Crisis Response Advertising: Insights and Implications from COVID-19 [1 ed.] 1032288892, 9781032288895

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“Dr. Hachtmann has brought research on crisis response advertising to a new height. Insights from this timely study have strong implications for advertising research, management, and education globally. The book is an informative and enlightening read for scholars, practitioners, and the general public who are interested in advertising practice during the pandemic and thereafter.” Hong Cheng, University of Southern Illinois, USA

“Frauke’s book is an excellent, well-researched articulation of how brands can strategically respond to complex crises with a human-centric approach. Brands, agencies, and consultants alike can learn much from her in-depth studies in the space.” Madison Cameron, David&Goliath, USA

“The COVID-19 crisis confronted brands with many unfamiliar and far-reaching challenges. This book synthesizes the resulting nuanced layers of information and experiences into practical strategies and a unique Complex Crisis Response Advertising (CCRA) model that will benefit students, researchers, and profes­ sionals across the disciplines of advertising, marketing, corporate communications, and journalism.” Scott Hamula, Ithaca College, USA

“If you’re a seasoned professional or just starting out and you advertise, you’ll eventually face upheavals in your community and our world. Here are proven strategies from those who had to adapt to the greatest crisis of a generation. A must read for those preparing for the future.” Hal Vincent, Elon University, USA

“This book makes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature in crisis communication by combining a rigorous grounded-theory research approach with accessible practical perspectives from advertising industry professionals sharing their first-hand insights into experiencing the rapid, dramatic, and ex­ istential changes brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic.” Karen J. Cannon, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, USA

CRISIS RESPONSE ADVERTISING

This book examines the effects of COVID-19 on the advertising industry to better understand crisis response advertising. The book tells the story of three distinct phases in which the pandemic unfolded, the way a wide range of brands and agencies responded, and how the consumer landscape changed during the first 15 months of the crisis. Advertising professionals from a broad range of award-winning advertising agencies across the United States who experienced the crisis first-hand reflect on how COVID-19 disrupted the industry and what they learned along the way. Each case contains themes that emerged through data analysis, along with examples of advertising practice at various stages of the pandemic. Importantly, the new theoretical model and best practices covered in the book extend beyond application to the global pandemic, giving readers solid theoretical and practical tools to use in future crises. Suited for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses in advertising and marketing, this book will be useful as a reference for researchers and is practical enough for practitioner use as well. Frauke Hachtmann is Professor and William H. Kearns Chair in Journalism at

the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA.

CRISIS RESPONSE ADVERTISING Insights and Implications from COVID-19

Frauke Hachtmann

Designed cover image: Austin Paz / © Getty Images First published 2024 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 Frauke Hachtmann The right of Frauke Hachtmann to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Names: Hachtmann, Frauke, author. Title: Crisis response advertising : insights and implications from COVID-19 / Frauke Hachtmann. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2024. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2023006499 (print) | LCCN 2023006500 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032288895 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032328126 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003316879 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Advertising‐‐History‐‐21st century. | COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020‐‐‐Influence. Classification: LCC HF5811 .H27 2024 (print) | LCC HF5811 (ebook) | DDC 659.1‐‐dc23/eng/20230303 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023006499 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023006500 ISBN: 978-1-032-32812-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-28889-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-31687-9 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879 Typeset in Bembo by MPS Limited, Dehradun

CONTENTS

Foreword Preface Acknowledgments

1 Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

xi xiv xvi

1

Chapter Objectives 1 Advertising in the Context of Crisis Communication 3 Why Study CRA in the Context of COVID-19? 6 Theorizing Complex Crisis Response Advertising (CCRA) 7 Structure of the Book 8 Discussion 14 Discussion Questions 15 Considerations for Practical Applications 15 Suggestions for Future Research 16 References 16 2 The State of the Advertising Industry in the Context of Crises Chapter Objectives 19 The Impact of Crises on Advertising and Brand Communication: A Historical Perspective 20

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The State of the Advertising Industry before the COVID-19 Pandemic 27 A Brief History of the COVID-19 Health Crisis 29 How the COVID-19 Pandemic Shifted Consumer Trends 30 The State of the Advertising Industry after the COVID-19 Pandemic 33 Discussion 34 Summary 35 Discussion Questions 35 Considerations for Practical Applications 35 Suggestions for Future Research 36 References 36 3 Grounded Theory Design

39

Chapter Objectives 39 Characteristics of Qualitative Research 40 Philosophical Assumptions 42 Grounded Theory Research Design 45 Data Analysis and Coding Procedures 58 Discussion 62 Summary 63 Discussion Questions 63 Considerations for Practical Applications 64 Suggestions for Future Research 64 References 64 4 Lockdown: Advertising in Isolation Chapter Objectives 66 Defining “Crisis” 67 Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Initial Categories 74 The Phenomenon 82 Discussion 86 Summary 87 Discussion Questions 88 Considerations for Practical Applications 88 Suggestions for Future Research 88 References 89

66

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Contents ix

5 Triple Threat: COVID-19, Protests, and an Election

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Chapter Objectives 91 CSR—An Update 92 Intervening and Contextual Conditions 95 Discussion 113 Summary 114 Discussion Questions 114 Considerations for Practical Applications 115 Suggestions for Future Research 115 References 115 6 Crisis Response Advertising Strategies for Coping with Reality

120

Chapter Objectives 120 Consumer-Facing Work 122 Agency Operations 138 Serving Clients 144 Discussion 147 Summary 147 Discussion Questions 148 Suggestions for Practical Applications 148 Suggestions for Future Research 148 References 149 7 The Silver Lining Chapter Objectives 150 A Changed World 150 Acceleration of Trends 152 Brand Transformation vs. Demise 156 The Empowered Consumer 158 Future of (Agency) Work 159 Better Crisis Preparedness 164 Discussion 166 Summary 167 Discussion Questions 168 Considerations for Practical Applications 168 Suggestions for Future Research 168 References 169

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Contents

8 The COVID-19 Story: Theory and Practice

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Chapter Objectives 170 Refining the Phenomenon 171 The Central Explanatory Category 172 The COVID-19 Story 173 The Paradigm Model 177 Theoretical Propositions 179 Practical Applications of Theoretical Propositions 182 Advice from the Participants 184 Discussion 185 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research 187 Summary 187 Discussion Questions 187 Considerations for Practical Applications 188 Suggestions for Future Research 188 References 188 Appendix A: Initial Interview Protocol Appendix B: Complex Crisis Response Advertising Strategic Planning Grid Index

190 191 195

FOREWORD Bobbi Kay Lewis Oklahoma State University

I love advertising and communication. As a latch-key kid of the ‘80s, I have been a voracious consumer of advertising my entire life, and I have been fortunate enough to build a career out of that love and appetite for all things commercial and persuasive. As I started attending conferences, one of the first people I met in the academy was Frauke Hachtmann. We met at the 2005 Annual Conference for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in San Antonio, Texas. She presented on how to improve critical thinking skills using online peer learning in the advertising media strategy course. I was so impressed by her knowledge, poise, and enthusiasm for the field of advertising. Our love of advertising and teaching helped to bring us together year after year at the Advertising Division’s Annual Pre-Conference Teaching Workshop. We later served together on the Board of the Ad Division; I was her successor as head of the division. When Frauke told me about this book, I was fascinated. I am truly honored to write this foreword. In David Ogilvy’s opening remarks of the foreword for the 1963 posthumous re-issue of Claude Hopkin’s Scientific Advertising, Ogilvy stated, “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times.” The same could be said of this book. Frauke Hachtmann carefully lays out for the reader the impact of COVID-19 and how it changed the world, advertising included. As advertisers, advertising professionals, and educators move forward in this industry, they must examine how a global crisis can and will affect society and the role that brands and advertising agencies have in helping consumers cope. The book provides a research-based approach to

xii Foreword

provide evidence and rationale for practical, complex crisis response advertising (CCRA). By exploring three select crisis moments in recent history, Hachtmann highlights how brands and agencies responded and how the consumer landscape changed. The book takes the reader through different levels of data analysis using a grounded theory approach. Researchers as well as advertising and marketing professionals will benefit from the theoretical propositions and the numerous practical applications offered in this book, including a new CCRA model. Readers will find an in-depth account of the lived experiences as told by advertising strategists, planners, creatives, and CEOs from some of the leading and award-winning ad agencies in the United States. Hachtmann introduces different layers of complexity that influenced the crisis and crisis response advertising, including but not limited to the actions and expectations of the general public during times of social unrest and political polarization, which occurred at the height of COVID-19 in the United States. She also provides an abstract view of how the COVID-19 crisis transformed brands and agencies and created a new, post-pandemic reality. Finally, the book concludes with a concise story of the grounded theory of crisis response advertising practices during COVID-19 and a visual representation of the model that emerged. Key themes that emerged are presented as high-level best practices that can be implemented by practitioners when the next crisis hits. The author, Frauke Hachtmann, brings considerable experience and expertise to the fields of advertising and communication. She is an international scholar, a native of Germany, bilingual in English and German, and brings international professional experience as a sales promoter for major consumer brands in Germany, including Schweppes and Reemtsma. Her research focuses on international advertising education, the impact of advertising on the economy and society, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and more recently, the role of media in sport communication. Her research has appeared in numerous highimpact journals, and her work has been recognized with the Best Article Award in the Journal of Advertising Education. She has built her academic career at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, serving the students and the university in numerous roles, including the head of the advertising and public relations sequence, the director of the Hitchcock Center for Graduate Study and Professional Journalism Development, and associate dean in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, with responsibilities ranging from overseeing student services to enrollment management, curriculum development, and assessment. She also worked with faculty on developing and launching the college’s fourth major in sports

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media and communication. She brings unique insight to the world of sports media, as she came to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as a full-scholarship student-athlete on the women’s tennis team. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked for the Nebraska Athletic Department as a media buyer, an editor of the Red ’N White Newsletter, and an in-house graphic designer for 23 collegiate sports. I can’t think of a better person to write a book on crisis response advertising. You won’t be disappointed.

PREFACE

As a former professional communicator, my research has always focused on practical applications of theories and concepts. The inspiration for this book came in the fall of 2020, when I was teaching a large advertising and public relations course in a “hyflex” format. Instead of having all 240 students in the classroom, social distancing guidelines reduced the in-person maximum capacity to 60, with the remaining students joining via Zoom. With the help of the Advertising Educational Foundation, I had arranged for two guest speakers from one of the leading agencies in the country to join us via Zoom as well. The topic? Advertising during COVID-19. Before I became a professor, I worked as a sports marketer for the University of Nebraska Athletic Department, where I helped produce a large sporting event a few days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. During this time, it was impossible not to be impacted by the far-reaching effects following that unprecedented crisis. It became clear that consumers appreciated and counted on brands’ responses following the attacks and I saw the power of brands to unite a scared and confused public. Little did I know that the 9/11 crisis would have a significant impact on the way organizations respond to crises, not only because of their economic power but because of their relationships with and subsequent responsibility to comfort consumers. Although the two crises occurred almost two decades apart, it became clear just from observing advertising during that time that some brands had learned from past crisis responses while others had not. I decided to study this phenomenon in depth by interviewing the best in the advertising business. As soon as I started the interview process, I realized how much more complicated crisis response advertising had become and that existing models and frameworks did not provide

Preface

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enough guidance for practice. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to expand our understanding of the elevated role brands play during uncertain times and the impact complex crises like COVID-19 can have on the advertising industry as a whole. I wrote this book to appeal to three distinct audiences. Based on the results of a rigorous grounded theory study, it offers a new, comprehensive model of complex crisis response advertising (CCRA) that provides a starting point for academic researchers to explore CCRA in more depth. The book also serves as a practical resource for advertising and marketing professionals because it includes numerous strategies on how to create brand communication, operate as an agency, and work with clients during complex crises. It would be useful as a text for professional development workshops, crisis planning sessions, or as a text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in crisis response advertising as a sub-genre of crisis communication. It can be used as a supplemental source within advertising, public relations, and marketing curricula or as a stand-alone text in a course devoted to the growing field of crisis response advertising.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this book has been an incredible professional and personal growth opportunity for me. The writing process provided invaluable new experiences in the form of unforeseen challenges and rewards. As part of the process, I was fortunate to have the support and encouragement of numerous individuals. First and foremost, I’d like to thank the participants of this study for taking time out of their demanding schedules to share their experiences and insights with me. I was deeply moved by their honest and thoughtful responses, many of which are featured verbatim in this book and provide the foundation of the CCRA model. I would like to thank Prof. Phyllis Larsen and Dr. Karen Cannon, who provided critical feedback on each of the chapters, asked questions, and suggested improvements. This book is better because of your help! Thank you also to Dr. Shari Veil, Professor and Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, for your support and encouragement throughout this project. I am deeply grateful for the generous support of the William H. Kearns Foundation and to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for awarding me a semester-long faculty development leave so that I could focus solely on writing this book. Thank you also to Rafael Maschieri Bicudo and Tabby Kube, two of our amazing graduate students who assisted me with interview transcriptions, finding materials, and proofreading the chapters. Thank you, Felisa Salvago-Keys, publisher at Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, for your enthusiasm and support throughout this project, and to

Acknowledgments xvii

Sean Daly, senior editorial assistant, for your excellent work throughout the publishing process. This work would not have been possible without the endless support of my husband, Ed Vierk. Thank you for always believing in me, giving me space to write, and reminding me when it’s time to step away and go for a walk around the lake. You’re the best!

1 WHY STUDY THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ADVERTISING PRACTICE

Chapter Objectives

1 To make a case for studying COVID-19 as a unique opportunity to understand brand communication during complex crises 2 To synthesize the relevant academic literature and situate crisis response advertising (CRA) as a sub-genre of crisis communication 3 To provide a brief explanation of the research design and conceptual framework 4 To explain how the book is organized and provide chapter summaries The global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted economies, governments, businesses, and consumers in unprecedented ways. The health crisis has caused massive uncertainty regarding consumer sentiment and behavior, including a renewed focus on value and products that are essential, loyalty to new shopping behaviors, a shift to a homebody economy, and increased digital media consumption. This book focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on the advertising industry as one of the main drivers of the economy (Koch, 1971) and a multitude of effects on society (Pardun, 2009). The COVID-19 pandemic became more complex when other national crises occurred at the same time the coronavirus continued to spread, including protests against police brutality, a heavily contested presidential election, and social unrest. All of these factors contributed to an ongoing complex national crisis with multiple phases and layers. Much of the crisis communication scholarship focuses primarily on mitigating crises through image restoration efforts and using specific communication strategies based on an organization’s reputational threat. While DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-1

2 Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

crisis communication research provides some guidance for brand communicators during crises, it does not adequately address potential strategies brands can use when responding to a national crisis they did not cause or have much, if any, control over. The effects of the COVID-19 crisis affected the advertising industry itself, more so than the 2008 financial crisis (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2020). As a response to slowed consumer spending, brands started to cut their advertising and media budgets and forced advertisers to re-think their communication strategies in a world that was closed for business for a significant period of time in 2020–2021. The advertising industry in the United States declined by almost 13 percent in 2020 as the economy shrank by 4.3 percent. However, in spite of the steep revenue loss in the first year of the pandemic, the industry bounced back in 2021 with total revenues of $285.2 billion, a 26.5 percent increase compared to 2019 pre-COVID (MarketLine Industry Profile, 2022). Consumer brands’ reactions to the COVID-19 threat also affected how advertising agencies worked throughout the crisis. With employees not being able to come to their agency offices physically, they had to determine how to work remotely, which was challenging for an industry that thrives on close collaborations and teamwork. Although the advertising industry is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, there is no doubt that it permanently changed many CRA practices along the way. As the world continues to wrangle with the effects of the coronavirus, it is important to understand and learn from the changes in the practice of advertising during and after this unprecedented massive global health crisis, which will likely have significant long‐term effects on people and economies around the world (Bright & Schau, 2021). Scientists predict that future pandemics, potentially more severe than COVID-19, are likely to occur (Settele et al., 2020), creating even more severe challenges for brand communicators as they serve consumers and spur the economy. The primary purpose of this book is to tell the story of COVID-19 from the perspective of advertising professionals who lived through and experienced the pandemic working for leading advertising agencies in the United States. This book is based on primary research that explores how some of the most successful consumer brands responded to the COVID-19 health threat over the course of the first 15 months of the novel coronavirus crisis. It analyzes what advertising agencies learned from serving clients when consumers were forced into lockdown, brands slashed their media budgets, and social unrest unfolded simultaneously. The result of the research is a grounded theory of complex crisis response advertising (CCRA) that helps explain how different elements of the brand communication process interact during a complex crisis, leading to a new reality for marketers, individual consumers, and society as a whole. The book not only includes a set of theoretical propositions along with a visual model as a springboard for follow-up academic research but also many practical strategies

Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

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and best practices for advertising and marketing professionals to prepare for the next complex crisis. Advertising in the Context of Crisis Communication

As one of the main economic drivers of the economy (Koch, 1971) and an influencer of society (Pardun, 2009), advertising plays an enormously important role. Scholars have argued that companies have an ethical obligation to address societal needs, especially when consumers trust brands more than nongovernmental organizations and even governments (Edelman, 2022). Known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), companies invest in programs that benefit society and the communities they serve (Moriarty et al., 2019), while also balancing profits (Hayes et al., 2022). While CSR is not tied to a local or national crisis, it provides context for organizations during crises and a framework for deciding how to help. CSR activities, which help create and maintain positive public opinion about an organization, also place enormous responsibility on brands’ behavior and communication practices during national crises. While much of the academic literature focuses on the public relations function of CSR, more research is needed to investigate socially responsible advertising practices (Hayes et al., 2022). What Is Advertising?

In the most basic sense, advertising is a “paid, non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience” (Moriarty et al., 2019). When the message is created and disseminated via paid media channels, the sponsor is clearly identified so that consumers know who is responsible for the message. A brand is a promise that an organization makes about a product or service, clearly differentiating it from other competitors in the same product category, and then delivering on that promise by providing a consistent experience every time the brand is used or consumed. Brand advertising is the practice of creating an image or perception of a brand. Advertisers often use a specific name or symbol to identify the brand and remind consumers of the brand promise. Brand communicators are individuals who create brand strategies and messages and pay careful attention to maintaining a coherent and consistent message about a brand across all media channels. They often work for an advertising or communication agency, which provides communication- and business-related professional services for a variety of clients/brands, or they are employed directly by the client to oversee brand communication internally. Public relations is a “management function that focuses on creating effective relationships with different publics to manage the image and reputation of the organization” (Moriarty et al., 2019). Public relations professionals use a variety

4 Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

of communication tools and techniques to create and nurture these relationships. A common tool used in public relations is publicity, which is information about an organization reported by others, including journalists and influencers who have built significant networks of people, often in the form of large social media follower counts. When other respected individuals create positive content about an organization or brand, their coverage creates goodwill toward the organization. When the “earned” media mentions are unfavorable, organizations may be seen in a negative light. Public relations professionals also use paid media in the form of institutional advertising to establish a corporate identity or point of view. Instead of selling a product, the focus is on creating a strong bond between the audience and the organization. This type of advertising impacts the environment in which an organization operates and influences its reputation as a good corporate citizen (Fox, 1986). What Is Crisis Communication?

Crisis communication is a term that describes an organization’s actions to reduce negative outcomes when involved in a crisis. Organizations are always susceptible to crises and should be prepared to manage them through their communication efforts (Coombs, 2007b). While many definitions of the term “crisis” exist, scholars agree on two common characteristics: (1) they are not easily predictable, and (2) they pose a threat (Elliot, 2010). Crises often have negative effects on organizations, which can impact important stakeholders associated with the organization (Moriarty et al., 2019), but they can also have positive outcomes and provide opportunities (Coombs, 2010). Crisis communication is a critical component of crisis management and is widely studied in the academy because what an organization says and does affects its reputation among stakeholders who are impacted by its actions during crisis moments. Research in this area continues to focus on all four stages of crises, including prevention and preparation (before the crisis), crisis response (during the crisis), and learning (after the crisis). This approach assumes that the crisis under investigation has a clear beginning, middle, and end, which was not the case with the COVID-19 health threat. At the time of writing this book, the coronavirus crisis is still not resolved as new variants continue to emerge and threaten people’s health. COVID-19 can also be described as a complex crisis because it was unpredictable, multi-faceted (i.e., other related crises happened at the same time), and will likely have long-term consequences. This book focuses primarily on the third and fourth stages of crisis management: Crisis response and learning. What Is Crisis Response Advertising (CRA)?

CRA is a way for an organization to rebuild legitimacy after a crisis and to tell its side of the story (Lancendorfer, 2014). Sometimes called “issue advertising”

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(Cowden & Sellnow, 2002) or “defensive communication” (Zhang & Benoit, 2009), CRA is a form of paid advertising that gives the advertiser complete control over the message to manage their image and reputation in conjunction with a crisis. Research shows that many major companies have used CRA successfully, suggesting paid advertising can reduce negative press (Cowden & Sellnow, 2002; Lancendorfer, 2014; Stammerjohan et al., 2005; Zhang & Benoit, 2009). The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States added another dimension to the way CRA was used to connect with audiences in a way that did not exist before. Perhaps the most significant national crisis in modern history, it became clear in the aftermath of the attacks that traditional crisis communication theories and strategies did not offer sufficient guidance for brand communicators to nurture relationships with the public while keeping the economy going. Many of the advertisements at that time focused on messages of unity and patriotism and although they expressed grief for those who lost their lives in the attacks, they also offered financial incentives for consumers to continue spending to keep the economy going. Corporate America’s advertising responses to the 9/11 national crisis were similar in terms of the ad content (sympathy and patriotism), style, and form, but distinctly different from organizational crisis response ads that mostly focus on the reputation and image repair of the advertiser. The 9/11 attacks prompted companies to help people by partnering with disaster-response organizations to maximize their efforts and publicizing these efforts in their brand communication. This practice re-emphasized the benefits of engaging in cause marketing even during non-crisis times to create goodwill among consumers. After studying print advertisements in response to the 9/11 attacks, Kinnick (2004) established a new genre of response advertising to national crises and called for additional research to investigate whether other types of crises (i.e., natural, human, or health disasters) result in similar communication strategies by brands. Advertising during COVID-19

The scholarship on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on advertising practice is very much in its infancy. Jenyns (2021) produced one of the first articles about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on advertising. Although many advertisers pulled their advertising budgets when businesses shut down during the early days of the pandemic, Jenyns argues that brands need to keep advertising during crises because history shows that those that have done so during other economic crises dating back to the Great Depression have been able to increase market share (Vaile, 1926) and become more successful and more competitive once the economy recovers, even during more recent crises (Biel & King, 2003; Graham & Frankenberger, 2011).

6 Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

Recent studies about the effects of COVID-19 have investigated the social impact of advertising, consumer behavior, and message framing during the very early stages of the pandemic. For example, instead of selling products, some brands decided early on to use their influence to benefit society, such as encouraging people to wear masks and practice social distancing, which quickly became politicized in the context of the 2020 Presidential election (Van Kessel & Quinn, 2020). In terms of advertising’s social impact, studies show that it can help people cope with a significant threat like COVID-19. Not only can brands step in and alleviate care deficits by expressing compassion around solidarity, trust, resilience, and authenticity (Ertimur & Coskuner-Balli, 2021; Shoenberger et al., 2021), but they can also create positive consumer reactions to emotional appeals with ethical and social overtones (Mangiò et al., 2021) as well as negative reactions to messages that communicate a threat to consumers’ freedom (Shoenberger et al., 2021). Robinson and Veresiu (2021) propose a three-step future frame looking beyond the initial weeks and months of the COVID-19 crisis, recognizing the significant impact the pandemic will likely have on society. This frame consists of mourning the lost future of what could have been, reconstructing a new future of what will happen, and finally establishing new mythologies for people to cope with the effects of the pandemic. Their article emphasizes advertising’s strength in providing people with possibilities during uncertain times. A second body of work related to the COVID-19 pandemic focuses on understanding consumer behavior during the crisis. In addition to exploring consumer reactions to solidarity, trust, resilience, authenticity, and threat to freedom messages (Ertimur & Coskuner-Balli, 2021; Mangiò et al., 2021; Shoenberger et al., 2021), Verlegh et al. (2021) investigated the power of the overall brand as external forces of control during the pandemic and found that consumers use brands as identity anchors during difficult times. These psychological nuances of consumer behavior lead to the third area of pandemic-focused research: Message framing. Sub-topics in this area include the effectiveness of different appeals on consumer compliance with mask mandates (Jiang & Dodoo, 2021), the focus of messaging on the future vs. presence based on consumers’ level of uncertainty (Kim et al., 2021), as well as a novel relationship between using an identifiable victim frame and a potential donors’ intent to give based on their concept of self (van Esch et al., 2021). Why Study CRA in the Context of COVID-19?

The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic was unpredictable for most organizations, including advertising agencies and their clients. Pre-pandemic research only provides some understanding of how organizations respond to crises through advertising, including the effects of advertising spending during a recession or financial crisis (Biel & King, 2003; Graham & Frankenberger, 2011; Vaile, 1926),

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cause-related marketing initiatives (Coleman et al., 2020), the role advertising plays in promoting health behaviors (Sundar et al., 2015), how to respond to crises caused by organizations themselves (Lancendorfer, 2014), and analyses of the types of messages that were created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks (Kinnick, 2004). The literature about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on advertising is still sparse because of the relative recency and increasing complexity of the crisis. The health crisis further exposed and exacerbated social and economic disparities (see chapter 5), prompting a call for a new approach to advertising research and practice that envisions advertising as part of a “circular regenerative and restorative economy” (Gangadharbatla, 2021, p. 14), instead of an “unlimited growth with unlimited resources model” (p. 14). While some research already exists that investigates advertising in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it focuses mostly on the very early stages of the health threat. However, no research currently exists that examines how advertising practices changed as the pandemic progressed through different stages of this unprecedented complex crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented communication challenges for the industry that beckon for additional knowledge around helping consumers cope with not only the first but all stages of the continuing crisis and also a postcrisis new reality. Advertising researchers and practitioners need models and tools based on empirical research in preparation for the next complex crisis. One perspective that has not yet been explored is that of professionals working in the agencies that produced brand communication during the COVID-19 crisis. This research fills this gap in the literature by exploring advertising professionals’ reflections on CRA during the first 15 months of the coronavirus outbreak, covering three key phases of the crisis and thereby extending our understanding of CRA in the context of an unprecedented global health threat. Theorizing Complex Crisis Response Advertising (CCRA) Conceptual Framework

This study falls into the general framework of crisis communication and specifically seeks to contribute to the scholarship investigating crisis advertising as a crisis response tool in the context of a global, complex crisis experienced in the United States. Crisis communication consists of public and private categories, with the former being directed at stakeholders outside the organization and the latter inside the organization. Much of the public crisis communication work is based on Benoit’s image restoration theory (IRT) (Elsbach & Benoit, 1997), which posits that maintaining a favorable reputation is a key goal of communication. IRT helps to understand agencies’ advice for their clients on messaging during the pandemic, specifically in conjunction with social and political unrest that occurred at the same time. There are generally five image restoration strategies,

8 Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

including denial, evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective actions, and mortification. Related to attribution theory and IRT is situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), which is a form of private crisis communication based on situational awareness. It suggests that an organization’s or individual’s crisis response needs to reflect the level of crisis responsibility and reputational threat posed by the crisis (Coombs, 2007a). SCCT may explain different brands’ responses to the crisis, particularly related to different product categories. Reactance theory (Kim, 2013) suggests that corporate messaging can reduce consumer resistance to corporate advertising during a crisis if an inoculation effect was established through paid advertising before the crisis. Reactance theory is related to inoculation theory (McGuire & Papageorgis, 1962), which posits that pre-crisis messaging can influence consumer response to negative news and create an immune system prior to a third-party attack. Although brands and agencies generally did not prepare messaging to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis before it occured, these two theories can provide insight into how brands and agencies might prepare for the next crisis moment. Research Design & Research Questions

A qualitative research design is appropriate when studying the impact of COVID-19 on CRA because not much is known about the phenomenon and how it impacts advertising practice. A grounded theory design was used to explore the phenomenon of CCRA during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of experienced advertising professionals who worked for some of the most successful advertising agencies in the United States. Based on in-depth interviews with 21 participants, the grounded theory design led to the development of a new CCRA model, theoretical propositions, as well as best practices (see chapter 8). This study was guided by the following central research questions: 1 What is the theory that explains how advertising agencies and the brands they represent responded to the COVID-19 health crisis? 2 How did the crisis response unfold? Structure of the Book

The purpose of this book is to better understand the phenomenon of CCRA through the story of the first 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021. Based on extensive qualitative research with advertising professionals who experienced the crisis first-hand, the book is structured to benefit both brand communicators and academic researchers. Using the general flow of a grounded theory research design, the chapters take readers through different levels of data analysis, from the exploration of broad categories to the development of theoretical

Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice

9

propositions and practical strategies. Practitioners benefit from real-life examples of how their peers addressed significant brand communication challenges during the COVID-19 crisis and how to use these lessons to not only survive but thrive in future crises. I invite you to read the whole book in order to immerse yourself in the exact steps I took to analyze the data and develop the Complex Crisis Response Advertising Model. Another option is to use the chapter summaries as follows and select chapters based on your area(s) of interest. Each chapter includes applications for practitioners, suggestions for future research for academics, and general discussion questions designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students to foster critical thinking in the classroom. Chapter 1: Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the book and provides a rationale for studying the impact of COVID-19 on advertising practice in the broader context of crisis communication from the perspective of those who created it. An unprecedented health crisis of global magnitude, it significantly affected the global economy, and with it, its main driver: Advertising. The United States is an ideal country to study for two reasons: (1) it has the largest share of the global advertising market, and (2) it tops the world’s documented COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 attributed deaths (at the time of publication). The COVID-19 pandemic presented new and complex communication challenges to the advertising industry, which usually thrives on close creative collaborations, extensive original production, and an endless supply of goods. The pandemic not only altered the supply chain but also significantly affected consumer confidence and subsequent spending, spurred by the fear and uncertainty of an invisible threat that quickly overloaded hospitals and claimed the lives of millions of people. Consumers looked to brands and businesses for crisis relief, challenging advertising agencies to step up to the plate and provide solutions not only for communication-related problems but to broader business challenges. In addition, social unrest, political polarization, and economic instability added layers of complexity that traditional crisis communication models could not adequately address. The chapter provides a synthesis of the literature about crisis communication as a public relations function and CRA, leading to the overall research questions that this book addresses. Exploring the phenomenon of COVID-19 from the perspective of experienced advertising professionals from some of the most successful advertising agencies in the country provides a critical perspective not only of the challenges posed by complex crises but also of the opportunities they present for brands to play significant and meaningful roles in people’s lives in a post-pandemic world. The chapter then provides an overview of how this book is organized, including brief summaries of each of the eight chapters.

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Chapter 2: The State of the Advertising Industry in the Context of Crises

Before diving into the empirical research that provides the foundation for this book, chapter 2 describes three different types of crises in recent U.S. history, how they affected society and the economy and shaped our understanding of the role advertising plays in the recovery process. At least three different types of crises are related to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of brand communication, including health crises, financial crises, as well as acts of war. The “Spanish Flu” was a devastating global health crisis that claimed millions of lives around the globe a century before COVID-19 emerged in 2019. During that time, many brands exploited the situation by promising cures and urging consumers to buy their products using unsubstantiated claims, and along the way, advertisers learned about the importance of building trust and establishing brand authority. The dichotomy of creating trust vs. exploiting the situation was once again an important theme one hundred years later as brands responded to the COVID-19 crisis. National or international crises often lead to economic hardship or even recessions, which comprise the second type of crisis discussed in this chapter. Although many brands’ inclination during financial and economic crises is to pull advertising dollars out of the market, research shows that brands benefit from advertising during economic downturns in the long run. The third type of crisis that influenced advertising strategy is acts of war, when advertisers often partner with the government to help push messages in support of the war effort and/or to keep the general public safe. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were another turning point for advertisers, who used messages of unity and patriotism to provide emotional support along with financial incentives to encourage continued spending. It was the complexity of the 9/11 crisis that required more sophisticated strategy and messaging than other crises, and because national crises are situationally different from organizational crises, the subgenre of “CRA” emerged. Chapter 2 includes a brief timeline of how the COVID-19 pandemic evolved over the course of two years, leading into a discussion about how it affected the state of the advertising industry as well as trends that were already in motion and later exacerbated by the crisis, such as a focus on people’s health and wellbeing, the meteoric rise of digital technology and its effects on people, and renewed concerns about privacy issues related to the digital sphere. Additional trends are related to food and the emergence of conscious consumerism, all of which became important areas of focus during the COVID-19 pandemic but they developed differently than expected because of the added hardship. Chapter 3: Grounded Theory Design

Chapter 3 describes the methodology used in the study on which the final “CCRA” model is based. This chapter is particularly relevant for advertising

Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice 11

scholars and graduate students who are interested in learning about the process of and philosophy behind grounded theory design. The chapter lays out why a rigorous, qualitative research approach was necessary to explore CRA in the context of an unprecedented health threat of significant complexity. Since qualitative research is inherently subjective, the chapter includes a thorough description of my role as the sole researcher as well as a description of the sample and how and why the participants were selected. The chapter then describes the in-depth interview procedures as well as summaries of each participant’s main takeaways from having worked for an award-winning advertising agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The summaries serve as a precursor to chapter 4, which presents initial categories of themes that emerged from the interviews. Much of chapter 3 is dedicated to explaining the comprehensive data analysis and coding procedures unique to grounded theory design, including open, axial, and selective coding. The results of the different coding procedures are presented in chapters 4–8. Chapter 3 ends with a description of the methods of verification that were used in this study, which speak to the accuracy of the findings that led to the development of the CCRA model and theoretical propositions that are featured in chapter 8 of the book. Chapter 4: Lockdown—Advertising in Isolation

Chapter 4 builds on chapter 3 in that it identifies the core phenomenon from the perspective of the participants. It describes how COVID-19 unfolded in the United States and how it shaped the advertising industry over the course of 15 months. The chapter begins with a review of key concepts from the crisis communication literature, including sub-genres and related fields, to provide context for the study. It then presents the results of the open coding phases of the grounded theory in the form of initial categories that emerged from the descriptions of lived experiences as told by advertising strategists, planners, creatives, and CEOs from some of the leading and award-winning advertising agencies in the United States. While many brands went dark during the crisis, others leaned into the challenges and transformed into highly consumer- and community-oriented partners. Agencies had to determine how to provide value to clients and consumers, while also surviving as businesses themselves. The chapter starts by exploring seven initial categories of CCRA, including talent care, client care, consumer/community care, communication, agency culture, agency health, and the work that was created during the crisis. One major insight that occurred during the open coding phase was that the participants experienced the first 15 months of the COVID-19 crisis in different phases, which provide an important foundation for the CCRA model. The phases are as follows: (1) shock absorption, (2) a new temporary normal, and (3) re-emergence/ transformation. These phases are sequential in nature but could overlap to some

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extent because the threat affected geographic areas differently and because the crisis situation as a whole continued to change as new variants of the coronavirus emerged and vaccines were administered across the country. Chapter 5: Triple Threat: COVID, Protests, and an Election

After developing the initial categories of the process of CCRA and identifying the three phases of complex crises in chapter 4, the interviews with advertising professionals revealed the increasingly important role brands started to play in society and the elevated level of responsibility they shouldered during the darkest times of the pandemic. Chapter 5 starts by providing an overview of the development of CSR and cause-related marketing to provide the context of how organizations often approach crisis communication. The chapter then explores six different layers of complexity that influenced the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on advertising practice by exploring several contextual (narrow) and intervening (broad) conditions that occurred at the same time as COVID-19. These conditions impacted the strategies that agencies developed to cope with not just one, but several crises, such as (1) widespread social unrest that unfolded in response to racial injustice, (2) a highly contested presidential election, and (3) severe economic pressures as a result of lockdowns, layoffs, and underemployment. These intervening conditions were crises in and of themselves and had the power to alter the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Brands were unsure whether they needed to respond to these intervening conditions and, if so, how. The chapter also identifies three contextual conditions, which are circumstances that need to be reflected in the crisis response. These are narrow conditions that are very specific to the COVID-19 health crisis and include the following: (4) the changing health and safety precautions that were put in place by the government, (5) unpredictable consumption patterns during different phases of the crisis ranging from hoarding behavior to minimalist mindsets, and finally, (6) the role digital technology played in people’s lives, particularly during lockdown and isolation. Chapter 6: CRA Strategies for Coping with Reality

After exploring six complicating conditions that affected the impact of COVID-19 in the context of brand communication in chapter 5, chapter 6 focuses on specific strategies that advertising professionals used to cope with the intense pressures caused by the global pandemic. The chapter connects to the previous ones in that it describes specific actions agencies developed and implemented during different stages of the crisis to serve their clients, consumers, their own employees, and society. From a grounded theory perspective, strategies are specific actions and interactions that individuals use to handle situations and solve problems related to

Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice 13

the phenomenon. Recognizing that every crisis is unique, this chapter provides ideas for brand communicators who are looking for solutions during a crisis or who are in the process of preparing for one in the future. The chapter offers 50 specific CRA strategies that the participants used to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in conjunction with the intervening and contextual conditions described in chapter 5. The strategies were developed by refining the initial categories that emerged during the open coding process in chapter 4 including 14 strategic areas that were further grouped into three overarching meta-categories: (1) consumer-facing work, (2) agency operations, and (3) serving clients. “Consumer-facing work” consists of seven strategic areas for producing work during the COVID-19 crisis, such as real-time research, nuanced messaging/creativity, production pivot, digital media acceleration, crisis-relevant positioning, activism/risk-taking, and ethics. “Agency operations” consists of three strategic areas that are related to how agencies work internally during complex crises to create award-winning work on behalf of their clients while surviving and thriving as businesses in their own right. These strategic areas include agency culture, recruiting & retention, and managing resources. “Serving clients” focuses on how agencies work with clients during complex crises and includes the following three strategic areas: Selection of clients, expanded range of services, and relationship-building. Chapter 7: The Silver Lining

Chapter 7 describes the outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis in the context of advertising practice from the perspective of the participants. Known as “consequences” in grounded theory design, these effects alter the phenomenon addressed in this study, meaning, they advance our understanding of CRA. The chapter advances the theory by identifying and analyzing the long-term consequences of the actions and strategies that brands and agencies deployed during the different phases of the pandemic as described in chapter 6. Chapter 7 also explains how COVID-19 accelerated or altered some of the trends that were in place before the crisis, as described in chapter 2. The chapter takes an abstract view of how these consequences may influence the marketplace in the future and permanently change advertising practice. The main argument is that complex crises like the COVID-19 pandemic transformed brands and agencies over the course of three distinct phases to create a new, post-crisis reality. The chapter is organized into six themes that describe these consequences. First, the crisis created a new world for marketers with distinct characteristics. Second, complex crises tend to accelerate trends that were already in motion pre-crisis. Third, complex crises force brands to transform at their core to support consumers or they may not survive the crisis. Fourth, complex crises tend to empower consumers fueled by hardship and

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renewed clarity of what matters most. Fifth, complex crises change the way agencies work because of what they learned as a result of the crisis, and sixth, brands and agencies will be better prepared for future crises because of their experience during COVID-19. Chapter 8: The COVID-19 Story: Theory and Practice

Chapter 8 of the book provides the conclusion of the COVID-19 story in the context of advertising practice. This chapter presents the grounded theory of CRA during COVID-19 in the form of a concise story of how the crisis unfolded as well as its implications for brands and agencies. The chapter is the culmination of the grounded theory process based on the selective coding phase, which integrates and refines the theory. Three explanatory characteristics emerged that defined the nature of the COVID-19 health crisis. First, it transpired in three distinct phases that each had different implications for advertising practice. Second, the crisis response strategies were largely influenced by multiple lockdowns and social distancing mandates, and third, COVID-19 accelerated trends that were already in motion pre-COVID. In addition to the story of COVID-19, the chapter features a visual representation of the newly developed CCRA model that emerged from the research, along with a set of theoretical propositions that connect the categories of the model to help explain the phenomenon. This portion of the chapter is critical for advertising scholars because it offers the beginning of a new research agenda of CCRA after exploring how complex crises like the COVID-19 pandemic differ from organizational crises in terms of crisis response. The theoretical propositions are meant to be a starting point for academic researchers for potential quantitative follow-up studies. The chapter also provides important insights for professional brand communicators because the theoretical propositions clearly show the relationship of the different variables that need to be taken into account when developing a complex crisis communication playbook on behalf of clients. The most critical relationships are presented as high-level best practices that should drive advertising decision-making in any complex crisis, not just health-related threats. Chapter 8 also provides a CCRA strategic planning grid that can be used to draft response strategies when the next crisis occurs. Discussion

The COVID-19 pandemic was arguably the biggest global crisis in recent history and it will likely not be the last (Settele et al., 2020). It is an example of a complex health crisis that has so far caused more than half a billion infected people and claimed more than six million lives around the globe (World Health Organization, n.d.). The virus caused not only significant health issues and

Why Study the Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising Practice 15

economic hardship for millions of people, but it also exposed social inequality and cultural tensions along the way. Advertising, marketing, and public relations have always played a role in how brands and organizations react to a wide variety of crisis moments throughout history. While organizational crisis communication is largely concerned with protecting an organization’s reputation because of its own wrongdoing or direct involvement in a crisis, the body of literature related to advertising as a crisis response mechanism to complex crises is still in its infancy. CRA uses paid advertising during crises because (1) it builds reach quickly, (2) the message comes directly from brands to help people as opposed to being filtered by media sources, and (3) media sources are busy covering the development of the crisis instead of reporting organizations’ CSR activities. As consumers have placed greater trust in businesses and brands to mitigate and solve a variety of crises and because brands primarily communicate via paid advertising messages, there is an urgent need to expand our understanding and implementation of advertising as a crisis response mechanism. Existing theories only provide some aspects of understanding how complex crises affect advertising and the industry that creates it. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to offer a new model of CCRA in the context of the most complex health crisis in recent history. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with some of the most successful advertising practitioners in the United States who lived through the coronavirus crisis and actively worked in the advertising industry at the time, the new model is the result of a grounded theory design with the purpose of building theory and best practices in the field of CCRA. The results of the study are unpacked in the chapters that follow. Discussion Questions

1 What did you notice about brand communication during the COVID-19 pandemic? How was it different from advertising before/after the pandemic? 2 Do you remember any ads that ran during the COVID-19 pandemic? Which ones stood out and why? Which ones resonated with you in a positive way? Which ones missed the mark? 3 From your perspective as a(n) _____ (academic researcher, brand communicator, graduate student, etc.), what is the most important reason to study CRA in the context of COVID-19? Considerations for Practical Applications

1 If you worked as a brand communicator during the COVID-19 pandemic, did you change your advertising practice to reflect the health threat? If yes, what did you change? If not, why not?

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2 What have you learned from previous crises that helped you communicate during COVID-19? 3 What do you wish you had known before COVID-19 hit in terms of brand communication? Suggestions for Future Research

1 The research for this book is based on the perspective of advertising professionals who worked for some of the leading advertising agencies in the United States. What other perspectives would round out our understanding of CRA? 2 In what other ways could CRA in the context of COVID-19 be studied that would generate new knowledge? References Biel, A., & King, S. (2003). Advertising during a recession. In L. Butterfield (Ed.), AdValue: Twenty ways advertising works for business (pp. 93–99). Butterworth-Heinemann. Bright, L. F., & Schau, H. J. (2021). Pop-up special section introduction: Advertising and COVID-19—Examining the impacts of the pandemic on agencies, consumers, and brands. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 217–220. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1933657 Coleman, J. T., Royne (Stafford), M. B., & Pounders, K. R. (2020). Pride, guilt, and selfregulation in cause-related marketing advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 49(1), 34–60. 10.1080/00913367.2019.1689871 Coombs, W. T. (2007a). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10(3), 163–176. 10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049 Coombs, W. T. (2007b, October 30). Crisis management and communications. Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/ Coombs, W. T. (2010). Parameters for crisis communication. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 17–53). Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444314885.ch1 Cowden, K., & Sellnow, T. L. (2002). Issues advertising as crisis communication: Northwest airlines’ use of image restoration strategies during the 1998 pilot’s strike. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 39(2), 193–219. 10.1177/002194360203900203 Edelman (2022). 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from https://www.edelman.com/trust/2022‐trust‐barometer Elliot, J. D. (2010). How do past crises affect publics’ perceptions of current events? An experiment testing corporate reputation during an adverse event. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 205–220). Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444314885.ch9 Elsbach, K. D., & Benoit, W. L. (1997). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(3), 584–586. 10.2307/2393739 Ertimur, B., & Coskuner-Balli, G. (2021). Brands expressing compassion and care through advertising. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 230–239. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1925606

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Fox, K. F. A. (1986). The measurement of issue/advocacy advertising effects. Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 9(1), 61. Gangadharbatla, H. (2021). Covid-19 and advertising: The case for a paradigm shift. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 42(1), 1–18. 10.1080/10641734.2021.1876797 Graham, R. C., & Frankenberger, K. D. (2011). The earnings effects of marketing communication expenditures during recessions. Journal of Advertising, 40(2), 5–24. 10. 2753/JOA0091-3367400201 Hayes, J. L., Holiday, S., & Park, H. (2022). Corporate social responsibility & the advertising strategic planning process: A literature review & research agenda. International Journal of Advertising, 41(2), 210–232. 10.1080/02650487.2022.2038432 Interactive Advertising Bureau. (2020, September 2). 202/21 COVID impact on advertising. Jenyns, C. (2021). Changing tides: The impact of crisis on advertising. Media International Australia, 178(1), 36–41. 10.1177/1329878X20951996 Jiang, M., & Dodoo, N. A. (2021). Promoting mask-wearing in COVID-19 brand communications: Effects of gain-loss frames, self- or other-interest appeals, and perceived risks. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 271–279. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1925605 Kim, H. E., Cho, Y.-N., & Youn, N. (2021). COVID-19 uncertainty and temporal framing in advertising for online experiential consumption. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 280–289. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1927915 Kim, S. (2013). Does corporate advertising work in a crisis? An examination of inoculation theory. Journal of Marketing Communications, 19(4), 293–305. Kinnick, K. N. (2004). Advertising responses to crisis. Society, 42(1), 32. Koch, J. V. (1971). Advertising and economic growth. Journal of Advertising Research, 11(4), 36–39. Lancendorfer, K. M. (2014). Pet food panic: Procter and Gamble’s use of crisis response advertising (CRA) in recall crisis. Corporate Reputation Review, 17(2), 94–113. Mangiò, F., Pedeliento, G., & Andreini, D. (2021). Branding rhetoric in times of a global pandemic: A text-mining analysis. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 240–252. 10.1080/ 00913367.2021.1927912 MarketLine Industry Profile: Advertising in United States. (2022). Advertising industry profile: United States, 1–52. McGuire, W. J., & Papageorgis, D. (1962). Effectiveness of forewarning in developing resistance to persuasion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 26(1), 24–34. 10.1086/267068 Moriarty, S. E., Mitchell, N., & Wood, C. (2019). Advertising & IMC: Principles & practice (11th ed.). Pearson. Pardun, C. J. (2009). Advertising and society: Controversies and consequences. Wiley-Blackwell. Robinson, T. D., & Veresiu, E. (2021). Advertising in a context harm crisis. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 221–229. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1925604 Settele, J., Diaz, S., Brondizio, E., & Daszak, P. (2020, April 22). IPBES guest article: COVID-19 stimulus measures must save lives, protect livelihoods, and safeguard nature to reduce the risk of future pandemics. IPBES Secretariat. https://ipbes.net/covid19stimulus Shoenberger, H., Kim, E. (Anna), & Sun, Y. (2021). Advertising during COVID-19: Exploring perceived brand message authenticity and potential psychological reactance. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 253–261. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1927914 Stammerjohan, C., Wood, C. M., Chang, Y., & Thorson, E. (2005). An empirical investigation of the interaction between publicity, advertising, and previous brand attitudes and knowledge. Journal of Advertising, 34(4), 55–67. 10.1080/00913367.2005.10639209

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Sundar, A., Kardes, F. R., & Wright, S. A. (2015). The influence of repetitive health messages and sensitivity to fluency on the truth effect in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 44(4), 375–387. 10.1080/00913367.2015.1045154 Vaile, R. S. (1926). The use of advertising during depression. Harvard Business Review, 5, 323–330. van Esch, P., (Gina) Cui, Y., & Jain, S. P. (2021). COVID-19 charity advertising: Identifiable victim message framing, self-construal, and donation intent. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 290–298. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1927911 Van Kessel, P., & Quinn, D. (2020, October 29). Both Republicans and Democrat cite masks as a negative effect of COVID-19, but for very different reasons. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/29/both-republicans-anddemocrats-cite-masks-as-a-negative-effect-of-covid-19-but-for-very-different-reasons/ Verlegh, P. W. J., Bernritter, S. F., Gruber, V., Schartman, N., & Sotgiu, F. (2021). “Don’t worry, we are here for you”: Brands as external source of control during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 262–270. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1927913 World Health Organization. (n.d.). WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://covid19.who.int Zhang, E., & Benoit, W. L. (2009). Former minister Zhang’s discourse on SARS: Government’s image restoration or destruction? Public Relations Review, 35(3), 240–246. 10.1016/j.pubrev.2009.04.004

2 THE STATE OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY IN THE CONTEXT OF CRISES

Chapter Objectives

1 To provide an overview of select crisis moments in recent U.S. history and how they have contributed to the development of crisis communication and crisis response advertising (CRA) 2 To describe the state of the advertising industry before the COVID-19 pandemic and identify trends that were on the horizon 3 To tell the story of how the COVID-19 health crisis unfolded 4 To present the state of the advertising industry after the COVID-19 pandemic Chapter 1 provided an overview of the book, presented a rationale for studying advertising practice in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, and framed the research in the context of the existing academic literature. Before diving into the empirical research that provided the foundation of this book, this chapter focuses on the professional side of advertising by describing the state of the advertising industry before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, including a discussion of opportunities and challenges as well as trends that were on the horizon in late 2019 and early 2020. This chapter also reviews three different types of crisis moments in recent U.S. history, their impact on the economy and consumer behavior, and how the advertising industry responded. This section furthermore features a discussion of the academic sub-genre of CRA, which is still in its infancy. Reviewing the increasingly important role advertising plays in crisis communication may help us understand why brand communicators reacted to the COVID-19 health threat the way they did, particularly at the beginning of DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-2

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the pandemic. The historical perspective leads up to a concise timeline of how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in the United States, followed by a discussion of the state of the advertising industry post-COVID-19, which resulted in inflation and a potential recession. The Impact of Crises on Advertising and Brand Communication: A Historical Perspective

Advertising has inherently been connected to modern economics for the last 170 years. Whether there’s an economic boom or a recession, the advertising industry has been part of the ride as businesses and brands are directly affected by the ebbs and flows of the marketplace (Jenyns, 2021). Crises, particularly national and international ones, often induce recessions, which in turn affect advertising practice. The COVID-19 crisis has been dubbed by many a “black swan” event, which describes a rare and unpredictable occurrence that has a major effect and for which people try to find simplistic explanations after the event has occurred (Taleb, 2007). The pandemic hit the world unexpectedly, at a high speed, and with devastating results. It exposed the world’s vulnerabilities and continues to affect the global economy, as well as our social and cultural fabric. And although there have been fewer and shorter recessions so far in the twenty-first century (Tellis & Tellis, 2009), the COVID-19 crisis is projected to induce a severe and long recession and the worst since World War II (The World Bank, 2020). While the coronavirus crisis continues to be unprecedented in terms of magnitude, length, and loss of human life (more than 6.6 million deaths worldwide as of December 2022) (Google News, 2022), humanity and brands have experienced and responded to a variety of crises for a long time. Brands play an enormously important role during crises by providing comfort and reassurance to consumers and actively helping people, particularly in the United States. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer (Edelman, 2022), people trust businesses more than NGOs, government, and media, and they expect businesses to provide societal leadership on controversial issues while also breaking the cycle of distrust that continues to polarize society. When COVID-19 became a global threat, experts looked to past crises as a reference point regarding crisis management, including effective brand communication practices. Different types of crises in recent history can help us understand the role advertising and brands play during uncertain times. As Participant #21 of the research study for this book said, “We did a ton of research, looking at how brands showed up during the Great Depression or World War II. It was about finding the magic in the little things and the little moments.” Although they are inherently different from the COVID-19 health threat, previous crises illustrate the deep connection between the economy and one of its main drivers: Advertising (Koch, 1971).

The State of the Advertising Industry in the Context of Crises 21

Health Crises

Almost exactly one century before the coronavirus emerged, the world experienced a similar health pandemic in 1918, which experts believe originated in cramped military camps toward the end of World War I. The virus caused a deadly strain of influenza that infected 500 million people around the world and claimed the lives of more than 50 million, including 675,000 in the United States. Without a vaccine to protect against the virus, people used similar measures to help stop the spread as were used against the novel coronavirus 100 years later, including isolation, quarantine, washing hands, and limiting public gatherings (Centers for Disease Control, 2019). Dubbed “Spanish Flu,” the virus did not actually originate in Spain. Scientists have to this day not been able to trace its origins but potential areas include France, China, Britain, and the United States. The reason it became known as the Spanish Flu had to do with a censored media environment during the war. As the virus spread at the heels of World War I, the countries that were involved in the war suppressed news of the flu in an effort to maintain morale. However, Spain, as a neutral country, was able to report flu-related news, particularly after King Alfonso III became ill from the virus. With the Spanish media being one of only a few news sources in Europe reporting on the 1918 pandemic, people from other countries assumed that the virus originated in Spain (A&E Television Networks, 2020). Even a century ago, advertising played an important role during the “Spanish Flu” health crisis in terms of building trust among consumers while also establishing brand authority as “unofficial sources with vested interests” (O’Hagan, 2021). In light of the British government’s confusing communication regarding public health messaging, businesses recognized a market opportunity and developed numerous advertising campaigns for products and services using a resilience appeal. Many of these campaigns were targeted toward the middle class because of their disposable income (Gurney, 2017), particularly women who made purchases to help their families bear the pandemic more easily (Loeb, 2005). In a content analysis of 120 newspaper advertisements for three health products in Great Britain, O’Hagan (2021) found that all three advertisers changed their message strategy during the pandemic to generate public interest in their products. The techniques included using sensationalist language, creating a sense of urgency around buying the product, using war metaphors as World War I came to an end, and promising complete protection against the virus, even though those were unsubstantiated claims. Financial Crises

Financial hardships in the form of recessions or even depressions occur frequently after natural disasters, pandemics, wars, or other types of crises. The effects of World War I in combination with the “Spanish Flu” resulted in a large percentage of deaths among people of working age. World War II gave rise to consumer

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culture as the U.S. economy expanded quickly with more people now living in cities than in the country. It was again advertising that supported the rapid expansion of consumption across the country. The “Roaring Twenties” not only created enormous wealth and spending, but it was also during this time that women emancipated themselves after gaining the right to vote and started to enter the workforce. Many Americans invested their disposable income in purchasing consumer goods, including home appliances, radios, and cars. This period of time also started to create consumer debt as consumers became accustomed to purchasing new products, brands, and innovative technology (A&E Television Networks, 2022b). Meanwhile, many people started to invest in the stock market even though production had already started to diminish, unemployment was on the rise, and stock prices were highly inflated. By the end of the 1920s, stock prices had declined in many countries around the globe, ultimately leading to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, which lasted until 1939 (A&E Television Networks, 2022a). When unemployment was high and consumers’ spending power declined, some advertisers decided to save their media dollars for better economic times. However, research shows that continued advertising spending during an economic crisis increases market share and future earnings in the long run (Graham & Frankenberger, 2011). One example that illustrates this point is the diametric decision-making of two competitors in the cereal market: Kellogg and Post. Post decided to save money during the Great Depression while Kellogg poured even more dollars into promoting its then-new product, Rice Krispies, resulting in a 33 percent increase in profits (Strong, 2020). The same pattern emerged during subsequent recessions, including in the 1980s, 1990s, and the Great Recession of 2008. Brands in certain product categories can be quite successful by advertising during a recession and taking advantage of competitors who decide not to do so, as the breakfast cereal example demonstrates. The 1990 recession made it possible for new fast-food restaurants Taco Bell and Pizza Hut to gain market share from McDonald’s, which decided not to advertise during that time. During the Great Recession of 2008, new competitors like Amazon were able to capitalize on people’s need to save money by introducing and advertising digital books, which were more affordable than hard-bound books. Amazon needed to increase the market by introducing a whole new way to read and did so by investing heavily into the advertising market, which had declined by 13 percent overall as a result of other brands pulling their advertising dollars that year (Strong, 2020). Acts of War

During World War II, the U.S. government mandated a federal rationing program as a way to support its war efforts. The rationing program restricted the

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amount of everyday products consumers could buy and some tech-related products like cameras and projectors were not available to the general public at all. However, advertising did not stop. An agreement between the U.S. government and some of the largest advertising agencies in the United States created the War Advertising Council to bring the industry together and serve the social good (Ad Council, n.d.). As part of the agreement, brands would continue to advertise but instead of selling products, they encouraged consumers to ration commodities, buy war bonds, and support the war effort in multiple ways. This strategy positioned the brands and companies that sponsored these ads as patriotic partners of the government, which not only increased their visibility during the war but also contributed to their overall image. Toward the end of the war, advertisers changed their messaging to create demand for their products and services, expecting a new era of consumerism fueled by people with disposable income. Portions of the advertising cost as part of this program were tax deductible (Little, 2014). After the war, the council became the Ad Council, continuing its public service work by partnering with the advertising industry to address pressing social issues such as polio, AIDS, and terrorism. The Ad Council was also actively involved in fighting the COVID-19 crisis (Ad Council, n.d.). The September 11 attacks in 2001 were arguably the start of the biggest national crisis on American soil in recent history. An Islamist extremist group known as AlQaida carried out four terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by hijacking four commercial airplanes and crashing them into buildings, including both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A total of 2,977 people in the United States lost their lives as a result of the attacks (9/11 FAQs | National September 11 Memorial & Museum, n.d.). Reacting to this catastrophic series of events, corporate America responded in a variety of ways. While some organizations stopped advertising in the weeks immediately following the attacks, others invested heavily in newspaper, radio, and television advertising to express their empathy for victims and offer help. Advertising messages focused strongly on uniting the nation and encouraging consumers to keep the economy going by spending money. General Motors, for example, offered zero-percent financing to “Keep America Rolling” less than two weeks after the attacks. Using a headline that strongly reminded the public of the last words spoken in defiance by a passenger of one of the hijacked planes (“let’s roll”), the motor company unapologetically leaned into the crisis to help stimulate the economy. Although it may seem insensitive today, the ad reflected American culture at that particular point in time, when people banded together as a nation in spite of their differences. Although some advertisers chose not to advertise in the aftermath of the attacks, others followed GM’s lead, contributing to the end of the recession and the beginning of economic recovery (Johnson, 2020). A content analysis of print advertisements immediately following the September 11 attacks revealed that the vast majority of messages expressed

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sympathy for victims, conveyed grief, or promoted unity and patriotism. Newspaper ads during that time had a somber tone, generally using ad copy more heavily than images. The ads used language that expressed loss and sadness, outrage, and patriotic resolve. When images were used, they often consisted of patriotic symbols. A smaller contingent of ads during that time period reminded people of the advertiser’s charitable activities, appealed to consumers to donate money or blood, and generally called on people to resume their regular purchase behaviors (Kinnick, 2003). As Kinnick notes, the heaviest advertisers were those who “had the most to lose in the period of economic uncertainty” (p. 456), such as car dealers and financial institutions, department stores, and the travel industry. Another advertiser was Saudi Arabia, the country that was negatively linked to the attacks in the media (Lichtblau & Risen, 2021). By using paid advertising messages as a public relations tool, Saudi Arabia tried to generate goodwill with the people of the United States. These studies reveal that crisis-related product or service categories often use advertising to stay visible and convey positive messages. Kinnick’s (2003) study also investigated audience sentiment toward 9/11 crisis response ads. She found that while the vast majority of ads elicited positive feelings toward the advertiser, some were seen as exploitative. Instead of conveying compassion and patriotism, those ads minimized the tragedy by including a general back-to-normal call to action, and some focused on making a profit during the crisis. The study suggests that some organizations failed to recognize Americans’ need to grieve by not acknowledging that need in their advertising messages during that time. During the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, many retailers stepped up to encourage the general public to donate money or blood at their particular retail location, trying to drive traffic to their store. Consequently, consumers became skeptical about those retailers’ motivations as many were not official partners of charities and relief organizations. On the other hand, those organizations that did have official partnerships with charities were able to create trust and goodwill, two cornerstones of effective public relations (Moriarty et al., 2019). Cause marketing became a very popular way during this national crisis to give consumers a legitimate way to help in the relief effort without using the tragedy to build store traffic. Kinnick (2003) refers to this strategy as a “mixed motive” model that can be helpful in times of crisis. According to the model, messages that induce goodwill can be combined with those that induce sales, as long as this strategy is used sparingly. If used too much, it can cause a public relations backlash. Kinnick offers a series of best practices for advertisers responding to a crisis as a result of her study. The first one relates to whether an advertiser should advertise at all during a crisis or instead go dark. Kinnick recommends that advertisers in product categories that are directly impacted by the crisis should definitely advertise. For example, advertisers in the travel and financial industries benefited

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from CRA after the 9/11 attacks by acknowledging the tragedy and standing with the general public at a time of intense shock and grief. These categories were directly impacted by the terrorist attacks, which necessitated effective communication with the public in an effort to establish trust and goodwill as soon as possible. Two additional best practices are related to establishing partnerships. One is to identify and connect with disaster-response organizations ahead of time so that the organization can use the charity’s brand assets in its messaging at the moment a crisis occurs. For example, organizations could offer their retail space as a place to donate resources to victims but there needs to be an officially recognized and well-publicized partnership. Doing so can contribute to the advertiser’s credibility in its disaster-response messaging because it will unequivocally contribute to helping victims. Another best practice is to develop cause-marketing strategies that align with an organization’s goals while also supporting a cause that provides relief to victims of the crisis by contributing a percentage of sales to a fund in support of victims (Kinnick, 2003). In terms of messaging, Kinnick recommends several strategies, starting with a preference for text-only ads using language with a sobering tone. During times of national crisis, text-only ads appeared to be as effective as ads that used imaging. Kinnick further noticed that messages used emotion as a creative technique, leaning heavily into American cultural ideals such as acknowledging grief while also portraying patriotic values. She warns that messages that appear to be self-serving to the advertiser will likely cause a backlash, as do messages that minimize the effect of the crisis by focusing on selling. The findings suggest that large advertising units, such as full-page advertisements in a newspaper, speak to the scale of the tragedy, again fulfilling the audience’s coping needs during the aftermath of 9/11. Another way to use advertising during a national crisis is to run a series of advertisements to give the advertiser repeated presence in the media and to remind the public of the organization’s dedication and commitment to addressing the crisis (Kinnick, 2003). Kinnick recognized that advertisers did not use traditional crisis communication responses during the aftermath of the September 11 attacks but rather developed a new way of responding to a significant terrorist attack that claimed thousands of lives. She recognized that commonly used crisis communication strategies that address organizational crises, such as attacking the accuser, denial, excuse, justification, corrective action, and full apology (Ledingham & Bruning, 2000), were absent from the advertisements used in response to the crisis. The only commonly used strategy found in 9/11 messaging was ingratiation, a technique that reminds audiences of the organization’s charitable activities to create goodwill toward it. The absence of most of the traditionally used crisis communication strategies in response to the September 11 attacks prompted Kinnick to develop a new subgenre of institutional (or public relations) advertising. She developed the term

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“CRA” as a subset of institutional advertising that focuses specifically on communication strategies used as a result of national crises because they are situationally different from organizational crises. Kinnick found that in response to the 9/11 tragedy, advertisers stuck with what they knew instead of taking creative risks. She described the rhetoric during that time as a “reflection of what American business leaders believed was required to heal the American psyche during one of the nation’s darkest periods” (Kinnick, 2004), namely, an overwhelming rhetoric of condolence and patriotism. Rooted in rhetorical criticism (Foss, 1996), Kinnick predicts that CRA as a genre will apply not only to terrorist attacks but other crises, such as natural or human disasters, in the future because they will require similar responses of patriotism and pitching in from advertisers. She anticipates that brand communicators’ responses to other significant crises (like a pandemic) will “adhere to cultural expectations about what is appropriate to say publicly in such a crisis” (p. 36). The 9/11 tragedy not only re-defined the relationship between brands and consumers but also between organizations and employees. Responding to crises is a challenge companies around the world are facing daily. However, the 9/11 attacks were different because many of America’s leading companies lost employees and parts of their general infrastructure. Organizations started to respond to the increased needs of their customers and dealt with supply chain issues as well as varying levels of demand. All of these increased pressures added to the stress and trauma of the workforce, which had to be managed as part of the company’s crisis management. Many corporations quickly recognized that they were dealing with a human crisis that had to be managed and mitigated before any other action could occur (Argenti, 2002). Organizations’ internal focus during crises should be to provide support, comfort, and confidence for their workforce. Maintaining high levels of visibility is critical, so it is helpful if managers can be in the physical presence of employees. Employees need to be seen and heard, know that they are safe, and have the support of their company. During the 9/11 crisis, the most successful companies like Verizon, Dell, and the New York Times focused on the needs of people—internally and externally—instead of sales. The 9/11 disaster provided unique communication challenges as many phone and power lines as well as computer networks were temporarily unavailable. Business leaders reverted to using traditional mass media like newspapers and television to send messages to their employees. In addition to serving as a means of message distribution, the news media also provided much needed trust as it conveyed information from companies to employees through an independent lens. In many ways, the crisis forced corporate America to recognize the importance of its relationship with the news media and to think of it as an ally instead of an enemy. In 2001, smartphones were not yet ubiquitous, so companies found other ways to reach their employees, including re-purposed toll-free credit card call centers and internet hotlines featuring the latest information about the crisis (Argenti, 2002).

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While “back-to-normal” messaging to consumers can backfire during moments of crisis, it can also result in a positive effect among the workforce, another very important group of stakeholders. During the 9/11 crisis, employees wanted to know how they could help. As long as employees feel safe, focusing on the work, especially work that directly benefits victims or helps in the relief effort, can create a strong sense of pride and self-efficacy, while also keeping businesses afloat and customers happy. Companies that had direct contact with customers during the 9/11 crisis had an unfiltered view of what their stakeholders needed the most and were able to respond quickly. As Argenti recognized, “operations during a crisis should be decentralized, but decision-making should not be” (Argenti, 2002). Many organizations learned during the aftermath of 9/11 how critically important backup plans really are. Having a crisis response plan in place before a crisis occurs is key. Internally focused crisis communication practices such as making information easily and publicly available to employees are widely incorporated into crisis response strategies today. However, in 2001, much of that information lived behind firewalls that could only be accessed from within companies’ web servers. Other responses included changes to organizations’ physical space. Some organizations established central command centers from where they were able to monitor news and respond accordingly with their employees and other stakeholders. Another example involves a decision made by the New York Board of Trade, which was located in the World Trade Center when a truck bomb exploded in the building’s parking garage in 1993. Shortly after the attack, the organization decided to permanently invest in two separate physical spaces that would allow trading to continue even if a crisis, like 9/11, were to destroy its original space. Additional physical space would have also been useful during the COVID-19 health crisis, when social distancing guidelines increased the required personal space to at least six feet between two people. Although much was learned from previous national crises in terms of how they affect people, the economy, and advertising, every crisis is different and COVID-19 was no exception. Not only did it dwarf other recent crises in magnitude but also in length and context, as this book explores. The story begins in late 2019 … The State of the Advertising Industry before the COVID-19 Pandemic Advertising Industry Market Value

Before COVID-19 turned the world upside down, the United States advertising industry, which in 2019 had the largest market share in the world at 37.8 percent, enjoyed moderate growth with revenues of more than $225.5 billion. This value represents a 2.9 percent year-over-year growth rate, while the compound annual

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growth rate from 2015 to 2019 was 4.4 percent. The advertising industry is strongly linked to the gross domestic product, and generally, brands and businesses decrease their marketing spending when there is an economic downturn (MarketLine Industry Profile, 2020). However, research shows that advertising during tough economic times is critical in helping a business not only survive but thrive in the future (Graham & Frankenberger, 2011). Economic Growth Drivers

One of the major shifts that impacted the advertising industry significantly in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic was a sharp increase in smartphone use, which shifted the entire industry from analog to digital media. Digital technology also impacted the most powerful medium of advertising thus far: Television. Since consumers now have the ability to easily record content and/or watch content on demand, they can also fast-forward through commercials. One of the few types of programming that consumers still enjoy watching live are sporting events, such as the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the largest sporting event in the world, the FIFA World Cup. Digital advertising provides advertisers with the ability to hypertarget consumers. Largely driven by Google and other search engines, advertisers can reach older audiences based on their search behavior, while social media networks like Facebook and Instagram facilitate direct-to-consumer marketing to younger audiences. With the quality, range, and speed of internet access improving across the United States, much of the industry’s focus before the COVID-19 pandemic was on the proliferation of digital advertising, which has the ability to reach more people more accurately but is also more complex than an analog media mix. In early 2020, MarketLine predicted that while traditional media would still play an important role in the media mix, digital media would gain even more importance. Although advertisers expected about $10 billion in advertising revenue as a result of the 2020 presidential election, the growth of the advertising industry was expected to decelerate with an anticipated 3.4 percent compound annual growth rate (a projected 15 percent decrease compared to the previous five years; MarketLine Industry Profile, 2020). Pre-COVID Trends

At the beginning of every year, Wunderman Thompson releases an annual forecast of 100 trends from around the world called, “The Future 100.” It is an indication of changes in culture, technology, food, travel, retail, health, and brands, and it provides advertisers with a way to tap into the zeitgeist and create culturally relevant brand communication. “The Future 100” report from January 2020 predicted a new decade marked by optimism and a society ready to move beyond political, economic, and environmental instability (Wunderman Thompson, 2020).

