Direct Response advertisers as well as for Publishers. Outside of Digital Remedy, Zapletal commits his efforts to an organization called Camp Dream Street, a camping program for children with disabilities, where he serves on the Board of Directors.

Jeff Reitzen

Jeff has worked in multiple facets of the online industry, from sales to operations as well as consumer engagement, content analytics and most recently in data optimization. His career began as a wedding, bar mitzvah, and Sweet 16 DJ where he learned the delicate balance of crowd energy management. Quickly, this skill made him incredibly successful in managing online sales for Geico. He joined CPXi at its startup stage as employee number 4 and has been a key driver of continued growth. His unique knowledge of what converts in the digital ad space, the application of data, and how to optimize platforms for efficiency continues to be invaluable to Digital Remedy clients. Today, Jeff is responsible for innovating and optimizing all Digital Remedy offerings including platforms, systems, tools, and internal processes—ensuring the organization remains on the precipice of the marketplace.

Mike Juhas

Mike Juhas, has over 13+ years of experience in ad tech client services, working with brands, agencies, and publishers ranging from top 10 advertisers to small regional organizations, to rep firms, holding companies and independent shops. An integral member of the Digital Remedy team, Juhas leads all client relationships, including facilitating onboarding and integration, establishing relationship protocols, overseeing Quarterly Business Reviews and status meetings, navigating financial coordination, and overseeing 24/7 team support. His specialties include consultative services, planning strategy, and account management disciplines. Juhas lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife and two daughters, and their dog, Perry–the unofficial company mascot.

TJ Sullivan

TJ Sullivan has over 20 years of media sales and leadership experience. His knowledge of the digital media landscape, ability to develop strategic solutions that solve brand challenges, and talent for motivating sales teams, have made him a vital member of several media and ad tech organizations. Before joining Digital Remedy, Sullivan was VP, Connections at iHeart Media, a cross-divisional group that enabled national advertisers to seamlessly work with multiple iHeart business units; CRO of Reelcontent, a video distribution company for brands; SVP of sales at AdoTube, a video ad network; and was Co-Founder and SVP of video measurement company, OpenSlate—for which he is still an advisor.

Sullivan had served as the President of 212, New York’s Interactive Advertising Club, and currently advises many early stage start-ups in the programmatic and video space. Notably, RUN (sold to Publicis in 2014), Futures Media, Transmit.Live, and Kubient.

Outside of his work in the media industry, Sullivan sits on the Board of St. Elizabeth School in Wyckoff, New Jersey and the Advancement Committee of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

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Buying Power and Quality

Let’s be honest. Your ad ops are limited by your access to only a handful of channels and DSPs. You want more reach and better prices, but don’t want to sacrifice quality in order to achieve those goals. Digital Remedy has access to a vast multitude of channels based on relationships we’ve cultivated over nearly 20 years in business. That means we get the best prices, have personal relationships, and don’t get sent to voicemail when we call.

It also means that we can execute omni-channel ad ops for better prices than an internal team, while ensuring the quality is up to industry standards. On top of access to all sorts of specific audiences we’re able to to leverage first- and third-party data across all your campaigns and pivot across platforms based on results. Any campaign, any budget, any platform, any audience. Digital Remedy backed by AdReady is restriction free ad ops….and what could be better than that?

Resources, Time, and Overhead

When was the last time you enjoyed balancing budgets, reading resumes, dealing with aggressive sales teams, or wasting years of time for small gains in performance. By partnering with Digital Remedy you get the full support of $30m in OPEX including marketing teams, sales teams, and a dedicated 24/7 ad operations team. No hiring new employees for media optimization, business development, or account management. No months of training and on-boarding. No long meetings crafting sales materials. Just your team focused on making deals, and our teams and tech focused on supporting and executing those deals in a tech-enabled, digital ecosystem designed to get the most out of any KPI.

Reporting and Support

How nice would it be to have all of your data and insights in one location. We don’t mean an excel sheet sent out once a week with complicated charts, or an XML file with pages and pages and pages of tables (what is this, 2003?). We mean a fully customizable dashboard reporting in real time, or as real time as possible. You get to decide the how, what, and when of the reporting you’re seeing. And that’s ALL of the how, what, and when’s. If you want to see breakouts of all of the individual campaigns in your system, done. If you want broad scope comparisons of all of the campaigns in the last year, done. If you want to see CTR’s for specific audiences and compare them to CPM for your best performing advertiser but limit the scope to campaigns greater than 30k, done. All of this is at your fingertips with the AdReady Dashboard, all in one place.

Jessica Cortapasso

With more than a decade of experience in human capital management, Jessica Cortapasso serves as SVP, People at Digital Remedy. After graduating from Muhlenberg College, she quickly recognized her passion for people and entered the workforce in Human Resources where she gained expertise in employee relations, designing strategic benefit plans, and the development, implementation, and curation of corporate engagement initiatives for big-name brands and small companies alike. Becoming a member of the Digital Remedy family in 2013 while simultaneously acquiring her Masters Degree in Human Resources Management and Development from New York University, Jessica has steered company culture through significant events ranging from acquisitions and a rebranding, to the development and application of our Core Values that shape our daily business practices. Cortapasso resides in Brooklyn, plays competitive volleyball, and loves spending time with her nieces.

