April 30, 2020
IAB study on agency and brand leaders' buying strategy during the COVID-19 crisis. Source: IAB
More buyers are pausing their ad spend, per the second study of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s second study of advertising buyers.
Digital ad spend is experiencing a slight rebound, although it is still off-plan, according to the report IAB report that compared changes to ad spend for the March through the June timeframe.
As expected, traditional media channels are faring the worst, although linear TV remains relatively flat.
That said, premium publishers are experiencing a slight rebound in ad spend projections.
Shift in messaging
New York-based IAB said those channels with greater flexibility and agility in creating, editing and optimizing creative will experience less of an impact.
The trade association said both mission/cause-related messaging and performance messaging saw an increase.
Also, buyers are shifting messaging, modifying and creating new creative assets.
Of those who are creating new assets, 60 percent say new creative will in some way reflect the COVID-19 crisis.
Per the study, 40 percent of buyers typically run ads adjacent to news, and they are more likely to be cancelling/pausing ads due to inappropriate/irrelevant creative, to be modifying or developing new creative assets, to be looking at new metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) during this crisis and to be increasing their spend in both display and search.
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