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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, wellbeing and sustainability were emerging trends, creating synergy and morphing into the center of consumer expectations and more intentional consumer behavior. The marketplace was characterized by a high degree of innovation and adoption of technology, facilitating both work and play. Consumers also increasingly shared their lived experiences via social media and games, opening the door for new platforms like TikTok and Clubhouse. As consumers spent more time with digital devices, privacy issues became more prevalent on the heels of high-profile data breaches, leading to a general distrust of the government and big tech companies to protect their data. Consumers became more conscious of how their behavior affected themselves as well as the environment. For example, plant-based protein sources became viable options even for those who traditionally preferred to eat animal-based protein. Consumers wanted to have access to better healthcare, including through digital tools. Another trend related to health and wellness was a shift toward mindfulness in pursuit of work-life balance (Deshpande, 2019). And finally, 2020 was supposed to be the beginning of a decade characterized by meaningful human connections facilitated by products, brands, and technology as increased loneliness became a widespread public health issue (Stein, 2019). But then the novel coronavirus arrived. A Brief History of the COVID-19 Health Crisis

How did the COVID-19 crisis unfold? In late 2019, the World Health Organization China Country Office learned about a small cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown causes in Wuhan, Hubei Providence, in China. After Chinese authorities identified and isolated a novel coronavirus as the cause of the outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control implemented its MERS-CoV preparedness plan, which included a case management structure as well as crisis communication strategies to inform the public of the situation. By late January 2020, the first coronavirus cases outside of China were reported in Thailand and Japan, and shortly thereafter also in the United States. Within a matter of days, the CDC confirmed the human-to-human spread of the novel coronavirus and eventually declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on January 31, 2020. Among early crisis response steps taken by the U.S. government were new travel policies, attempts to develop and distribute virus test kits, and an official name for the disease causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease of 2019. As countries around the globe started to see incidences of cases of COVID-19, Italy became the first hotspot of cases and the first country that ordered a national lockdown to manage the escalating health crisis. Then, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and U.S. President Donald Trump declared a nationwide emergency, resulting in statewide shutdowns

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including schools, restaurants, businesses, and bars. While the White House extended social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines, the first human trials of a potential vaccine started in mid-March 2020. In late March, the U.S. Senate passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security act in an effort to help hospitals, small businesses, and state and local governments through the crisis. By April 10, 2020, the United States reported more COVID-19-related deaths than the previous hotspot leader Italy. With businesses and schools closed, the U.S. experienced its worst unemployment rate of 14.7 percent (20.5 million individuals) since the Great Depression in early May 2020. Racial and ethnic minority groups were disproportionately affected by the health crisis-induced unemployment rates and the industries that were impacted the most included hospitality, leisure, and healthcare. Around the same time, the World Bank projected a 5.2 percent shrinkage of the global economy, the world’s worst recession since World War II as a result of the global health crisis (The World Bank, 2020). In the early summer of 2020, multiple Black Lives Matter protests occurred throughout the United States and the CDC was concerned that they would result in a spike in cases, which ended up not being the case as many people stayed home due to the coronavirus crisis. Headed into the fall of 2020, the U.S. did see case spikes due to Halloween gatherings. The pandemic also increased the number of people in the U.S. who were food insecure by 48.5 percent (CDC, 2022). By the end of the first full year of the COVID-19 crisis, 300,000 Americans lost their lives to the virus and new variants started to appear. However, the first vaccine against the virus was approved for emergency use and administered to a first responder. As new variants of the virus continued to be detected in 2021, vaccine distribution and administration became the main focus of global health authorities as the world battled the health crisis. Almost a full year after the U.S. was shut down, the CDC announced that fully vaccinated people could start gathering again indoors and travel safely within the U.S. without a COVID test, as U.S. vaccinations surpassed 200 million doses. New variants such as Delta and Omicron resulted in new cases in late 2021 and early 2022 as the CDC recommended booster vaccinations for most adults (CDC, 2022). By the end of 2022, the United States reported the most COVID-19 cases (just under 100 million) and deaths (1.1 million) in the world, followed by India with 44.6 million cases and half a million deaths, and France with 37.7 million cases and 156,000 deaths (Google News, 2022). How the COVID-19 Pandemic Shifted Consumer Trends

The arrival of the novel coronavirus on U.S. shores impacted the economy and corresponding consumer trends almost immediately. Two months after the COVID-19 health threat was declared a pandemic, it had already turned the world upside down. While case and death numbers climbed, quarantines, lockdowns,

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mask mandates, and social distancing changed the way people consumed, worked, and interacted with each other. Health and Wellbeing

One of the major trends mentioned time and again by the trade press during the COVID-19 pandemic related to people’s health and wellbeing, not only because the coronavirus posed a serious threat to the physical health of millions of people but also because it exacerbated particularly young people’s level of anxiety about how the pandemic might impact their future during a potential economic downturn. According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control in the summer of 2020, 40 percent of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues (Czeisler et al., 2020). A sense of cautious optimism was still in the air as people learned how to deal with the crisis a year into the pandemic, hoping for an economic and social recovery (Wunderman Thompson, 2021) after a tumultuous 2020 marked by political and social unrest (see chapter 5). Consumers became enamored with boosting their immunity against the virus as a potential vaccine was being developed, approved, and administered in December 2020. Although there was vaccine hesitancy among a significant portion of the general public, cleanliness became an important focus for many product categories, particularly in the travel and hospitality sectors, to restore consumer confidence after months of physical isolation and disinfecting of surfaces. At the two-year mark of the pandemic, the focus on health and wellbeing had evolved to putting health at the center of creating positive consumer experiences with a focus on self-care and work-life balance (Wunderman Thompson, 2022). Digital Revolution

Another important trend was the influence of technology, including its tendency to spread misinformation, rumors, and fake news. These negative traits of social media, for example, are even more dangerous during a serious health threat like the COVID-19 pandemic. Several platforms introduced fact checking and added health resources to help keep people safe and informed. The trend toward checking and regulating information spread by social media was already in motion before the novel coronavirus arrived in the United States but it was focused mostly on political information. The COVID-19 pandemic created an even more accelerated sense of urgency to provide accurate information during crisis moments. Leaning into technology to keep people safe extends far beyond the social and digital media realm. During the early days of the pandemic, it was believed that the virus was primarily spread by touching surfaces, creating a need for touchless monetary transactions and less of an emphasis on touch screens, which were

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ubiquitous before the health crisis. It was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that large retail stores accelerated the development and implementation of contactless mobile payments. Privacy

During the COVID-19 pandemic, technology was used for contact tracing and to monitor the spread of the virus. However, tracking technology came at the cost of reduced privacy. Not only did apps collect information regarding one’s health status, they also provided big tech companies with the necessary data points to identify infection hot spots and access to buildings. In some countries, apps were linked to surveillance hardware to enforce quarantine and stay-at-home orders. While people stayed home, online traffic increased significantly and with it, tracking of their online behavior surged as well. Websites collect data about the traffic they generate and share it with third-party companies that use the data to create consumer profiles for advertising purposes using different data points. With much of our everyday lives being moved to a virtual environment, particularly during COVID-19, many people did not have a choice but to use freely available tools that collected their data to stay informed about the health crisis. The pandemic brought renewed urgency to develop legislation to protect users’ privacy and welfare (Yaraghi & Lai, 2022). Food

As restaurants were closed due to health and safety mandates, consumers turned to frozen and other consumer-packaged goods for convenience and comfort and learned how to prepare and preserve food the old-fashioned way. Restaurants were particularly affected by mandated in-person restrictions or even shutdown orders but found creative ways to stay in business. Some created new and unique dining experiences that physically separated customers’ tables, while others sold ingredients directly to consumers for at-home preparation or gave cooking lessons online so people could improve their homecooking skills. At the same time, processed foods were in high demand during the pandemic. Consumers stocked up on shelf-stable processed food, partially to decrease the number of trips to the grocery store and partially to taste comfort at a very difficult time. During the early days of the pandemic, consumers hoarded food, driven by fear and practicality. General Mills reported increases in a variety of product lines, including packaged, refrigerated, and frozen foods. Much of the increase came from existing consumers who purchased more products but also from new consumers who would normally eat fresh food at restaurants. One category that saw sharp sales increases was snacks (Creswell, 2020). Another

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category was alcoholic beverages. According to a survey in May 2020, 60 percent of respondents reported drinking more as a result of increased stress, increased alcohol availability, and boredom. The same survey revealed that 13 percent of the respondents said they had decreased their drinking habits compared to preCOVID (Grossman et al., 2020). These two changes in consumer behavior as stress responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are completely different from the trend prediction before COVID-19, which pointed toward more sustainable and nutrient-dense food and an overall focus on health. Conscious Consumerism

The pandemic quickly impacted the way people were thinking about their spending as many lost their jobs and/or struggled to make ends meet. Focusing on the essentials became more important than owning the latest version of technology or buying single-use items. Mindful consumption was already a trend in early 2020 and was exacerbated by the need to be frugal during the pandemic. The health crisis increased people’s awareness of what they consumed and the companies from which they purchased goods and services. This renewed focus on ethical consumption was a predicted trend for 2021, and although many consumers struggled financially as a result of the pandemic, their decision-making extended beyond price and convenience to also include the company’s impact on the environment and people (Thomas, 2021). The State of the Advertising Industry after the COVID-19 Pandemic Advertising Industry Market Value

The advertising industry in the United States declined by 12.9 percent in 2020 as the economy shrank by 4.3 percent despite $14 billion spent on campaign advertising during the 2020 presidential election. The retail, automotive, and travel sectors had the largest revenue losses in 2020, negating their ability to advertise as much as they normally do. Despite the steep revenue loss in 2020, the advertising industry bounced back in 2021 with total revenues of $285.2 billion, a 26.5 percent increase compared to 2019 pre-COVID. The compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2026 is predicted to be 5.4 percent with an expected industry value of more than $370 billion (MarketLine Industry Profile, 2022). Economic Growth Drivers

The trend away from traditional media and toward digital media that existed preCOVID was accelerated by the pandemic as people spent more time at home with their digital devices and consuming content via streaming platforms. At the

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beginning of 2023, 80.9 percent of the U.S. population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (Mathieu et al., 2023). Consumer confidence increased and, with it, the ability to consume goods and services. Post-COVID Trends

At the writing of this book, the COVID-19 health crisis has not been resolved as new variants continue to emerge and present challenges for consumers and brands. Although the COVID-19 health crisis is no longer considered a pandemic, it has changed life as we know it forever. Many of the trends that were in place before the pandemic are still in place today but with different nuances and levels of urgency. Other trends emerged during the pandemic and now define the consumer landscape for years to come. Chapters 4–8 tell the story of how COVID-19 changed brand communication and the advertising industry forever and what can be learned from the process as we prepare for more complex crises in the future. Discussion

When the novel coronavirus swept the world in late 2019/early 2020, it was not clear what impact the virus would have on people, the economy, and society. Experts turned to different crisis moments in the past, including a similar global health crisis that happened a century earlier, when the “Spanish Flu” claimed millions of lives around the globe, followed by the Great Depression, both of which affected the world economy significantly. More recently, World War II and the 9/11 terrorist attacks provided examples of the power of advertising to not only keep the economy going during prolonged moments of crisis, but also to provide emotional support to consumers plagued by uncertainty and fear. Although no crises are alike, a review of past threats shows their impact on the economy and how advertisers have always found moments of opportunity even during the darkest times. While the advertising industry as a whole suffered a sharp decline during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it rebounded in 2021, although the health crisis was far from over. The academic literature shows that crisis response through paid media has only grown in importance throughout history with the emergence of “CRA” as a new sub-genre of crisis communication after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While existing scholarship in crisis communication focuses mostly on public relations practices by organizations that have either caused a crisis or are very closely connected to one, advertising serves a more prominent role during complex crises of national or international magnitude, partially because it has the power to reach many people fast and partially because consumers are increasingly looking to brands and businesses to solve larger, societal problems (Edelman, 2022).

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Summary

Setting the scene for the book, this chapter starts with a review of three select crisis moments in recent history that provide insights into how complex crises have affected the economy, consumer behavior, and ultimately advertising and led to the development of “CRA” as a new sub-genre of crisis communication research. The chapter then provides a glimpse into the pre-COVID world of advertising at the beginning of 2020, including challenges and opportunities the industry as a whole was experiencing right before the first wave of the coronavirus threatened the United States and forced most of the population into lockdown in March of the same year. The trends that were emerging before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country creating many changes. Shifts were seen in consumer behavior, including health and wellbeing, the digital technology revolution, issues of privacy related to technology, and people’s relationship with food. This was also a time when the conscious consumer emerged. These trends preceded COVID-19 and played an important role as the pandemic progressed, shaping advertising practice even faster than before. Discussion Questions

1 Which of the crisis moments in history that are described in this chapter offer the most takeaways for advertisers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic? 2 Are there any other crisis moments in history that advertisers could have learned from when deciding how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? 3 Looking at crisis moments throughout history, have brands helped society cope with the situation or benefited from opportunism? Has this balance shifted, and if so, how? 4 What other trends were on the horizon before COVID-19 that affected consumer behavior during the pandemic? Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Thinking about potential future crises, identify similar occurrences in the past, and take note of advertising practices at that time. Which ones might work in the twenty-first century? Which ones would be less successful? 2 Start a “playbook” with CRA from the past, organized by type of crisis. Complete each playbook with strategic tips from chapter 6 and crisis-neutral best practices from chapter 8 3 Review trend reports from the current year (hint: Wunderman Thompson’s “Future 100” Report) and identify those that may be exacerbated and those that may become irrelevant during different future crises. Do any of them relate to the product categories of your brand portfolio?

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Suggestions for Future Research

1 This chapter reviewed a selection of different types of crises in recent history and how CRA has evolved over time. Additional research is needed to explore CRA in the context of other types of crises, such as natural disasters 2 Research shows that advertising during uncertain times can lead to increased market share and revenue growth after the crisis is resolved, yet many large brands decreased or stopped their advertising efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research is needed to explore this effect in the context of COVID-19, which lasted longer than most other crises in recent history. How long can brands afford to be invisible during crises before their bottom line is irreversibly affected? References 9/11 FAQs | National September 11 Memorial & Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2022, from https://www.911memorial.org/911-faqs Ad Council. (n.d.). Our History. Ad Council Org. Retrieved December 22, 2022, from https://www.adcouncil.org/our-story/our-history A&E Television Networks. (2022a, August 12). Stock Market Crash of 1929. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/1929-stock-market-crash A&E Television Networks, H. com. (2020, May 19). Spanish Flu. HISTORY. https:// www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic A&E Television Networks, H. com. (2022b, November 3). Great Depression History. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history Argenti, P. A. (2002, December). Crisis communication: Lessons from 9/11. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2002/12/crisis-communication-lessons-from-911 CDC. (2022, August 16). CDC Museum COVID-19 Timeline. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html Centers for Disease Control. (2019, January 22). History of 1918 Flu Pandemic | Pandemic Influenza (Flu) | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm Creswell, J. (2020, April 7). ‘I just need the comfort’: Processed foods make a pandemic comeback—The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/business/ coronavirus-processed-foods.html?searchResultPosition=3 Czeisler, M. É., Lane, R. I., Petrosky, E., Wiley, J. F., Christensen, A., Njai, R., Weaver, M. D., Robbins, R., Facer-Childs, E. R., Barger, L. K., Czeisler, C. A., Howard, M. E., & Rajaratnam, S. M. W. (2020). Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic—United States, June 24–30, 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(32), 1049–1057. 10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1 Deshpande, S. (2019, December). 10 consumer trends that will spark innovation in 2020. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradeshpande/2020/01/16/10-consumertrends-that-will-spark-innovation-in-2020/ Edelman. (2022). 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman. https://www.edelman.com/ trust/2022-trust-barometer

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Foss, S. K. (Ed.). (1996). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration & practice (2nd ed.). Waveland Press. Google News. (2022, December 17). Coronavirus (COVID-19). Google News. https:// news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en Graham, R. C., & Frankenberger, K. D. (2011). The earnings effects of marketing communication expenditures during recessions. Journal of Advertising, 40(2), 5–24. 10.2 753/JOA0091-3367400201 Grossman, E. R., Benjamin-Neelon, S. E., & Sonnenschein, S. (2020). Alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey of US adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9189. 10.3390/ ijerph17249189 Gurney, P. (2017). The making of consumer culture in modern Britain. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 10.5040/9781474205528 Jenyns, C. (2021). Changing tides: The impact of crisis on advertising. Media International Australia, 178(1), 36–41. 10.1177/1329878X20951996 Johnson, B. (2020, March 17). Opinion: What 9/11 can teach us about marketing in the time of coronavirus. Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/opinion-what-911-canteach-us-about-marketing-time-coronavirus/2244906 Kinnick, K. N. (2003). How corporate America grieves: Responses to September 11 in public relations advertising. Public Relations Review, 29(4), 443–459. 10.1016/j.pubrev. 2003.08.006 Kinnick, K. N. (2004). Advertising responses to crisis. Society, 42(1), 32. Koch, J. V. (1971). Advertising and economic growth. Journal of Advertising Research, 11(4), 36–39. Ledingham, J. A., & Bruning, S. D. (2000). Public relations as relationship management: A relational approach to the study and practice of public relations. L. Erlbaum. Lichtblau, E., & Risen, J. (2021, September 11). 9/11 and the Saudi Connection. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/09/11/september-11-saudi-arabia/ Little, B. (2014, December 7). Digging Up Ads From WWII—When They Pushed Products No One Could Buy. History. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/141207world-war-advertising-consumption-anniversary-people-photography-culture Loeb, L. (2005). Beating the flu: Orthodox and commercial responses to Influenza in Britain, 1889–1919. Social History of Medicine, 18(2), 203–224. 10.1093/sochis/hki030 MarketLine Industry Profile: Advertising in the United States. (2020). Advertising Industry Profile: United States, 1–52. MarketLine Industry Profile: Advertising in the United States. (2022). Advertising Industry Profile: United States, 1–52. Mathieu, E., Ritchie, H., Rodés-Guirao, L., Appel, C., Giattino, C., Hasell, J., Macdonald, B., Dattani, S., Beltekian, D., Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2023). Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/ coronavirus/country/united-states Moriarty, S. E., Mitchell, N., & Wood, C. (2019). Advertising & IMC: Principles & practice (11th ed.). Pearson. O’Hagan, L. A. (2021). Commercialising public health during the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic in Britain. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 13(3/4), 161–187. 10.1108/JHRM-12-2020-0058

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Stein. (2019, December 11). Ford’s 2020 Global Trend Report reveals loneliness as epidemic. https://www.campaignlive.com/article/fords-2020-global-trend-report-reveals-loneliness-epidemic/1668402?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social Strong, M. (2020, April 6). History of advertising during crisis. Post and Courier Advertising. https://postandcourieradvertising.com/a-history-of-successful-advertising-duringrecessions/ Taleb, N. N. (2007). The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable (1st ed.). Random House. Tellis, G. J., & Tellis, K. (2009). Research on advertising in a recession. Journal of Advertising Research, 49(3), 304–327. 10.2501/S0021849909090400 The World Bank. (2020, June 8). COVID-19 to plunge global economy into worst recession since World War II. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/ 2020/06/08/covid-19-to-plunge-global-economy-into-worst-recession-since-worldwar-ii Thomas, T. (2021, September 21). Powerful consumer trends to watch in 2021. Forbes. https:// www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/09/21/powerful-consumer-trendsto-watch-in-2021/ Wunderman Thompson. (2020, January 14). The future 100: 2020. Wunderman Thompson. https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/the-future-100-2020-3 Wunderman Thompson. (2021, January 19). The future 100: 2021. Wunderman Thompson. https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/the-future-100-2021 Wunderman Thompson. (2022, January 19). The future 100: 2022. Wunderman Thompson. https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/the-future-100-2022 Yaraghi, N., & Lai, S. (2022, January 13). How the pandemic has exacerbated online privacy threats. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2022/01/13/ how-the-pandemic-has-exacerbated-online-privacy-threats/

3 GROUNDED THEORY DESIGN

Chapter Objectives

1 To provide a rationale for exploring the COVID-19 crisis in the context of advertising with a qualitative research approach 2 To describe the philosophical assumptions of the researcher 3 To describe the characteristics of the participants in this study 4 To summarize the essence of what each agency that was included in this study learned during the COVID-19 pandemic 5 To describe the grounded theory method that was used for this study Leading crisis communication researchers have continuously called for additional theories and theory testing because of the increasing complexities of today’s world (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). Although the world has certainly experienced severe crises before, the COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented in its scope and severity, claiming the lives of more than six million people worldwide, including more than one million in the United States alone (Google News, 2022). In addition to the pandemic’s magnitude, it is important to note that particularly in the United States, other notable crisis moments occurred simultaneously, including large-scale demonstrations related to social and racial (in)justice (Arora, 2020), a politically polarized public (Hart et al., 2020), a heavily contested presidential election (Baccini et al., 2021), a declining mental health situation (Haider et al., 2020), as well as a global economic slowdown resulting in increased hardships for people around the world (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2022). These DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-3

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crisis moments were already developing before the COVID-19 pandemic, but they crescendoed during lockdown, when people were working from and staying at home, and consuming significantly more media (Adgate, 2020). Together, they created a level of complexity that was challenging for brands to handle (chapter 5) but that also created opportunities for them (chapter 7). Most of today’s crisis communication scholarship focuses on organizations’ responses to crises that have at least one of the following three characteristics: (1) they can be predicted, (2) they occur during a relatively short period of time (such as an oil spill, product tampering, or even a terrorist attack), (3) the crisis itself is a singular crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic did not fit those criteria because (1) it could not have been predicted (or at least not easily), (2) it is/was a multiple-year crisis that has the potential to change humankind significantly and permanently, and (3) it occurred along with multiple other crises. A qualitative research design is appropriate when studying the impact of COVID-19 on crisis response advertising because existing communication models do not adequately capture the complexities of an unprecedented, long-term health crisis. As consumers look more toward businesses than governments to solve problems during difficult times (Edelman, 2022), brands and agencies have an enormous responsibility to develop appropriate messaging during national or international crises. This inquiry challenged advertising professionals to reflect and process their deep feelings and emotions of their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and empowered them to share their stories with me, an academic researcher disconnected from their professional and personal lives. What was the primary research behind this book and why was it designed this way? The purpose of this chapter is to provide a rationale for exploring complex crisis response advertising in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with a grounded theory approach, a highly rigorous qualitative research design that focuses on developing theory of a process. The chapter features an in-depth description of grounded theory methodology, including theoretical sampling and data collection procedures. It also contains descriptions of the characteristics of the participants and the agencies they represent. The chapter then unpacks three different levels of coding and data analysis and describes several methods of validation that were used to evaluate the accuracy of the findings of this study. Characteristics of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is often used when a topic or problem needs to be explored either because not much is known about it or because it has become increasingly complex and has evolved in a way that our understanding about it needs to be deepened. Sometimes, a problem is so complex that existing theories are unable to help us understand it. Qualitative research is a nonmathematical process of interpretation with the goal of discovering and constructing new concepts and

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relationships in raw data, followed by organizing them into “theoretical explanatory schemes” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 11). It is about exploring “persons’ lives, lived experienced, behaviors, emotions, and feelings as well as about organizational functioning, social movements, cultural phenomena, and interactions between nations” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 11), all of which are at the core of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative methods allow the researcher to explore phenomena about which not much is known, as was the case with the unknown nature and effect of a long-term pandemic on brand communication practices. Rooted in anthropology and sociology, qualitative research seeks to explore the meaning of an experience told by people who lived through it. In contrast to quantitative research, which uses numerical data to describe characteristics, find correlations, or test hypotheses involving known variables, data in qualitative research consist of words and images generated from a variety of sources, including in-depth interviews, observations, documents, and records. This study explored the lived experiences of advertising practitioners who worked with some of America’s leading brands to create advertising messages during the coronavirus crisis to discover potential variables and connections of variables that comprise complex crisis response advertising. The procedures used in qualitative research also differ from those used in quantitative research in that the researcher engages in conceptualizing and reducing data by elaborating categories with emerging properties and dimensions. The categories, along with their properties and dimensions, will then be used to relate them through prepositional statements that can later be tested using quantitative research methods (Becker, 1970; Charmaz, 1995; Lofland, 1971; Miles et al., 2014). Additional characteristics of qualitative research methods include use of non-random sampling (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973) because the goal is exploring the phenomenon instead of generalizing findings and including memos developed by the researcher during data analysis. Like quantitative studies, qualitative research can be made public in academic journals, at conferences, and in the form of books, like the one you are currently reading. Qualitative research is inherently interpretive in nature and incorporates the political, social, and cultural context of the researcher, the participants, and to some extent the reader (Creswell, 2007). It typically embodies multiple characteristics. First, qualitative researchers tend to collect data in the field where the participants experienced the phenomenon instead of a lab or other artificial environment. The researcher speaks with each participant one-on-one, and often multiple times instead of collecting the data via a survey. Second, the researcher is a key element as they collect data themselves through interviews, observation, and analysis of documents. Using multiple sources of data and using them to create categories and themes instead of a single source is the third characteristic of qualitative research. The emerging themes integrate all of the data sources that were used in the study. Fourth, the data analysis is inductive, meaning the

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researcher builds patterns and relationships among concepts directly from the participants’ words and then organizes them into emerging categories, themes, and meta-themes that are increasingly abstract. The fifth characteristic is related to the inductive nature of qualitative research and how the researcher works with the data. This process is called emergent design and requires working back and forth between the data and the continuously emerging categories until all the data fits. As part of this inductive process, the researcher might collaborate with the participants to develop the categories. The sixth characteristic is directly related to the participants of the study. Although in qualitative research the researcher is a key instrument of the data collection process and reflects on their role as part of the research process, during data collection and analysis they focus on how the participants create meaning, without bringing their own or other researchers’ meaning-making into the picture. It is also important to remember the seventh characteristic, which is that the researcher interprets the data through their own lens. It is a subjective form of inquiry that is influenced by the researcher’s culture, history, experiences, and training. Eighth, qualitative research seeks to develop a deep understanding of the problem under investigation, which is why the researcher includes multiple data sources and diverse participant perspectives to explore the phenomenon and to identify the many complex interactions of concepts related to it. Finally, qualitative researchers typically use an existing theoretical lens to provide context for the study (Hatch, 2002; LeCompte & Schensul, 1999; Marshall & Rossman, 2006). However, instead of starting with a theory, the overall goal of this study was to inductively develop a theory grounded in the lived experiences of the participants (Charmaz, 1995; Creswell, 2007). The research problem this study addresses is to explore how consumer brands might navigate complex crises and how advertising agencies coped with the various challenges that emerged as the coronavirus crisis progressed. For the purpose of this study, a complex crisis is defined as consisting of multiple related or unrelated crises that occur at the same time and affect multiple stakeholders in significant and multiple ways. A complex crisis is unpredictable, multi-faceted, and has long-term consequences. Philosophical Assumptions

This study was guided by a social constructivist and pragmatic worldview. In the social constructivist worldview, the researcher tries to understand the world in which they live and work (Creswell, 2007). This study sought to discover different meanings of advertising professionals’ lived experiences during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 crisis. Social constructivism allows the researcher to explore and interpret a wide variety of views instead of categorizing the data based on predetermined typologies.

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In this study, the participants’ views were shaped by their interactions with other people in the industry, their clients, employees, as well as their own personal lives throughout the pandemic. They experienced the crisis through the lens of their role in their agency. The participants in this study came from agencies ranging from small boutique firms to those who worked at large agency networks. Some of them started their roles during the early weeks and months of the pandemic and had never set foot in their new employer’s physical space, while others had been with their agency for many years and sometimes in multiple roles and locations around the world. In addition to the views of the participants, this study was also influenced by my own pragmatic worldview, which is another important component of qualitative research. Pragmatists often use multiple methods of data collection to address the research questions and aim to develop practical implications of the research findings (Creswell, 2007). In addition to in-depth interviews with advertising professionals, the data included articles about advertising practice during COVID-19 published by agencies as well as academic research and trade articles. When selecting a qualitative research design, the researcher makes several philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality (ontology), the relationship between the researcher and the research problem (epistemology), the role of values (axiology), the language used in the research (rhetoric), and the process of research (methodology; Creswell, 2007). Ontological Assumptions

From an ontological perspective, this research explores multiple realities as seen by the different participants in the study. For example, some participants lived through the coronavirus crisis in New York City, while others worked at agencies in smaller markets, which had different implications in terms of how their agencies worked internally (with employees) as well as externally (with clients). The ontological assumption is that reality is subjective and multi-faceted based on individual participants’ experiences. The worldviews of the participants with their diverse backgrounds, roles, experiences, and philosophies provided the framework for this study because they worked in the field during the pandemic. For this reason, the research includes verbatim words and statements from the participants and offers different perspectives. Epistemological Assumptions

My epistemological assumption is grounded in pragmatism. As the sole researcher of this study, the relationship between me, the research problem, and the participants was critical, especially because I had to develop and nurture new relationships with

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all but one participant (who I had known for more than a decade) and build trust quickly. Establishing physical proximity is an important component of qualitative research to fully understand the participants’ point of view (Guba & Lincoln, 1988). A significant portion of the data collection for this study occurred during lockdown, which made it impossible to physically spend time with participants face-to-face. I attempted to minimize the distance between myself and the participants by conducting the interviews in real time via Zoom, which provided important visual context and made it possible to establish rapport. Axiological Assumptions

Axiological assumptions deal with the role of values as part of the research and the acknowledgment that qualitative research is inherently biased. The participants had very strong opinions about the role and impact of the pandemic on advertising, brand communication, and implications for the advertising industry that were shaped by their role in the agency, the length of time in the industry, previous experience, their cultural background, and personal context. I, the researcher, also brought certain biases into the research. I experienced the COVID-19 pandemic as an educator at a large midwestern R1 university, teaching an introductory course in advertising and public relations as well as an advertising and sport communication capstone course. As a communication scholar, I stayed informed about how brands and agencies responded to the health crisis by regularly reading trade publications such as Ad Age and Adweek, studying advertising campaigns that ran during the crisis, and by inviting local and national agency professionals as virtual guest speakers to my classroom. Before joining the academy, I worked in the marketing industry and experienced the 9/11 crisis as a professional communicator. As per Patton’s theme of neutral empathy (1990), I assumed a neutral stance toward the emerging themes and theory while conducting this research. Rhetorical Assumptions

The rhetoric of qualitative research is inherently personal and literary in form, meaning that instead of reporting findings numerically, they are illustrated by stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The narratives in this book include stories experienced by the participants, using their words as much as possible, as well as definitions of terms and concepts that describe the different phases of the pandemic from their perspective. The terms that I used throughout this book are different from terms that are typically used in quantitative research, underlining the process of meaning-making that emerged from the data (Schwandt, 2001).

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Methodological Assumptions

Qualitative research is inherently inductive—meaning and insights emerge from the data and are additionally shaped by the researcher. I began the data collection and analysis by inviting award-winning agencies to participate in this study and approached the data collection with an open mind and without any preconceived theories or models about how brand communication during a complex crisis may or may not work. This way, meaning could emerge from the ground up based on the participants’ experiences during different phases of the pandemic. After the first few interviews, I adjusted the research questions slightly as new insights emerged, so that I could more fully understand the research problem, particularly at different times of the pandemic as is often the case when conducting qualitative research (Creswell, 2007). Role of the Researcher

As a former professional communicator, I have always been interested in exploring the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice. I experienced the COVID-19 health crisis as a faculty member at the University of NebraskaLincoln, teaching advertising and public relations courses and advancing a research agenda that focuses heavily on the practice of brand communication. Throughout the crisis, I observed consumer-facing advertising that was produced at that time and stayed connected to the advertising industry. Having been a professional communicator during the 9/11 attacks on the United States, I am very familiar with the unique challenges a significant crisis poses for brands and the responsibility they have during uncertain times. Realizing that the COVID-19 crisis was unprecedented in terms of scope and global impact, I became fascinated by studying the role advertising and brands might play in the response process. Grounded Theory Research Design Grounded Theory Characteristics

In general, research design refers to the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting research. A grounded theory design can be defined as a “systematic, qualitative procedure that researchers use to generate a general explanation of a process, action, or interaction among people” (Creswell, 2005). Grounded theory is a rigorous qualitative research methodology that was developed in the 1960s by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, two sociologists (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Strauss brought several characteristics to the development of the grounded theory methodology. At the core of the method is the importance of fieldwork to get close to the data and understand what is truly going on regarding the research problem. Theory development rooted in data

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contributes to the development of a discipline and can become the basis for social action. In the case of this study, crisis response advertising emerged as a sub-genre of crisis communication as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, which were more complex than most crises previously experienced in modern-day American life (Kinnick, 2004). With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and other significant crisis moments occurring simultaneously, the level of complexity again surpassed that of previous crisis moments, creating the need for qualitative inquiry and theory-building to help explain the process of complex crisis response advertising. Another important component of grounded theory research design is the belief that “persons are actors who take an active role in responding to problematic situations” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), which is why the data for this study came from in-depth interviews with advertising professionals who worked in the field during the coronavirus crisis. Grounded theory design furthermore acknowledges that people act on the basis of meaning and that meaning is continuously defined through interaction. For this reason, I connected with the participants at different points/phases throughout the crisis to capture any changes of meaning-making as the crisis progressed. In a grounded theory approach, there is a sensitivity to the emerging nature of events and an awareness of the interconnectedness among conditions, actions, and consequences inherent in the research problem under investigation (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Glaser recognized the need to continuously compare data to identify and finetune concepts and how they relate to one another. This idea became known as the constant comparative method and involves sorting and organizing raw data into categories according to attributes and then organizing the groups into a structure to articulate new propositions and eventually develop a theory. Grounded theory is known to address both lay audiences as well as researchers (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). A Grounded Theory Case Study

This study used an evolving grounded theory case study to generate a theory and theoretical propositions about the process of developing and executing crisis response advertising during the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented, complex crisis. For the purpose of this study, a retrospective grounded theory case study was used. While case study is often viewed as a methodology (Creswell, 2007), it can also be defined as an object of study that is bounded by time and space (Stake, 1995). As a methodology, case study design often involves multiple sources of information, including in-depth interviews as well as documents, reports, and other sources to develop a case description. This study was an instrumental case study of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how a complex crisis that included a massive global lockdown manifested itself in the advertising industry and some of America’s leading brand communication.

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This case is bounded by space and time in that it involved industry professionals employed by award-winning advertising agencies in the United States, who lived through and experienced the COVID-19 pandemic as professionals in their field as well as private citizens. All of the participants worked in the advertising industry when the COVID-19 health crisis was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020) and for at least one year after. At the writing of this book, the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, which is why the initial participants as well as new participants were contacted multiple times. Widely considered to be a highly robust and rigorous qualitative research approach, the purpose of grounded theory is to “move beyond description and to generate or discover a theory, an abstract analytical schema of a process” (Creswell, 2007). The theory and series of propositions that emerged from the data help explain how brands responded to one of the most complex global crises in recent history and what was learned from the responses in preparation for other complex crises in the future. Therefore, this project provides a framework for additional academic study as well as practical recommendations for brand communicators who operate in an increasingly complex and volatile global market prone to more frequent complex crisis situations in the future (Settele et al., 2020). Data Collection and Procedures Theoretical Sampling

An important characteristic of grounded theory design is theoretical sampling, which was used for this study. Theoretical sampling in grounded theory facilitates the exploration of phenomena throughout the research process and is based on the discovery of concepts that emerge from the data. The emerging concepts contribute to the development of the theory and occur in the data multiple times but with important nuances and from different perspectives. Theoretical sampling evolves throughout the different stages of the research process and is based on concepts that emerge from the data and that have relevance to the theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The goal of theoretical sampling is to discover as much detail about each emerging category as possible and to determine how its properties and dimensions vary depending on different conditions. In direct contrast to random sampling, which is used in quantitative research, theoretical sampling and data analysis occur at the same time, and together, they determine data collection. Theory-relevant categories and the theory itself continue to evolve through constant comparison, a process that constantly refines the emerging understanding of the phenomenon and its parts. Before beginning data collection and analysis, several decisions were made regarding site and participant selection, the types of data to be used, as well as a timeframe for the study.

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Site and Participant Selection

Selecting the site of the study is an important component of theoretical sampling, which is directly related to the research questions. In this study, site selection was challenging because the COVID-19 crisis had global impact. Since the United States has the largest market share of the global advertising industry value (MarketLine, 2022) and this study is one of the first to explore crisis response advertising in the context of COVID-19, I decided to focus on investigating the phenomenon in the United States. Another critical decision of theoretical sampling focuses on the selection of the participants, particularly those who can contribute to the different types of coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). During the initial open coding phase I focused on discovering theory-relevant categories, their properties, and dimensions. Therefore, the initial sample was homogenous in that it consisted only of professionals that were affiliated with advertising agencies that were recognized by Advertising Age (one of the leading trade publications in the advertising industry) as an A-List Agency in 2020 (the year the pandemic started). Being featured on the A-List is one of the most prestigious honors in the industry. The A-List recognizes agencies, brands, and individuals for their creativity and innovation and 2020 was an especially important year because all other award ceremonies like the Cannes Festival of Creativity were canceled due to COVID-19. The A-List 2020 included several different award categories, such as “Agency of the Year,” “Agency of the Decade,” “Standouts & To Watch,” “Comeback,” “Multicultural,” “Creative,” “Media,” and “Data/Analytics.” The publication also recognizes small agencies every year, including categories based on size and geography as well as attributes such as agency “Culture,” “Experiential,” “Media,” and “Small Agency of the Year.” All agencies that were recognized by Ad Age in 2020 were part of the initial sample and invited to participate. The goal was to include individuals serving the industry in different areas. Their roles included management/ leadership, strategy, creative, public relations, and/or media, which helped explore initial categories to the greatest extent possible (chapter 4). After the initial open coding phase, I moved to axial coding to theorize how the categories that emerged initially might relate to their subcategories in terms of their dimensions and properties. During this phase, the sampling strategy switched to relational and variational sampling to further develop and saturate the categories. The sample became more heterogeneous in that it included advertising professionals from agencies that were not necessarily part of Ad Age’s A-List. Instead, I asked initial participants if they knew potential additional participants who might provide depth to certain categories that emerged during the initial interview phase. Including both a homogeneous and heterogeneous sample is critical when identifying contextual and intervening conditions (chapter 5) under which the emerging theory might hold (Creswell, 2007).

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The theoretical sampling strategy was refined one more time as part of the selective coding process, when the goal was to integrate the now fully developed categories to form a cohesive theory, conceptually validate it and expose any categories that needed further development. During selective coding, I deliberately selected new participants as well as other forms of data to fully saturate the categories. Sampling continued until all categories were saturated and no new theory-related insights emerged (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Research Questions

This study was guided by the following central research questions: 1 What is the theory that explains how advertising agencies and the brands they represent responded to the COVID-19 health crisis? 2 How did crisis response advertising unfold? In addition, the following procedural sub-questions as aspects of the coding steps broke down the central research question into sub-topics for examination based on grounded theory methodology (Creswell, 2007): • What general categories emerged during open coding? • What is the phenomenon of interest? • What caused the phenomenon of interest? What contextual and intervening conditions influenced it? • What strategies were developed and deployed as a result? • What were the consequences of these strategies? Description of the Sample: Agencies and Participants

Overall, 62 agencies were contacted as part of the theoretical sampling process. Twenty-three agencies contacted did not respond to the invitation to participate, four declined the invitation, and 17 were initially interested but either could not identify individuals at their agencies for the interview or stopped responding during the interview scheduling process because of time constraints. The final sample included 21 participants from 18 agencies. As the largest market in the United States, agencies headquartered in New York were represented most heavily (8). However, the sample also included agencies located in different parts of the country, including California (5), Kentucky (2), Washington, DC (1), Tennessee (1), and Maine (1). The participants served in roles such as brand strategists, co-founders and CEOs, media directors, creative directors, and cultural analysts. The sample consisted of 12 individuals who identified as men and nine who identified as women, just slightly different from current advertising agency industry

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statistics, which are 53 percent male and 47 percent female (Advertising Agency Manager Demographics and Statistics (2022), 2021). Participants were 85.7 percent White, 9.5 percent Black, and 4.8 percent Hispanic, slightly different when compared to the industry statistics for managerial positions, which are 75.5 percent White, 10.9 percent Hispanic or Latinx, 6.8 percent Asian, and 4.1 percent Black or African-American (Advertising Agency Manager Demographics and Statistics (2022), 2021). No Asian-Americans participated in this study. Multiple attempts were made to include a representative sample. However, during the height of the pandemic, several potential participants were unavailable or referred me to other individuals who could more fully speak about the impact of COVID-19 on the industry (see Table 3.1 on p. 51). Agency 1 | Participants 1 and 2

Agency 1 was selected because it was recognized as part of Ad Age’s Small Agency 2020 Awards. Located in the Eastern part of the United States, it employed 27 people at the time of the interview. A women-owned, digital-only agency, it serves clients in a variety of verticals, including skincare, healthcare, technology, food and beverages, travel, and non-profit. The agency prides itself on having cultivated a company culture that is built on transparency and open communication. As a digital agency, the COVID pivot was perceived to be relatively easy in terms of communication, but agency leadership had to determine how to continue its in-house creative/production during lockdown. This agency recognized opportunities smaller brands have during times of crisis if they are willing to step up and serve needs that bigger brands are neglecting, including social issues (i.e., Black Lives Matter, mental health, sustainability) that are particularly important to younger consumers. Participant 1 is one of the co-founders of the agency and serves as chief strategist. Participant 2 serves as director of media and insights. Agency 2 | Participants 3 and 4

This agency was also recognized as part of Ad Age’s Small Agency 2020 Awards for enhancing underrepresented entrepreneurial experiences and small businesses. At the time of the interview, the Black-owned, culture-focused agency employed around 10 people and specialized in working with tech and tech-adjacent clients. With many advertisers pulling their media placements during the early months of the crisis, the less saturated ad space allowed for creative opportunities for smaller agencies to gain visibility and build relationships with potential clients for the future. Aware of the delicate messaging required during the COVID-19 crisis, the agency predicts that the post-crisis years will resemble the Roaring 1920s. Participant 3 is co-founder and CEO of the agency and participant 4 serves as cultural analyst.

