Skip To Main Content
November 4, 2020 - By Hawke Media

Hawke Media Coronavirus Report: May 6, 2020

With Mother’s Day approaching, the world is slowly but surely coming to grips with how to manage COVID-19. In the United States, businesses are getting a breath of hope as restrictions are gradually being loosened. 

States are beginning to implement phased plans to reopen retail stores, public spaces, and some restaurants. For example, Massachusetts is lifting restrictions on some non-essential businesses including: flower shops, video game stores, sporting goods stores, and a number of other types of retailers. 

However, in the case of Massachusetts and many other states, this is highly conditional as “items must be left in mailboxes, mailrooms, garages, lobbies, at doorstep, or similar no-contact drop-off points”.

While this Mother’s Day may not resemble how people have celebrated in the past, people will continue to get creative and find ways to celebrate. Fortunately, access to technology and being able to connect digitally has been a great intermediary for social closeness while maintaining physical distance. 

Consumer Trends

Usage

By now it’s clear that people are spending more time on their devices. This year-over-year data compiled by Hootsuite shows just how much adoption and usage has grown compared to this time last year.

Source: Hootsuite
Source: Hootsuite
  • It’s important to know where consumers are spending their time to adjust your strategy and spend.
Source: Hootsuite
  • With 47% of internet users spending more time on social media and other devices/platforms globally, it stands to reason that this trend can be seen in your locality as well.
  • This illustrates a trend we’ve been seeing for weeks as people are increasingly relegated to their homes, they turn to their devices to make connections with other people and brands.

Search

Data from popular search analytics platform SEMrush corroborates the increase of activity online, showing how much more people are searching and which categories are being searched the most.

Source: SEMrush
  • There is an opportunity here to leverage search to get in front of your audience. While physical locations will be slow to recover, e-commerce has an opportunity to fill that gap.
Source: Search Engine Journal
  • Views are down on Google My Business pages overall by an astounding 59% and clicks have suffered in kind losing 32% of activity.
Source: Search Engine Journal
  • Despite the downturn in clicks and views, businesses have begun to see an increase in click-to-calls. This shows that people are still likely interested in shopping and eating out because they’re taking action to check if businesses are open.

Shopping

People are still planning to buy. The only questions are “how” and “where”.

Source: Fit:Match
  • Fit:Match’s data (a company that uses its Fit-Predictive Personalization Solution that uses biometric and style preference data to match shoppers with the apparel products that fit them) has shown that 40% of shoppers will be reticent to ever try on clothes again.
  • While 75% of shoppers will return to physical retail stores eventually, shoppers will want a largely contactless experience; an understandable precaution.
Source: Klaviyo
  • Even though consumers and brick & mortar businesses will benefit from looser restrictions, it looks like e-commerce will retain a large portion of the market share that has been wrestled away from their high-contact counterparts.

Business Trends

Overview

Source: Listrak

Advertising

CPMs Are Down

  • Advertising costs are down across the board. With more internet users than ever spending more time online than ever and brands pulling ad spend, prices for ad space are dropping while impressions are abundant.
  • Use this opportunity to gain awareness and reach more people in a more predictable platform that provides
    detailed analytics.

Performance by Industry

Gainers

Source: KeyBanc Capital Markets
  • There was an increase in restaurant spending week-over-week which shows some optimism for the food service industry, largely focused in the fast food and fast casual space.
  • Video game sales are booming as consumers look for ways to remain entertained while observing lockdown orders.

Trailers

Source: KeyBanc Capital Markets
  • Predictably, travel & leisure are consistently doing poorly as the hospitality industry has likely been one of the hardest impacted due to COVID-19.