International Journal of Advertising

The Review of Marketing Communications

ISSN: 0265-0487 (Print) 1759-3948 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rina20

Advertising and COVID-19

Charles R. Taylor

To cite this article: Charles R. Taylor (2020) Advertising and COVID-19, International Journal of
Advertising, 39:5, 587-589, DOI: 10.1080/02650487.2020.1774131

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2020.1774131

Published online: 09 Jun 2020.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING
2020, VOL. 39, NO. 5, 587–589
https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2020.1774131

EDITORIAL

Advertising and COVID-19

Charles R. Taylor
Villanova University

These are challenging times for the advertising industry. The past few months have seen
advertising expenditures in much of the world decline substantially. The situation is likely
to worsen at least somewhat in the near terms, with Statistica predicting that $26 billion in
advertising revenue will be lost in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Vorhaus 2020).
While no one can be certain how long the pandemic and its impact will be felt there
appears to be consensus that recovery is likely to be difficult, and perhaps slower than
recovery following the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008.
While there are limits to what the industry itself can control, there is a clear need for
advertisers and agencies to adapt to an environment that has dramatically almost over-
night. The effect of the pandemic varies significantly by industry (e.g. airline vs. flour manu-
facturer), medium (e.g. digital vs. magazines), and primary market served (business to
business vs. consumer). For example, I recently wrote a spice company who had to shift it
marketing focus from chefs and foodservice to home cooks due to many hospitality indus-
try businesses being on lockdown and in the process has to change pricing strategy, offer
new flavours and package sizes, alter distribution channels, and change the focus of almost
all of its promotion (Taylor 2020a). The need to adapt quickly to a changing environment
is essential to many in the ad and marketing business.
While the International Journal does not plan a special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic
(our Routledge/Taylor & Francis sister journal, Journal of Advertising will be), submissions
on the topic are welcome. As we cannot be certain of the duration of the pandemic,
authors are especially encouraged to focus on broad implications of their findings that
may apply when things eventually return to normal, whatever that may look like. While my
intent here is not to outline a comprehensive set of areas ripe for research, I would like to
map out a few that I believe to have special potential for research conducted during
the pandemic.
One area very ripe for research relates the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) appeals. A recent survey by Berlin Cameron/Perksy study, a strong majority of young
consumers believe that marketers can play a positive role during the COVID-19 crisis
(Taylor 2020b). As it is common to see advertising appeals focussed on CSR during the
pandemic, research on the effectiveness of various appeal types (e.g. consumer safety,
employee welfare, honouring first responders, donations to charity) can be research using
established theoretical frameworks (see Schaefer, Terlutter and Diehl (2020). Examining
various factors including company/message fit, trust in the advertiser, and authenticity are
also of interest (Bergkvist and Taylor 2016; Bergkvist and Zhou 2019). The construct of
authenticity and its relationship with effectiveness and whether there is variation by gener-
ation would appear to be ripe for study during the pandemic.

CONTACT Charles R. Taylor charles.r.taylor@villanova.edu

ß 2020 Advertising Association
588 EDITORIAL

Changes in media habits and the potential for effective marketer response in terms of
promoting a product or service is also of interest. For example, some musicians have
turned to offering free concerts online and wineries offer virtual taskings. Digital is believed
to be less hard hit than some other media as those quarantined can spend time on the
internet, but research on what formats and what type of targeting work most effectively
would make for timely research.
The notion of ‘homefluencers,’ coined by Jaysen Gillespie of Criteo is also very much of
interest, with the idea being that during lockdowns or increased hours staying at home,
social media users may take on additional importance. Consumers, and especially young
consumers, may rely on these influencers (De Veirman and Hudders 2020; Lou and Yuan
2019), who often instinctively understand where they fit into a follower’s life during a crisis.
What the influencer thinks in terms of how to dress or eat during the pandemic may take
on extra importance. The role of homefluencers and the effectiveness of various types of
appeals in environments such as Instagram and YouTube is worthy of study.
In general, during the pandemic, there is likely to be greater focus on ads using emo-
tional appeals. Thus, research on the role of emotion in processing ads and the effective-
ness of emotional appeals is warranted. It may also be the case that artificial intelligence
platforms that can be used to programme array of messages based on consumer character-
istics and behaviours can be tested in a digital context (Cardona 2018). Surveys on whether
consumer attitudes towards privacy change during a pandemic that may require mass test-
ing and/or vaccinations would also be of interest in an environment where concerns about
data protection had been heightened prior to the pandemic, manifested in the General
Data Protection Regulation in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act
(Taylor 2019).
Another area worth of exploring is how electronic word-or-mouth (eWOM) is affected.
Chu and Kim (2018) in a review of recent literature noted that eWOM has been increasing
and consumers increasingly give, seek, and share brand experiences online. Research
focussed on virality (see Phelps et al., 2004), and drivers and level of effect on brand image
and sales (e.g. Hayes and King 2014) during the pandemic might provide interesting
results. Submissions on the aforementioned topics and other relevant studies on the
impact of COVID-19 on advertisers are welcome.

References
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