TABLE 3.1 Characteristics of the Participants Agency Alias Part. Alias Titles 1 1 Co-Founder, Chief of Strategy 2 Director, Media & Insights 2 3 Co-Founder & CEO 4 Culture Analyst 3 5 Brand Strategy Director 4 6 Assoc. Strategy Director 7 Assoc. Strategy Director 5 8 Senior Influence Strategist 6 9 Brand Strategist 7 10 President 8 11 Head of Media Strategy and Planning 9 12 Managing Director 10 13 CEO and Co-Founder 11 14 Assoc. VP of Media 12 15 Co-Head of Strategy 13 16 Partner, Strategy 14 17 Global Chief Strategy Officer 15 18 Global Chief Strategy Officer 16 19 Chief Strategy Officer 17 20 Executive Creative Director 18 21 Strategy Director TOTAL: 12 57.1%

1 1

1 1 1

1

1 1 1

1 1 1

Male

1 9 42.9%

1

1 1

1 1 1 1 1 18 85.7%

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1

1

White 1 1

Female 1

2 9.5%

1 1

Black

1 4.8%

1

Hispanic

0 0.0%

Asian

State New York New York DC DC California California California Kentucky Tennessee California California New York Kentucky New York New York New York New York California Maine New York New York

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Agency 3 | Participant 5

Agency 3 was one of the top 10 agencies on Ad Age’s A-List 2020. It is headquartered on the West Coast and has multiple locations in the United States. It regularly wins prestigious awards in recognition of its highly creative and innovative work. The agency was very focused on serving its clients through regular, real-time research reports and understanding changing consumer behavior during the crisis. This research revealed significant changes in consumers’ expectations of brands as the pandemic progressed, introducing the idea of different phases of the pandemic and an increasing urgency for brand responses during the crisis. This interview also revealed pros and cons of working virtually in a large agency network. Participant 5 is a brand strategy director, working heavily with consumer-packaged goods. Agency 4 | Participants 6 and 7

Agency 4 was selected because it was recognized in 2020 as one of Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards. The agency considers itself highly progressive and relies heavily on research to advise clients not only through the COVID-19 pandemic but also through the Black Lives Matter movement and the polarizing presidential election. The agency believes that consumers expect more of brands during crises and that the pandemic gave brands an opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and step up to different challenges exposed by different crises. The agency thrived throughout the pandemic and landed on Ad Age’s A-List again a year later. Only 10 years of age, the agency is headquartered on the West coast and has an additional office in the Midwest. Participants 6 and 7 both serve as brand strategists on different accounts. Agency 5 | Participant 8

Agency 5 is a regional agency in the Southeastern part of the country. A referral from another agency that was part of this study, participant 8 could speak substantively about brand communication during the pandemic. The agency has 55 employees and serves a variety of clients in different product categories that were adversely affected by the pandemic, including tourism and hospitality. They believe brands play an important role in educating and protecting consumers by aligning a brand’s purpose and values with social causes. Participant 8 is a digital strategist specializing in influencer marketing, who also has a background in public relations. He has worked for a variety of regional advertising agencies for more than 15 years in the southeastern part of the United States. Agency 6 | Participant 9

Agency 6 was one of Ad Age’s A-List Agencies of 2020. A regional agency located in the Southeastern part of the country, it is a self-prescribed mission-driven agency

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that prides itself on only taking on clients that align with the agency’s values. The agency’s client portfolio includes health- and sustainability-conscious brands. Because the agency is not located in a large city and has ample physical space, it has its own production studio. It invests in real-time market research, which enables quick brand communication adjustments in response to rapid changes in consumer behavior. The agency also built and relied on a large network of freelancers through an agency-owned online platform. Participant 8 is co-founder of the agency and serves as a brand strategist dedicated to adapting to the situation and discovering opportunities for the relatively small agency. Agency 7 | Participant 10

Agency 7 is a small agency based on the West Coast serving clients from a variety of product categories but specializing in wine and spirits. The boutique agency is owned and operated by participant 10, who is a 25-year veteran in the advertising, public relations, and marketing industry, including stints at one of the largest public relations firms in the world as well as on the client side. This participant recognized the importance of reflecting on what can be learned during the crisis, conducting a post-mortem, and adjusting the crisis communication plan. He recognized that the need for planning has accelerated during the crisis as the marketplace changed so quickly and significantly. The agency started out with five employees two years before COVID hit but after relocating to the West coast changed its business model to only hire contractors when needed. Agency 8 | Participant 11

Agency 8 was on Ad Age’s Small Agency 2020 list. The self-proclaimed creative media agency partners with a variety of brands in the food and beverage as well as consumer-packaged goods categories. The agency’s core competency is media strategy and placement and to some extent message development. The participant observed that the way brands responded depended on the product category (vertical). Some could not afford to advertise at all while others couldn’t produce products fast enough. The agency works with a lot of challenger brands (not market leaders) that need to leverage their media dollars to compete with more established brands. Participant 11 predicts that in the future brands will need to have multiple contingency plans and the ability to pivot quickly, including media commitments. The agency also provides education to its clients about media strategy and metrics. Participant 11 has experience in media sales and as a media planner at several large agencies before deciding to co-found this particular media agency.

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Agency 9 | Participant 12

One of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in the world, Agency 9 was part of the 2020 A-List. With subsidiaries around the world, the agency was affected differently in multiple locations at various points of the COVID-19 pandemic and it was able to learn from its experiences in places that suffered from the effects of the virus early on in the crisis. It serves some of the best-known clients and brands around the world and conducted regular market research during the pandemic, which informed its clients’ work. They learned that brands that continued to be active thrived, while those trying to save money struggled in the long run. Consumers expect brands to provide a point of view and to help them without exploiting the situation. The crisis provided lots of transformative opportunities for brands and people to innovate and improve things. The agency also learned how important and fragile human capital really is. Participant 12 is a senior-level strategist with an international background. Agency 10 | Participant 13

Agency 10 is a small agency referred by another study participant. It serves a number of clients in a variety of product categories. Most of its work is in the digital space, and although the agency currently does not have a production department, it is considering adding one in preparation for the next crisis. It is located in a part of the country that experienced social unrest during the early days of the pandemic and advised its clients on how to navigate the COVID-19 and social justice crises simultaneously. Participant 13 is CEO and co-founder of the agency and in charge of new business development and finances. She emphasized the importance of fiscal responsibility and described several strategies that helped the agency not only survive but thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Agency 11 | Participant 14

Agency 11 is a small digital media agency that was recognized by Ad Age in 2020 for its culture. Located in New York, it serves mainly pharmaceutical clients as well as a major retail client. A lot of changes in the media world related to moving from print to digital were propelled by the crisis and happened sooner than expected. They believe that if brands can improve people’s lives during a crisis, they need to do so but if not, they should not change their strategy drastically. At the time of the interview, participant 14 held the title of Associate Vice President of Media and has been with the agency for all 10 years of her fulltime work experience in advertising. Being part of a people-focused agency that employs many young professionals, she predicts that agencies will be 24/7 businesses with employees deciding when (and where) to work.

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Agency 12 | Participant 15

Agency 12 is a small agency of 12 employees in New York City and was recognized as an agency to watch in 2020. At the time of the interview, the agency was two years old. It prides itself on pushing the envelope by creating culturebreaking work for a variety of clients to change the conversation on social and other issues. Participant 15 has more than 10 years of experience in the advertising space and leads the strategy department, where he builds out the agency’s discipline and capabilities. He is responsible for developing the vision for all of their clients before the rest of the team builds out the campaigns. He sees the COVID-19 and other crises as opportunities for brands to support people, which will help them to be relevant and successful in the future. He believes in the power of brands to affect change and set up society for the next decade. Agency 13 | Participant 16

Agency 13 was named an Ad Age Agency Standout in 2020. The decade-old, fully integrated, New York-based agency specializes in digital communication and considers itself a nimble partner working with brands in several different product categories. It is one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States and has been recognized as one of the best places to work in the United States. Participant 16 is a partner at the agency, responsible for strategy. He has worked in the advertising industry for 20 years, including mostly in strategy positions at some of the major agencies in the business, including in international locations. He observed that agencies started to advise and counsel clients on bigger questions, such as identifying a brand’s values and aligning its actions (including but not limited to advertising) with its values. He also acknowledged the importance of building trust and culture within the agency, which was inhibited during the lockdown. Agency 14 | Participant 17

Agency 14 has its roots in the entertainment industry and is known globally for its expertise around technology and how to use it to improve people’s lives on behalf of brands. The agency started 45 years ago and has grown into a global powerhouse that focuses not only on advertising but also consulting, design, and creating experiences. It has built a diverse brand and services portfolio. Participant 17 has an international background and serves the agency in the role of Global Chief Strategy Officer with more than 25 years of full-time experience in the advertising industry, including significant time in international markets. He emphasized the importance of moving from brand purpose to brand service during crisis moments.

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Agency 15 | Participant 18

Agency 15 is a global agency headquartered in the United States with a very localized culture. It is a regular on Ad Age’s A-List and is known for its highly creative and innovative strategic solutions. The agency focuses on service, technology, and entertainment clients, which is reflective of economic trends. Participant 18 is a foreign national with international experience who joined the agency in mid-March of 2020. Being grounded in her home country during the lockdown, she worked for the agency from abroad for six months before the lockdown was lifted and she was able to move to the United States and meet her co-workers. As chief strategist she is tasked with creating methodologies and capabilities for the agency that can be leveraged by others in the network. She is also involved in major global pitches. She has 16 years of full-time work experience in advertising and has worked for major agencies in Europe and the United States. This participant provided a more global perspective on the brand purpose/brand role debate that emerged in the data. She shared that while consumers have certain expectations for brands, they do not want brands to be heroes. Instead, she advises brands to invest in themselves and focus on building brand loyalty so that their customers will rely on them during the crisis because they are a trusted brand. Agency 16 | Participant 19

Agency 16 has been a small creative and strategic agency for almost 30 years and is located on the East Coast. It has been recognized for the quality and effectiveness of its work but also for its agency culture. Participant 19 has been the agency’s Chief Strategy Officer for more than two decades and oversees client strategy and planning. Prior to his work at the agency, he worked on the marketing side in the entertainment industry. The agency developed four clear conclusions as well as some stages of crisis responses about the COVID-19 pandemic. Having a clear brand purpose and helping clients on their organizational alignment and transparency are key ingredients for success. He predicts that agencies will serve a broader range of services with traditional advertising playing a relatively small role. Agency 17 | Participant 20

Started only 15 years ago, Agency 17 has quickly catapulted itself to the top of some of the most prestigious award lists and continues to be recognized among the very best in the industry year after year. It is known for its unrelenting push to develop and produce fresh and innovative ideas for some of the world’s biggest brands. The agency never let the pandemic deter its creative ambitions. The interview revealed how the agency overcame challenges during the health crisis,

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particularly related to production. As a result of its meteoric rise over the last decade, the New York-headquartered agency has multiple offices throughout the United States but none in other countries. Participant 20 served as Group Creative Director with 15 years of full-time experience on the creative side of advertising, including almost six years at this agency as well as at several other top agencies in the world. Agency 18 | Participant 21

Agency 18 was an Ad Age 2020 A-List Standout. A small agency headquartered in New York City it prides itself on having cultivated long-term client relationships. A certified Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) woman-owned business, the agency continues to receive multiple accolades in the Independent Agency Index at the North American Effie Awards. Highly selective about its clients, it had a self-reported 100 percent client pitch rate. Participant 21 served as Strategy Director at the time of the interview with five years of full-time agency experience under her belt, including stints at some of the industry’s most recognized agencies. Highly passionate about helping brands discover and live up to their purpose, she joined the agency during the COVID lockdown working remotely from the West coast. The agency’s philosophy is that brands do not have a choice but to have a voice. However, they do have to earn the right to show up in the conversation on certain topics before they do. During COVID, there was a lot of cause washing and woke washing, which is inauthentic and not helpful. Types of Data

This study used multiple forms of data as is often the case in the grounded theory methodology. Most of the data came from in-depth interviews with 21 participants, who lived through and experienced the COVID-19 pandemic as professionals working in the advertising industry in the United States. Overall, this study generated 13 hours and 49 minutes of interview data. In addition, I used other documents to develop the theory, including agencies’ blog posts on their websites, internal “playbooks” (internal white papers) shared by some of the participants, as well as industry reports that are publicly available. Timeframe

This study focused primarily on what advertising professionals learned over the course of the first year of the pandemic (March 2020–March 2021) because it was the most critical time of the complex COVID-19 health crisis due to lockdowns and social isolation. I also asked all participants to review the model and theoretical propositions that were developed and to provide feedback and further reflection.

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Recruitment and Interviewing Procedures

Participants were recruited via email with a message that explained the purpose and urgency of the study and why they were invited to participate. The initial list included all 62 agencies that were recognized as one of Ad Age’s A-List in 2020. I sent recruitment messages to either the main email address listed or a general inquiry form available on each agency’s website and followed up with up to two additional messages if there was no response. When responses were received, I often engaged in an email exchange with the agency to identify the most suitable individual to interview who could speak to the phenomenon under investigation. I then contacted the individual and set up an interview time. All interviews were conducted via Zoom and recorded with the participants’ agreement. Zoom also provided an initial transcript of the interview, which was cleaned for grammatical errors and spelling and used for data analysis. The initial interview protocol consisted of 13 open-ended questions designed to develop the first set of open categories for analysis (see Appendix A). The questions guided the interviews during the open coding phase but additional questions evolved as the interviewing process continued, particularly during the axial and selective coding stages (Creswell, 2007). A few days before each interview, I obtained informed consent from individual participants via email. At the beginning of the interview, I again explained the purpose and verbally asked for permission to record and transcribe the conversation. All participants agreed to these procedures. During each interview, I took extensive notes so that I could refer back to specific comments that were made and ask clarifying questions. After each interview, I used the memoing technique to reflect on the essence of each interview in its entirety and to note nuanced observations and preliminary interpretations of what I heard. Memoing facilitated the constant comparison technique used in grounded theory, which helped to identify, refine, and define each category so that the theory could emerge throughout the entire research process. I continued to interview participants and collected data until all categories were saturated and I understood and addressed the variation in the data. Each participant and agency were assigned aliases to ensure confidentiality as much as possible. Although Zoom provided the initial transcript, I and two transcriptionists (who signed confidentiality agreements) checked the Zoom transcripts for accuracy by comparing them against the video recordings and correcting them when necessary. After the transcripts were reviewed and corrected, they were ready for coding and analysis. Data Analysis and Coding Procedures Grounded Theory Methodology

As Strauss and Corbin (1998) explain, theorizing means formulating ideas and concepts that are grounded in data into a “logical, systematic, and explanatory

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scheme” (p. 21). The process of theorizing requires constant comparison of existing data against incoming data so that the emerging theory can be modified as necessary. Strauss and Corbin define theory as a “set of well-developed categories (e.g., themes, concepts) that are systematically interrelated through statements of relationship to form a theoretical framework that explains some relevant social, psychological, educational, nursing, or other phenomenon. The statements of relationship explain who, what, when, where, why, and with what consequences an event occurs” (p. 22). A theory moves beyond understanding an event and helps to predict events, including guides to action. In order to build a robust theory, data analysis in grounded theory occurs at different stages, including open, axial, and selective coding, and happens simultaneously with data collection. Computer Analysis

I used MAXQDA, a qualitative text analysis software, to code and analyze the transcribed in-depth interviews. The software allowed me to build a hierarchical code and category system that I could adjust as new insights emerged from the data. In addition, I used the software to attach electronic memos to codes and categories, which is how I kept track of each category’s properties and dimensions. Open Coding

The first step of grounded theory analysis is open coding. Open coding is the process of “opening up” the text “to expose the thoughts, ideas, and meanings contained therein” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Immediately after each interview, I examined my notes and memos and reflected on what I heard in each conversation. This process started the initial set of categories. I then read each transcript and coded each paragraph by extracting its essence and summarizing it in a word or short phrase. After coding, I then summarized the essence of each interview in comparison to other interviews. This process helped to identify similarities and differences and to develop each category’s properties and dimensions known as saturation (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Each category included several sub-categories that represented different perspectives and possibilities on a continuum (Creswell, 2007). Overall, the open coding process reduced the initial set of categories to a smaller number that describes the process of crisis response advertising during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Axial Coding

While open coding focuses on developing initial categories of information, axial coding assembles the data in new ways around one open category that represents the core phenomenon. In this phase, new categories are developed around the newly identified core phenomenon. The core phenomenon consists of repeated

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patterns and responses to problems. In this study, the core phenomenon is crisis response advertising around the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes what is going on in the communication process. In order to explore and understand the core phenomenon, Strauss and Corbin (1998) recommend using four prescribed categories, including causal conditions, strategies, contextual and intervening conditions, and consequences. One of the core characteristics of the COVID-19 health crisis was mandated social isolation to slow the spread of the virus. This central category was selected because all participants discussed it at length, and it appeared to be integral to brands’ crisis response advertising during COVID-19. Causal conditions describe the factors that caused or influenced the core phenomenon. Strategies describe and analyze actions taken in response to the core phenomenon, while the contextual and intervening conditions consist of various factors that influenced the strategies. Consequences are specific outcomes from applying the strategies. These four categories were reassembled around this core phenomenon to show their relationship to the central category of the emerging theory and depicted visually in an axial coding paradigm (Creswell, 2007). Selective Coding

Selective coding is the last phase of the grounded theory process, in which the axial coding paradigm is used to develop theoretical propositions that connect the categories and to create a story that describes how these categories are related. In this study, the outcome was a substantive, low-level theory (Creswell & Brown, 1992) that explains the process of crisis response advertising during a complex crisis. A low-level theory emphasizes how the COVID-19 situation was different from other crises that have been experienced in recent history. Methods of Validation

Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in the way its quality is judged. For example, the concept of reliability is used to evaluate the accuracy of quantitative studies and means that if a new study were to be conducted under the same circumstances, it should yield very similar findings as the original study. Reliability is not a concept that is used to judge the quality of qualitative research because qualitative research usually explores a phenomenon that is unique in nature. Another common standard used in quantitative research is generalizability, which is the application of research findings based on a random sample to the whole population. Grounded theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the concept of explanatory power of a specific phenomenon, in this case, crisis response advertising during a pandemic. It seeks to create a substantive theory as opposed

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to generalizing the findings of a grand theory, meaning that elements of the context can be transferred to similar contexts (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) such as other health crises and/or disasters that require social isolation, which was an important characteristic of the COVID-19 crisis. Creswell (2007) views “validation” of qualitative research as an evaluation of accuracy of the findings as described by the researcher and the participants. He furthermore views validation as an inherent strength of qualitative research based on the amount of time the researcher spent with the data and their relationship with the participants. Instead of viewing validation as “verification” (as is the case with quantitative research), it is seen as a process built on trust and authenticity in qualitative research. This study used the following validation strategies as suggested by Creswell (2007). Triangulation

Triangulation is the process of corroborating evidence from different sources to justify emerging themes. In this study, the primary course of data consisted of indepth interviews with experienced advertising professionals as well as other sources of data, such as agencies’ theory-relevant blog posts, white papers, and industry reports. These secondary sources of data were used to substantiate the categories that emerged as a result of the in-depth interviews. Clarifying Researcher Bias

Because qualitative research is inherently subjective, I disclosed my past role as a professional communicator in general and my experiences as part of a different significant crisis moment. This statement can be found in the section, “Role of the Researcher” in this chapter. Member Checking

Considered to be one of the most important techniques for establishing credibility and accuracy in qualitative research is member checking (Guba & Lincoln, 1988). I solicited participants’ feedback of the visual model that I developed to explain the process of “Complex Crisis Response Advertising” and set of theoretical propositions that emerged during axial coding and incorporated their comments accordingly (chapter 8). Fourteen of the 21 participants responded to the invitation to review the theoretical work. One participant declined to review the model and propositions because of time constraints. Of the 14 participants who agreed to participate in the review of findings, nine did not make further changes or additions. Three participants contributed suggestions. The following adjustments were made:

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1 Proposition 2.2 was added to explain that complex crises play out differently depending on local implications such as mandates. 2 Proposition 6.3 states that brands that do not have a clear brand purpose before the crisis will quickly become irrelevant during the crisis and may not survive it. A suggestion was made (and added) to differentiate between the implications for new as opposed to established brands. New brands can position themselves as authentic and culturally relevant, whereas legacy brands run the risk of looking opportunistic. 3 Proposition 6.4 is about brand purpose and how it can lead to brand transformation. A suggestion was made (and added) that brand purpose must be aligned with the brand’s own values as well as those of its customers to be successful. Weaponized brand purpose without values alignment will have limited success. Rich, Thick Description

The findings about the process of crisis response advertising were written using thick, rich descriptions and verbatim detail about the participants’ experiences of what happened. By using this level of detail, the reader can decide whether findings might be transferred to other situations. Discussion

A qualitative research design was appropriate for this study because the COVID-19 crisis presented a unique opportunity to study an unprecedented complex crisis about which very little was known. It allowed learning about the process of complex crisis response advertising from the perspective of professionals from some of the leading agencies in the United States who lived through and worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. As several participants mentioned, traditional crisis communication strategies were not enough to address consumer needs during the COVID-19 crisis, which was also complicated by social and political unrest and other intervening factors. Grounded theory methodology helped to identify and define the core phenomenon, and develop a substantive, low-level theory about how complex crisis communication works. In addition to academic theorizing and inspiration for future research, the grounded theory methodology also produced a multitude of best practices that can be used by practitioners when a similar complex crisis hits. As with all research, there were also limitations. First, although appropriate for an exploratory study, it is limited in that it consists of qualitative interviews with a relatively small sample, which may not reflect the experiences of every type of agency in the United States. Second, the sample was limited to advertising professionals who worked in advertising agencies in the United States and who

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were in the country during at least some portion of the pandemic. Although several participants brought global perspectives to the table because they had an international background and/or worked in a large, global agency with offices in other countries, it would be helpful to also explore those perspectives in depth. Third, this study is limited to the perspectives of advertising professionals who worked at advertising agencies. It would be helpful to explore the themes that emerged more fully by including not only professionals from advertising agencies in the sample but also clients and their lived experiences and reflections. Fourth, it would also be important to study consumer responses to the different communication strategies that were deployed during the pandemic. Finally, although this study covers the first 15 months of the COVID-19 crisis, it continues to evolve and brand responses will likely change along with it. Follow-up studies are needed that explore the declining phase of the pandemic in its entirety. Summary

This chapter describes the methodology that was used. It starts by making a case for using a qualitative research approach for this study, followed by an explanation of my philosophical assumptions as well as a description of my role in the research. It then describes the grounded theory methodology used, including data collection and interview procedures. An important component of this chapter is a thorough description of the sample, which consisted of 21 advertising agency professionals from 18 of the top advertising agencies in the United States. The description of the participants also includes short summaries of each agency’s main takeaway about brand communication during the COVID-19 health crisis. Next is a comprehensive description of data analysis and coding procedures, including open, axial, and selective coding, and finally a description of qualitative validation methods used in this study. The chapter foreshadows the contents of chapters 4–8, which are based on the different components of grounded theory design and provide the framework for this book. Discussion Questions

1 While this study used a qualitative approach to further explore the phenomenon of crisis response advertising, do you think a quantitative approach could have been used instead? If so, what research problem would you want to solve? What variables would be involved? 2 Instead of using a grounded theory design, could this study have used a different qualitative approach to understand crisis response advertising during an unprecedented crisis? For more information about other qualitative approaches such as case study, phenomenology, and ethnography, consult Creswell (2007).

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Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Agencies use a variety of research methods to understand the consumer and develop strategy to create meaningful messages. What type of research would be helpful to conduct during a crisis? As a professional communicator, what would you need to know? 2 What type of secondary research would be helpful to have access to during a crisis? 3 What type of primary research would you conduct during a crisis? Quantitative? Qualitative? Mixed methods? 4 The lockdown made it difficult to collect data in-person. How would you collect data virtually? What adjustments would you need to make? Suggestions for Future Research

1 Exploring the phenomenon of complex crisis response advertising from additional perspectives, including clients and consumers. 2 Adding an international perspective to the sample by including agencies from different countries to the sample. 3 Testing the theoretical propositions (chapter 8) quantitatively. References Adgate, B. (2020, August 21). Nielsen: How the pandemic changed at home media consumption. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2020/08/21/nielsen-how-thepandemic-changed-at-home-media-consumption/ Advertising agency manager demographics and statistics. (2022). Number of advertising agency managers in the us. (2021, January 29). https://www.zippia.com/advertisingagency-manager-jobs/demographics/ Arora, M. (2020, August 5). How the coronavirus pandemic helped the Floyd protests become the biggest in U.S. history. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost. com/politics/2020/08/05/how-coronavirus-pandemic-helped-floyd-protestsbecome-biggest-us-history/ Baccini, L., Brodeur, A., & Weymouth, S. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election. Journal of Population Economics, 34(2), 739–767. 10.1007/ s00148-020-00820-3 Becker, H. S. (1970). Sociological work; method and substance. Aldine Pub. Co. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2022). Tracking the COVID-19 Economy’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships. https://www.cbpp.org/research/povertyand-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-economys-effects-on-food-housing-and Charmaz, K. (1995). Grounded theory. In J. A. Smith, R. Harré, & L. van Langenhove (Eds.), Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 27–49). Sage Publications. Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2012). The handbook of crisis communication. John Wiley & Sons.

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Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Merrill. Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Creswell, J. W., & Brown, M. L. (1992). How chairpersons enhance faculty research: A grounded theory study. The Review of Higher Education, 16(1), 41–62. 10.1353/rhe. 1992.0002 Cucinotta, D., & Vanelli, M. (2020). WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta BioMedica: Atenei Parmensis, 91(1), 157–160. 10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397 Edelman. (2022). 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman. https://www.edelman.com/ trust/2022-trust-barometer Google News. (2022, December 17). Coronavirus (COVID-19). Google News. https:// news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1988). So inquiry paradigms imply inquiry methodologies? In D. M. Fetterman (Ed.), Qualitative approaches to evaluation in education: The silent scientific revolution (pp. 89–115). Praeger. Haider, I. I., Tiwana, F., & Tahir, S. M. (2020). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult mental health: Mental health & COVID-19. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 36(COVID19-S4). 10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2756 Hart, P. S., Chinn, S., & Soroka, S. (2020). Politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news coverage. Science Communication, 42(5), 679–697. 10.1177/1075547020950735 Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. State University of New York Press. Kinnick, K. N. (2004). Advertising responses to crisis. Society, 42, 32–36. LeCompte, M. D., & Schensul, J. J. (1999). Designing and conducting ethnographic research. AltaMira Press. Lofland, J. (1971). Analyzing social settings; a guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Wadsworth Pub. Co. MarketLine. (2022). MarketLine industry profile: Advertising in the United States. Advertising Industry Profile: United States, 1–52. Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2006). Designing qualitative research (4th ed.). Sage Publications. Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (Third edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Schatzman, L., & Strauss, A. L. (1973). Field research; strategies for a natural sociology. PrenticeHall. Schwandt, T. A. (2001). Dictionary of qualitative inquiry (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Settele, J., Diaz, S., Brondizio, E., & Daszak, P. (2020, April 22). IPBES guest article: COVID-19 stimulus measures must save lives, protect livelihoods, and safeguard nature to reduce the risk of future pandemics. IPBES Secretariat. https://ipbes.net/covid19stimulus Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage Publications. Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.

4 LOCKDOWN Advertising in Isolation

Chapter Objectives

1 To describe the core phenomenon of how the COVID-19 health crisis affected the advertising industry from the perspective of agency professionals in the United States 2 To provide an overview of crisis management and crisis communication 3 To provide a timeline of the COVID-19 global health crisis 4 To explore the phenomenon and identify initial categories of crisis response advertising 5 To define and illustrate three distinct phases of the pandemic as perceived by the participants As the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States at the beginning of 2020, advertisers took notice and produced messages in response to the impending crisis. They redirected their advertising dollars in an effort to empathize with consumers and stay visible during uncertain times marked by fear of an unknown future. America’s consumer brands felt pressured to respond to the crisis quickly and relied on stock footage amid lockdowns and social distancing mandates. The result? Advertisements created during the first few weeks of the pandemic looked very similar and seemingly followed the same creative brief based on clichés: somber music, deserted landscapes, reminder messages of brands’ long histories, and almost identical copy such as, “in these uncertain times,” “we’re all in this together,” “we’re here for you,” as well as buzzwords such as “family,” “people,” and “safety,” among others (Diaz, 2020a). While these messages served a specific DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-4

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purpose at the beginning of the pandemic, participants of this study reported consumers becoming quickly annoyed by seeing and hearing the same message over and over again. How did brands change their approach as the pandemic developed and turned into a long-term crisis with many ups and downs along the way? The purpose of this chapter is to explore crisis response advertising during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of advertising professionals from some of the leading agencies in the United States. The chapter starts by defining what a crisis is and reviews crisis communication scholarship. It then explores different topics that emerged during the initial in-depth interviews with the participants and ends with a description of three distinct phases of the COVID-19 health crisis. Defining “Crisis”

Over the years, scholars from a variety of fields have defined what type of occurrence constitutes a crisis. It is important to differentiate between actual crises and incidents. Crisis events are serious occurrences that significantly impact the way an organization allocates its resources (Billings et al., 1980). While definitions vary among scholars, they have common characteristics, such as crises not being easily predicted and posing a threat (Elliot, 2010). W. Timothy Coombs, one of the leading scholars in crisis communication, defines a crisis as “an unpredictable, major threat that can have a negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders” (Coombs, 1999). Stakeholders are individuals with a common interest who have a stake in the organization, and who have an impact on the organization’s success (Moriarty et al., 2019). In the context of this study, stakeholders during the COVID-19 health crisis included consumers, businesses, as well as professional communicators. Negative results affecting the organization’s stakeholders include physical, financial, or psychological harm. In the context of COVID-19, many businesses and brands experienced financial harm, while consumers experienced all three negative effects. Although mitigating negative effects of crises is of primary concern, it is important to note that crises can also have positive outcomes and provide opportunities (Coombs, 2010). Crisis Management and Crisis Communication

The genre of crisis communication is widely studied, particularly by public relations scholars. It is an important component of crisis management, which consists of a series of actions an organization engages in to reduce the negative effects of a crisis on itself and its stakeholders (Coombs, 1999). It occurs during all phases of a crisis, including pre-crisis (before), crisis response (during), and post-crisis (after), and crisis communication plays a significant role in each phase because it is used to address the crisis situation. More specifically, crisis communication is a form of

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organizational communication that focuses on how an organization collects and disperses information to a variety of stakeholders. One of the reasons crisis communication is widely studied is because what an organization says and does affects its reputation among people and groups that may benefit or be harmed by its actions (Benoit, 1995). Much of the crisis communication scholarship focuses on crises that organizations have some control over because they were either caused by the organization or were otherwise foreseeable to a certain extent. For example, if an organization’s by-products are hazardous, it may be reasonable to assume that those materials may spill at some point and cause an environmental threat. Another example of an expected crisis is technical failure or accidents in the travel sector. In this context, crisis communication is an important part of each of the four phases of crisis management. Pre-Crisis: Prevention and Preparation

In the crisis management field, the pre-crisis phase consists of two stages. The first stage is prevention. Based on the anticipatory model of crisis management, organizations spend much of their time identifying potential risks and developing preventative measures to reduce risk and the likelihood of crises occurring in the first place (Olaniran & Williams, 2008). Ledingham and Bruning (2000) offer a relational perspective as a way to maintain existing relationships with stakeholders that might be strained by a crisis. This perspective goes beyond merely framing public opinion and instead focuses on building and nurturing authentic relationships with stakeholders well before a crisis occurs. Another area in the prevention stage is based on inoculation theory (McGuire & Papageorgis, 1962), which suggests that pre-crisis messages can build up resistance to potentially negative media coverage before the crisis hits. The challenge with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic was that its magnitude and speed of spread was very challenging to predict and even though some scientists did predict it, it was difficult to grasp. Forecasting the implications of a viral threat like the coronavirus crisis may improve our ability to detect potential warning signs earlier, while also taking them much more seriously. The second stage of crisis management during pre-crisis is preparation. In this stage, an organization develops a crisis management plan to be followed should a crisis occur. The plan’s purpose is to provide useful information quickly and effectively for a variety of anticipated crisis moments. It describes in detail what and how the organization will communicate with its stakeholders during a crisis and prepares employees who will be involved in executing the crisis plan. One area of research that has been studied in depth in this stage is risk communication. The extended parallel process model helps explain the positive effects of risk communication on the community (Witte et al., 2001). For example, if people

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perceive a threat to be relevant and believe that a proposed mitigating action will work to reduce harm (response efficacy), they will likely engage in the proposed action (self-efficacy). However, if the risk communication is not believable, people will likely ignore the risk altogether. The extended parallel process model may explain why, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been vaccine and mask-wearing hesitancy all over the world. The threat posed by the coronavirus was largely unknown and communication inconsistent, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. For example, at first, the public was told not to purchase masks so that there would be enough supply for first responders. Then, a mask mandate was introduced but it wasn’t clear what type of mask should be worn. Many months into the pandemic, the public was informed that cloth masks were largely ineffective and that only N95 or KN95 would decrease the risk of infection. This is an example of inconsistent response efficacy, which contributed to a decrease in the public’s self-efficacy of wearing the right mask correctly and consistently. Crisis Response

The third stage is known as “response” and includes short-term and long-term response strategies while the crisis occurs. During this stage, the organization responds to the actual crisis by implementing its crisis communication plan and focusing on reducing harm to its stakeholders and the organization itself as much as possible. This is the most heavily researched crisis communication area because an organization’s behavior while the crisis unfolds is critical to how it is perceived by stakeholders. More specifically, research during the response phase has explored tactical advice, such as the need to respond quickly, accurately, and consistently, and sharing news before the media does. Another area of research focuses on strategic advice, which includes work that explores the use of issuing instructing information for stakeholders to cope physically and psychologically with the crisis, such as expressing sympathy for the victims and communicating what the organization is planning to do to prevent similar crises from happening again. Another important strategic component of this stage is the focus on repairing the organization’s reputation and relationships with stakeholders that may have been strained as a result of the crisis (Sturges, 1994). When an organization is directly involved in the crisis or has caused it to happen in the first place, it may decide to use corporate apologia in its response either as an effort to rebuild social legitimacy or to acknowledge wrongdoing by a few individuals but not the organization as a whole (Coombs, 2010). Another heavily researched area related to reputation repair is image restoration theory (IRT) (Benoit, 1995). IRT looks at an offensive act (the crisis) as well as who might be responsible for the act. Much of the work in this area is connected to attribution theory, which suggests that stakeholders’ attitudes toward an organization in crisis

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are influenced by who is responsible for the crisis. Audience perceptions of who is responsible for a crisis have been linked to behaviors directed toward the organization in crisis (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). IRT research seeks to understand the application of crisis remediation strategies and offers a framework to identify which type of communication strategy an organization or individual used when defending themselves in response to a crisis. IRT does not apply to the COVID-19 health crisis from a brand communication perspective because consumer brands were not responsible for causing the crisis. Therefore, they also did not experience a reputational threat in the traditional sense. However, some brands were criticized for the way they responded (or did not respond) to the coronavirus crisis, which, in turn, could affect their brand reputation. Another approach often used in the response stage is situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) (Coombs, 2007), which offers a more comprehensive framework centered on developing and using crisis response strategies to protect an organization’s reputation. In SCCT, the effectiveness of the organization’s response communication is based on the situation’s characteristics, as well as who stakeholders hold responsible for the crisis. The first step in SCCT is to assess the reputational threat to the organization presented by the crisis, grouped into different clusters of crisis types. The first is the victim cluster, which is considered a mild reputational threat. In this cluster, the organization itself is a victim. The crisis types included in this cluster are natural disasters that damage an organization, rumors about an organization, workplace violence at the organization, and product tampering/malevolence, when damage is inflicted on the organization from an external source. The second is the accidental cluster, which poses a moderate reputational threat. The organization’s actions that led to the crisis were unintended but resulted in a crisis. Crisis types in this cluster include challenges such as whistleblowing by stakeholders who believe an organization is operating inappropriately. Additional crisis types in this cluster are related to accidents or failure of technology such as when an organization causes environmental damage known as megadamage, when technical failures cause an industrial accident or lead to a product recall. The third cluster represents crisis types posing a severe reputational threat: the preventable cluster. With crisis types in this cluster, the organization knowingly engaged in activities that put people at risk, as well as unlawful behaviors or inappropriate actions. Crisis types such as human breakdown activities (human error that caused an accident) and human breakdown recalls (human error that caused a recall) are part of this cluster. Other crisis types in this cluster are related to organizational misdeed, including stakeholder deception with and without injury, as well as violations of laws and regulations by management resulting in injury (Heath & Coombs, 2006). The COVID-19 pandemic quickly became a complex crisis that showed multiple symptoms of the victim cluster at multiple points. Essentially, all businesses and organizations found themselves in the victim cluster, trying to respond

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to a natural disaster in the form of a virus that was first detected in China and quickly spread across the entire globe. The virus was an invisible threat in the first few months of 2020 and it was not clear how it might damage organizations and individuals alike. When it became clear that the virus posed a bigger threat than previously assumed, local and state governments imposed stay-at- and workingfrom-home orders, which many people assumed would only be in place for a few weeks. Although this natural disaster did not physically destroy workplaces (such as in the 9/11 attacks), it rendered them useless because, in an effort to slow down the spread of the virus and minimize harm, people were not allowed to come to work. This development led to another crisis type in the victim cluster, resembling the product tampering/malevolence category in that an external agent (the virus) caused damage to organizations, which, over time, led to significant physical and mental health challenges, short- and long-term supply chain issues, as well as severe economic pressures. While the description of this crisis type fits the coronavirus threat, it does not quite reflect the essence of the crisis because it did not directly tamper with a product. Instead, it had an even more severe outcome: it brought the world economy to a complete halt. Organizations’ crisis response strategies are multifaceted and based on the degree to which the organization accepts responsibility for the crisis and cares for the victims. Heath and Coombs (2006) organized nine response strategies into four overarching categories. The first category includes three different strategies of denial, such as attacking the accuser, denial of the crisis, and scapegoating/ blaming those who caused the crisis. During the early days of the coronavirus threat, it was not clear where the virus originated, why and how it spread, or whether it was a form of biological weapon. The second category is diminishing strategies, which is when organizations make excuses for not controlling the situation or when they justify their actions by pointing out only minor damage. At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the level of threat was largely unknown and it appeared that most organizations erred on the side of safety without making excuses or justifying their behavior. Rebuild strategies comprise the third category, which is when the organization offers compensation to victims and makes a public apology after taking full responsibility for the crisis. These types of strategies were also not used as part of organizations’ response strategies because there was no wrongdoing on their part. The final two communication techniques are reinforcing strategies, including bolstering and ingratiation. Bolstering can be used to remind audiences of the organization’s good citizenship in the past in an effort to create goodwill, while ingratiation is a technique that praises stakeholders. These techniques were used by many wellestablished brands, who stood by consumers during other crises. In fact, reinforcing strategies were used so heavily during the early days of the pandemic that many of the ads used similar imagery, music cues, and messaging, no matter the product category.

