The pandemic continues to have ripping effects on consumer behaviours. To help brands navigate their Covid-19 marketing strategies, we followed up with our subject-matter experts for an update on their 2020 trend predictions made (way back) in January. How have they held up?

We found a common and interesting theme. While the world is very different, the relevance of the predictions remains. In many cases, the effects of the pandemic have accelerated the trends and brands have been forced to quickly adapt to keep up with changing consumer habits and expectations.

Here is an overview of the multi-platform trends so you can focus on the ones most applicable to you and your brand. We follow with each expert’s explanation of how the pandemic is affecting that trend. The resulting takeaways can help guide your Covid-19 content and marketing strategy for the remainder of this extraordinary year, and beyond.

Themes

• Authenticity
• Sustainability
• Brand Values

Platforms

• Voice Search
• Digital
• Ecommerce
• Omnichannel
• Podcasts
• Books
• Magazines
• Digital Print
• Package Design

 

Authenticity

January 2020 Prediction
We will see rising value in quality and authenticity, driven by the ever-growing attention being paid to fraud and privacy.
– Duncan Clark, VP Strategy, SJC Media and Publisher, Ottawa Magazine

The Pandemic Effect
With four months to observe and reflect on people’s communication patterns, the trend towards quality and authenticity is even more relevant now – because, maybe more than ever, quality content can mean the difference between life and death. But also, because the conversation about privacy has never been more complicated. Citizens in jurisdictions all over the world are being asked to share their whereabouts and medical histories as a means to protect the whole – and are naturally and fairly asking questions about the safety and necessity of that information, where it’s stored, and how it will be used.

Takeaway for Brands
The increasing prevalence of data collection is accelerating the public’s questions and interest in privacy. Consumers are relying on quality content from authentic sources they can trust.

 

January 2020 Prediction
For brands that market to women, I think we’re ushering in a new era of authenticity and telling it like it is. No more being coy about the confusions and challenges of women’s lives by talking around it, or showing air-brushed, sanitized versions of life. No more assuming that only white, cisgender, thin, straight women buy your products.
– Sasha Emmons, Director of Lifestyle Content, FLARE, Today’s Parent and Chatelaine

The Pandemic Effect
Many things have changed since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and more recently, since anti-racism protests have spread around the globe. But I think the trend of authenticity is more relevant than ever. It still behooves brands to be transparent and true to the lived experiences of their customers.

Takeaway for Brands
It will be tricky to get it right. Brands with a track record of not walking the walk will be called out by customers and staff, and should expect being held to account on social media. For instance, Ben and Jerry’s bold public statement about dismantling white supremacy rings true because of their long-standing and vocal commitment to social justice.

 

Sustainability

January 2020 Prediction
We will see more and more brands developing holistic strategies around sustainability efforts. Marketing will be focused around communicating stronger values and supporting recycling, reusing, refilling and reselling.
– Sylvie Lamont, VP Creative, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
Plastics are indispensable during a pandemic (masks, gloves, gowns and disposable bags). Covid-19 will bring more attention to plastic pollution.

Takeaway for Brands
As companies have lifted their decisions to ban plastic bags and other single-use plastics, it will become even more evident for consumers to make choices that lead to a cleaner and sustainable future. Shopping at bulk stores or shops with refill models, purchasing reusable masks and the need for reusable shopping bags has increased. Cooking tips to help reduce waste and DIY projects will resonate more with customers as we look to create a healthier future through the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle.

 

Relatable Brand Values

January 2020 Prediction
To cut through the massive volume of messages vying for our attention, above all it will be important to understand the motivators for each generation when making choices about the brands they surround themselves with. Defining our identity is an ongoing exercise for humans. Content, storytelling and brands are key to this exercise.
–  Nadine Silverthorne, Director, Branded Content, Audience & Events

The Pandemic Effect
I believe that in light of current circumstances, brands whose values align with individual or collective identities matter even more. With the news changing by the minute, most of us are looking for information that leads to a better understanding of the world and our place in it. Canadians are seeking information on how to plan our day to day, and our long-term future based on real issues. Many of us are hoping to see ourselves, our joys and our struggles within our pages and online.

Takeaway for Brands,
As content brands we now have a deeper obligation to tell difficult stories, to cast our research net wider, to question how we tell those narratives, but I know we are up to the task.

