OUTLOOK

The third wave of Advertiser Perception’s coronavirus survey was released (fielded 4/16-4/20), indicating Q3 as the expected start to an ad spending recovery (B&C, 5/7). Questions remain for strategies like back-to-school and holiday; and they are only willing to commit three months out. In the short-term, a higher percentage of advertisers have held back or paused spending vs.the previous wave (two weeks prior). At the same time, more advertisers have launched a previously unscheduled campaign.

MESSAGING

Building on reports about advertisers adding humor to their communications, Brought to you By, a podcast from Business Insider, produced an 11-minute bonus episode (5/6) discussing “the right way” of advertising during a global pandemic. Host Charlie Herman speaks with Business Insiders Tanya Dua and Vox media’s Meredith Haggerty about “the state of pandemic advertising and what it can tell us about the role of brands in our daily lives.”

VIEWERSHIP

NEXT TV (5/10) featured Comcast research supporting the changes in TV watching behavior during the pandemic. In addition to our “days blurring together”, time spent watching increased as much as “an extra workday’s worth of content” each week.  The report also shows that more watching is taking place at night, up 40%, with a slight decrease in early morning viewing 6%. And while DVR viewership is down, VOD consumption has increased 50% over the past two months. News leads with the largest increase in share, followed by dramas.

ONLINE SHOPPERS

In their latest document on how media has changed during the pandemic, TVB includes research from Dynata, GfK, and Data Plus Math. In addition to exploring television’s essential role communicating the latest information (#1 for accessing updates and news), its ability to connect with online shoppers is reinforced (#1 influencer for online purchase decisions), at a time when online shopping may be the only option for many. Topline information can be found on their website, and the entire PDF (is downloadable).

LOCAL NEWS

An analysis of Nielsen TV viewing data reported in TVNewscheck (5/8) found that “a single night of local TV news drew greater audiences than the NFL First Round Draft, the Academy Awards, and Monday Night Football. With 29 million A18+ viewers a night, local evening news has three-times the viewers as the major cable networks (CNN, FOX, HLN, MSNBC), and more viewers than this year’s Acadamy Awards (22.8 million) and the NFL Draft First Round (12.5 million).

SYNDICATION

From B&C (5/11), a study of Nielsen data for the first four weeks under stay-at-home orders (March 16-April 19) found that the linear TV audiences (broadcast and cable) in the top 10 markets from 9 am – 8 pm, rose 26% (to 61 million people) when compared to the previous four-week average (48 million). Comparatively, streaming grew 51%, albeit off a smaller base (to 13 million from 9 million the previous four week period). Syndication’s key demo, A25-54, saw a 30% linear increase and 45% streaming growth; while A18-34 saw a 28% linear increase and 46% streaming growth.

FINAL CUT

Lizzie Caplan (Masters of Sex, Freaks and Geeks, Mean Girls, Cloverfield) needs a haircut and her husband won’t cut it. So she enlists Conan’s help to talk her through trimming her own bangs via Zoom. Long distance, a large utility scissors, Conan’s anxiety, and neither one possessing hair styling abilities, make for a humorous segment on #ConanAtHome (YouTube, 5/8).