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Another frame to use when analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic from a brand perspective is the rhetoric of renewal. This strategy also focuses on reputation but it is future- and recovery-focused instead of attribution-focused. The idea is that the organization learned from the crisis to better itself (Ulmer et al., 2007) and to help victims by adjusting information as part of Sturges’s (1994) second strategic focus area. This strategy helps in the psychological recovery phase of a crisis and can be deployed by organizations that have nurtured strong relationships with stakeholders and established strong ethical standards before the crisis. Organizations using rhetoric of renewal must be committed to effective crisis communication and have a transformational vision beyond the crisis that is affecting it. The most innovative academic work in this area is based on case studies of people who have lived through crisis events as crisis and/or communication managers and who can speak first-hand about their experiences (Coombs, 2010), which is the approach taken in this book. Brand communicators experienced the COVID-19 crisis much like any individual around the world as it unfolded. While the initial response to the crisis by consumer brands looked very similar in that they acknowledged the uncertainty around the invisible threat while also reminding consumers of their commitment to their customers, many of them tried to focus on finding a positive way to move forward. Post-Crisis: Return to Normal

The final stage of crisis management is learning, which starts after the crisis is considered resolved. At this point of the crisis continuum, the focus shifts from managing the crisis as it’s happening to managing the aftermath. With many crises, it is clear when they are over. For example, if there is a weather-related disaster or product recall, the crisis moment is bounded by time and space and it is clear when the organization moves into post-crisis mode. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this was not the case. Although many people in the industry were under the impression that the stay-at-home orders would only last a few weeks or months, the crisis continues to evolve more than two years later. As of late 2022, there still is no clear end-point to the crisis itself but there appear to have been and continue to be “milestones,” each of which could be categorized as smaller crises that comprise the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole. After the first cases were detected in the United States and the threat of the virus became increasingly serious very quickly, stay-at-home orders were issued. Advertising agencies and other businesses had to adjust their standard operating procedures, first for the short-term and then for the long-term once it was clear the crisis would not end rapidly. As time went by, different waves of threats appeared as new strains of the virus developed that required social distancing, mask-wearing, and multiple vaccinations for different groups of people.

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The post-crisis stage of crisis management has been described as continued crisis response in conjunction with active learning after the crisis (Coombs, 2010). During this post-crisis phase, an organization’s responses become highly visible as it communicates changes that will be made as a result of the crisis, while also providing follow-up messages to keep the organization’s actions transparent. At the same time, organizations actively review and reflect on what happened during the crisis to improve prevention, preparation, and response for when the next crisis occurs (Coombs, 2005). Learning is an important step in crisis management and experts have pointed out that reflection and improvement need to include a wider variety of stakeholders and that organizations that engage in this process need to be rewarded (Coombs, 2010), yet they are sometimes reluctant to engage in the learning process because they fear blame and punishment (Roux-Dufort, 2000). Issues Management

Crisis management and crisis communication are connected to other fields of study and they impact how one might investigate the COVID-19 pandemic from a communication standpoint. One such area is issues management. In a general sense, issues are problems that need to be solved usually involving policy changes. While issues management can be used to prevent a crisis from happening, crises can create issues by revealing risks of concern to stakeholders. The COVID-19 pandemic created multiple issues for organizations, not only around health and well-being but also social issues that arose simultaneously. In this sense, managing social issues can be considered reputation management because stakeholders expect brands to align with social issues that are important to them and then act based on their values. The issue of a serious health threat combined with social issues around police brutality, racism, and a heavily polarizing presidential election in 2020 elevated the level of risk for many brands. Brands not only needed to provide a safe shopping and retail experience but also to signal to consumers where they stood on a number of social issues. Brands’ alignment with social issues is increasingly incorporated into not only their actions but also their mission, and then communicated through owned and paid media in the form of advertising (Coombs, 2010). During the early days and months of the pandemic, when not much was known about how the virus was spread and how to protect oneself, brands, particularly in the physical retail, restaurant, and entertainment space, engaged in risk communication during the crisis response phase. They used instructing information to help people cope with the crisis physically, as well as adjusting information to provide psychological safety. Ideally, risk communication takes place in the pre-crisis phase to let consumers know what to do in case of a crisis. Since the COVID-19 crisis was unprecedented, it was difficult, if not impossible,

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to predict. As a result, brands used some pages from the risk communication playbook during the crisis but certainly not before. Finally, business continuity is a related field that focuses on keeping businesses operational immediately following a crisis (Sikich, 2008). Usually, organizations have business continuity plans in place in case a crisis occurs and they focus mainly on communicating important information to internal and external stakeholders with instructing information (Coombs, 2007). Business continuity was not only important for consumer brands but also for agencies who needed to determine how to produce work at a time when social distancing rules made creative collaborations very challenging, ranging from team-based brainstorming to full-fledged production. Initial Categories

The 21 participants represented a wide variety of advertising agencies across the United States, ranging from small, local boutique agencies to large, full-service agencies belonging to global agency networks. In order to develop a grounded theory about complex crisis response advertising, open coding was used to classify these agencies’ roles and actions into seven categories with specific properties and dimensions, accompanied by representative direct quotes illustrating the essence of the category. The open coding categories that emerged focused not only on the work created during the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges that the lockdown and social distancing posed (people) but also on how agencies served clients during that time (brand) and how they dealt with the circumstances internally (agency). The initial categories included talent care, client care, consumer/community care, communication, agency culture, agency health, and the work. Talent Care

One of the most important open categories that emerged from the interviews was the agencies’ care and concern for their employees. The properties in this category are related to recruiting and retention of talent, and to providing them with the necessary resources to do their jobs. The focus of these three properties changed at different stages of the pandemic. Agencies were first and foremost concerned with retaining current employees and ensuring their health and safety throughout the phases of the pandemic. Participants also talked about the intense pressures the health crisis created, particularly on junior colleagues who were less integrated into agency life. Moreover, many junior employees living in New York City and other large metropolitan areas found themselves working from home in small living quarters, often with multiple roommates. Throughout the crisis, several participants mentioned their agency’s ability to keep employees on the payroll and described different strategies

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TABLE 4.1 Open Coding Categories with Properties and Dimensions Category Properties Anchor A Anchor B Talent care Retention strong weak Recruiting competitive not competitive Resources few many Client care Range of services broad narrow Relationship-building strong weak Consumer/ Brand as unrelated crisis-relevant not crisis-relevant Community care product Brand as friend comforting tone deaf Brand as solution helpful burden Brand as partner earned not earned Communication Transparency open closed Frequency over-communicate under-communicate Style formal informal Agency culture Size of agency small large Technology digital analog Physical space important not important Agency health Client roster diverse specialized Cost efficiencies physical virtual The Work Collaboration group individual Production original recycled Messaging comforting practical Media choice legacy digital Media spend heavy light Activism passive active Brand vertical related to crisis not related to crisis Creativity playing it safe taking risks

they used to do so. Toward the end of a long lockdown period, the focus switched to the anxiety-evoking topic of returning to work. Another property in the “talent care” category was recruiting talent. This property includes recruiting and onboarding new in-house talent as well as establishing a network of remote talent, mostly for the purpose of production. Several of the participants were senior-level executives who were hired during the pandemic as part of their respective agency’s leadership team and they reported never having set foot into the agency’s physical space during the lockdown period. One participant described getting stuck in a different country shortly after being hired because of closed international borders. The remote onboarding experience made it difficult to get used to the unique culture agencies are known for. The third property in this category is resources. The components that were most frequently discussed related to how agencies provided resources such as computers and office equipment to employees during lockdown. Several of the

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participants recognized the importance of their employees’ stress levels and subsequent mental health needs and described different ways their agencies supported them including support groups and access to mental health professionals. You know, […] the leadership team was like, “okay, make sure our employees are safe. Make sure they have the resources they need to be able to continue to do their jobs.” And then, as the pandemic wore on, we started to put a lot more thought into how we were providing mental health resources, how we were helping people cope and deal with this, and what we could do to not only make our employees safe but make them happy and help them continue to feel protected and secure. Not just physically, but emotionally. (Participant #8) Client Care

Agencies also paid special attention to caring for their clients. This category consisted of two main properties, including the expansion of the range of services agencies provided to clients as well as relationship-building. Several participants mentioned their clients’ desperate need for counsel on how to react to the initial health threat. During a time of great uncertainty and fear, clients were not sure if their brand should lean into the crisis (and if so, how) or ignore it and carry on as usual. Some brand managers’ gut reaction was to pull their media dollars and ride out the crisis, not knowing how long it would last or what implications their decisions might have on long-term success. Agencies found themselves expanding their range of services by adding roles beyond communication and providing more strategic counseling for their clients throughout the pandemic. At that time it was really a question of how we can provide value for our clients if we’re not creating physical content? We initially began to provide value for our clients through tracking reports, providing weekly updates about the kinds of work that was being made and created, monitoring the situation, and providing thought starters and opportunities for ways [in which] the brand might be able to play a role. (Participant #5) During much of the crisis, agencies served their clients by monitoring consumer behavior in response to the pandemic as well as the approaches competitors used at various points during the crisis. Several participants mentioned an increased use of research to serve their clients and to help them with their decision-making process in real-time. The focus on research stayed strong

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throughout the pandemic and shifted from in-the-moment decision-making to helping brands redefine their mission and values based on consumer expectations and the role they could play in helping people cope with the crisis. This property was also influenced by intervening conditions such as the Black Lives Matter movement, a highly contested U.S. presidential election, and a looming recession on the heels of COVID-19, all of which are explored in chapter 5. The second property in the client care category is a renewed focus on relationship-building, including relationships with existing clients, as well as new ones. Several participants mentioned that although they were unable to meet with clients in person during much of the first year of the crisis, they connected with them more frequently using Zoom. The increased frequency of client check-ins led to better agency-client relationships, reminding clients of the important role the agency plays during a crisis by adding value consistently. Much of the added value was market research and some agencies created crisis playbooks for clients that laid out what to do and what to stay away from. Consumer/Community Care

As the pandemic and its effects on people and the economy progressed, it became abundantly clear that brands play different roles during a complex crisis, moving beyond satisfying consumer preferences and elevating their existence to help society not only cope with adversity and fear in the moment but eventually moving beyond the crisis to thrive. Many participants described this shift from selling to creating meaning and actually providing help essential for the survival of the brand. The alternative is potentially the perception of social irrelevance or even the end of the brand. Participants differentiated among brands in different product categories (“verticals”) and their responsibility to society. They observed that product categories directly related to the nature of the crisis (health products, food, technology, etc.) have a stronger obligation to help people in distress than those that are not directly related to the crisis. Some participants felt strongly that every brand, no matter what product category it belonged to, needed to respond in some way to the crisis, while others emphasized that brands should “stay in their lane” and only speak if they have something to say. Otherwise, they might be perceived as opportunistic and trying to use the pandemic as a way to sell products. Connecting crisis responses to a brand’s product category is related to brand positioning. When agencies advised their clients during the pandemic, they often differentiated among four distinct properties in terms of how a brand might position itself based on its vertical at different phases of a complex crisis. These properties include (1) positioning the brand as simply a product unrelated to the crisis (crisis relevant vs. not crisis relevant); (2) positioning the brand as a friend in an effort to humanize the brand and help absorb the emotional impact of the crisis

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(comforting vs. tone deaf); (3) positioning the brand as a short-term part of the solution to the problem (helpful vs. burden), which at times required a complete change of the brand assets but which resonated very strongly with consumers; or (4) as a long-term partner (earned vs. not earned) that extends well beyond the crisis and helps the brand transform into a meaningful long-term partner with a very clear and focused purpose and role in society. Communication

Communication encompasses an agency’s internal communication with employees as well as external communication with clients and contains three properties. This concept includes the properties of transparency, frequency, and style. Transparency (open vs. closed) and frequency (over-communication vs. under-communication) of communicating with employees and clients was critical as uncertainty was high and rumors spread quickly. Keeping employees abreast of an agency’s financial situation—even if dire—was much appreciated because it reduced the level of uncertainty. Participants described this process as necessary and appreciated overcommunication, particularly when not much was known about the crisis and its effect on people, society, and the economy. Regarding clients, participants reported that the crisis required more frequent communication, particularly during lockdown, when everyone was working from home. They processed this as a positive development. Communication style was another property (formal vs. informal). Several participants described the move to a virtual communication environment as exhausting and complicated because it was much more formal than being physically located in the same space. What was lost was spontaneity and being creative in the moment. At the same time, agencies used technology to create a sense of belonging by using web conferencing tools like Zoom. The goal of these meetings was to keep up morale while also building agency culture, another category that emerged in this study. Agency Culture

Agency culture emerged as another important category during the open coding process. Several participants credited their agency culture for a smooth transition to working from home during lockdown, continuing the workflow during the life cycle of the crisis, and co-creating a returning-to-work plan. The stronger the agency culture, the easier it was to face crisis-related challenges by building trust and confidence even during the darkest times. The properties in this category include an agency’s size (small vs. large), use of technology digital vs. analog), and the role of physical space (important vs. not important), which was lost during lockdown.

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The sample included award-winning agencies of all sizes ranging from one employee to global agencies with workforces in the thousands. Some of the larger, established agencies referred to their history and proven track records when describing their work during the pandemic, while the smaller and newer agencies emphasized their business model, which often included employee profit sharing. Smaller agencies described the transition to working from home as fairly easy because many of them already had remote employment options, while larger agencies struggled more with moving large numbers of employees to an online environment and recreating their workflow virtually. As a company, we have committed to providing accountability to our employees, as well as full transparency in terms of what’s going on, even from a financial standpoint. Every month we report on revenue numbers, what’s in our opportunity pipeline, what’s our margin, so that way, everybody’s familiar with where we are and what’s going on. We do have profit share at the end of the year so everybody is involved as a part of this so we’re able to address fear. (Participant #1) Technology facilitated communication and collaboration and was leveraged during all phases of the crisis. Those agencies that described themselves as “digital first” had a fairly seamless transition to working from home whereas it seemed to be more challenging for larger agencies that had too many tools available, which created some confusion and needed to be actively managed. The participants also talked in-depth about the role of the physical space of their agency in terms of the creative process, which requires personal relationships and informal ways of communication. One participant described the physical separation this way: It was very, very disruptive, especially being in a global world and in this kind of decentralized culture where a lot of the relationships are relationships. They’re not systems and processes. They’re basically interpersonal connections that are fueled through in-person meetings and all of the things that come with the culture of creative agencies. This is how the bonding is created that then makes the partnership possible in a professional sense. So it was very disruptive in that way. (Participant #18) Agency Health

The category, “agency health” encompasses two properties, both of which are critical in sustaining an agency as a business (while serving other businesses/ brands) during a complex crisis situation. The first property is the agency’s client

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roster (diverse vs. specialized). Developing a diverse client roster that includes partnering with a variety of brands in different product categories is critical because some sectors such as travel and restaurants were affected negatively by the pandemic, while others were not as much affected by the lockdown or presented with opportunities to shine. Agencies specializing in serving clients in verticals that were negatively affected by the pandemic lost significant revenue because those brands were essentially unable to do business during the lockdown (airlines, for example). The agencies that represented brands in those types of verticals either decided to diversify their client roster by adding new product categories or suffered the consequences ranging from imposing furloughs to laying off employees to closing their own doors. The second property was cost efficiencies related to the work environment (physical vs. virtual). Several smaller agencies reported that pitching virtually during lockdown leveled the playing field for them because they did not have to physically travel with their entire team. Larger, more established agencies also commented on this concept but from an internal perspective. Holding agency meetings via web conferencing gave voice and visibility to young talent, who were able to speak up and be seen by senior leadership. Another area that played into this property was the interplay between physically working at an agency or working from home. Looking ahead, one theme that emerged was whether working from home would be possible post-crisis or if agencies would want their employees to physically report back to work. Most participants imagined a hybrid workplace in which some employees would work from home while others would be at the agency. When not all employees need to be present at the same time, agencies could potentially occupy a smaller space, which would result in significant cost-savings in terms of building leases, particularly in larger cities. The Work

The largest open category includes eight properties, all of which encompass the work that was created by advertising agencies during the pandemic. The first property is collaboration (group vs. individual), which is how most of the work is created in the advertising industry. The pandemic forced more work to be completed individually because of the lockdown and some struggled to figure out how to collaborate virtually. Collaboration was possible to some extent using web conferencing and video software, communication apps like Slack, and brainstorming software like Miro. However, several participants said that most software cannot permanently replace in-person interactions in the long run. Another property was related to messaging, which ranged from providing comforting and/or helpful advice (not selling) to exploiting the situation by leaning into the pandemic inappropriately. Participants talked about the fine nuances of

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messaging at different times of the crisis. In addition, messaging strategies were closely related to their brand vertical. It was important to find the right tone depending on how the vertical was related to the crisis and whether the brand was in the position to help consumers. Participants also talked about the need for brands to have a point of view on intervening conditions like social unrest and politics that were affecting the crisis. However, they had to earn the right to have a voice through their brand actions. The property brand activism ranked from high to low based on vertical and prior history. It became clear that brands had to earn the right to have a voice in the marketplace and they had to back it up through meaningful and consistent brand actions in affecting change. Simply participating in cause marketing was no longer enough—they had to really show through their actions how they “do good” in society over time, particularly among Generation Z. Brands that did not participate in brand activism before the pandemic were perceived to exploit the situation. The next property in this category was production (original vs. recycled work) and creating the work, which were hindered significantly during lockdown. As award-winning agencies, participants talked about their agencies’ expectations of producing high-quality work during the pandemic and they had to “get scrappy” when lockdowns made large productions that required photo shoots, actors, and other talent impossible. Some agencies relied on recycled original work or syndicated photo services, while others directed actors and talent over the phone, who then created commercials and other content using their own smartphones. On one hand, this type of content connected with consumers on a personal level because messaging was raw and real. On the other hand, it often did not rise to the level of quality that agencies expected from themselves. Choosing and buying media were also discussed extensively. On one end of the spectrum were brands that leaned into the crisis by continuing to buy media and getting in front of the consumer, and on the other end were brands that decided to pull their media budget to save money and ride out the storm. Media decisions were again strongly connected to the brand’s vertical and the extent to which the brand’s sector was impacted by the lockdown and social distancing requirements. In addition, many advertisers shifted their media buys from legacy media like outdoor and radio (usually seen/heard on the way to work) to streaming television and social media as people stayed home. The shift from legacy to digital media was described as a development that was already happening but the crisis accelerated it significantly. The last property in this category is creativity, the bread and butter of any advertising agency in the United States. The early days of the pandemic were marked by empathetic messages that largely looked and sounded the same. Brands did not really know what to say but knew that they wanted to be visible and empathize with consumers. As the crisis evolved and brands determined how they could help and what their true brand purpose/responsibility was,

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their advertising and brand activism became more bold. This property ranged from “playing it safe” to “taking creative risk.” The Phenomenon

The purpose of articulating a phenomenon is to describe what is going on as part of the process under investigation by identifying repeated patterns of happenings and events that “represent what people do or say in response to the problems and situation in which they find themselves” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). When the interview participants talked about their experiences as part of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general topic categories described earlier, they often referred to different times or phases of the crisis, each with different characteristics that required nuanced response strategies centered on what consumers needed at different times of the crisis. These phases include “shock absorption” during the first few weeks immediately before and after the crisis hit, moving into “the new termporary normal,” when it became clear that the pandemic would be a long-term crisis, and finally “reemergence/transformation,” when vaccines became available, lockdowns were eased or removed, and the economy opened back up for business. Although the participants used different terms to describe the different phases, the essence of each phase was similar. The majority of the participants characterized the COVID-19 crisis as a transformative condition that changed the way brands communicate and build relationships with people forever. What follows is a description of the three phases from the perspective of advertising professionals who experienced the pandemic first-hand. As building blocks of the phenomenon, the phases are further analyzed in the remaining chapters, when the data analysis is extended by interrelating different intervening and contextual conditions that altered the impact of the pandemic on complex crisis response advertising. Phase 1: Shock Absorption

The first phase is called “Shock Absorption” and includes the days and weeks during which the COVID-19 crisis was developing, including its declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020) as well as the weeks following the declaration in the spring and summer of 2020. This phase of the pandemic was characterized by widespread uncertainty and fear, which manifested both internally (within agencies) and externally (working with clients and creating brand communication). The transition into a world that all of a sudden stood still was unexpected and intense. Agencies had to first understand the situation, which changed constantly, and then deal with their clients as well as themselves. Internally, agencies’ biggest concern was ensuring their employees’ health and safety and easing the transition to working from home as much as possible with

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varying degrees of success. Agencies helped to absorb the shock of the invisible threat by being as transparent with employees as possible. Externally, agencies worked with clients and helped them respond to the health threat moment by moment. Some brands went completely dark and others pivoted from launches that had been developed before the pandemic that now seemed inappropriate in light of the uncertainty surrounding the impending crisis. Clients were unsure about what to say during this phase, so agencies helped them redirect their media dollars to create messages of empathy in an effort to humanize their brand and position it as a “friend” who shares and absorbs the initial shock. As a result, much of the advertising during this phase looked the same, using lines like “We’re all in this together,” and “In these uncertain times.” One participant explained this phase like this: It’s pretty rare that you have a kind of shared global experience where everything was just fear and disbelief and shell shock. There was definitely a moment of paralysis and then risk avoidance. Basically, every single brand ran the same ads in April 2020. […] there was just a genuine collective feeling we were having of sadness and wanting to believe that solidarity was going to get us through this. (Participant 18) Although these messages provided people with emotional support, they soon became repetitive and consumers became tired of them, which led to phase 2. Phase 2: A New Temporary Normal

Participants described the second phase of the crisis as a transition to a “New Temporary Normal,” which started in the summer of 2020, when people realized they could start spending time safely outside. Characterized by a global increase in COVID-19 case numbers and fatalities, mandated lockdowns and social isolation, this phase lasted all through the end of 2020 and at least until the late spring of 2021, when vaccines were rolled out to the public (Guarino et al., 2020) and there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel. This phase is also marked by significant economic pressures, such as layoffs, furloughs, and supply chain issues but also moments of hope and opportunity. It was delicate because consumers started to get tired of COVID-related messaging. As one participant said: I actually saw with COVID that a lot of advertisers tended to stay away from it because what we found was that people just didn’t want to hear about it. They didn’t want to be inundated with it. They wanted some sense of normalcy. (Participant #1)

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After the initial shock absorption, the focus shifted from empathizing with consumers to providing short-term solutions in an effort to be helpful for people and small businesses in crisis. There was a tremendous opportunity for certain product categories to “do good,” including home goods (as people were spending more time at home), social media, and Internet service providers. Some brands responded by repurposing their assets to create entirely different products that were in short supply, while others provided moments of nostalgia and levity when people needed encouragement the most. Participants emphasized the importance of assessing the situation frequently, determining how to adapt to it and to impact the greater good. They clearly differentiated these efforts from more traditional cause marketing. Creatively, this phase is characterized by messages of nostalgia and how the world used to be, as well as creating new traditions influenced by the pandemic, such as creating moments of togetherness through technology. As we headed into the fall, consumers were ready for holiday messaging and they were completely done with “we’re in it together.” They wanted nostalgia, wishing for things to be the way they were and wishing that the holidays weren’t going to be distanced from friends and family. So there were two minds: there were people being nostalgic and there were a lot of people talking about new traditions. This year, we’re going to do it over Zoom we’re going to open presents via Facetime. We’re going to play games over Skype. It was like trying to make the most of that season. (Participant #15) One campaign that embodies “the new temporary normal” phase is Xfiniti’s holiday commercial. The cable television and Internet Service Provider realized that its greatest strength was its ability to connect people and provide meaning when doing so. It produced a three-and-a-half-minute holiday commercial that tells the story of how the elves discover the greatest gift of all: togetherness. The commercial was highly relatable because it showed Santa Claus (Steve Carell) and his elves having all of the working-from-home experiences that consumers had been experiencing for the preceding six months. The commercial ends with the tagline, “Togetherness. The greatest gift of all” (Diaz, 2020b). This commercial illustrates how the creative approach in the second stage of the crisis was distinctly different from the first stage. It acknowledged reality without naming it directly and provided a sense of levity based on shared experiences during some of the darkest moments of the crisis to which everyone in the audience could relate. Providing a comforting and relatable message, it successfully positioned Xfinity as a temporary solution to a part of the problem. Internally, agencies focused on how to operate in the “New Temporary Normal,” which created significant barriers for an industry that thrives on

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teamwork and collaboration, spontaneous problem-solving, as well as developing original creative approaches, and generating production value. Social distancing and working in isolation made the creative process more formal and required significantly more planning, but it also pushed many agencies to become even more creative and innovative, leveraging the power of digital technology. This relatively long phase of the crisis required agencies to use different strategies to stay afloat. Another important component of the “New Temporary Normal“ phase was the influence of contextual conditions, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 presidential election, which became highly visible as consumers started to fatigue regarding messages about the ongoing pandemic. Brands sought counsel from agencies to determine if and how they should respond to these social and political issues, which, in and of themselves, were crises. These contextual conditions are explored in-depth in chapter 5, “Triple Threat: COVID, Protests, and an Election.” Phase 3: Re-Emergence/Transformation

The third phase of the crisis was “Re-emergence/Transformation.” It started after the holidays of 2020 or as one participant observed, after the inauguration of a new U.S. President, and still continues to this day (fall of 2022), as new mutations of the coronavirus emerge every few months and continue to pose a health threat to people around the world, albeit a more controlled threat as the fourth round of vaccinations was rolled out in the fall of 2022. Toward the end of the previous phase, brand strategy started to shift from “survive” to “thrive” mode. Several participants described this phase of the crisis as an opportunity for brands to (re-)define who they are and what they stand for and live up to it not just during a crisis but every single day. This transformation from brand purpose (inward-focused) to brand role (outward-focused) is not easy and one participant described this time as a “hangover period,” when brands were figuring out how to move forward and come out of the crisis. Another participant described this phase as “Radical Return,” especially for those brands that had gone dark voluntarily or were shut down involuntarily because of health safety mandates. During this phase of the crisis, some brands attempted to “go back to normal” (pre-pandemic messaging and operating), but more successful brands emerged with a clear vision of their role in society. For some brands, the crisis and all of its contextual conditions re-emphasized the importance of changing the narrative around important issues such as diversity and inclusion as well as sustainability, both of which were accelerated by the urgency of the health threat. Internally, one concept that came up repeatedly was the inevitable return to work scenario after the lockdown restrictions were lifted. Realizing that the health pandemic might pose a threat for the long term, the participants imagined

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how agencies might work in the future. As a highly creative field that requires collaboration and often a good measure of serendipity, the participants imagined a hybrid return-to-work model that includes both in-person and virtual work experiences. However, they differed in how successful a hybrid model might be. They revealed strong preferences for and against virtual work with younger participants generally being in favor of virtual work and older participants being in favor of in-person work. During this last phase of the crisis, participants did not envision a “return to normal” but rather a “return to better,” foreshadowing the transformative power of a complex crisis. They imagined the effects of the crisis on the advertising industry and the impact brands can have on society and the well-being of consumers. These consequences are explored in depth in chapter 7, “The Silver Lining.” Discussion

The three phases of complex crisis response advertising that emerged from the interviews with advertising professionals generally resemble the tripartite of crisis management and crisis communication in that they are divided into pre-crisis, during crisis, and post-crisis stages. However, they differ from the existing literature in several ways. First, during the shock absorption phase, preventative measures such as reducing risk and/or potentially preventing the crisis from happening in the first place (Olaniran & Williams, 2008) did not apply as part of the coronavirus health crisis because it was going to happen anyway. Second, preparation for the crisis was minimal, largely because so little was known about the health threat at the time and as one participant explained, “I think that none of us saw that it would last as long as it did.” Internally, there was not much, if any, preparation for a transition to an extended remote working situation. Third, inoculation theory (McGuire & Papageorgis, 1962), which suggests that pre-crisis messaging might build up resistance to potentially negative media during the crisis did not apply because brands were not at the center of the crisis and therefore did not receive much, if any, negative press. However, a similar effect occurred not so much related to controlling the narrative before the crisis but to building a strong brand that consumers would trust during a crisis. As one participant noted, “Every brand that had a clear brand purpose pre-pandemic knew how to respond and every brand that didn’t have one, didn’t. Brand purpose is the starting point” (Participant #17). The inoculation effect was built through brand activities before the crisis independent of the nature of the threat. Fourth, some of the participants reported developing crisis communication plans for their clients at the very beginning of the crisis, only to find that they had executed the entire plan within a few days of the pandemic. Others reported

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developing playbooks for their clients, which could be considered a form of crisis communication plan. Fifth, the focus on maintaining and enhancing existing relationships with stakeholders still holds true, whether those stakeholders are consumers, clients, or agency employees. However, the importance of building and nurturing strong relationships extends to all three phases of complex crisis response advertising, not just the pre-crisis phase. Sixth, public perception of organizations’ behavior during a crisis is critical and can include both physical and psychological advice on how to cope with a crisis (Sturges, 1994). During the coronavirus crisis, this technique was used during the early days of the pandemic to express empathy and later on changed to provide nuanced moments of levity to alleviate mental health pressures. Brands that went dark during the crisis missed out on the opportunity to connect with consumers in meaningful ways. Seventh, the crisis response messages during the “Shock Absorption” phase can be categorized as bolstering (Heath & Coombs, 2006), a reinforcement strategy that reminded consumers of brands’ good citizenship in the past and how they stood by consumers during other crises throughout history. However, this strategy quickly became a nuisance to consumers as many advertisers used very similar messages and visuals during the first phase of the crisis. Eighth, successful brands used rhetoric of renewal (Ulmer et al., 2007) toward the end of the “New Temporary Normal” and beginning of “Re-emergence/ Transformation” phases, when they re-invigorated their mission and discovered specific roles in which they could serve consumers in the future and elevate the brand itself. Ninth, focusing on the future, these types of brands recognized that there was no return to the way things were before the pandemic but that the crisis transformed the world into an entirely new reality. This is different from the existing crisis management scholarship, which assumes that there is a return to normal. Tenth, the “Re-emergence/Transformation” phase refers mostly to what happened after most lockdown and stay-at-home orders were lifted. However, as of the writing of this book, it does not necessarily imply a post-crisis state as the health threat continues to evolve, almost three years after it was first detected. Summary

This chapter describes the core phenomenon of how COVID-19 unfolded in the United States and how it shaped the advertising industry over the course of the first 15 months. It begins with a review of the crisis communication literature as well as descriptions of lived experiences as told by advertising strategists, planners, creatives, and CEOs from some of the leading and award-winning advertising agencies in the United States. While many brands went dark during the crisis,

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others leaned into the challenges and transformed into highly consumer- and community-oriented partners. Agencies had to determine how to provide value to clients and consumers, while also surviving as businesses themselves. The chapter starts by exploring seven initial categories of complex crisis response advertising, including talent care, client care, consumer/community care, communication, agency culture, agency health, and the work that was created during the crisis. Participants divided the pandemic and subsequent brand communication into different phases over the course of the first 15 months of the crisis, including (1) shock absorption, (2) a new temporary normal, and (3) reemergence/transformation. Discussion Questions

1 One of the key characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis was the lockdown over several months. During the lockdown, did your consumption patterns change? If so, how did they align with the three phases of crisis response advertising? 2 Do you remember any ads from the COVID-19 era? Which one(s) resonated most with you and why? Were there any that you felt were tone deaf? 3 How does crisis communication through advertising differ from crisis communication as a public relations tool? 4 What other types of complex crises might impact the advertising industry and how do brands communicate/interact with consumers? Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Reflect on what you’ve learned during the different phases of the COVID-19 crisis. What worked? What would you do differently? 2 Find examples of COVID-era commercials on YouTube that illustrate some of the key concepts specified in this chapter. 3 Develop a crisis playbook for different product categories. 4 Have a conversation with your clients now about defining who they are as a brand and how they can earn the right to have a voice in the marketplace when the next crisis occurs. 5 Ask your employees for feedback about how they experienced the COVID-19 crisis. What did they need to get their jobs done? What did they need as humans in crisis? Together, develop a transition plan for the next crisis and practice it. Suggestions for Future Research

1 This study provides advertising agency professionals’ reflections on what they learned during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic but more

