The country is adjusting to its new way of life, not to sound too cynical but given the condition, social isolation may be there for quite some time now.
As a result of lockdown in the world, millions of people are at home to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The time spends in a week of social isolation has increased by 1.5 hours.
Consumption of television
Higher TV viewing levels due to greater availability to view as people practice social distancing and self-isolation. A significant increase in television viewing has been observed in Latin America (+9% across last week) and Philippines (+19%) while in Norway there was a 26% increase in viewing across the first two working days following the national lockdown.
News channels especially during the pandemic, saw an aggregated view of nearly 40 select news sites, the week of March 9-15.
According to sources, there were over 100 million views with a 23.4% growth the week of March 9-15 vs. Mar 2-8 and 30.9% growth vs. Jan. 6-12.
Viewing habits among the children
It has been reported that younger audiences are spending more and more time even outpacing the older audiences in terms of viewing.
In China, viewing among children under 14 has risen 19% in the first 11 weeks of the year, with young adults 15-34 increasing by 27%.
In Spain, the average viewing minutes increased by 80% among 13-24s throughout March, compared to 23% for the over 65s.
In India, the viewing rate among children has grown to 40% with the most amount in Mumbai, Delhi, particularly places with the most number of lockdowns.
This increase in consumption of TV content during this crisis, presenting an opportunity for advertisers to reach their target audiences in proven, effective ways.
Growth in linear and non-linear platforms
One of the major changes has been observed in streaming content.
The demand for Netflix has prompted it to remove HD to maintain European bandwidth. Even Disney recently made a similar announcement to launch Disney+ way ahead in many markets due to an increase in demand.
It has been said that the increase in viewing is not to the sole benefit of the streaming services. Netflix, the popular streaming platform saw an increase of 29%, 30% for broadcaster video-on-demand channels and 39% for YouTube.
Also, a number of the market is measuring video-on-demand content and, increasingly, all forms of streaming. In some countries like Italy and Norway, these are already established, whereas in the U.K it is still in the process of roll-out.
Consumption in Websites and Retail
Along with the increase in the consumption of news, a generous amount of increased traffic in the “government “website has been noticed lately.
Whether that is the latest number of COVID-19 positive cases or the most updated guidelines to be followed, people are checking live updates on regular intervals.
While the traffic was down during the month of February, it jumped during the week of March 16-22, 2020 as the situation intensified.
Reportedly, websites and mobile apps belonging to the public sector saw a 29% increase in reach with a heavy dose of engagement rate by 39% and time spent on them increased by 27%.
Another site to have boomed recently is healthcare as people are getting more and more aware of the situation.
As people sought information about this relatively novel illness, traffic to health-related websites increased. Visits to websites and mobile apps increased by 25%, from the first week of March in India.
One of the most visited sites is CDC, NIH and WHO sites where there is an expected massive amount of growth with top digital visits going up to 425% in the weeks of January to March. For mobile, it is even more, around 671% during the periods of lockdown.
Not only sites, but as the impact of the virus spread and consumers braced themselves for a possible lockdown, there has been a steady rise in healthcare retail stores for supplies of sanitizers, masks soaps, and others.
Reportedly, traffic to “Healthcare Retail Sites” increased by 146% from Feb. 10-16 to March 16-22, 2020.
Apart from these, huge FMCG or retail stores that sell FMCG goods have increased a lot. During the mid-week of March, sites like Amazon, Walmart and Target’s in the USA saw a staggering 779 million visits- the highest in the quarter of 2020.
It also has a 3.8% growth versus the previous year.
As people are searching for the pandemic every minute, internet searches have been impacted hugely.
Terms like “coronavirus,” “COVID” or “COVID-19” increased by 553,778% in Jan. 2020 – from 9,902 in Dec. 2019 to 54.85 million in Jan. 2020.
Reduction in TV advertisements
Where on the one hand there is a massive growth in TV viewership, there has been a reduction in advertisement and new content.
In France, there has been a 10% drop in the number of different advertisers. This has also played-out online with a 50% drop in paid-search activity among the airline sector.
During their heart-breaking loss in sectors like travel, airlines, companies are cutting capacity and seeking bailouts.
However, random cost-cutting may affect the business more than making it steady. Systematic planning is essential in order to survive the phase.
If you are in any of these businesses and need help for digital marketing, Contact Skyram Technologies and let us help you in this difficult time.
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Till then, DO follow the WHO guidelines for you and your family’s safety. Stay safe, stay indoors.
