Getting Creative with your Marketing during COVID

It’s been a year now since the world changed and a year since most of us have had to adapt our kitchens, living rooms, or bedrooms into our full-time offices. We may have settled into this new normal by now, but challenges continue to arise in this ever-changing climate that force us to get creative with our business and marketing strategies.

We’ve rounded up some of our favorite recent creative marketing campaigns that played into the current social state to connect with customers in this new environment.

1. Guinness

Covid became a true world-wide crisis at the beginning of March, right before one of the biggest days for the Guinness company- St. Patrick’s Day. A day usually celebrated in crowds, with parades, and of course…with a pint of Guinness.

Their marketing team got to work quickly releasing an ad campaign that tugged at heartstrings, encouraged compassion, and connected with their consumers directly. “As a 260 year-old brand that has survived two World Wars, the Great Famine, and so much more, we felt compelled to share a message of resilience to reassure consumers that we will all march again if we stand together,” explained Joey Converse, a senior brand manager at Guinness.

2. Match.com

It can be difficult to achieve comedic relief during times like these, but Match.com did just that with their strategic, and tongue in cheek recent ad campaign. Their “Hell and 2020” marketing and ad campaign appropriately poked fun at the whirlwind that was this past year while appealing to their market of current singles wanting to date virtually during this time of social distancing.
This brand of self-aware comedy is incredibly relatable during these times especially, and Match was incredibly smart to partner with Ryan Reynolds to bring this creative concept to light.

3. Postmates

Postmates knows their audience, an audience that has expanded substantially since stay-at-home orders began. The company could have taken the easy way out with their marketing with a simple “stay at home and get food delivered to you” campaign. However, they took it up a notch by also appealing to giving back and helping local eateries affected by pandemic closures.

Their commercials were simple, and effective with celebrities self-recording their local restaurant recommendations with the message of “stay at home and support local”.

4. Uber

Avoiding any type of public or shared transportation is a given in a global pandemic, which makes it incredibly difficult for a ride share brand to grow during this time. Not missing a beat, Uber released a unique campaign encouraging riders to NOT use their service. Seems like a questionable strategy for any brand, however brand likeability speaks volumes. At the end of the day, a brand needs to be liked to be successful, and Uber did just that with their no BS, straight forward campaign.

5. Behr & West Elm

With Zoom and video meetings being the new norm, it was initially a bit of a scramble to get our at-home “offices” up to par so our backgrounds weren’t distracting. Never professional to see our giant Star Wars posters or messy kitchens in the behind us during an important strategy meeting.

Behr and West Elm launched an incredibly creative, strategic campaign involving downloadable Zoom backgrounds featuring their product. These backgrounds showcase stylish rooms, including a home office, a kitchen, and a log cabin living room. This serves as not only a great way to add some personality to your calls but also encourages users to scope the product lines featured.