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research is needed that examines crisis response advertising in later phases of the ongoing crisis. 2 While the participants of this study provided important insight into brand communication during COVID-19, it would also be important to measure consumer responses to advertising created during the pandemic to more fully understand the phenomenon. References Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. State University of New York Press. Billings, R. S., Milburn, T. W., & Schaalman, M. L. (1980). A model of crisis perception: A theoretical and empirical analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25(2), 300–316. 10.2307/2392456 Coombs, W. T. (1999). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage Publications. Coombs, W. T. (2005). Crisis and crisis management. In Encyclopedia of public relations (Vol. 1, pp. 217–221). Sage Publications. Coombs, W. T. (2007). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10(3), 163–176. 10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049 Coombs, W. T. (2010). Parameters for crisis communication. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 17–53). Wiley-Blackwell. 10. 1002/9781444314885.ch1 Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2012). The handbook of crisis communication. John Wiley & Sons. Diaz, A.-C. (2020a, April 22). See all the COVID-19 cliches in one big fat supercut. Ad Age. https://adage.com/creativity/work/microsoft-sam-every-covid-19-commercial-exactly-same/2251551 Diaz, A.-C. (2020b, November 26). Steve Carell is an overbearing, stress-eating, work-fromhome Santa in Xfinity’s holiday ad. Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/advertising/stevecarell-overbearing-stress-eating-work-home-santa-xfinitys-holiday-ad/2297281 Elliot, J. D. (2010). How do past crises affect publics’ perceptions of current events? An experiment testing corporate reputation during an adverse event. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 205–220). Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444314885.ch9 Guarino, B., Cha, A. E., & Witte, G. (2020, December 14). ‘The weapon that will end the war’: First coronavirus vaccine shots given outside trials in U.S. The Washignton Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/12/14/first-covid-vaccinesnew-york/ Heath, R., & Coombs, W. (2006). Today’s public relations: An introduction. SAGE Publications, Inc. 10.4135/9781452233055 Ledingham, J. A., & Bruning, S. D. (2000). Public relations as relationship management: A relational approach to the study and practice of public relations. L. Erlbaum. McGuire, W. J., & Papageorgis, D. (1962). Effectiveness of forewarning in developing resistance to persuasion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 26(1), 24–34. 10.1086/267068

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Moriarty, S. E., Mitchell, N., & Wood, C. (2019). Advertising & IMC: Principles & practice (11th ed.). Pearson. Olaniran, B. A., & Williams, D. E. (2008). Applying anticipatory and relational perspectives to the Nigerian delta region oil crisis. Public Relations Review, 34(1), 57–59. 10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.11.005 Roux-Dufort, C. (2000). Why organizations don’t learn from crises: The perverse power of normalization. Review of Business, 21(3), 25-. Sikich, G. W. (2008). Protecting your business in a pandemic: Plans, tools, and advice for maintaining business continuity. Praeger. Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Sturges, D. L. (1994). Communicating through crisis: A strategy for organizational survival. Management Communication Quarterly, 7(3), 297–316. 10.1177/0893318994007003004 Ulmer, R. R., Seeger, M. W., & Sellnow, T. L. (2007). Post-crisis communication and renewal: Expanding the parameters of post-crisis discourse. Public Relations Review, 33(2), 130–134. 10.1016/j.pubrev.2006.11.015 Witte, K., Meyer, G., & Martell, D. (2001). Effective health risk messages: A step-by-step guide. 10.4135/9781452233239 World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19—11 March 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/ speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-oncovid-19‐‐‐11-march-2020

5 TRIPLE THREAT COVID-19, Protests, and an Election

Chapter Objectives

1 To define corporate social responsibility (CSR) and describe how it has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic 2 To explore intervening conditions that altered the impact of COVID-19 crisis responses 3 To describe contextual conditions that agencies and brands needed to take into account when developing crisis response strategies The COVID-19 health crisis affected millions of people worldwide but it did not occur in a vacuum. Several other situations and crises happened at the same time and influenced people’s reactions and coping mechanisms. “All of the issues in 2020 were about the safety of people, so brands had to respond” (Participant #14). Brands and organizations rose to the occasion in an effort to help people, using their resources creatively and, in many instances, contributing positively and meaningfully to help society. Widely known as CSR practices, organizations routinely work to benefit the communities that they serve. However, the COVID-19 pandemic required a much heavier lift than smaller crises to which organizations usually respond, including producing completely different products such as medical equipment. When people were ordered to stay at home to help prevent spreading the virus, other societal issues started to emerge that required urgent attention. COVID kept everyone home and it stripped out all the distractions from the world which allowed us to really focus on some problems that we have been DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-5

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ignoring for a long time. With Black Lives Matter, which has been around for a long time, the tipping point that happened this year was because we were really able to sit and to focus and to be just uncomfortable and to have to confront it. Which is something that doesn’t happen when we’re all leading our busy lives and going to the movies and going to sporting events and getting distracted by a million things. COVID made us really think about confronting these things face on. (Participant #15) Another participant referred to this effect of the crisis as a “conscious awakening” (Participant #3). For brands, these issues meant that they had to determine if and how to respond in a way that would help society without appearing to be opportunistic. The purpose of this chapter is to identify and describe a variety of intervening (broad) conditions that altered the impact of the coronavirus crisis, such as economic pressures on people and businesses, social unrest as a result of systemic racial inequalities, and a deepening political polarization of the American public. In addition, several contextual (narrow) conditions existed that influenced how brands responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. They include people’s health and safety needs, rapidly changing and unpredictable consumer behavior, and the important role technology played as part of the lockdown. This chapter provides the context for chapter 6, which describes specific strategies that were used by brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. CSR—An Update History & Definition

The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic directly affected societies around the world and prompted corporations to step up and engage in CSR efforts. A recent study showed that CSR budgeting and spending increased during the pandemic, when people, governments, and businesses were facing enormous health, social, and economic challenges (Baatwah et al., 2022). At the heart of CSR is the evolution of the core function of business from its main focus on making a profit during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Rawlins, 2005) to benefiting society and affecting change in today’s world. The early days of corporate America were marked by exploiting consumers and not necessarily always having their best interest in mind until the government stepped in with rules and regulations to protect consumers and to ensure more responsible actions while still making a profit from selling products and services. It was social change in the 1960s and 1970s, including the civil rights movement, equal rights for women, and the need for environmental and consumer protection, that called for more socially responsible companies and organizations.

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CSR is commonly seen as a company’s ethical obligation to be accountable and respond to societal needs, many of which companies helped cause. Accountability includes both financial support to help solve societal problems and also acting as responsible citizens (Buchholz, 1989). These types of activities help society and create an emotional bond between the organization and the consumer (White, 2005), while also benefiting the organization because it generates goodwill in the community and strengthens the company’s overall brand. Because of these benefits, CSR has become an important strategic component for companies, which consists of identifying areas in which it can make a positive contribution, informing the media and its employees about its activities to generate publicity, and purchasing social responsibility advertising to further spread the word about the company’s positive contributions to society (Clow & Baack, 2005). In recent years, CSR has clearly manifested itself as an important strategic component for companies and has been linked to sustainable innovations and social performance that can lead to transformative CSR (Hlioui & Yousfi, 2022). In addition to the positive changes CSR activities can achieve, it has also been criticized. Friedman (1970) argued that a company’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders and that CSR activities undermine the free enterprise system. However, more recent research shows that CSR plays an important role related to shareholder value. In fact, companies that engaged in more CSR activities during the COVID-19 crisis outperformed those that did not (Arora et al., 2022). In addition, CEOs have indicated that CSR actually contributes to a company’s profitability and attracts customers and human resources (White, 2005). This view is an example of stakeholder theory, which suggests that organizations should be managed in the interest of all of their constituents, not just their shareholders (Freeman, 1984). Others have argued that CSR activities give too much power and control to businesses, which will likely identify and support social goals that are tied to economic gain. Some researchers have called for government oversight of CSR efforts so that competing businesses don’t get into each other’s way and cause CSR efforts to fail (Buchholz, 1989). For this reason, many companies have moved away from reacting to social pressures and toward proactively engaging in issues management, which focuses on identifying key issues before they become crises (White, 2005). Cause-Related Marketing

A major component of CSR (Galan-Ladero et al., 2021), cause-related marketing (CRM) is a way to connect a product, brand, or organization to a charitable cause (White, 2005). It developed in the 1980s when social, political, and economic crises created significant challenges for consumers (Austin, 2000). Funding for this type of marketing usually comes from a portion of the product’s

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sales. Some of the CSR activities firms engage in include causes such as reducing unfair business practices, pollution, health issues, etc. CRM not only benefits people and communities, but it also tends to increase sales of the product that is directly linked to the cause, while decreasing any potential negative word-of-mouth communication (Clow & Baack, 2005; White, 2005). In more recent years, businesses have started to identify and align their CSR activities with issues that affect their stakeholders directly, particularly their employees and the communities they serve. The idea is that people will buy from companies that are supporting a good cause, particularly if they partner with non-profit organizations. Research shows that people are even willing to pay more for a product if they know that some of the proceeds support a cause that is important to them. CRM is most effective when the non-profit partner and cause itself are directly aligned with the company’s vision and values; otherwise, the company’s cause marketing activities may be perceived to be insincere and exploitative, which can lead to losing customers (Clow & Baack, 2005; White, 2005). The final ingredient of successful CRM is the company’s long-term commitment to the cause (White, 2005). Participant #16 of this study concurs: You need to be careful not to seem opportunistic, that’s why I was talking about values. Your values manifest themselves in how you treat your people, not how you create advertising. You need to earn the right to talk about certain things by behaving with consistency. Values give you permission, credibility, and credentials to talk about big societal problems. Advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum. A company is a public entity and in the information age, everything is known. Transparency is not a choice. It is imposed on companies, so they need to act with consistency and integrity. Some companies and brands feel the need to jump on the latest social cause to be relevant to consumers and to make their products more popular. They make unsubstantiated claims in an effort to associate themselves with a cause or issue without actually contributing to solving or improving it. For example, greenwashing is a marketing practice that makes a product appear more environmentally friendly than it actually is, which undermines consumer confidence and misleads consumers, who expect more from products and brands in today’s marketplace (Lerner, 2011). The concept can be found around other social issues, such as pinkwashing, when companies try to align themselves with diversity and LGBTQ+ rights without actually contributing to the cause (Eeckels, 2021). Greenwashing and other forms of embellishments linked to important social causes are still used in today’s marketing practices, but have become increasingly risky in terms of public perception and a decline in market share (River, 2021).

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Intervening and Contextual Conditions

The isolation resulting from the health threat of the COVID-19 pandemic caused people around the globe to reflect on challenges affecting the broader context of society and the environment in which we live and it has become clear that consumers are paying closer attention to messaging around these issues (River, 2021). At the same time, the results of this study show that these broader, intervening conditions also affected the impact of the pandemic on crisis responses by brands. This type of condition includes broader social, economic, political, and cultural forces and often arises as a result of unexpected events (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) that influenced brands’ crisis responses and communication strategies. The participants of this study reported that their clients needed help not only navigating the COVID-19 threat but also if and how to respond to the intervening and contextual conditions that added significant layers of complexity to brands’ crisis responses. As one participant said: COVID had a huge role in the presidential election and public perceptions there. I think a lot of people were so on edge and pent up and anxious that when you know, a police killing happens, it’s a tinderbox, culturally and psychologically. So yeah, disasters tend to come together and feed each other. (Participant #9) The intervening conditions during the pandemic included the following: (1) significant and long-term economic pressures, (2) social unrest due to a heightened awareness of racial injustice and political polarization, and (3) a highly contested 2020 presidential election. Furthermore, brand communication strategies during COVID-19 were mostly developed in response to the lockdown and social distancing requirements that resulted in isolation. These strategies were influenced by specific contextual markers related to both the causal conditions (the different phases of the pandemic; see chapter 4) as well as the phenomenon (brand communication responses during each phase). These contextual markers include the following: (4) people’s safety and mental health deterioration as a result of uncertainty, fear, and physical isolation, (5) changing consumer behavior ranging from hoarding essential products to minimalism and self-sustainability, and (6) the rapid development of technology (particularly the shift from analog to digital media) that contributed to keeping the economy going and facilitated communication. Economic Pressures on People and Businesses

The economic impact of COVID-19 happened almost immediately. Soon after the health crisis was declared a pandemic in March of 2020, quarantines, social distancing guidelines, mask mandates, supply chain, and

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labor shortages, as well as changes in consumer demand made it difficult for businesses to keep their doors open. Unemployment and Inflation

With businesses struggling to stay open, millions of workers were furloughed or laid off, causing unemployment as well as stock market losses. The first few weeks of the pandemic saw a steep increase in the national unemployment rate, peaking at 14.7 percent in April 2020, compared to less than 4 percent by the end of 2021 (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, 2022). It took almost two years for the unemployment rate to recover and many people faced financial hardship during much of that time. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center (2020) six months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, 25 percent of adults struggled to pay their bills, with 33 percent who had to use money from savings and retirement funds to do so. A total of 17 percent had borrowed money from others to make ends meet and 15 percent received unemployment benefits. A total of 17 percent experienced food insecurity and indicated they had received food from a food bank, while 15 percent received government food assistance. A total of 16 percent were struggling to pay for housing, and 11 percent found it difficult to pay for medical care. These financial struggles were even more severe among lower-income Americans, Black and Hispanic individuals, women, and young people between the ages of 18–29. According to the same survey, one in four U.S. households experienced job loss as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with lower-income and young Americans (18–29) being affected the most. Of those who were laid off, middle- and upperincome adults were more likely to be working again six months after the outbreak than lower-income Americans. Of those who lost their job due to the pandemic, one-third returned to their previous job and 15 percent found new positions, with the latter being mostly young adults (18–29). In addition to those who reported job losses, one-fifth of the respondents indicated having to take a pay cut because of a reduction in work hours. A total of 60 percent of those respondents indicated that they still earned less six months after the outbreak than before. A little over one-third of Americans indicated that they were unable to save money since the pandemic started. At the same time, 19 percent of respondents said they started to save more than before the health crisis started (Parker et al., 2020). As the world entered the third year of the pandemic, the economy continued to struggle. Although the national unemployment rate returned to its prepandemic levels at less than 4 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, 2022), people and businesses were facing the highest inflation rate in 40 years with consumer prices rising 7.5 percent over the course of one year. The steepest price increases occurred in the energy sector but also in apparel, car insurance, restaurant meals, and housing. And although unemployment rates eventually

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normalized and wages increased, the wage gains were not able to offset the high inflation rate (Phillips & Irwin, 2022). The Great Resignation

One trend that emerged during the coronavirus crisis was the Great Resignation, which describes the voluntary mass exodus of more than 20 million workers who quit their jobs in the second half of 2021 either in search of more affordable living situations, better working conditions, or more meaningful work (Whittaker, 2022). The participants of this study indicated that the retention of their employees was one of the highest priorities during the pandemic and, depending on their size, location, and agency business model, they used different strategies to do so (see chapter 6). The advertising professionals that were interviewed as part of this study were very much aware of the situation and expressed concern about having to compete with the “brand side” for talent. Not only does the client side often offer higher salaries, but it also seems to be more willing to offer a hybrid and flexible work environment coming out of the pandemic, which is not always suitable for advertising agencies that depend heavily on physical collaborations as part of the creative process. The future of work in agencies is discussed in detail in chapter 7. Repurposing

Advertising agencies produce work on behalf of industry clients belonging to all sectors of the economy and are therefore dependent on their clients’ ability to compete in the free marketplace. According to a recent U.S. Census report (Roman et al., 2022), the impact of the COVID-19 crisis showed a deep decrease in sales, revenue, and value of shipments across the services, retail and wholesale trades, as well as manufacturing sectors in 2020, which then increased again in 2021. Some sectors were hit particularly hard, including the manufacturing sector, which had to close plants and halt production lines for days on end. For example, the apparel manufacturing subsector reported the largest average number of days closed in 2020 (38.2), followed by leather and allied product manufacturing (22.6) and transport equipment manufacturing (16.3). As a multitude of manufacturing companies were forced to stop production for weeks and months due to new safety protocols, problems with the supply chain, and reduced labor availability, they almost immediately rose to the challenge and redirected their resources to produce consumables to help society cope with the COVID-19 health threat. One of the early needs of the pandemic was a peak in demand for respirator masks, gowns, and other types of protective gear as very little was known about the virus and how to treat COVID while keeping healthcare workers and the general public safe. For example, the automotive

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industry started to produce much needed medical devices such as ventilators and respirators, hotels became quarantine centers, and perfume brands produced hand sanitizer instead of luxury scents. This repurposing of raw materials, machinery, and expertise not only benefited society in desperate times of need but also generated some revenue for companies, which led to retaining workers, in addition to creating goodwill. As participant #10 of this study said, “It kind of became a two-for-one: This is good for us but it’s also great for the community.” Repurposing is a complex undertaking in the manufacturing sector, particularly when the need for completely different, highly specialized products is immediate. The approach to rapid capacity repurposing includes recognizing a need and checking what others are doing, framing the problem by identifying needed physical components and production processes, defining the solution by designing the product and supply chain, developing the actual solution, and then solving the problem by ramping up production (Betti & Heinzmann, 2020). One participant of this study shared his experiences with alcoholic beverage clients, who decided to use their raw materials and production facilities to produce hand sanitizer. During the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, hand sanitizer flew off grocery shelves because it was believed that the virus could easily be spread through surface contamination, which increased demand for the product. A lot of my clients pivoted to producing hand sanitizer. It was kind of a frantic environment trying to figure it out, [including] the legal process you have to go through to produce that hand sanitizer. In the end, people felt great about it because they were able to sort of shift the work for some of their employees but also help out their local communities. There were a lot of hospitals and just general consumers that were looking for hand sanitizer who couldn’t get it in other places, so it turned out to be a good feel-good story, but it also helped to generate some revenue that they lost from liquor sales as well. (Participant #10) Researchers have started to investigate how the enormous economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may affect CSR practices in the long run. In a study examining Canada’s automotive industry, Billedeau et al. (2022) found that while automakers heavily engaged in CSR practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, they will not shape long-term CSR programs but instead usher in small “one-off” adjustments benefiting the corporation. For example, several automakers, who stopped manufacturing cars for weeks on end due to supply chain issues, used their equipment, expertise, and financial support to support public health initiatives during the pandemic. However, research indicates that they plan to return their manufacturing operations and CSR programs to pre-pandemic practices and adjust their activites

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to prepare better for future crises. Among those “one-off crisis management actions” are re-commitments to strengthening relationships with community stakeholders, moving to hybrid work environments for non-production staff, and risk-proofing efforts with suppliers for just-in-time supply chain strategies. Other auto industry CSR decisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic include shifting current philanthropic endeavors toward supporting health organizations that focus on pandemic relief as well as providing expertise and services to organizations that are directly involved in providing crisis relief. In addition, several carmakers started to produce medical equipment during the pandemic, which resulted in developing additional expertise and potential growth opportunities for the business. The CSR efforts of the automotive industry during the COVID-19 pandemic were remarkable but Billedeau et al. (2022) point out that the health crisis had very little impact on their long-term CSR approach. While CSR is not required by law, Billedeau et al. (2022) call for more public sector oversight of the relationship between the private sector and the communities they serve as well as more coordinated crisis response efforts. Repurposing is not limited to the manufacturing sector. In fact, many industries showed innovative ideas and solutions to the coronavirus health threat. For example, in one country, McDonald’s shifted its personnel to help retailer Aldi manage an immense rush as consumers started to stock up their food supplies at home (Betti & Heinzmann, 2020). The high-end hotel industry was another sector that was severely impacted by travel bans. According to a McKinsey report, luxury hotels were affected more significantly than economy hotels because the pandemic pushed business meetings into a virtual environment in lieu of physically traveling to discuss business. During lockdown, occupancy rates for luxury hotels were down to 15 percent, so they needed to determine how to repurpose their facilities from a hospitality space to a high-end home office for executives who otherwise would have had to work from home where they might be interrupted by their children who were learning from home. This type of creativity in terms of repurposing and shifting assets from one category to another will likely impact the way brands serve society even after the COVID-19 crisis, which is explained in depth in chapter 7. As participant #9 explained, “There’s no reason to think that dining out or vacationing won’t come back, but they will be dramatically changed and I think a lot of those industries are thinking differently about making these sorts of permanent changes to their business models. That will allow them to cope, if not thrive, in these types of situations.” Fiscal Responsibility in Agencies

The agencies that participated in this study produced brand communication and strategic plans, negotiated and purchased media, and advised some of the top

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global brands as well as smaller, regional businesses. Their success as agencies is directly related to the success of their clients, which means that they had to tailor their business decisions to the economic situation during the pandemic. The participants talked about how brands were affected differently based on their product category, with some brands continuing to advertise during the crisis and others deciding to go dark. Advertising agencies usually hire personnel based on their client roster, meaning that when an agency signs a new client, it will hire new talent, and when it loses a client, people will be cut loose. From that perspective, there is quite a bit of turnover that is characteristic of the advertising industry, particularly in larger agencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies tried to continue to serve their clients, including those who decided to reduce their budget as well as those who decided not to partake in crisis communication. Although most of the participants reported not having to lay off employees during the health crisis, it didn’t mean that they did not experience setbacks. Several participants from smaller agencies talked about losing clients, particularly at the beginning of the crisis. “New business was down 80 percent over what it had been at any time prior. That was probably the hardest thing for us. You’re budgeting on a certain amount of new business and it’s not coming in” (Participant #13). Many of the participants talked about the importance of being fiscally responsible so that they could retain talent to continue to produce work on behalf of clients who were advertising during the health crisis and to attract new business. Several participants from smaller agencies reported applying for and receiving financial help from the Paycheck Protection Program offered by the U.S. Small Business Association (U.S. Small Business Administration, n.d.) to be able to continue paying employees. While the overall effectiveness of the $500 billion protection program has been debated by economists (Casselman & Tankersley, 2021), it clearly helped the agencies that participated in this study. “The PPP ended up pretty much replacing that new business that we had lost. So that was very helpful for us” (Participant #13). Once it became clear that the COVID-19 crisis was going to be a long-term condition, the focus of agencies shifted toward preparing for a possible recession, which required reducing expenses and risk. The main strategy that agencies used to reduce financial risk was to diversify their client portfolio in terms of adding new clients in different verticals to offset those product categories that were affected very heavily by the health crisis. These and other strategies that agencies used to survive and thrive as small businesses themselves are explained in detail in chapter 6. Social Unrest

The COVID-19 pandemic affected People of Color and in particular AfricanAmericans disproportionately, both from an economic and health perspective.

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During the first four (as per APA7) months of the pandemic, the death rate of African-Americans was 97.9 out of every 100,000, compared to 64.7/100,000 for Latinos, 40.4/100,000 for Asians, and 46.6/100,000 for Whites, exposing existing social inequities based on race. Research has linked these health inequities among People of Color to poverty as a result of low-wage jobs, lower insurance coverage rates, and homelessness, as well as living in densely populated areas and with multiple people in the same household (Vasquez Reyes, 2020). The advertising industry paid close attention to the situation: The pandemic disproportionately affected People of Color and minorities and we saw more of those communities get infected with the virus, but also not receiving the health care that they needed. It revealed a lot of social inequities, too, in terms of childcare, in terms of access to food, in terms of precariousness of people’s economic situations, and it really shined a light on those dark inequalities that a lot of us were able to kind of put aside before the pandemic even though they existed. But the pandemic totally exacerbated that stuff. (Participant #5) In addition to experiencing the disproportionate consequences of COVID-19 on the Black community, the summer of 2020 was marked by an influx of protests and demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice in numerous cities across the United States amid stay-at-home as well as social distancing orders. The Black Lives Matter movement had been created in 2013 in protest of police brutality and systemic racism affecting primarily Back communities and has since grown into a global movement (A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States, n.d.). On March 13, 2020—two days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic—Breonna Taylor, an African-American woman, was fatally shot by officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department in Louisville, Kentucky (Bogel-Burroughs, 2022). Two months later, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African-American man, died while in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department. Both of these deaths resulted in massive protests in numerous cities across the United States amid stay-at-home orders due to regional COVID-19 and city-imposed curfews in anticipation of potential violence, leading to hundreds of arrests and additional deaths of people participating in the protests (Taylor, 2021). With these two cases began a long period of protests from 2020 to 2022, including the Black Lives Matter movement but also counter movements, such as the Blue Lives Matter movement. Because police brutality involving African-Americans and other minority groups was at the core of the protests in 2020, one of the main demands of the protesters was to defund the police (Goodman, 2021). Other actions included removing statues and monuments commemorating historical figures that are considered racist by today’s standards.

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The protests of the summer of 2020 contributed to exposing the inequalities that existed beforehand and accelerated the need for change: When the BLM movement started to take more hold across the country, a lot of people were just sick and tired of these inequalities, and with the pandemic exacerbating them even more. And there was sort of that collective societal anger and need for change. Change was no longer saying you were planning for it in the future, change has to happen now and there’s an urgency for that. We knew that [consumers] would be holding brands accountable for their stance and on BLM as well, and how they were contributing and behaving in society. (Participant #5) Wokewashing

Although many businesses and brands recognized the urgency to respond to social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement, it required a willingness to affect change as a brand instead of only paying lip service to a cause. One of the latest social consciousness practices to emerge during the coronavirus crisis was wokewashing, which is when a business attaches itself to social justice issues related to racial inequities through communication but without providing any substantive help to improve the situation. For example, this happens when an organization outwardly shows solidarity through social media posts, but fails to promote diversity within its own ranks (Howard, 2021) or ignores people and communities in need. On June 2, 2020, millions of people and brands participated in #blackouttuesday by sharing black squares on social media to show their solidarity in protest of the murder of George Floyd a week earlier. While well intended, this type of activity was perceived by many as a superficial gesture but not real action. The challenges of improving racial inequities and social injustice have not gone unnoticed by the advertising industry. One participant explained that some of her clients wanted to show their support by participating in social media movements like #blackouttuesday but her agency cautioned them: Wokewashing is a huge problem. What we typically recommended for our clients was to take some time to sit back and look at their own internal structures and figure out what is that purpose that you stand for, how are you authentically going to stand for it and really walk that walk. Those are a lot of the conversations that we had throughout the past couple of years. (Participant #21) Several participants spoke about diversifying the industry’s workforce to be more culturally relevant and creating messages and brand actions that can make a difference.

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It is not enough to “throw money at the cause” and ease the pain temporarily. Today’s consumers, particularly those belonging to Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) or Generation Alpha (born between 2011 and 2024), trust businesses more than the government to affect real change (Edelman, 2022). Most importantly, these messages and brand activations should be created by those who can truly speak to these challenges. Political Polarization

A massive global threat like the COVID-19 pandemic causes a lot of uncertainty and fear in societies around the world. While some crises, like the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, can unite people in spite of different political and societal views, the coronavirus crisis exacerbated existing political divides in the United States and other countries even further (Carothers & O’Donohue, 2020). Political polarization, particularly during a pandemic, can have significant implications for public safety because it may impede crisis response messaging around social distancing, quarantining, and other health measures that may prevent the spread of disease. In addition, governments in a variety of countries have used the pandemic to influence the electoral process in a variety of ways. In the United States, there were calls to expand voting by mail to decrease the possible spread of the virus at polling stations but they were largely ignored by President Trump because he argued that it would hurt his party. Other responses by President Trump included attacks against the media and the country of China, where the first cases of COVID-19 occurred, as well as criticisms of the World Health Organization and its handling of the threat (Carothers, 2020). At the same time, about half of Americans approved of how President Trump addressed the economic needs of businesses (51 percent) and ordinary people affected by the coronavirus crisis (54 percent) after the first month of the pandemic. A total of 54 percent of people approved of how he worked with state governors and 55 percent approved of his response to the needs of hospitals, doctors, and nurses. However, only 42 percent viewed his job of providing accurate information as excellent or good. Two-thirds of Americans thought President Trump’s early response to the health threat was too slow, particularly those respondents who were under the age of 50, had a college education, and were Democrats or Democratic-leaning (Pew Research Center, 2020b). The highly polarized political landscape in the United States during the COVID-19 health crisis led to a contested presidential election in the fall of 2020, which ended with a win by Democrat Joseph Biden. Research shows that the pandemic significantly affected the outcome of the election. More specifically, the number of COVID-19 cases negatively affected Trump’s vote share, particularly in urban counties, states without stay-at-home orders, swing states, and states that

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Trump won in the previous election in 2016. The same study indicates that Trump would likely have won the election in 2020 if COVID-19 cases had been five percent lower (Baccini et al., 2021). The pandemic exposed the ideological division of the country in a very visible way, including views on mask wearing, contact tracing, and vaccinations. During the election, issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic were important to 82 percent of Biden supporters but only to 24 percent of Trump supporters (Dimock & Wike, 2020). The 2020 election in combination with the strong ideological polarization of the American public led to a highly contested debate over who had actually won the Presidency. Despite certified election results across the country, many Americans remained skeptical and believed the election was rigged. While overall, voters’ trust in U.S. elections remained relatively stable from September 2020 (63 percent) to January 2021 (60 percent), Republicans’ trust in U.S. elections plummeted by 39 percentage points during that same timeframe (from 72 percent to 33 percent), while Democrats’ trust increased by 20 percentage points points (from 62 percent to 82 percent) (Laughlin & Shelburne, 2021). On January 6, 2021, a group of President Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to prevent PresidentElect Biden from assuming office. Largely considered an insurrection, thenPresident Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for his alleged involvement in the attempted coup d’état and later acquitted by the Senate (Duignan, 2022). Implications for Brands

The sharp partisan differences of trust have important implications for brands, particularly as many of them re-articulated their mission, vision, and purpose in the context of COVID-19. According to experts, brands’ role during polarizing political events such as the 2020 presidential election is to “help ameliorate feelings of constant disruption that go as far back as 9/11” (Taylor, 2021). The public also trusts businesses more than the government to solve societal problems (Edelman Trust Barometer, 2021), which shifts even more power to brands, particularly to those that make significant political contributions. Many of them pulled their dollars from politicians who tried to undermine election results and fired employees who had participated in the U.S. Capitol riots in an effort to dissociate themselves from the negative events (Schillhorn, 2021). Polarization puts brands on the spot. Some have argued that polarization makes brand communication interesting and relevant, which in turn creates visibility for those that are brave enough to stand for and/or against something. Some brands tried to address the political divide with messages that emphasized unity but they failed to resonate with the audience and were quickly pulled. As participant #9 of this study said, “Politics are almost more taboo than race issues

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right now. It’s not something you can talk about yet.” Another participant explained why clients felt conflicted in a polarized political environment: It became this sort of culture war between red and blue states, about the right way forward with COVID, whether it’s wearing a mask or not, and social distance or not. The challenge was that some of my clients felt they had to choose sides. (Participant #10) Toward the end of 2020, advertisers mostly focused on providing some levity during the holidays at the end of year one of the pandemic, getting ready to leave 2020 behind, and preparing for a fresh start full of hope. But 2021 started with the Capitol riot, which made it more than clear that the political and social polarization was still very much present. Brands reacted in different ways to the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, ranging from actively calling for Trump’s removal from office to temporarily pausing active campaigns once again. Other brands stayed completely silent. The attack on the U.S. Capitol was very difficult for advertisers to respond to and experts advised that this was a crisis during which brands should not provide political commentary but rather provide consistency and comfort for people by finding common ground (Schillhorn, 2021). Another way in which brands can communicate where they stand is through their media choices. Republicans and Democrats tend to trust and consume different media—a development that has become more pronounced during the last five years (Pew Research Center, 2020a). A Pew Center study about use of, trust in, and distrust of 30 different news sources shows that none of them is trusted by more than 50 percent of U.S. adults. A total of 65 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning adults trust Fox News as a news source, while 67 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning adults trust CNN. Republicans seem to rely primarily on Fox News, while Democrats also get their news from other sources than CNN, including NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and MSNBC. Media polarization is even more pronounced among the parties’ ideological anchors, with 66 percent of liberal Democrats trusting the New York Times compared to 50 percent of conservative Republicans distrusting the publication, and 75 percent of conservative Republicans trusting Fox News and 77 percent of liberal Democrats distrusting Fox News (Pew Research Center, 2020a). In addition, brands should invest in brand safety, which can we defined as “safety measures to protect a brand’s online reputation by restricting it from associating with negative or inappropriate content” (Behera, 2020). Many brands use programmatic advertising, which is an automated media buying process that uses data insights and algorithms to optimize media delivery to the right user at the right time and at the right price. However, this automated practice can lead

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to media buys that inadvertently support misinformation, which can be avoided by buying media manually, providing more control of the placement (Schillhorn, 2021). There are also multiple far-leaning media choices consumed by either end of the political spectrum. Brands that are committed to values-centric marketing need to be cognizant of which media platform delivers their messaging (Taylor, 2021). Participant #11, a media planner, thought about media choices as an ethical question: “I think that’s an interesting ethical question. Which groups do you want to piss off and get letters from?” As Marshall McLuhan said in the 1960s, long before the extreme media polarization of the American public: “The medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1964). Health & Safety Keeping People Safe

The number one concern of governments around the world was to keep people safe and hospitalizations down, especially during the early phase of the COVID-19 crisis, when treatments and vaccinations were not yet available. During much of 2020, governments imposed mask mandates, social distancing guidelines, contact tracing, quarantine guidelines, and eventually lockdowns to keep the virus from spreading. At the end of 2020, the first vaccines were rolled out and administered. Almost three years into the COVID-19 health threat, the United States reported a total of 97.3 million COVID-19 cases and 1.07 million deaths. About 80 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, 68.4 percent have completed the primary vaccination series, and 7.3 percent have received the most current bivalent booster dose (CDC, 2020). Several of the participants of this study had health-related clients and talked about how people’s mindsets shifted from seeking preventative care and dealing with other significant health issues to dealing with the coronavirus uncertainty. Participant #1 explained: Preventative care has become a huge challenge, because all the facilities were closed. So if you look at the chart of demand, it literally went below zero and then it started to normalize again so we’ve been studying our impacts in driving back to screening campaigns and to see if we can get women to sign up for mammograms. The number of outpatient visits, emergency department visits, and elective surgeries declined significantly during the first two months of the pandemic in 2020 (Martin et al., 2021). Participant #14 added that the pandemic exacerbated several existing health issues such as alcohol and opioid addiction, which necessitated continued awareness campaigns instead of halting them.

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In terms of the work that was produced during this time, it was important that brand communication adhered to all health and safety standards, which changed rapidly during the first few weeks and months of the pandemic. Work that had been produced before the pandemic could not be launched during the pandemic because actors and models were not wearing masks. Agencies who had been working on pre-pandemic launches were scrambling to recall the work from the media landscape and replace it with new, pandemic-appropriate messaging and imaging. During this time, a lot of stock footage was used because social distancing and masking guidelines made it very difficult to produce original work. During Super Bowl LV in 2021, two advertisers used the same stock footage of a father giving his young daughter a piggyback ride in completely different verticals: One was popular job site Indeed and the other was mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate. Usually, stock images are rarely used in Super Bowl commercials, which are often award-winning and considered to be the most unique and creative work in the business. However, Super Bowl LV presented different challenges and brands had already committed to $5.5 million for a 30-second commercial during the game (Griner & Liederman, 2021). Other production approaches during lockdown included using user-generated content, animation, recycled footage when appropriate, and directing talent via web conferencing and phone to record themselves (see chapter 6). Mental Health Toll

In addition to being a significant threat to people’s physical health, the COVID-19 pandemic also took a toll on people’s mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic not only increased levels of anxiety among the general public, but it also exacerbated existing mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress in addition to more individuals having suicidal thoughts and behaviors. These types of mental health problems have disproportionately affected young people, who were more likely than other groups of individuals to experience feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, and loneliness as a result of social isolation due to school and university closings for months on end. Some groups have experienced higher levels of stress, abuse, and other forms of violence as a result of having to stay home more than before the pandemic. In addition, it was difficult to seek treatment for existing mental health disorders, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, when health resources were rerouted to help with COVID-19 relief (World Health Organization, 2022). The issue of mental health as an intervening condition of the COVID-19 crisis emerged frequently in the interviews with the participants, not only in terms of how it affected consumer behavior, but also the toll it took on agency employees, particularly the younger generation. As COVID case numbers increased in the fall and winter of 2020, it became dark and cold in New York City, where many

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of the participating agencies were located. Younger employees often share tiny living quarters with roommates, who were all crammed in together to live and work from home, which, as participant #9 said, “took a psychological toll.” Social isolation was disruptive for anybody working in the highly collaborative advertising industry, particularly for new employees, who had no opportunities to bond with new colleagues and create trust. Several participants of this study joined their agency during COVID and had never set foot into the physical office space at the time of the interviews. Nonetheless, the participants reported a very strong work ethic at their respective agencies but a loss of boundaries between people’s work and personal lives, leading to burnout. One theme that emerged during the interviews was that the lockdown accelerated the development of a relatively new category of healthcare: Telehealth. Telehealth and telemedicine can be defined as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve the patient’s health status” (Board of Health Care Services, 2012). A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found that telehealth services increased from roughly 840,000 visits in 2019 to 52.7 million during the pandemic, which is a 63-fold increase. This drastic increase helped maintain access to healthcare during stay-at-home orders, particularly among behavioral health providers and more so in urban than rural areas of the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). For pharmaceutical advertising, the physical doctor’s visit was the last chance to convince a physician to prescribe a specific medication. Participant #14, who worked as a media strategist on a pharmaceutical account, talked about shifting advertising dollars to digital messaging on electronic medical record platforms, which doctors spent increasingly more time with when practicing telemedicine. Consumer Behavior Changing Spending Patterns

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis in conjunction with its economic effects changed consumer behavior quite dramatically and could have long-term effects. Research shows that during the coronavirus crisis 57 percent of people socially distanced from friends and community and 50 percent worked from home at least part-time. A total of 49 percent avoided leaving their home and 42 percent avoided using public transportation when they did leave their home (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, n.d.). The same report shows that among those surveyed, the biggest concern related to social distancing was rising economic costs, followed by human costs, personal health, personal financial situations, and spreading the virus to others. Since consumers were spending significantly more time at home, their spending patterns also changed. For example, people’s purchases shifted from travel and attending events to investing in their home and outdoor space. Participants

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observed that consumers started to leave urban areas and moved to secondary cities to avoid having to use public transportation. With restaurants closed, nonperishable grocery purchases increased the most, followed by household and cleaning supplies as well as frozen food. Consumers also increasingly turned to e-commerce instead of going to the grocery store to stock up. As people spent more time in their homes, the survey showed that they were spending significantly more time on entertainment, consuming news, and pursuing hobbies and moderately more time on cooking, social media, household shores, online shopping, and physical fitness (PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). The results of this study indicate that in addition to changing consumption patterns, people also conducted more of their own research to make purchasing decisions and the decision-making process took longer. These insights have implications for marketers’ sales funnels during future crisis moments. Despite constant monitoring of the marketplace, participants of this study emphasized that consumer behavior was difficult to predict. According to a research report on consumer behavior completed after the first two months of the pandemic, it appeared as though the health crisis would impact three major trends related to consumption patterns of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) (Accenture, 2020). The first prediction was that consumers would increasingly focus on health as part of their decision-making. However, the results of this research study indicate that the opposite happened as the lockdown continued: The biggest thing I noticed with my CPG accounts was how so many people turned to nostalgia. Immediately they wanted their comfort foods, they wanted SpaghettiOs, they wanted Chef Boyardee, they wanted Doritos and Cheetos and Lays and they wanted Coke and Pepsi. They were turning to comfort in droves. For years, we had noticed this trend towards awesome, clean, healthy, better-for-you snacks, better-for-you foods, and consumers being more conscious of what they were putting in their bodies. Not just for health reasons but also for the environment and we saw that kind of go out the window, where people’s moral standards changed in response to this fear and staying at home. (Participant #5) A second prediction was that there would be a rise in conscious consumption with people trying to limit food waste and buying more sustainable products (Accenture, 2020). Based on the experience of several participants in this study, the rise in conscious consumption did not happen. In fact, they experienced the opposite, where people started to panic and “grabbed whatever they could find [at the store], which eventually turned into hoarding behavior” (Participant #5). Participant #9 referred to hoarding as “pantry loading” and agreed with participant #5 in that people flocked to purchase brands that they knew and trusted.