 

Voice search in a touchless society

January 2020 Prediction
There will be an increase in content creation for search in 2020.
– Jacqueline Loch, VP Client Innovation, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked an accelerated rise in the adoption and usage of voice-activated devices in homes, specifically in the cooking at home and recipe category as well as in the health category with Covid-related health queries.

Takeaway for Brands
Consider content that is based on semantic search queries. Creating custom branded voice scripts for Amazon Alexa and Google Home that drive to e-commerce will quickly become the norm. As voice-enabled devices shift from voice only to voice and digital screen, marketers will have the opportunity to layer in interactive video with rich content such as product demos, buying guides and tutorials that will all drive to e-commerce conversion.

 

Personalized digital experiences

January 2020 Prediction
With the growing number of Gen Z consumers (loosely, people born from 1995 to 2010), we must develop content that reflects their interests and media consumption habits. We need to make the experience of viewing content a personalized, rewarding and valuable one. We need to make sure they feel that if they chose to engage with your content, they feel they are winning out on that value exchange.
– Dave Dolejsi, AVP Content Strategy, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
The strategy behind relevant content delivered through digital channels has never been more important. Where we saw a movement towards e-comm adoption and digital experiences back in January – we now have seen an acceleration of the timetable. Where we saw a slow and, in some cases, reluctant, adoption of digital from groups other than Gen Z, we now see mass adoption out of necessity, a desire for interesting digital experiences to replace the physical ones we temporarily can’t enjoy.

Takeaway for Brands
Big ticket items we traditionally needed to see and touch in person (appliances, cars etc.), now need to somehow be communicated and experienced through digital devices. As such, new content, from Augmented Reality and 360 photography to interactive mobile and video programs, are now more critical to the path to purchase than we dreamed they would be so soon.

 

January 2020 Prediction 
The focus will be on creating meaningful highly-personalized content, a quality over quantity approach, targeting niche audiences on niche platforms will continue to evolve. – Amanda Eaton, Content Director, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
Now more than ever, brands need to adapt to the current situation by finding ways to stay connected to their customer base. Navigating this “new normal” has pushed retailers into rethinking how they are doing business, and in some cases has forced them to find new and creative ways to narrow their focus, buff up the e-comm experience, and personalize communications and services.

Takeaway for Brands
During this crisis, not only is it important to have a digital plan in place but it also means humanizing that digital experience. The upside is that there is opportunity in this climate to test innovative approaches to customer care and digital platforms that may have been too high risk before.

 

Content that converts to e-commerce

January 2020 Prediction
The role of content is quickly expanding from its top-of-funnel role of inspiration and engagement to a deeper role of driving e-commerce conversion. The demand for mobile-first shoppable content will increase the amount of content required by marketers well beyond the traditional marketing ecosystem.
– Jacqueline Loch, VP Client Innovation, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
Today’s retail landscape is rapidly changing with an increased digital transformation that has been accelerated by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The competitive set has expanded to include many new digital-first entrants and platforms and direct-to-consumer sales by brands is on the rise. Social platforms are now shoppable with in-app commerce, and the growth of content required for e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Shopify and retail DTC e-commerce sites will fuel the need for a high volume of content to guide the customer experience to sales conversion.

Takeaway for Brands
With the upcoming launch of 5G mobile networks and 5G-enabled mobile devices, the mobile wallet will take over as the e-commerce platform of choice. Brands will take on the role of content always-on publisher across channels and will require a content strategy that includes content built for e-commerce conversion.

 

Omnichannel marketing

January 2020 Prediction
Omnichannel marketing is a content vampire and requires a high volume of content produced to align with an agile content strategy. Retailers and brands will struggle to evolve in-house marketing teams and in-house e-commerce content on-boarding needs to meet the demand for the increased amount of content required. In addition, we will continue to see marketing budgets shift from a variety of marketing channels into content to meet the consumer expectation for real-time content, access to product information and frictionless purchase via e-commerce.
– Jacqueline Loch, VP Client Innovation, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
Since the start of the Covid-19 era, consumers have accelerated the shift to mobile and digital showrooming with an increase in demand for omnichannel content that is required to drive e-commerce sales conversion.

Takeaway for Brands
Retailers need to produce a high volume of content that is required for their Covid-19 marketing strategies that spans across channels and meets consumer demands and expectations for always-on commerce.

 

Podcasts

January 2020 Prediction
Podcasts will grow in popularity.
– Douglas Kelly, President, Strategic Content Labs

The Pandemic Effect
Deep engagement never goes out of style. The social isolation around Covid-19 has only increased audience desire for meaningful experiences with content. The platform and much of the content associated with podcasts remains compelling.

