COVID-19 has affected the production and life of various places to varying degrees. The overall outdoor advertising market is affected by factors such as the extension of people's home time, the reduction of offline outdoor media traffic and the reduction of brand exposure, and the uncertainty increases accordingly. At this stage, how to grasp the situation has become a new test for the outdoor advertising market.
COVID-19 is affecting the global consumer market, such as the catering and retail department stores industries. The closure and suspension of food in different cities occur every day. As an outdoor advertising industry that is also part of the market economy, the impact of the COVID-19 also makes us rethink the value of the industry.
Walking along the pedestrian streets, business centers, transportation hubs and other locations in major cities, we can see that the city's outdoor media screens, subways, buses and other places are covered with large and small publicity pictures for the prevention and control of COVID-19. Each sentence, picture and animation above indicates that the whole public welfare outdoor advertising industry is practicing its social responsibility and contributing to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in a new way.
However, the other side of outdoor advertising is the reduction of people's travel frequency. These impacts also truly pose more challenges to the outdoor advertising market. However, some people in the industry have analyzed that advertising, as a communication bridge between production and consumption, plays a functional role as an information dissemination intermediary. As long as the commodity society and economic development still need this medium, the direct impact of the COVID-19 on the advertising industry is not as serious as expected.
COVID-19 will not directly weaken the intermediary function of outdoor advertising information dissemination. On the contrary, with the recurrence of the COVID-19, people have a stronger need to pay attention to emergency information at all times. The transmission of information, as well as the real-time dissemination of outdoor advertising COVID-19 prevention and control information, can also reduce panic psychology from the side and promote the healthy development of society.
Under the influence of the COVID-19, the basic information dissemination and commodity economic value functions of outdoor advertising will not change, but factors such as the reduction of customer resources, the increase of people's home life, the online diversion of information, and the reduction of traffic have indeed brought uncertainty to the development of outdoor advertising. Therefore, in response to changes in the environment, outdoor advertising can only build "immunity" to outdoor advertising by cultivating internal skills, achieving self-help, improving various media technologies and upgrading media creative forms.
Digital power is connecting offline and online scene communication, making it possible for consumers to communicate deeply with information. In this digital context, the use of digital means to increase interaction, so that the audience can enjoy an immersive communication experience. At the same time, the collection of user information enables users to quickly occupy their minds in the only outdoor time and affects consumers to become the direction of digital outdoor advertising in COVID-19. For example, the idea of AR scene interaction is introduced into outdoor advertising, and then the media are connected to capture the virtual image of outdoor scenes on mobile phones, so as to form an online interactive communication of outdoor scenes, meet consumers' sense of curiosity and increase communication opportunities.
Outdoor advertising has been playing the role of "wide and informed" in every corner of the city. The advertising content and creativity are also constantly improving. With high creativity and high touch rate, it continues to cover a wide range of people. The uncertainty under the COVID-19 makes outdoor advertising more necessary to improve the expressiveness of creativity and shorten the time for the audience to interpret creativity. For example, in the white wall advertisement of IWC, the ordinary walls are painted with striking white and then painted with eye-catching IWC creative pictures, coupled with simple copywriting, simple creativity and the momentum linkage of the launch conference, which increases the brand memory of the audience and quickly fills the whole marketing effect.
Not only outdoor advertising but also consumers who are unable to "freely" buy are repeatedly affected by the COVID-19. Suppressed consumption and demand have impacted the mental state of consumers. Therefore, outdoor advertising with high visual focus needs to give full play to the advantages of media to impress consumers in this situation.
The haze of the COVID-19 is shrouding people's consumption life. As the entrance of consumer scene communication, outdoor media need to play more social responsibilities, people-oriented and make modest efforts with warm, creative and inspiring pictures. During the rampant COVID-19, Guangzhou Metro cheered the audience with its unique subway scene value and warm Cantonese copywriting, and also increased the affinity of outdoor media.
COVID-19 has changed people's travel and consumption habits. In life, consumers want to have a stronger sense of control, especially with the COVID-19. Consumers pay more attention to individuals, families, countries and communities. Outdoor advertising should give play to personalized needs and interests, focus on humanistic personality, and express people's needs through large-screen advertising.
COVID-19 will inevitably reduce travel time and customer budget. However, outdoor media has always been the key to advertising and exposure by virtue of its high-quality geographical location, space and visual impression. In the future, when the consumption habits of COVID-19 have changed, we should rethink the value of outdoor media advertising, fully adjust the creative expression and digital upgrading of outdoor media, and meet the uncertainty of the market with the attitude of continuous innovation.