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What did happen though as the pandemic entered the summer months was a “conscious awakening” (Participant #3) of the public. Consumers—fueled with pent-up energy from the lockdown—became more conscious about brands’ actions around health and social issues as discussed earlier in this chapter. As consumers re-evaluated everything during the crisis moments of 2020, they started to expect more from businesses, creating opportunities for brands to truly help people and build meaningful relationships. Several participants said that consumers want brands to make a difference and provide a point of view on issues. Some believe that brands have a larger role to play than the government, which is consistent with the findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer (2021). Participant #9 explained that this type of consumption is likely here to stay: “Most of us are expecting some kind of return to where we were, but with a higher threshold of consciousness or behavior around certain issues.” As crises become more complex and consumers look to brands and businesses to solve them, they also expect more transparency, which, according to participants #6 and #10, neither brands nor the government have necessarily provided in the past. Participant #3 agreed that there was a conscious awakening in the summer of 2020 because of the combination of the pandemic, economic, and social crises. However, he predicted that the urgency of messages in response to the triple threat will diminish as more time passes. A third prediction after the first two months of the pandemic was that consumers would focus increasingly on shopping locally in terms of the products they buy as well as where they shop (Accenture, 2020). The participants of this study did not mention this development. Instead, they talked about a significant shift to e-commerce platforms and selling products and services online when physical storefronts were closed. E-commerce has grown significantly across the world, including among people who were not shopping online before the pandemic. Because e-commerce in general and online shopping for essentials in particular became such a necessity during lockdowns, it became available in markets that did not offer online shopping prior to the pandemic (Daniel, 2020). For advertisers, this meant adjusting their brand communication to ensure consumers would know how to purchase their products. Moving forward, participant #8 emphasized that consumer expectations will be influenced by how they experienced brands during the pandemic and how important it is for brands to understand consumer needs in the next crisis. Technology In-Home Media as a Lifeline

The shift from analog to digital communication had been in the making for about a decade but the COVID-induced lockdown accelerated the transition because it was the only way to connect with people, be entertained at home, and

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also to get work done. It was technology that made isolation and staying at home bearable and changed the way people connected with each other (Accenture, 2020). “Our physical world was smaller but our virtual world became much broader,” participant #11 summarized. It also changed the way advertisers reached consumers with messaging. Live events like concerts and sporting events were canceled and no longer served advertisers during lockdown as message carriers. Readership of legacy media like newspapers and magazines also declined. Participant #8 remarked, “I think one thing that definitely got hard during COVID was print. No one feels comfortable touching paper.” At the same time, the use of digital media increased significantly compared to before the pandemic with a 39 percent daily increase and 18 percent weekly increase, especially among older people in less digitally developed markets. Video gaming increased dramatically, especially in areas that had strict lockdown orders. Overall, people consumed more digital entertainment in the form of TV and video content, particularly paid-for, on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime (Daniel, 2020). Smartphones and tablets became people’s lifeline. “Your phone was your magical looking glass to see what was going on in the world. That’s what so many people are saying, like, ‘I’ve been doing nothing but looking at my phone for 10 months’” (Participant #11). The importance of the smartphone is reflected in the app usage patterns during all three phases of the crisis. During “shock absorption,” all categories of apps were up, particularly online shopping, entertainment, business, and education. As in-person events, including sporting events, were canceled, sports apps took a dive in the spring of 2020 and then soared above all other categories in the summer and fall of 2020. People craved sports content during the pandemic, and with stadiums and other live events being canceled, the sports revenue model changed to delivering (and charging for) valueadded content via new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence as well as virtual and augmented reality, powered by a powerful 5G network (Hachtmann, 2022). Travel apps were down during the shock absorption phase as planes were grounded and borders were closed but increased again as travel bans were lifted, albeit slowly. Included in this category are airlines, vacation rentals, online travel agencies, rideshare services, and navigation apps. As people started to work from home, business app installs increased and then decreased again as they were returning to work toward the end of 2021. Participant #8 talked about the effects of using more technology than before: “I think it’s not that we have changed how we communicate. I think we’ve changed the volume with which we use each channel.” An interesting statistic is that medical app installs continued to increase during all phases of the pandemic and beyond, which is consistent with the telehealth boom that was accelerated by COVID-19 (Perez, 2022; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). Other categories that saw an increase in installs during the pandemic were

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gaming and health and fitness apps (Perez, 2022). By the end of 2021, most major app categories had surpassed pre-pandemic levels. What this means is that app technology evolved during the pandemic, creating added value for consumers in a world that will likely be exposed to different types of complex crises in the future. The Misinformation Virus

While much of the world was confined to their homes during the lockdowns of 2020 and scientists scrambled to develop a vaccine to keep the impact of the virus under control, another virus was circulating: Misinformation about COVID-19. Connected to the political polarization discussed earlier in this chapter, information about the coronavirus, related statistics, how it spreads, and how to treat it was dispersed by anyone who had an opinion about it, whether it was truth or fiction. The carrier of the misinformation virus was to a large extent social media. The public was exposed to differing information about the still mostly unknown COVID-19 health threat, creating and exacerbating uncertainty and fear (WARC, 2021). In addition to misinformation, people also noticed the spread of hate speech and fake news on social media and called out Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, for not doing enough to censor hate speech. Several non-profit groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP, launched the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign, requesting advertisers to stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram for the month of July. Some of America’s biggest brands, including Levi’s, Unilever, and Verizon, obliged and pulled their advertising dollars for a month with further review pending. Several participants of this study mentioned the Facebook boycott as a way to act ethically in the marketplace. Although the financial effect of the boycott added up to less than one percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue in the United States, it was an important symbol of brand consciousness that started the conversation and resulted in several changes implemented by Facebook in providing clarity and fact checking around elections and the democratic process (WARC, 2020). Zoom Culture

One of the most iconic technological developments of the COVID-19 pandemic was virtual web conferencing, in particular Zoom, Teams, and Facetime. Before COVID, this technology was used to limited extents in business, education, and connecting with friends and family who were not located in the same city. During COVID-19, web conferencing technology exploded because it was a lifeline to other people, including family gatherings, work, and school. Zoom app downloads, for example, increased 30-fold in March 2020 compared to the previous year. After a more or less steep learning curve for users, which included accidentally being muted (and unmuted), revealing one’s home in the background, and learning

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how to share content, people absorbed the technology quickly, and Zoom became a household name (Evans, 2020). However, with the quick adoption of Zoom technology came security concerns known as Zoombombing, where uninvited Zoom users joined meetings and shared disturbing content, which was particularly disconcerting in education and business settings. The company managed this crisis by using classic crisis management techniques, starting with an apology and then offering ways to fix the problem, which included free education to users, added security features, and improved customer service (Yuan, 2020). Web conferencing technology made a quick transition from working in the office to working from home possible. Not only could it accommodate different types of meetings, but it also provided access to doctors in the form of telemedicine and made visual and verbal communication with friends and loved ones possible during lockdown. However, as the lockdown continued and stretched into weeks and months, people started to experience increased psychological demands of using the technology for virtually all human interactions, which has become known as “Zoom fatigue.” Research shows that it is more difficult to interpret body language, detect humor, and generally engage in natural conversation such as face-to-face communication when using virtual environments. Having one’s face displayed “on-camera” for long periods of time has also been shown to decrease people’s self-esteem. In addition, scheduling back-to-back Zoom meetings or otherwise always being available took a toll on professionals’ mental health (Williams, 2021). The agencies that participated in this study reported fairly easy transitions to working from home initially. They used video conferencing technology to recreate their particular agency culture while also conducting business. However, several participants mentioned back-to-back meetings and working long hours, which eventually led to burnout. Chapter 6 offers strategies that agencies used to leverage Zoom technology while keeping their employees’ exhaustion at bay. For brands, video conferencing software offered opportunities for selling when their physical storefronts were shut down. Several participants described how clients in a variety of verticals used the technology to demonstrate how their product worked, provided customer service, virtual tours, and personalized the “brains” behind the product. Not only were they able to serve their current customers, but they also leveraged the technology to create awareness and develop new markets, leading to transforming their business. Brand transformations are part of phase 3 of the pandemic and are discussed in detail in chapter 7. Discussion

The six intervening and contextual conditions that occurred at the same time as the COVID-19 health threat altered the impact of the crisis response and needed

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to be taken into account when developing crisis response strategies, which are explored in depth in chapter 6. In essence, these conditions already existed before the COVID-19 health threat hit but the coronavirus crisis accelerated them and in turn influenced brands’ responses to it. The six conditions also influenced each other with the economic downturn affecting social and political unrest, further deterioration of people’s mental health, and driving subsequent consumer behavior. Technology served as an important conduit for people and organizations to function during the lockdown but also brought on additional mental health challenges. In keeping with current literature on the impact of CSR, a variety of conditions emerged simultaneously that added complexities to the COVID-19 crisis. Companies and brands need to determine how they might help people who are facing multiple crises simultaneously to make a difference. In addition, local coordination efforts might create synergy and decrease competition among companies who want to help if they are well coordinated (Billedeau et al., 2022). Summary

This chapter explores several contextual (narrow) and intervening (broad) conditions that occurred at the same time as COVID-19 and impacted the strategies that agencies developed to cope with not just one, but several crises. It first provides an overview of the development of CSR, and in particular CRM, to explain how organizations generally approach crisis communication. The chapter then explores different layers of complexity that influenced the impact of the crisis on crisis response advertising. These types of conditions include the following: (1) the changing economic pressures that occurred as a result of the pandemic and how brands reacted. It also discusses the actions and expectations by the general public during times of (2) social unrest and (3) political polarization, which occurred at the height of COVID-19 in the United States and influenced brand communication and consumer expectations simultaneously. Several contextual conditions needed to be taken into account as part of brands’ crisis response as well, such as (4) people’s health and safety needs, (5) unpredictable changes in consumer behavior, and (6) technological advancements which facilitated the lockdown but also caused mental health challenges that needed to be dealt with. Discussion Questions

1 Which contextual or intervening condition influenced the COVID-19 health threat the most? Why? 2 Can you think of any other intervening or contextual conditions that impacted brands’ crisis response?

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3 If there had not been mandated lockdowns, would there have been different intervening conditions? If so, what would they have been? 4 Technology served as a lifeline during lockdown. Which technological advancements did you rely on the most during that time? Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Does your company or organization participate in CSR practices? What are they? How are they aligned with your company’s mission, vision, and values? 2 Has your company responded to any of the contextual and/or intervening conditions that emerged from this study? If so, which ones? If not, why not? 3 How might your company or organization integrate its response to the COVID-19 crisis with existing CSR activities to amplify their effects? Suggestions for Future Research

1 The findings of this study suggest that CSR practices need to become even more helpful for society, particularly for groups that are disproportionately affected. Additional research is needed that explores how to best coordinate CSR practices for maximum effect. 2 According to research, some CSR practices during COVID-19 were appreciated but considered to be done primarily to benefit companies. Research is needed that explores consumer perceptions of CSR practices during COVID-19 and to develop a model that companies can use when deciding what people need most. References A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM Accenture. (2020, April 28). COVID-19: Fast-changing consumer behavior. https://www. accenture.com/us-en/insights/consumer-goods-services/coronavirus-consumerbehavior-research Arora, S., Sur, J. K., & Chauhan, Y. (2022). Does corporate social responsibility affect shareholder value? Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis. International Review of Finance, 22(2), 325–334. 10.1111/irfi.12353 Austin, J. E. (2000). Strategic collaboration between nonprofits and businesses. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(1_suppl), 69–97. 10.1177/0899764000291S004 Baatwah, S. R., Al-Qadasi, A. A., Al-Shehri, A. M., & Derouiche, I. (2022). Corporate social responsibility budgeting and spending during COVID–19 in Oman: A humanitarian response to the pandemic. Finance Research Letters, 47, 102686. 10.1016/j.frl.2022. 102686 Baccini, L., Brodeur, A., & Weymouth, S. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election. Journal of Population Economics, 34(2), 739–767. 10.1007/ s00148-020-00820-3

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Evans, D. (2020, April 4). How Zoom became so popular during social distancing. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/how-zoom-rose-to-the-top-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.html Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Pitman. Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). A Friedman doctrine—. The New York Times, 379, 425, 426, 427. Galan-Ladero, M. M., Galera-Casquet, C., & Alves, H. M. (Eds.). (2021). Cause-related marketing: Case studies from a global perspective. Springer International Publishing. 10.1007/978-3-030-65455-9 Goodman, J. D. (2021, October 10). A year after ‘Defund,’ police departments get their money back. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/10/us/dallaspolice-defund.html Griner, D., & Liederman, E. (2021, February 5). How 2 Super Bowl ads ended up using the same stock footage. https://www.adweek.com/creativity/2-super-bowl-ads-stock-clipexclusivity-worthwhile/ Hachtmann, F. (2022). Emerging trends in computer-mediated communication and social media in sport: Theory and practice. In J. H. Lipschultz, K. Freberg, & R. Luttrell (Eds.), The Emerald handbook of computer-mediated communication and social media (pp. 269–284). Emerald Publishing Limited. 10.1108/978-1-80071-597-420221016 Hlioui, Z., & Yousfi, O. (2022). CSR and innovation: Two sides of the same coin. In B. Orlando (Ed.), Corporate social responsibility. IntechOpen. 10.5772/intechopen.94344 Howard, V. (2021, June 15). Council post: Woke-washing, the glass cliff and the need for a better answer in diversity leadership. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/ 2021/06/15/woke-washing-the-glass-cliff-and-the-need-for-a-better-answer-indiversity-leadership/ Laughlin, N., & Shelburne, P. (2021, Jaunary). Tracking voter trust in the American electoral system. Morning Consult. https://morningconsult.com/form/tracking-votertrust-in-elections/ Lerner, A. W. (2011). Greenwashing. In Environmental encyclopedia (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 804–806). Gale; Gale eBooks. http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1918700698/ GVRL?sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=02b9cad3 Martin, K., Kurowski, D., Given, P., & Clayton, E. (2021, April 16). The impact of COVID-19 on the use of preventive health care. HCCI. https://healthcostinstitute.org/ hcci-research/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-use-of-preventive-health-care McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill. Parker, K., Minkin, R., & Bennett, J. (2020, September 24). Economic fallout from COVID-19 continues to hit lower-income Americans the hardest. Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/ 09/24/economic-fallout-from-covid-19-continues-to-hit-lower-income-americansthe-hardest/ Perez, S. (2022, January 10). How the mobile app ecosystem adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/10/how-themobile-app-ecosystem-adapted-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-2021/ Pew Research Center. (2020a). U.S. media polarization and the 2020 election: A nation divided. https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/01/24/u-s-mediapolarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/

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Pew Research Center. (2020b). Most Americans say Trump was too slow in initial response to coronavirus threat. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/ 04/16/trumps-handling-of-coronavirus-outbreak/ Phillips, M., & Irwin, N. (2022, February 10). Inflation hits fresh 40-year high. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2022/02/10/inflation-hits-fresh-40-year-high PricewaterhouseCoopers. (n.d.). Evolving priorities: COVID-19 rapidly reshapes consumer behavior. PwC. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/ industries/consumer-markets/library/covid-19-consumer-behavior-survey.html Rawlins, B. L. (2005). Corporate social responsibility. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Encyclopedia of public relations (Vol. 1, pp. 210–214). Sage. River, B. (2021, April 29). The increasing dangers of corporate greenwashing in the era of sustainability. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/beauriver/2021/04/29/theincreasing-dangers-of-corporate-greenwashing-in-the-era-of-sustainability/ Roman, S., Cooke-Hull, S., Dunfee, M., Flaherty, M., Haskell, J., Holland, V., Jackson, C., & Shevlin, C. (2022, July). The coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact. Census.Gov. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/econ/coronavirus-pandemics-economic-impact.html Schillhorn, A. (2021, January). After the riot: How brands can respond to an ever-changing US political climate | WARC. http://origin.warc.com.libproxy.unl.edu/content/article/ WARC-Exclusive/After_the_riot_How_brands_can_respond_to_an_everchanging_ US_political_climate/135526 Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Taylor, C. (2021, January 22). Trust, truth and sanctuary create a pathway for US brands in a polarized nation | WARC. http://origin.warc.com.libproxy.unl.edu/newsandopinion/ opinion/Trust_truth_and_sanctuary_create_a_pathway_for_US_brands_in_a_polarized_nation/4024 Taylor, D. B. (2021, November 5). George Floyd protests: A timeline. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-protests-timeline.html U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2021, December 3). New HHS study shows 63-fold increase in medicare telehealth utilization during the pandemic [Text]. HHS.Gov. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/12/03/new-hhs-study-shows-63-foldincrease-in-medicare-telehealth-utilization-during-pandemic.html U.S. Small Business Administration. (n.d.). Paycheck protection program. Paycheck Protection Program. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/ loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program Vasquez Reyes, M. (2020). The disproportional impact of COVID-19 on African Americans. Health and Human Rights, 22(2), 299–307. WARC. (2020, June 30). What next for the Facebook boycott? | WARC. http://origin.warc. com.libproxy.unl.edu/newsandopinion/news/what-next-for-the-facebook-boycott/ 43793 WARC. (2021). The United Nation’s Secretary General: Science fiction advice when the world needed just science—The global communications fight to stem the tide of COVID-19 and misinformation | WARC. http://origin.warc.com.libproxy.unl.edu/content/article/theunited-nations-secretary-general-science-fiction-advice-when-the-world-needed-justscience‐‐‐the-global-communications-fight-to-stem-the-tide-of-covid-19-and-misinformation/138841

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6 CRISIS RESPONSE ADVERTISING STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH REALITY

Chapter Objectives

1 To describe the strategies agencies can use internally and with clients to continue to produce award-winning work, attract and retain employees, and prepare for the next crisis 2 To provide specific strategies agencies can use in the consumer-facing work that was produced on behalf of brands during the three phases of the COVID-19 crisis Although there were signs that the coronavirus health threat was spreading across the globe quickly, most of the general public and even scientists did not anticipate the extent to which it would affect people’s health, the economy, and society as a whole. However, it wasn’t just the threat of the novel coronavirus that prompted brands to switch into crisis mode. As lockdowns were mandated to curb the spread of the virus, the situation impacted other areas of life as well. Chapter 5 explored six major conditions, both broad and narrow, that altered the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and brands’ responses to it, adding layers of complexity that needed to be addressed. Those conditions included economic pressures, social unrest around issues of racial inequalities, political polarization, and a heavily contested presidential election that resulted in an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Furthermore, it impacted the focus on people’s shortterm and long-term health, and subsequent changes in consumer behavior. Technology served as a facilitator of the lockdown, connecting people with DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-6

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each other in isolation, providing them with the tools to continue working, connecting with friends and family, and learning. Through all three phases of the pandemic, brands played an important role in helping people cope with the impact of the crisis. It became clear that existing crisis response models did not provide enough guidance to help people through the prolonged and increasingly complex crisis situation: In March of 2020 we were working through a phased contingency plan for [a home improvement client]. And we had four phases, that were going to spell out how [the client] would respond in each phase and how we, as an agency, would help them get through each phase. It was irrelevant after a week because of how quickly things moved and you just didn’t know. And so we were probably at stage four by day four. (Participant #19) Having set the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in chapter 5, this chapter describes specific strategies that were developed by the participants’ agencies and implemented by their clients during the different phases of the pandemic. From a grounded theory perspective, strategies are specific actions and interactions that individuals use to handle situations and solve problems related to the phenomenon (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). In the professional world, these strategies are often referred to as “best practices,” or procedures that are generally effective. The seven initial categories that were developed during open coding (chapter 4) were refined during axial coding, resulting in 13 strategic areas that were further grouped into three overarching meta-categories: Consumer-Facing Work, Agency Operations, and Serving Clients. The first meta-category has seven strategic areas for producing work during the COVID-19 crisis: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Real-time research Nuanced messaging/creativity Production pivots Digital media acceleration Crisis-relevant positioning Activism/risk-taking Ethics

The second meta-category provides three additional strategic areas that are related to how agencies work internally during complex crises to create awardwinning work on behalf of their clients while surviving and thriving as businesses in their own right. The strategic areas in this category are:

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1 Agency culture 2 Recruiting and retention 3 Managing resources The third meta-category focuses on how agencies work with clients during complex crises and includes the following strategic areas: 1 Selection of clients 2 Expanded range of services 3 Relationship-building Each strategic area offers several best practices that can guide advertisers’ and marketers’ decision-making when the next complex crisis arises based on how the participants of this study described their experiences. It is important to note that each crisis affects brands and product categories differently and that there is no “one size fits all” approach to creating effective crisis response advertising. Rather, the strategies/best practices presented in this chapter are meant to serve as food for thought and as a way to accelerate advertising responses during rapidly changing crises that are difficult to predict. Consumer-Facing Work Doubling Down on Research by Monitoring Consumer Behavior in Real-time

Market research has always been an important component of brand communication and it played a crucial role during the COVID-19 crisis, when consumer behavior was changing rapidly and unpredictably. The following seven best practices were used by agencies to understand consumers at various points of the developing COVID-19 crisis. Strategy 1: Pay Attention to Competitors to Assess Consumer Responses

Several participants said that while it’s important to respond quickly, it also is helpful to keep an eye on the competition in terms of if and how they are responding to the crisis and how the responses are perceived. This is particularly helpful in new crisis situations when not much is known about consumers’ reactions. It becomes increasingly important as intervening and contextual conditions (chapter 5) add to the complexity of the crisis, such as changes in consumer behavior, which ranged from hoarding to self-sufficiency and minimalism. Agencies prepared weekly research summaries based on secondary and primary research. “It’s tricky as a brand to react quickly before anybody else takes that idea, but at the same time we were encouraging our clients to get smart

Production Pivots

Nuanced Messaging and Creativity

Consumer Research

Make budget adjustments during postmortem in preparation for the next crisis.

3 Re-emergence/Transformation

System: simple but speedy response

Crisis-relevant brands provide instruction; non-crisis-relevant brands show empathy.

Adhere to health and safety standards of production and audience locale.

System: user-generated or recycled content

Use crisis situation as creative inspiration.

Acknowledge the situation but provide levity, joy, and escape.

(Continued)

Reflect health and safety standards of audience locale.

System: expand network of freelancers

System: build small in-house production studio

Brand messaging and action work together to create synergy and transform the brand.

Assess whether your brand has earned the right to have a point of view on an issue.

Create value for different consumer segments.

Develop crisis-relevant consumer segments.

(Re-)allocate budget to support research.

Understand how the brand’s product category relates to the crisis.

Leverage technology to test audience response.

Consumer-facing work

2 New Temporary Normal

Competitive analysis

1 Shock Absorption

TABLE 6.1 Response Strategies by Phase of Crisis

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Activism/Risk-taking

Brand Positioning During Crisis

Digital Media Acceleration

TABLE 6.1 (Continued) 2 New Temporary Normal

Incorporate e-commerce structure developed during crisis into regular business model.

Be selective about intervening conditions that the brand can influence.

Position the brand as a short-term part of the solution.

Take some creative risks as consumers navigate a new temporary normal.

If a brand has earned the right to have a POV, do take creative risk.

Follow through on the promise to change an issue.

Position the brand as a long-term partner to help solve future crises.

Position a non-crisis-relevant brand as a product unrelated to the crisis.

Focus on helping your local community first.

Position the brand as a friend regardless of product category.

Push out e-commerce structure, if developed.

Increase awareness of how to buy the brand through e-commerce.

Shift focus away from re-targeting and toward developing direct relationships with consumers.

Develop ideas for including social networks that emerged during the crisis in the marketing funnel.

Pay attention to how consumers use social media during a crisis and create interactions with brands. Determine which media metrics are most helpful in measuring effectiveness.

Blend online and offline brand presence to create a ubiquitous brand experience.

Integrate television and social media to encourage conversations facilitated by brands.

Review your media plans and decide if media mix needs to be changed based on crisis realities.

Avoid taking creative risks.

3 Re-emergence/Transformation

Keep media spend intact to stay visible throughout the crisis.

Take advantage of lower media costs as other advertisers will stop advertising.

1 Shock Absorption

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Build up savings to at least six months to be able to pay employees during next crisis. Apply cost savings techniques learned during the crisis permanently (adjust as necessary).

Check-in with employees and provide needed resources (mental health support, etc.) Apply for government loans to retain employees. Recognize that smaller and larger agencies will be competing at the same level through screens.

Ask employees what they need to work from home (don’t assume everyone has a home office)

Tap into savings to retain employees.

(Continued)

Consider making part of the resources available year-round as the future of work is changing.

Expect post-pandemic talent acquisition and retention challenges.

Hire a coach or consultant to transition back to work after a series of lockdowns.

Managing Resources/ Fiscal Responsibility

Encourage diverse talent to apply for full-time positions post-crisis.

Tap into agency’s freelance network to include diverse talent in projects.

Be aware of psychological toll of remote work.

Invest in technology that will enhance collaboration and use it regularly.

Be clear about how the agency is going to communicate with employees.

Simplify internal communication with fewer rather than more tools.

Leverage technology to flatten agency hierarchy and ensure that all voices are heard.

Continue to cultivate a people-first culture.

Over-communicate details about the crisis and how it affects the agency.

Prioritize employees’ health and safety needs first.

Consider media placements in the context of intervening conditions.

Agency Operations

Avoid direct sales related to the crisis.

Recruiting and Retention of Talent

Agency Culture

Ethics vs. Opportunism

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Relationship-Building

Help clients re-imagine how they might serve during the crisis.

Expanded Range of Services

Provide “high-level” counsel to help clients navigate triple threat/ simultaneous crises.

Take on project-based work to stay afloat and diversify client roster.

Serving Clients

2 New Temporary Normal

Add broader services to agency’s areas of expertise permanently.

Create a robust/diversified client roster.

3 Re-emergence/Transformation

Invest in all-in-one CRM software to increase client management effectiveness and efficiency.

Check-in with all clients to discuss potential implications of the impending crisis on the brand.

Use any pre-developed crisis playbook for guidance on how to navigate current crisis.

Use hybrid approach to maintain client relationships post-crisis.

Conduct post-mortem and develop integrated crisis playbooks for the future.

Push clients out of their comfort zones to try new approaches.

Check-in with clients more frequently via web conferencing.

Update crisis playbooks for clients as the crisis develops.

Shift to quarterly planning and evaluation for the duration of the crisis.

Pre-produce work to benefit the community and find a partner later.

1 Shock Absorption

Selection of Clients

TABLE 6.1 (Continued)

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beforehand. The weekly reports we were writing were helping them assess the situation and seeing what other brands were doing that works and that weren’t met with consumer backlash, and what those brands were doing that didn’t work and that were matched with backlash” (Participant #5). Strategy 2: Leverage Technology to Test Audience Reactions Quickly

The agencies that were represented in this study used many different forms of research to collect and interpret market data, including industry reports on consumer behavior, media usage, social listening, and looking back in time to learn from other crisis moments throughout history. Industry publications like Ad Age compiled and sent out daily reports during the pandemic that were helpful in understanding the rapidly changing consumer landscape. Larger agencies reported conducting their own primary research through research vendors. One of the global agencies that participated in this study conducted monthly consumer sentiment studies with samples of 10,000 individuals across 20 countries to understand consumer behavior and develop appropriate message strategies for its clients. Smaller agencies with modest budgets leveraged video web conferencing technology to “produce work quickly and then test it with online focus groups, [which] was highly beneficial during times of uncertainty” (Participant #6). The key is to get access to data quickly, synthesize it to fit clients’ needs, and use it to develop crisis-relevant strategies because crisis situations and consumer reactions to crises tend to change quickly. Strategy 3: (Re-)Allocate a Larger Amount of the Budget to Amp Up Research As Soon As the Crisis Starts

The participants of this study emphasized the importance of real-time research in crisis situations, which requires more funding. Research will be even more important in the future to understand consumers in the moment and what they expect from brands. The opportunity to truly understand the consumer’s mindset both now and future-looking is a big opportunity that all the brands that I work on are scrambling to understand. And I feel like those that have the budget to do research on it are the ones that are going to be able to tap into it better and get ahead ( (Participant #7). Allocating more dollars to research is challenging for clients with smaller budgets, who often want to maximize their dollars to create messaging and media placement. However, as a variety of new complex crises are on the horizon, one best practice is to make budget adjustments now or during post-mortem in preparation for the next crisis.

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Strategy 4: Use Research to Develop Crisis-Relevant Consumer Segments

One way to understand consumer behavior during crises better is to develop crisis-relevant psychographic categories based on intervening and contextual conditions (chapter 5). Ipsos, a global market research company, developed such a COVID-19-specific consumer typology, dividing consumers into five groups based on the extent to which they were affected financially by the health crisis, as well as their attitudes toward the impact of the virus. The typologies include: freedom-focused (unfazed by the virus and financially secure), easy accommodators (not too concerned about the virus but financially affected, mostly young adults), unfazed normals (they have not been affected much but they will change their behaviors to keep the virus from spreading), struggling worriers (very concerned and financially impacted), and shook-up savers (very concerned and financially secure, they will stock up on items) (Gryga & Baecker, 2021). Agencies can develop their own typologies based on the nature of the crisis and specific intervening conditions that alter the impact of the crisis. Nuanced Messaging and Creativity

As the novel coronavirus swept the country it created a sense of uncertainty and fear because it was not clear how, exactly, people’s lives would be affected, how long the crisis would last, and what impact it would have on society. Many brands instinctively reacted with messages of empathy, while others ignored it, not knowing what to say. Many advertisers stopped advertising altogether. Brands turned toward their agencies for help and learned invaluable lessons along the way: Strategy 5: Be Clear about the Relationship between the Crisis and Your Brand’s Product Category

It is critical to understand the nature of the crisis and the product category of your brand. The COVID-19 crisis was a health crisis that affected every person in the world but in different ways. Product categories that are directly related to the crisis, such as healthcare, financial institutions, restaurants, and travel, need to deal directly with crisis-centric messaging by giving consumers clear instructions on what to do. Because these types of messages are instructional, they need to be accurate and reach people quickly. Product categories that are not crisis-relevant, meaning, they don’t have a direct connection to the crisis, should focus more on providing thought leadership, showing empathy, and staying positive. They have an important role to play but it is different from crisis-relevant product categories and brands. However, all brands, irrespective of product category, need to find the right tone for their messaging. As participant #3 said, brands need to “read the room” and not be “tone deaf” to the severity of the situation and how it affects people.

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Strategy 6: Create Value for Different Consumer Segments

The pandemic affected different groups of people in different ways, particularly in terms of race and ethnicity (see chapter 5) as well as socio-economic status and level of concern of the virus. Research shows that brands that are considered essential, such as food and toiletries, tend to offer value-based messaging, while non-essential brands that are considered to be treats, create emotional messaging (Gryga & Baecker, 2021). One participant in this study added that luxury brands needed to grant affluent consumers permission to treat themselves. Describing a campaign for a luxury car, she said, “We really just focused on granting permission, the guilty pleasure piece. It was very much a car that you would purchase because you want to have fun and you want to treat yourself to something” (Participant #21). Strategy 7: Assess Whether Your Brand Has Earned the Right to Have a Voice

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people were infected with the coronavirus, resulting in various outcomes ranging from being asymptomatic to losing their lives. The intervening conditions (particularly, economic pressures, social unrest, and political polarization) also had different effects on consumers and the brands they consume. Many brands felt that they needed to respond to the intervening conditions separately and struggled to determine which ones deserved their attention and which ones didn’t. Some brands jumped on any intervening condition, some in good faith and others to profit from it. However, simply making a visual statement such as posting a black square on social media to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, for example, was perceived by many consumers to be insincere when it came from a brand that had never before supported the BLM movement. The participants in this study emphasized that brands need to earn the right to have a point of view on any issue or intervening condition by establishing a track record of brand actions in that particular area before the crisis and not inadvertently participating in pink-, green-, or wokewashing. If brands have not established a viable track record on an issue, staying silent on that issue is advisable. Strategy 8: Adjust Messaging to the Phase of the Crisis

Successful message strategies adjust as complex crises develop. It is important to listen carefully to the market and the needs of people. During the “Shock Absorption” phase, crisis-relevant brands need to give consumers clear instructions on what to do and how the brand is helping, while non-crisis-relevant brands should focus on showing empathy without selling anything. Timing is as important as the message itself. Some brands inserted themselves too early in the conversation and appeared opportunistic. This is not the time to take any risks.

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During the “New Temporary Normal” phase, brands needed to find a way to reflect and acknowledge this temporary but serious situation while also providing an escape from it. The most successful consumer brands provide moments of joy and happiness in a way that provides hope and a positive but realistic outlook. In the third phase, “Re-emergence/Transformation,” brand messages become more bold as they have transformed themselves from “products with purpose” into “partners with roles.” Brand messaging and brand action work together over time to earn and maintain the brand’s right to provide a point of view and collaborate with consumers to identify and then implement what is possible in a better future. During this last phase of a complex crisis, which often leads to an economic downturn or even a recession, the natural inclination is to think about creating value-based messages. However, “consumers need better reasons to purchase products” (participant #5). In this phase, brands can take risks by standing in their power and expressing their clarified brand values, which will align with the beliefs of their most loyal customer base but which may also upset secondary audiences. Strategy 9: Let Crisis Situations Serve as Creative Inspiration

In a complex crisis situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes more difficult to be creative because “the rules keep changing” (Participant #3). During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and masking requirements created a myriad of creative challenges, particularly related to production (see “Production Pivots” for more information). However, several participants mentioned that instead of seeing the imposed restrictions as obstacles, they could serve as creative inspiration, particularly when integrated with an intervening (such as social inequality) or contextual condition (such as mental health). One small, independent agency developed ideas early on around strengthening Black and Brown communities that were affected disproportionately by the health crisis and then pitched them to potential partner brands (instead of finding clients first and then developing ideas for them). This approach was a triple win: as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity it helped the community, increased visibility for the sponsoring brand, and helped the agency stay afloat during the first few months of the pandemic after having lost some key clients. These types of CSR activities also let brands earn their right to have a point of view on these issues in the future. Production Pivots

One of the areas of brand communication that was impacted the most by COVID-19 health mandates was production as agencies scrambled to produce new, virus-appropriate work in isolation. Here are four strategies they used to overcome these challenges.

