The Covid-19 pandemic has and continues to cause a massive dislocation among small and medium enterprises. Just several weeks after its onset, the government announced total lockdown measures, sending people home and causing closure of dozens of startups. While some businesses closed temporarily, others have gone into permanent closure owing to the tough economic times during the pandemic. One of the business operations that were affected massively is the advertising and marketing function.
Businesses that practiced the traditional advertising like use of billboards and advertising at subways saw a sharp decline in number of impressions. Consequently, sales continued to shrink as the consumers cut down on spending. Traditional advertising was no longer yielding positive results, and so businesses switched to digital advertising while others choose funny advertising techniques.
According to a report, digital advertising continued to take a larger share in the US and across the globe. Marketers choose to target their customers through digital advertising. Despite the switch to digital advertising, the businesses are not realizing the anticipated increase in sales and brand awareness.
Stay Away From The Overcrowded Digital Advertising Space
The digital advertising space is already overcrowded. This is considering that millions if not billions of businesses across the globe are advertising on the same platform, and targeting same audience. In that regard, getting views from the target audience is becoming difficulty by day as more advertisers bid for the advertising space.
Moreover, the digital advertising approach is costing businesses more than budgeted. Consider that more marketers are switching to paid advertising on the digital space. Thus, the advertisement space is becoming more expensive. A report published by CNBC, shows that the average digital advertisement goes for 12 percent more than it did two years ago. Therefore, only business that can afford the cost of advertising on digital space will gain more views. This begs the question, what will happen to startups and small businesses with limited capital to invest in marketing?
Third predicament that digital advertisers will have to deal with is shorter attention span. Advertising on web pages will not get the attention span the same advert would attract via funny advertising. Consequently, even spending more to earn the ad space on digital platforms might not help the business to achieve the goals.
In Hand Advertising
The best alternative available to advertiser right now is in hand advertising. Often referred by advertisers as funny advertising, in-hand advertising involves placing your brand in the hands of your target consumer.
In hand advertising gives the marketers the privilege of delivering advertisements in the hands of a consumer. Here are different options available to advertisers.
· Sanitization Stations
Hand sanitization has become popular nowadays. Thus, you will find hand sanitization stations at different locations. The sanitization stations feature a display, where an advertiser can place his brand. Sanitization stations offer an opportunity to gain 1.7 Million impressions per month, and it is ideal for targeting the US adult demographics.
· Coffee Sleeve Advertising
The approach involves use of coffee sleeves used at the coffee shops to protect patrons from the hot surface while sipping their favorite cup of coffee. This funny advertising approach has the potential to reach US millenials and offers an expected recall rate of 70 to 80%.
· Pizza Box Top Marketing
A report on fortune.com showed that Pizza orders grew sharply during the pandemic. Advertising on pizza box top is a potential approach for reaching the Average US households. With an estimated f 1.8 Million impressions, Pizza box top advertising can be a funny advertising approach, but offers the potential to reach more customers in a personal way compared to digital marketing.