Erez Feld

Responsible for the financial and legal practices of Digital Remedy, Erez brings 22 years of experience in precision financial analysis, growth management practices, strategic acquisition, and investment leadership. A graduate of Hofstra University, Erez began his career modeling for corporate finance, and expanded his accounting prowess in the real estate sector. Erez joined Digital Remedy in 2008 as a senior accountant, and helped to create and build an accounting department that could support the rapid growth of the company and aligned with those needs. Over the past 12 years he has evolved through various positions at the company within the finance discipline, supervising and mentoring additional finance personnel, while growing under the tutelage of Michael Fleischman, former CFO of Digital Remedy. Today, he leads the Finance Department by supporting high-level projects such as acquisitions and restructuring, and is responsible for overseeing all financial assets, establishing financial procedures, controls, and reporting systems.

Michael Fleischman

After a successful career as an accomplished Fortune 500 financial professional leading Corporate Finance and Strategic Planning at Cablevision Systems Corporation and its programming subsidiary Rainbow Media Holdings, Michael currently plays a role in the overall management of Digital Remedy including direct responsibility for all financial-related activities including accounting, financial planning, M&A, legal, insurance, real estate and banking relationships. Michael brings more than 25 years of media experience at Cablevision and Rainbow Media and during his career was instrumental in the launching and managing of a number of cable television networks including 10 Regional Sports Networks across the US, American Movie Classics, Bravo, and the Independent film channel as well as the structuring of corporate partnerships with companies including Liberty Media, NBC, Fox/NewsCorp and MGM. Additionally, he was the finance lead on a number of professional sports team acquisitions including Madison Square Garden, the successful IPO of Cablevision and a tracking stock at Rainbow Media.Michael was involved in the creation and launch of Rainbow Advertising Sales which was one of the Cable Industry’s first Local Advertising Sales Divisions.

Tony Pascal

With over two decades of experience in the design, product, and technology space, Tony joined Digital Remedy as a graphic designer in 2007. His responsibilities quickly expanded, landing him in leadership roles across multiple disciplines including creative direction, analytics, monetization optimization, and management of platform development. He continued to grow with the organization over the last fourteen years, overseeing all design, development, and execution of Digital Remedy products and platforms. In his current role as SVP, Product & Technology, Tony leads product and technology development for the company and acts as the go-to liaison across teams, ensuring alignment on all aspects of internal and client-facing technology initiatives.

Prior to Digital Remedy, Tony built and ran his own direct response company from 2002-2007 after graduating from New York Institute of Technology, where he learned the fundamentals of digital advertising and optimization strategies that still remain relevant today.

In a previous life, Tony was a ski instructor and still remains an avid skier today. When he is not leading product development, he can be found working on old cars, rock climbing and hitting the slopes.

Gayle Meyers

Gayle Meyers is an entrepreneur, venture partner, investor, and operating resource in the digital media and marketing industry, with over two decades of executive leadership experience. After launching a management consulting firm, Growthing which is focused on optimizing growth strategies for executive leaders and their organizations, Meyers has frequently been tapped for high-profile consulting and advisory positions to help marketing technology companies enhance their in-market presence.

“Gayle is widely recognized as a leading strategist with years of expertise in the ad tech space,” said Mike Seiman, Chairman and CEO of Digital Remedy. “Her career in discovering and integrating game-changing technologies in the marketing industry will serve as an invaluable resource as we continue to enhance our product suite in the months ahead.”

With expertise spanning multiple disciplines, Meyers frequently serves as a keynote speaker at industry conferences for companies such as Google, Verizon, Omnicom, LiveRamp, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Oracle. A list of her notable past clients who have benefitted from her unique insights to increase shareholder value includes Tinuiti (acquired by New Mountain Capital), Adometry (acquired by Google), MediaForge (acquired by Rakuten), Integral Ad Science (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), and Tapad (acquired by Telenor).

Matt Sotebeer

With 14+ years of experience in ad tech and emerging technologies, Matt Sotebeer brings an uniquely innovative approach in his role as Chief Strategy Officer at Digital Remedy. As CSO, Matt focuses on the intersection between the product, product marketing, tech, data, and sales teams, while fostering productive cross-functional company-wide relationships to inform and influence sales, educate clients, and optimize company performance.

Matt has an extensive knowledge in the integration of data science, creative, and media solutions to drive sustainable growth for companies, with a focus on designing customized, scalable solutions leveraging machine learning alongside human intelligence. Throughout the tenure of his career, he has successfully managed global teams aligned to common goals, encouraged collaborative problem solving, and supported talent growth for entrepreneurial companies including MiQ, Rocket Fuel, and Audience Science.

Jeremy Haft

A proven strategic, revenue, and team leader with over 20 years of experience managing and scaling revenue in the competitive ad tech landscape, Jeremy serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Digital Remedy.

Before joining the team in October 2022, he served as CRO at Channel Factory, where he reorganized the revenue team for sustainable growth and increased the sales team by 3x to drive predictable and more accountable revenue. Prior to that, he served in a decade of leadership positions. Most notably, as SVP of Sales at Amobee and as VP of North America Sales at Viant/Adelphic. At both organizations, Jeremy successfully built and scaled platform and business solutions from their infancy to achieve the desired corporate goals.

Jeremy graduated from The University of Vermont and currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling to tropical locations, dining out, cooking feasts with friends, and any new fitness trend he can get his hands on.

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