We aim to help marketers offer the best customer experience they can and continue to build their brand equity during this time of crisis. Key trends this week: Advertising experience reach continues to drop and we are seeing signs of wear-out
In the last couple of weeks, some clients have reported a reduction in COVID crisis meetings and a focus on the longer-term economic recession. In response to this new phase we are excited to provide an online dashboard so that banks can view the trended data for themselves. The link will give you direct access to the dashboard, no log-ins are required but please use Google Chrome and access via a laptop.
The dashboard is a beta version, so we welcome feedback. One feature to point out is the ability to click on data points to view the underlying comments for the experiences, so if response to advertising is positive, you can click to see what people are saying about it.
Advertising experience reach continues to drop and we are seeing signs of wear-out
Whilst banks are still seen to have done a good job (74% say Yes) and overall concern is dropping (64% Very or Fairly concerned from a high of over 80% in March), uncertainty still remains and the path forward isn't as clear for banks.
Banks are right to be cautious now. We previously noted a rise in negative earned news relating to financial stability and whilst earned reach hasn't increased this week, we see stories of job losses, reduction in interest rates and a rise in fraud.
With advertising reach dropping to 31% (from a high of 59% in May and benchmark of 44% in Feb/Mar), we are also seeing a more muted response to ads, with campaigns showing signs of wear-out. “Long-running ad from Lloyds, bored with it. Too repetitive, uninteresting.” Lloyds | TV | Fairly Negative | Slightly less likely to choose. “Regular ad being aired by Halifax. Doesn’t appeal to me. Uninterested.” Halifax | TV | Neutral | No difference. Lower pick up for advertising could be a factor of people taking advantage of holidays before the Autumn as well as lower spend. We would also anticipate banks coming out with refreshed advertising comms, offering relevant products and services to customers and prospects, in September.
Owned touchpoints, especially online banking and app, are increasingly important as channels for customer interaction. In fact, online banking/app has overtaken TV in share of experience this week.
In summary
- Uncertainty prevails and banks are right to be cautious.
- Less people are picking up advertising and response to it is more muted, suggesting wear-out.
- Owned touchpoints, particularly the online banking/app are important channels for customer interaction.
Contributor:
Mark Thompson, Experience Director & Kaat Defreyne, Senior Experience Executive