Takeaway for Brands
The challenge remains how to monetize podcasts both as either a pure editorial product or content with a marketing-related component.

 

Books

January 2020 Prediction
Publishing formats have entered a more mature phase with the recent double-digit growth in audiobooks creating a mixed market of print books, ebooks and This is learned behaviour that I think is accelerating the public’s interest in privacy – and makes my January take even more relevant now. Publishing strategy will use the format that makes the most sense to the book and reader.
– Alison McGill, Publisher, Quill & Quire

The Pandemic Effect
The mixed publishing formats have become even more relevant to books and to the economic survival of the publishing industry during the pandemic. With the necessity to stay at home, the opportunity for some of us to read more has often meant a return to books and the break from daily stress they can provide. The ability to access books online during the lockdown has made continued revenue possible for many publishers and writers. And some local bookstores have added delivery and curbside pick-up options. Local stores have become a way for people to get the items they want quickly and also a way for people to support their neighbourhood businesses.

The Frankfurt Book Fair, like so many international conferences, is undergoing an evolution planning a hybrid event of in-person and virtual attendance. This innovation may also have potential after the Covid-19 era as a way to facilitate large trade gatherings while also mitigating some of the environmental impact of business travel.

Takeaway for Brands
The trend with books can be applied to Covid-19 content marketing in general; flexibility is key and depending on the content and the audience, we will see a mix of publishing mediums across print, digital and audio.

 

Magazines

January 2020 Prediction
I’m heading into 2020 with a sense of optimism in circulation. We’re starting to see some of the print declines that publishers experienced over the past few years flatten out.
– Allan Yue, Director of Circulation, SJC Media

The Pandemic Effect
As people were forced to stay indoors over the past few months, newsstand sales took a hit and saw some fairly steep declines as a result of store closures and reduced foot traffic. However, subscriptions became even more relevant with people seeking out information about the virus and just looking for different ways to pass the time. As a result, we saw significant growth through our introductory offers across all magazine brands. While the sample size is small, the results have been extremely encouraging and we intend to put additional efforts into the low price/auto renew strategy going forward for new subscribers.

Takeaway for Brands
With some people spending more time indoors (and hence more time to read at their leisure), and all Canadians on the lookout for trusted sources of content, magazines offer an important vehicle for advertisers and brand storytellers to extend their reach.

 

Digital Print

January 2020 Prediction
Digital printing will grow in popularity.
– Andrew Borelli, VP, Operations & Manufacturing, SJC Print

The Pandemic Effect
The Covid-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented drop in consumer and B2B spending. Our clients need to choose the best avenue possible to communicate their messaging. Valuable insights ranging from the importance of engaging and authentic content, personalization benefits from targeted DM campaigns, environmentally sound and sustainable product offerings and accurate market forecasts are relevant now more than ever.

Digital print affords the opportunity to “print less, more often.” Traditional offset print supports large static runs to capitalize on the economies of scale associated with higher volume runs. The problem there, is that you need to stick with the “one time” common messaging of that particular offset run. Digital print provides the client with multiple, short-run messaging opportunities and at an affordable cost due to the low prepress infrastructure. The benefit here is that clients can change the nature of the messaging to cater to the relevance of their changing business needs. This is particularly advantageous now, in our era of Covid-19.

Takeaway for Brands
With print as part of your overall strategy, digital print will give the flexibility to change messaging as frequently as needed, and at a lower price point.

 

Package Design

January 2020 Prediction
As we start off into a new decade with most of the population trying to deal with information overload, a major trend in package design will be simplicity.
– Bryan Raymond, Account Director, SJC Content

The Pandemic Effect
Nothing has forced the shift to online shopping more than our current situation due to Covid-19 and your package design needs to perform on the digital shelf like never before. Browsing the aisles in real life versus online presents its own challenges for how your package design engages consumers, delivers key messages and stimulates impulse purchases. When tackling your next brand design update or launching a new brand into the marketplace you must consider more than just the competitive landscape in-store and how you perform in shelf sets and focus groups.

Takeaway for Brands
Your online presence is key. How does your design perform in the digital space?  What supporting content can you create from your existing packaging assets beyond the standard front/side/back panel shots to help educate the consumer at a glance, show your points of differentiation, features and benefits?  Our fully integrated end-to-end package design solutions can help you get the right message, in the right way, to the right consumer.