Page 13 - Adnews Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Agenda
Ecommerce accelerated:
Social media companies did, unsurprisingly, better than tra- ditional media owners in weather- ing the impact of the COVID-19 pan- demic, and more briefly the bush- fire crisis, on their advertising reve- nue. Brands turned to the platforms, particularly Instagram and Snapchat, for their ability to provide cost-effective, quick ways to reach customers who were spending less time around their brick-and-mortar stores and more time on screens. As we entered weeks into the pan- demic, particularly during strict stay-at-home orders in March and April, people weren’t just using plat- forms to keep themselves enter- tained, they were increasingly
shopping online, and platforms that rolled out tools to make this experi- ence easier benefitted the most.
Like almost all media channels, social media experienced a surge in users as people were stuck at home to slow the spread of COVID-19. In July, six months into the pandemic, social media was used by 3.96
billion people for the first time, just more than half of the world’s popu- lation, according to We Are Social
social media advertising
through the pandemic
Brands big and small turned to social media to quickly update
their customers on changes to their businesses in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram rolled out new tools to keep them coming back, with a big focus on capturing the fast shift brands were making to ecommerce.
WORDS BY
MARIAM CHEIK-HUSSEIN
www.adnews.com.au | September-October2020 13