Wood says crisis firms up pivot towards digital

Dael Wood on how in recent weeks the lockdown arising from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has shown the reality of consumers living life through digital platforms

Dentsu Aegis Network recently published their Conscious Consumer research study and while the field work preceded the Covid-19 lockdown, it offers some insights into how Irish consumers are living a significant part of their lives online. The coronavirus pandemic magnified this and will no doubt have created some longer-term behavioural change.

New tech has narrowed the space between offline and online worlds hugely in recent years, but the last nine weeks of lockdown have truly brought into the spotlight the reality of living through digital platforms. The speed and comfort with which consumers embraced the new reality has been extraordinary and trust in the platforms has not been an issue.

The chart below shows just how quickly our adoption of technology that has actively entered our homes and lives is growing. Irish consumers are showing higher levels of trust in tech than we would have expected – 40 per cent of consumers trust Google and the same level of trust exists for intelligent home assistants (25 per cent) as the Irish Government (26 per cent).

These high levels of trust are somewhat contradicted with three in four believing that fake news is a problem, but only 30 per cent regularly checking the accuracy of what they read online. Another one in four admit to having shared something they later realised was fake.

While most people believe that the fake news publisher is to blame for its distribution, 56 per cent feel that Facebook is responsible. This merging of real-world experience and digital experience is starkly represented when considering that the same percentage of people trust the Government as they do their virtual home assistants, like Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Understanding the changes and adjustments in Irish consumers, whether from the long-term impact of the 2008 recession or changing eating habits due to environmental concerns, means that how we contextually position our brands is a crucial consideration for communications success. The way consumers get their information has also shifted dramatically.

The study showed that 79 per cent of Irish consumers play games online, making the space more powerful to connect with a broad section of consumers. Surprisingly, this does not skew younger, but is spread across the 15-64 age profile quite evenly, peaking with 35-44 year olds.

The top three most popular type of games explains the even spread across the ages with 31 per cent playing puzzle and educational games, 28 per cent playing action and adventure and 15 per cent playing some form of sports simulation. Our research looked in depth at eSports given its dramatic growth around the world over recent years.

Some 22 per cent of Irish consumers watch eSports and 18 per cent play eSports. What is interesting in the context of the lockdown is that the reasons for watching eSports are in line with the motivations for watching real sports – with entertainment, getting tactics and strategies to play, understanding more and hearing the commentary topping the list.

The appearance of Travis Scott in Fortnite last month was another example of our virtual normalisation. It showed how entertainment can move to a digital format quite seamlessly. While Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine was courting controversy for last year’s Superbowl halftime show, video game fans were revelling in the afterglow of a different live performance.

The void that ‘real’ sporting event cancellations has created during the current pandemic will almost certainly be filled to some extent by eSports seeing an even bigger bump in growth. Those watching eSports are highly engaged and connected to the players and the game tactics, providing marketers with great engagement opportunities.

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MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES

As we consider the reality of emerging from the Covid-19 crisis, economic recovery and value will dominate consumer decisions. The world that we enter into is completely unknown and societies and governments are having to navigate the health and economic impact now and for the foreseeable future. Brands have a huge opportunity to connect with consumers through technology platforms that move beyond messaging and provide meaningful experiences.

As we start easing Covid-19 restrictions, where and how we place brands will be crucial. It would be remiss to only consider data and learnings within the lockdown time frame. As we headed into the pandemic, we got a chance to understand the influences on buying behaviour. What we know from the crisis and learning from history can help inform our new reality.