At the time of writing (Wed 1 Jul 2020), New Zealand is approximately three weeks into Level 1 – we’ve had a flurry of new cases of COVID-19 being reported in the last two weeks but none in the last day or so. People are getting back to normal; schools and day care centres have been open for six weeks, malls are open for business, houses that are for sale can be open homed and offices are being re-populated.
Here are Starcom, we’ve been keeping a close eye of the ebbs and flows of media usage during the entire Lockdown period (75 days in Lockdown from Level 4 to Level 1!).
If you want a snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour as it pertains being in Lockdown, then the following three charts exemplify the COVID-19 effect. The advent of the Alert Level 4 Lockdown status in w/c 22 March showed a seemingly symbiotic relationship between TV viewing increasing and traffic volumes decreasing.
And then, when NZ moved to Level 3 (in w/c 26 April) and Level 2 (in w/c 10 May) – the reverse occurred – TV viewing starting to decline (albeit slowly) and people got in those cars and back on the road.
(Thanks to oOh! for providing the traffic volume data on a weekly basis).
Of course, other media have also shown similar patterns of behaviour
- TVNZ OD and Three Now had swift rises in registrations and growth in streams; which then plateaued as the Lockdown levels reduced.
- News sources (both print and digital and free to air TV) demonstrated their usefulness to consumers in being able to report in real time on what was going on (with the news sites benefitting from a spike in traffic around the 1pm press conferences held by the PM Jacinda Arden and Dr Ashely Bloomfield, the Director-General of Health).
- Magazines (particularly food, gardening and home & lifestyle titles) all showed huge growth in April 2020 subscriptions v April 2019 (after all those Bauer readers need to find a home!)
However, there was a corresponding fall in advertising spend as many clients moved to remove advertising monies from the market. For many, advertising just wasn’t feasible as they couldn’t trade during the various Lockdown levels (e.g. movie theatres, retail). With the NZ border remaining closed for the foreseeable future, there is a large tranche of money from travel related advertisers that is unlikely to return any time soon.
According to SMI, buoyed by Government spending on COVID-19, March 2020 spend was up 9% v March 2019. However, April 2020 (the latest data available) is down 38% YAGO – driven by reduced spend by a number of categories – entertainment, tourism/accommodation/travel services, airlines/travel agents, auto dealers/parts and motion pictures/cinemas.
So, while NZ is showing such positive signs of eliminating the disease, the industry we hold so dear is fighting a similar battle against destruction. As the government COVID-19 advertising says – we need to continue to unite in order to effect recovery – be kind, check out your own backyard to support local businesses and travel experiences and always buy local. That might just mean media too.
