4 Clever Marketing Campaigns from Brands During Covid 19

During a pandemic, it’s much more challenging for businesses and marketers to advertise their brands.  Not only is that because operations are fairly limited, but people are more sensitive with how companies respond to the situation as every decision reflects their values. In one of our previous blogs, we wrote a guide on how to be a responsible marketer during the pandemic. We have mentioned that the crisis can actually be an opportunity to rise to the occasion and help your customers, your audience and the world at large.

We did some research on successful ad campaigns from across the globe, and we are listing down our favourites. Here are some clever marketing campaigns from different brands during the Covid-19 pandemic.

HBO’s “It’s OK Not to Feel OK”

The pandemic has taken its toll on people’s mental health, inducing anxiety, fear and stress. 

It’s definitely causing discomfort. Media company HBO tells its viewers that it’s completely understandable to have these feelings. “It’s OK Not to Feel OK” is a mental health awareness campaign where celebrities encourage people to open up about their emotions. Timely that they released it during Mental Health Awareness Month. 

Bulleit’s “New Drinking Buddies”

With most countries enforcing lockdowns, one of Australia’s favourite social activities has been completely stopped – that being drinking with your mates!. There are even some cities in other countries that impose liquor ban. Now that’s sad, right? So all the drinking has to happen at home. Meanwhile, in the United States, liquor company Bulleit gets creative with the current situation by adding a bit of fun to it by calling different objects at home as “drinking buddies”. They use pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon where people see patterns, like faces, in a random stimulus like objects.

Burger King’s “Lockdown Whooper

Like in most countries, fast food chains in South Africa had to temporarily close during the lockdown. Because of that, people surely miss their favorite food from their choice of fast food, inducing cravings. In response to that, Publicis created a campaign for Burger King to help South Africans to reduce their cravings…by censoring their ads!  We thought this was quite well done.

Netflix’s Spoiler Billboards

This may not be Netflix’s official campaign, but it sure is a clever idea. Two students from Miami Ad School in Europe created a campaign to discourage people from going out. How? By having billboards of spoilers of popular Netflix originals! Very witty, right? The two students made a video ad of their mockups of these spoiler billboards. Also, the idea is before the audience sees these billboards, ads in train stations and social media show a warning that they will see spoilers if they continue to go out. Sadly, according to an interview by Boredpanda with the students, Netflix got all the credit. But even if that’s the case, Seine and Brave, the people behind the idea, are happy with the positive feedback and hopes for people to continue getting creative.

To see more Covid-19 marketing campaigns across the globe, you may see them here.

Wearing the marketing hat entails being creative with ideation and execution. With the Covid-19 crisis, more than just being creative, marketers are also pressured to be sensitive. The campaigns we listed are well thought of that’s why we chose them. What’s your favorite among the four? And do you have other examples? Comment down below!