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Strategy 10: Build Systems That Allow You to Produce New Creative Fast

The COVID-19 crisis and subsequent lockdowns, social distancing, and mask mandates happened fast, prompting brands to pull pre-COVID campaigns as quickly as possible and replacing them with crisis-appropriate messaging. Participants described the challenges related to producing original work during the lockdown, which was almost impossible without having COVID-19 tests and vaccines available for much of the pandemic’s first year. Not only did agencies have to come up with new message strategies, they also had to produce work relying on animation/computer graphics, recycled content from previous campaigns, user-generated content, video content recorded by actors themselves on their own smartphones, and using stock footage. Some had success with these techniques and others did not. For this reason, participants of this study predict that production in general will become less elaborate in the future to ensure new creative can be produced and disseminated quickly when a crisis emerges. Developing standard operating procedures with each client for production strategies that have worked in the past to develop new creative fast and without jeopardizing quality must be on any agency’s to-do list in preparation for the next crisis. Another important component of the system needs to be the legal process of obtaining permissions and reviewing the work, which takes time. Strategy 11: Adhere to the Local and Global Health and Safety Standards When Producing Work

In general, in-house production decreased during lockdown as social distancing was one of the most effective ways to keep the virus from spreading. COVID-19 tests did not become widely available until the end of 2020, so keeping employees safe—particularly those who normally work closely together—was the absolute priority. One agency hired a healthcare professional who tested every employee working in production daily before tests were easily available to the public. In addition, it was also important to remember that the work that was produced during COVID-19 reflected not only local but global health and safety standards. Participants mentioned that brands had to think about where the work that was being produced would run because some of the rules and conventions that were appropriate in the United States were inappropriate in other countries. “Even towards the back end, we would shoot somewhere where, as long as you were tested, you could be within six feet of one another. It was fine from a logistical standpoint to shoot on set but maybe the client wasn’t comfortable having a spot on air that showed people not [socially distant] because you’re a global brand and there are still places in the world where it still makes people uncomfortable to see people close together” (Participant #20).

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Strategy 12: Develop Your Own Repository of Images Instead of Relying on Third-Party Stock Footage

One strategy that was mentioned by several participants was to use recycled visuals, which works better for agencies that have served the same clients over a longer period of time. One smaller agency that used to rely on third-party vendors for images mentioned adding a small in-house production department to get access to visuals more quickly. Another benefit of even a small in-house production department is that agencies can build repositories over time that could serve all of their clients to eliminate the risk of accidentally using the same footage as other advertisers as happened during Super Bowl LV in 2021 (Griner & Liederman, 2021). Strategy 13: Build a Network of Remote Freelancers and Start Integrating Them Year-Round

Highly successful agencies rely on having access to talent that can execute big ideas skillfully and quickly. The social distancing mandates forced agencies to expand their talent pool beyond their usual group of employees and freelancers. Agencies routinely hired freelancers to produce specialized work before the pandemic but had to lean into their networks even more during lockdown. Some participants talked about having to take risks and hire talent that had not yet been vetted. Others saw this predicament as a chance to diversify their talent pool and described it as an opportunity to add different layers of creativity to their work. One way to decrease the risk of hiring unvetted talent is to cultivate a network of freelancers year-round and start integrating them into the agency’s workflow when there is no crisis to deal with. Digital Media Acceleration

As consumers stayed home during lockdown, their use of digital media increased significantly, as did advertising media buys (Nielsen, 2020a). However, even though digital media consumption skyrocketed during the pandemic, traditional media continued to play an important role as well. Strategy 14: Keep Media Spend Intact to Stay Visible

Average media budgets in the United States decreased by 24 percent and as much as 42 percent during the first half of 2020 (Statista, 2022). However, almost all of the participants of this study emphasized how important it was to stay visible during the crisis instead of going dark and pulling media dollars in an effort to “build a war chest” (Participant #12). The messages should potentially change depending on the brand’s product category (see strategy #4) but it is important to have a presence because even brands that were not directly crisis-relevant fulfilled

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important consumer needs. This strategy is consistent with existing research, which argues that marketing during an economic downturn increases a brand’s market share later on (Graham & Frankenberger, 2011; Tellis & Tellis, 2009). There was some variation during COVID-19 as some bigger brands leaned into the crisis by increasing their media budgets, while smaller brands shifted their already small budgets to the following year (2021). Strategy 15: Know Where Your Audience Is and Isn’t

As average media and marketing budgets decreased by as much as 42 percent during the first half of 2020, so did media costs. This development opened up opportunities for brands with smaller media budgets to get in front of larger audiences at a lower cost-per-thousand. Therefore, it is worth taking advantage of inexpensive media opportunities to help increase smaller brands’ visibility. As soon as the lockdown started, media consumption patterns changed as well. Legacy media such as out-of-home and drivetime radio became irrelevant at the onset of the pandemic as people were instructed to stay home. Consumers, who found themselves isolated from friends, family, and co-workers, stayed connected by watching television and conversing about television content such as talk and news programs, family movies, and streaming services using social media (Nielsen, 2020b). For this reason, encouraging brand conversations on television and social media simultaneously is advisable. According to this study’s participants, advertisers embraced a “digital first” mentality and allocated full budgets to digital campaigns with print and trade publications in supporting roles (as opposed to the other way around). TV and video streaming services developed exclusive content and affordable subscriptions to hook viewers. According to Forrester research, almost half of online adults in the United States had subscribed to at least one streaming service in the first 15 months of the pandemic (Lai, 2021). As the world opened back up in phase 3 (“Re-emergence/Transformation”), brands operated in a changed media environment. Participants predict an even more rapid decline of offline content consumption, which is consistent with industry research (Lai, 2021). Strategy 16: Rethink Your Social Media Game

During the pandemic consumers not only spent more time on social media, but they also explored and engaged with new platforms while isolating at home and trying to connect with others. Platforms that offered consumers the opportunity to be creative and to express themselves took off. Tiktok, for example, became wildly popular during this time both in terms of total unique visitors and minutes spent per visit (Williamson, 2020). As people were stuck at home, the platform provided them with tools to create content through collaborations with other

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users. Participants of this study said that consumers craved comfort, wanting to escape the pandemic and to connect with others during lockdown, and Tiktok fulfilled those needs. In the context of the lockdown and social isolation, it was a highly effective way for brands to connect with consumers by creating entertaining, positive, and engaging content that fostered a sense of connection with others (Snyder, 2022). Audio-based social network Clubhouse made its debut during this time and filled the vacancy left by drivetime radio since people were no longer driving to work. Although new platforms often do not offer paid advertising opportunities in their infancy, participants of this study revealed that they devoted time and energy toward developing ideas for brand communication on these new platforms for the future. Strategy 17: Review and Adjust Media Metrics to Reflect Consumer Behavior

It is important to closely follow media metrics as a crisis unfolds and develops because it can change consumer behavior significantly as was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, before the pandemic, digital media agencies often used geo-location technology to measure the effectiveness of campaigns in generating on-premise store traffic. However, one participant who served as a media strategist explained that geo-targeting was not helpful during the pandemic because people were confined to their homes. Depending on the nature of the crisis, agencies need to determine how to measure success and be accountable to the client. Shifting metrics does not have to be complicated. Another agency decided to use search as a measure of growth for some brands and while it was not a perfect metric, it did provide some insight into the effectiveness of its communication efforts as consumers were ordering more products online. Strategy 18: Goodbye, Cookies—Hello, Content!

Directly related to media metrics was Google’s announcement that it would stop supporting cookies. Cookies were developed to facilitate e-commerce during the early days of the Internet. They essentially stored information about consumers’ online behavior and made it available to advertisers who could use it for hypertargeting. Google first made this announcement in 2020, which, in combination with other digital challenges and evolving consumer needs during the pandemic, caused advertisers to rethink their approach. Brands will need to do a lot of work in terms of developing direct relationships with their customers. Many brands relied on cookies and all this digital measurement that is now going away thanks to Google and privacy regulation, [which] represents both a challenge and an opportunity. It’s gonna be hard again for those brands that were just relying on retargeting with

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banner ads everywhere you go. But the opportunity is to rethink how and where we talk to customers. We are going to focus more on content. (Participant #11) Strategy 19: Embrace Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

COVID-19 accelerated the development of direct-to-consumer marketing as stores were closed for business and people were instructed to stay home during lockdown in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. Aided by social media and other digital platforms, e-commerce exploded as consumers ordered products from home. Agencies’ role was to help brands build e-commerce infrastructures and let consumers know how to order products and services directly. Brand Positioning during Crisis

Brands can position themselves in the mind of consumers during a crisis based on how their product category relates to the nature of the crisis. Strategy 20: Position the Brand as an Unrelated Product

The first option is to simply position the brand independent of the crisis. This strategy means that the only crisis response is to stay visible but without making any crisis-related promises or comments. This positioning is appropriate for products and brands that are not suited to solve crisis-related issues and/or if they have not earned the right to have a point-of-view on crisis-related issues. This strategy may or may not position the brand as a friend (see below) at the beginning of the crisis, and then switches to positioning the product as unrelated to the crisis in subsequent crisis phases. Several participants mentioned that sometimes it is better for brands to be silent on crisis issues if they don’t have anything substantive to say. This type of positioning also worked as consumers started to develop COVID-19 message fatigue after having been exposed to endless COVID messages from the news, work, social media, etc. Strategy 21: Position the Brand as a Friend

Participants of this study described the early days of the pandemic as chaotic, frantic, and marked by uncertainty and fear about the invisible health threat. During phase 1 of the crisis (“Shock Absorption”), it is important to humanize the brand and help consumers absorb the emotional impact of the crisis by providing messages of comfort and empathy. Any brand can use this type of positioning, whether or not its product category is crisis-relevant. However, timing of this type of messaging is critical. Being among the first brands to

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provide comfort is critical before the marketplace gets diluted with “me too” brands using almost identical messaging (as was the case during the COVID-19 crisis). This type of positioning is important but should only be used for a short period of time as consumers can get annoyed quickly. Strategy 22: Position the Brand as a Short-Term Part of the Solution

After the initial shock absorption, brands should determine if they can play a part in helping to solve the problem at hand through repurposing during phase 2 of the crisis (“A New Temporary Normal”). Can the company produce items at its production facilities that are needed, such as hand sanitizers, ventilators, or respirators? Can the organization make some of its workforce available to partner with other companies to help alleviate the pressures of the crisis? This type of positioning is almost mandatory for crisis-relevant product categories because inaction would likely be perceived negatively. However, even brands that are seemingly unrelated to the crisis can contribute to the greater good. Whatever a brand/company decides to do, participants of this study mentioned that coordinated collaborations and partnerships, particularly at the local level, are necessary to maximize crisis relief efforts. Brands that actively support crisis relief not just through donations but through action, will likely generate goodwill toward their brand/company compared to those that are inactive. Based on the findings of this study, it is inadvisable to create awareness of the brand’s activities through earned media alone. Instead, the focus should shift to paid media. One participant, who was a public relations expert, mentioned that pitching to journalists became very challenging during this phase because they focused on covering the rapidly changing health situation instead of covering CSR activities. Strategy 23: Position the Brand as a Long-Term Partner to Help Solve Future Crises

Many companies and brands stepped up during the darkest times of the COVID19 crisis by repurposing their assets to help hospitals, first responders, and people in need. Repurposing assets in response to a crisis is part of a company’s corporate social responsibility activities and helps the public while generating goodwill, but they are temporary pivots (see chapter 5). Some brands recognized the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to position brands as longterm partners to help solve future problems: “There are always opportunities during times of crisis. The question is whether you’re willing to embrace those opportunities” (Participant #10). This type of positioning is related to having a clear brand purpose and living up to that purpose consistently (not just during a crisis) through actions.

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Activism/Risk-taking

The long timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic and impact on people’s daily lives affected how they wanted to live their lives after the pandemic. It clarified what was really important to them and highlighted social issues that deserved more attention and possible solutions. Consumers increasingly believe that businesses are better suited to solve their problems than the government, increasing the level of social responsibility placed on brands. Strategy 24: Integrate a Pressing Intervening Condition into Your Main Crisis Response

One way to develop a brand’s purpose that solves future problems is to place it at the intersection of the main crisis (in this case COVID-19) and one intervening condition that affects society, and then committing to continuously improving the situation in the long run. Participants of this study warned not to “jump on every cause” because it will appear to be opportunistic. Instead, be selective about what the brand can change and then change it. Integrating a main crisis response with an intervening condition through consistent brand activism elevates the brand from having purpose to having an important role in society. Strategy 25: Turn Your Immediate Focus toward Your Local Community

During times of crisis, it is advisable for brands to make their crisis relief efforts part of their corporate social responsibility activities by helping their local community. Local agencies will likely understand the effect of the crisis on their local community very well and know how to help. This is particularly important during the acute and chronic phases of the crisis when people and small businesses need all the support they can get. Some of the participants talked about developing creative solutions to the crisis without working on behalf of a brand. Using affordable, larger-than-life, out-of-home media opportunities that became available as advertisers went dark, one agency developed empathetic and inspiring messaging highlighting the resiliency of the community. By executing this project in a highly visible way, the agency was able to attract brands that supported the project financially after it was created. Strategy 26: Increase the Level of Creative Risk as the Crisis Progresses

A central concept related to crisis management is risk mitigation. Participants of this study acknowledged that risk mitigation changes depending on the phase of the crisis. At the beginning, brands and agencies minimized risk both in terms of producing work as well as messaging. Many brands tried to help communicate the government’s health and safety messages but on their terms and using their

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own brand elements to show that they were committed to decreasing the health risk. These campaigns can be very effective because collectively, they have enormous reach of brand users, who will likely see the message. As the crisis entered phases 2 and 3, it became more complex because of the added layers of intervening and contextual conditions. These complexities drew attention to existing problems and created unique sets of consumer needs and expectations, which in turn presented brands with opportunities to effect lasting change. These situations force brands to come out of their comfort zones (see #49) and take creative risks. Participant #10 said that crises are a good time to try something new and take even a small risk, while Participant #19 described risktaking during complex crises as a necessity. Ethics vs. Opportunism

Crises often provide opportunities for businesses, particularly those that compete in crisis-relevant product categories. However, opportunities that present themselves during crisis situations can lead to predatory brand actions. Strategy 27: Pay Attention to Message and Media Ethics

Trying to sell products directly during crises can be perceived as opportunism, which will work against the brand in the long run. Instead, consider highlighting and thanking first responders or creating messaging that instructs consumers on where to find help. Several participants talked about consumers’ “bullshit meter” and advised against creating messages that attempt to sell crisis-related items directly. Other decisions brands had to make related to ethics is their media mix. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook came under scrutiny for not doing enough to protect people’s privacy and so many advertisers boycotted Facebook during the height of the pandemic even though it had an enormous reach at that point in time. Other media choices can reflect political leanings, which is an intervening condition that alters the impact of the pandemic. Staying on top of current issues and culture is key to ethical decision-making that will not appear to be opportunistic. “Everyone wondered, what is appropriate right now? Can we keep running the work that we’re running right now? Do we have a place in the conversation in what’s happening right now? You have to kind of make that call” (Participant #20). Agency Operations Agency Culture

The participants of this study credited their agency culture for their ability to quickly move to a prolonged virtual working-from-home environment, while retaining employees and continuing to create quality work for new and existing clients.

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Strategy 28: Build a People-First Agency Culture and Cultivate It throughout the Crisis

The sample of agencies that were included in this study was diverse and represented different types of agencies, different-sized agencies, and agencies from all across the country. The participants talked about the level of trust in their shop, which was based on transparency, frequent communication, and to some extent the agency model. Some of the smaller agencies included profit-share, which kept employees committed to surviving and thriving as an agency business. As employees started to work from home during lockdown, the agencies in this study prioritized their employees’ safety and several of them provided free access to mental health practitioners and support groups. Strategy 29: Over-Communicate Internally

Complex crises change quickly and at times dramatically. Employees experience fear and uncertainty just like anybody else, particularly when their livelihood might be affected. Participants stressed the importance of frequent communication regarding the overall health of the agency, account updates, and strategic priorities. They recommended at least weekly updates but even more frequently when the crisis develops more quickly. The participants welcomed this type of transparency and frequency and recommended erring on the side of “over-communicating” during the most critical points of the crisis (phases 1 and 2). Strategy 30: Simplify Communication

When crises necessitate the need for more frequent communication, it is important to simplify the communication process, particularly when the vast majority of agency communication moves online. Several of the participants described the confusion caused by the multitude of available communication channels, including different messaging platforms like Slack, Zoom, Teams, and even simple phone calls. Sometimes agency teams were not sure which platform should be used, whether a meeting was scheduled on Zoom or Teams, all while trying to stay on top of email. Not only was this confusion frustrating, but it also wasted time that could have been allocated differently. The agencies eventually developed clear operating procedures that described which communication tool would be used for specific purposes. Strategy 31: Think Creatively about Leveraging Technology to Connect and Elevate People

In a highly collaborative industry, lockdown and working in isolation provided significant challenges for agencies to operate. Digital-first agencies were already using web-conferencing tools and cloud services as part of their day-to-day

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operations before the pandemic and described the move to working from home as a relatively easy adjustment. As Zoom and other web conferencing software became people’s lifeline to colleagues and team members, several agencies used it not only to conduct work but also to implement community-building virtual initiatives such as holding virtual lunch-and-learns, happy hours, and even informal tours of people’s homes. Using web conferencing software can flatten real or perceived hierarchies in agencies. Since every participant occupies the same size of “tile” on the screen, agency leadership and new employees are equally visible. Participants have talked about this phenomenon as a positive development because it gives voice to everyone and fosters creative thinking. Strategy 32: Invest in Software That Will Enhance Collaboration and Train Employees Regularly

One of the main difficulties for people working in creative fields that are rooted in teamwork and collaborations is trying to replicate the agency setting in a virtual environment. Although some participants mentioned that much of an agency’s work can be done at home (with the exception of production), it requires a lot more planning. Every conversation has to be scheduled and it becomes a more formal communication process. Some participants argued that this formality and lack of serendipitous problem-solving limits the degree of creativity that develops in a virtual environment. Luckily, software, such as Miro, a visual collaboration platform, can be used for real-time brainstorming and ideation. Instead of waiting until the next crisis hits, it is helpful to make this technology available to agency teams year-round. Recruiting and Retention of Talent

One of the most important internal strategies agencies focused on during the COVID-19 pandemic was their people and they used different strategies to keep employees safe and engaged in their work. Hiring continued for most of the participating agencies throughout the pandemic. Strategy 33: Don’t Underestimate the Invisible Consequences of Working Remotely

While technology plays a critical role in creating a viable working-fromhome environment, it also creates many invisible challenges, which tend to exacerbate the longer the crisis lasts. For one, employees will develop Zoom fatigue quickly because suddenly almost all interactions happen online and people jump from one Zoom room to the next, often without breaks or a clear end of the workday. Encouraging employees to create boundaries around the

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workday and virtual meetings will help prevent burnout in the long run. Several participants mentioned that they reverted to reaching employees by calling them. However, given that the advertising industry employs many digital natives (particularly Gen Z and younger Millennials), be aware that direct phone calls are perceived to be very serious and can exacerbate feelings of anxiety if they are not part of your non-crisis communication environment. Before moving to a remote work environment, communicate clearly how the agency is going to connect with employees in certain situations, particularly when legacy tools are part of the plan. Strategy 34: Recognize That Crisis Situations Particularly Affect Junior Employees

Several participants mentioned the extra burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior employees, including the onboarding process, professional development and mentoring, and the mental impact of working from home. The physical space of any agency often plays an important role when onboarding and training new employees because it introduces them to the agency’s culture but it is difficult to recreate virtually. Since communication tends to be more formal in virtual environments, assigning work to junior employees also becomes more formal and requires more planning. Also remember that junior employees often share very small living quarters with others, which makes working from home very difficult. Some of the participating agencies made space available for those who were unable to work from home, as long as health safety mandates allowed for it. Another participant was concerned about the effects of isolation during the long and cold winter months of 2020/2021 and the “psychological toll that is yet to be reckoned with” (Participant #12). Strategy 35: Tap into Your Freelance Network to Diversify Your Workforce

Complex crises expose underlying intervening and contextual conditions and accelerate trends and challenges that were already on the horizon before the crisis hit. For example, the lack of diverse talent in the advertising industry was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the best practices of producing original work during a pandemic is to build and cultivate a network of freelancers, who can produce work year-round (see strategy #13). Having this network of talent also creates an opportunity to diversify an agency’s full-time talent roster post-pandemic. By including diverse talent through the freelance network, both the agency and potential employees have an opportunity to develop a relationship and create trust. Instead of retaining diverse talent as part of the freelance pool, encourage them to apply for full-time opportunities either remotely or in-person.

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Strategy 36: Expect Post-Pandemic Talent Acquisition Challenges

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide was the “Great Resignation,” when a large number of employees resigned for a variety of reasons, including low pay, rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction, and inflexible remotework policies. Although this movement was mostly seen in the hospitality, healthcare, and education sectors, the participants of this study were concerned about having to compete with other employers for talent, particularly on the client side. Younger people are more interested in being fully remote and a lot of clients are doing a far better job than agencies at making that possible for people. And I think it’s going to continue to worsen our difficulties of hiring young talent. (Participant #18) Determine what your talent pool values and find ways to accommodate their needs. Participants also mentioned that they anticipate losing agency personnel to the brand side as corporate America has been able to offer remote work options more so than agencies, which is what the workforce started to value during COVID-19. Strategy 37: Consider Hiring a Coach or Consultant to Facilitate Transitioning from One Work Environment to Another

The transition to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic happened quickly and without much warning. Hardly any of the agencies interviewed for this study indicated that they were prepared and instead figured it out along the way. As lockdowns were easing, agencies started to develop plans on when and how to bring employees back to work, which created a sense of dread in many workers. As future complex crises will no doubt arise, it would be helpful to hire a coach or consultant to ease these transitions into new work realities as one participating agency did in an effort to reduce the stress felt by employees. Managing Resources/Fiscal Responsibility

Advertising agencies not only need to monitor how a massive health threat like the COVID-19 pandemic affected their clients’ verticals, but they also have to focus on staying in business themselves, particularly when key clients decide to go dark and save cash for a rainy day instead of investing in their brands throughout the crisis. Strategy 38: Ensure That Your Employees Have the Right Equipment and Access to Resources When They Are Working from Home

All of the participants in this study said that they were able to send their employees home during lockdown pretty quickly and the most common piece of

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equipment mentioned was a laptop with the necessary software and access to the cloud. Many of the agencies that were represented in the sample already conducted much of their work digitally even when working together physically in the agency space before the pandemic. Be mindful that employees may not have other office equipment available at home, including desks and chairs. It is also important to check in with employees and ask them what they need to do their jobs as lockdowns and other health and safety mandates continue and people’s needs change. Other resources that participants’ agencies made available to their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic were paid days off to take care of themselves and their families without questions asked, and free access to mental health practitioners and support groups to help cope with the crisis. Strategy 39: Secure Your Payroll

When the COVID-19 crisis developed, many brands decided to pull their advertising dollars, creating a domino effect for agencies. Without a revenue stream from clients, agencies soon felt the impact on their bottom line. While some agencies reduce their workforce when they lose major clients, this practice is inadvisable during crises because (1) hiring is more challening during difficult times and economic downturns, (2) agencies need talent to do other types of work to support existing clients, and (3) employees may decide to leave on their own accord as was the case in phase 3 of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation (Whittaker, 2022). Smaller agencies, in particular, had to focus on managing their resources and being fiscally responsible. Participant #13, CEO of a regional agency, recommends building up at least six months of savings instead of three to avoid layoffs and to apply for government loans, such as the U.S. Small Business Association’s Paycheck Protection Program (U.S. Small Business Administration, n.d.) and any loan forgiveness programs as soon as they become available. Strategy 40: Discover Cost Savings during the Crisis and Continue to Implement Them Post-Crisis to Increase Cost-Efficiencies

With global travel bans in place, agencies, like everyone else, were unable to travel to make pitches or meet with clients and global agency teams. Much of the business that used to require traveling was moved to a virtual environment, which democratized smaller agencies’ ability to compete with large ones. Several participants mentioned the cost savings they experienced because of the travel bans. Although travel will likely return after the crisis, at least to some extent, participants pointed out that they will adjust their approach to traveling, including (1) sending smaller pitch teams, and (2) being more intentional about global travel by combining trips that used to be separate to support global agency teams. According to a global strategy officer at a large agency:

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When this all kicked off, we were very worried about pitching and recreating the kind of energy and momentum that creative agencies typically create around a pitch through a remote world. In the 2019 world you’d have a pitch team and there would be a war room inside the agency with lots of stuff taped on the walls and bits of paper and post-its and you’d spend hours in the war room, all together, discussing stuff, ordering pizza. It felt like a very kind of physical experience and you kind of needed that intense physicality to make progress. I think what we’ve realized is, we can be productive, even in these high-pressure situations, through screens. (Participant #18) Serving Clients Selection of Clients

Agencies live by the clients they serve. Often, smaller agencies start out by developing expertise in only a few verticals, which leaves them vulnerable when those product categories are hit particularly hard during crises. Strategy 41: Create a Robust/Diversified Client Roster

Crises affect brands in different verticals differently. Consider diversifying your client portfolio to include different product categories to inoculate your agency against devastating effects of the crisis on crisis-relevant verticals. For example, during COVID-19, travel, restaurants, and retail were affected negatively, so if an agency specializes exclusively in serving those categories, it will struggle to stay afloat. On the other hand, large agencies reported fewer layoffs than they had expected, largely because clients in unaffected verticals were still advertising, which offset (at least to some extent) some of their revenue loss. Strategy 42: Take on Project-Based Work

Several participants of this study reported they had taken on project-based work, which helped them financially after other clients had stopped advertising. Working on smaller pieces of work for new clients can build an agency’s network and create leads in the future. In addition, it’s a way to retain employees—albeit reducing their hours—instead of laying them off. Strategy 43: Pre-Produce Work and Find a Partner Later

Some of the smaller agencies lost clients early on during the pandemic. One agency used this time to find inspiration in the chaos and produced work to benefit the local community on its own, without having a client to back it. They raised awareness of the impact of COVID-19 on the Black and Brown business

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community. This particular agency was able to create the work while making a difference by helping small businesses in the area. They were able to find a brand partner after it produced the work, essentially reversing the traditional agency model. This type of engagement is beneficial for agency morale and visibility. Expanded Range of Services

The participants of this study cared deeply about how they could best serve their clients during the health pandemic, whether they continued to advertise or not. Strategy 44: Always Provide Added Value

When lockdowns or other challenges prevent agencies from producing creative work during crises, it is important to provide value to clients in other ways. For example, agencies that participated in this study compiled and distributed realtime research to clients on a weekly basis to help them understand the changing crisis situation (see strategies #1–4 for more information). During times of uncertainty, clients look for thought leadership, particularly as the complexity of the crisis increases. Providing added value beyond developing and producing communication campaigns also helps agencies discover areas of expertise that they can include in their range of services in the future. Producing this type of work throughout a long crisis will take considerable human resources. Strategy 45: Increase Your Range of Services to Drive Change

As one participant noted, “Agencies have always had a secondary role, which is to help clients work out how to show up in a contemporary world” (Participant #17). Several participants helped clients in struggling verticals re-imagine how they might change their core competence to serve people in different ways, so the agency’s role may shift from creating communication to creating experiences. With an increasingly complex contemporary world, particularly during the pandemic, almost all participants talked about how their range of services increased in an effort to provide value (see strategy #44) for their clients. Agencies see themselves as change agents on behalf of their clients at the nexus of technology, social issues, and business leadership. Several mentioned that they started to provide more consulting and “high-level counsel” as brands started to navigate the triple threat (chapter 5) of economic pressures, social issues, and political polarization, all of which influenced communication during the COVID-19 era. Another area of expertise that emerged for agencies was to provide “operational counsel” to determine how organizations can live up to elevated brand promises. As participant #19 explained, “All the different things that brands can do these days in order to connect with a consumer provide something of value that’s useful and relevant. Increasingly, it goes way beyond advertising.”

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Strategy 46: Increase the Frequency of Planning and Evaluation

Because crisis situations tend to change quickly, it is important to focus more heavily on planning and evaluation. Instead of planning communication campaigns annually as is common procedure, the frequency during complex crises should shift to at least quarterly planning because participants mentioned the unpredictable nature of consumer behavior. The same is true for evaluation. Communication campaigns should be evaluated on a quarterly basis, if possible. Some participants mentioned they had developed new metrics, so that they could adjust brand communication frequently. Strategy 47: Conduct a Post-Mortem and Develop Integrated Crisis Playbooks

Several of the participants mentioned that their agency produced crisis playbooks for their clients, which contained crisis-specific strategies and tactics based on what was learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of them developed similar documents for situations associated with intervening conditions such as the BLM movement. Moving forward and knowing that more complex crises will occur in the near future, an even more effective approach would be to develop an integrated playbook of crisis situations based on the complex crisis response advertising model developed as part of this study (chapter 8) instead of treating each crisis separately. Relationship-Building Strategy 48: Leverage Web Conferencing to Improve Your Relationships with Clients

At the beginning of the pandemic agencies were concerned that social isolation and travel bans would make it more difficult to nurture strong client relationships, which is the bread-and-butter of a successful partnership in brand communication. One participant mentioned the necessary “friction” that needs to exist between client and agency, which often leads to cutting-edge creative that resonates with audiences. Building and maintaining relationships through virtual communication platforms can be challenging. Another participant talked about the “transactional” nature of online conversations and yet another noted that using online platforms is inherently more formal than in-person meetings. However, video conferencing can also work to enhance client relationships. For example, in lieu of traveling to see a client only a few times during the year, it is much more conducive to checking in with clients more frequently. Participants of this study pointed out that it was a much more cost- and time-efficient way to stay in touch. For many, video conferencing software replaced the traditional phone call and just seeing another human face during lockdown contributed positively to people’s mental health.

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Strategy 49: Push Your Client out of Their Comfort Zone

Complex crises change quickly and in unprecedented ways, which means that brands need to be able to not only adapt but anticipate what might happen next. In other words, they need to be comfortable to take a certain amount of risk and try new approaches to brand communication and brand activism, particularly during phases 2 and 3 of the crisis. Agencies need to build strong relationships with clients based on trust to push them out of their comfort zones and adapt to the different realities of the crisis. “I work hard to push clients out of their comfort zones. Clients will cling to their comfort zone at their own peril, and they think it’s the safe thing, and in many, many ways it’s just the opposite” (Participant #19). Strategy 50: Invest in All-in-One CRM Software

Another area of agency work is customer relationship management. As agency leadership and employees started to work from home, the number of systems used to manage clients became overwhelming and it was difficult to access important information quickly. Some of the smaller agencies mentioned that they switched to all-in-one CRM solutions, which offer more flexibility and speed when serving clients. Discussion

Agencies and their clients showed their resilience and creativity during the COVID-19 pandemic in responding to the crisis that increased in complexity over the course of the first year and a half. The participants of this study openly discussed their approaches, successes and failures, and best practices that emerged along the way. There is no simple set of strategies or guidelines that can be implemented because the coronavirus crisis impacted every brand and every vertical differently. However, marketing and advertising practitioners can use these 50 strategies that emerged from this study as a starting point when the next complex crisis emerges or better yet, develop a playbook for brands and agencies before it does. Summary

This chapter describes the strategies that advertising professionals used in response to the intense pressures caused by the global pandemic. The chapter connects to the previous ones in that it describes specific actions agencies developed and implemented during different stages of the crisis to serve their clients, consumers, their own employees, and society. The chapter includes 50 strategies that agencies can utilize when the next complex crisis hits. These strategies emerged

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from the interviews with the participants as well as data published by trade publications and other sources. They are grouped into 13 strategic areas in three meta-categories, including consumer-facing work, agency operations, and serving clients. The strategies were developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic but also provide food for thought for other potential complex crises on the horizon. Discussion Questions

1 Which of the strategies can be applied to other crisis situations (environmental, financial, war/terrorist crises, etc.)? 2 Which strategies will likely shape the future of the post-pandemic advertising industry? 3 Which strategies are easiest to implement and which ones are most difficult? 4 Which strategies are likely to become the norm in the next decade? Suggestions for Practical Applications

1 Which of these strategies, if any, has your organization implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic? What were your experiences? 2 Identify the strategies you implemented during the COVID-19 crisis that worked well and will remain in your toolbox. 3 What kind of work-related risks did you take during the COVID-19 pandemic? Did they pay off? If so, how? If not, why not? 4 Based on the strategies described in this chapter and your own experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, what can you do now to prepare for the next crisis? Suggestions for Future Research

1 This grounded theory research discovered a multitude of crisis response strategies used by brands and advertising agencies in an effort to not only survive but thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional research is needed to determine which strategies have the biggest impact for agencies and brands and under which circumstances (contextual conditions). 2 The current study explored the impact of COVID-19 on crisis response advertising from the perspective of advertising practitioners who experienced the health crisis working for an advertising agency. It would be helpful to understand the phenomenon from the client side, particularly in terms of their needs and decision-making regarding brand communication during crises.

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References Graham, R. C., & Frankenberger, K. D. (2011). The earnings effects of marketing communication expenditures during recessions. Journal of Advertising, 40(2), 5–24. 10.2753/JOA0091-3367400201 Griner, D., & Liederman, E. (2021, February 5). How 2 Super Bowl Ads Ended Up Using the Same Stock Footage. https://www.adweek.com/creativity/2-super-bowl-ads-stockclip-exclusivity-worthwhile/ Gryga, D., & Baecker, B. (2021, February). How to create a value proposition for food brands during a pandemic and recession | WARC. http://origin.warc.com.libproxy.unl. edu/content/article/how-to-create-a-value-proposition-for-food-brands-during-apandemic-and-recession/135650 Lai, A. (2021, June 21). Post-Pandemic Media Consumption: Online Streaming Accelerates A New Content Experience. Forrester. https://www.forrester.com/blogs/post-pandemicmedia-consumption-online-streaming-accelerates-a-new-content-experience/ Nielsen. (2020a, March). Staying PUT: Consumers Forced Indoors During Crisis Spend More Time On Media. Nielsen. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2020/staying-putconsumers-forced-indoors-during-crisis-spend-more-time-on-media/ Nielsen. (2020b, April). Quarantined Consumers Are Staying Connected With TV and Social Media. Nielsen. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2020/quarantined-consumers-arebridging-gaps-in-social-contact-with-tv-and-social-media/ Snyder, V. (2022, June 29). How COVID-19 has changed social media habits. Business.Com. https://www.business.com/articles/social-media-patterns-during-the-pandemic/ Statista. (2022). Downsized media budgets due to COVID-19 worldwide by region 2020. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1154849/media-budget-coronavirusworldwide-by-region/ Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Tellis, G. J., & Tellis, K. (2009). Research on advertising in a recession. Journal of Advertising Research, 49(3), 304–327. 10.2501/S0021849909090400 U.S. Small Business Administration. (n.d.). Paycheck Protection Program. Paycheck Protection Program. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.sba.gov/ funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program Whittaker, B. (2022, January 9). The Great Resignation: Why More Americans Are Quitting Their Jobs than ever Before. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/great-resignation-60minutes-2022-01-10/ Williamson, D. A. (2020, April 27). US Consumers Are Flocking to TikTok. Insider Intelligence. https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/us-consumers-areflocking-to-tiktok

7 THE SILVER LINING

Chapter Objectives

1 To describe the outcomes/consequences of the strategies that were deployed by brands and agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2 To theorize how complex crisis response strategies might shape the new reality of a post-pandemic world. Chapter 6 offered a selection of 50 strategies that agencies and brands deployed during the COVID-19 health crisis. Some of the strategies were based on what worked during other, smaller crisis moments, while others were developed on the fly in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They created certain outcomes and resulted in effects that were tailored to resolve crisis-induced problems or to manage or maintain related situations (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). These strategies were deployed in different ways based on the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic that also led to more permanent changes known as consequences (chapter 7). In the context of this study, the consequences are defined as lasting changes that have altered how advertising practice has changed as a result of the main causal condition (the pandemic) as well as the intervening and contextual conditions that were also present. A Changed World

The main takeaway from the results of this study was that a complex crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic creates a new reality that is distinctively different from the one that was in place before the crisis unfolded (chapter 2 describes the DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-7

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contrast between a pre-COVID and post-COVID world). The COVID-19 health crisis ushered in a new era, marked by trends that were already in motion and that were accelerated by the circumstances of the health crisis, particularly lockdowns, social distancing, and an underlying fear of the unknown. This finding is consistent with Robinson and Veresiu’s (2021) notion that advertising has the ability to provide people with possibilities during uncertain times by helping them mourn the loss of what could have been, creating a new future, and providing new mythologies for consumers to cope with the consequences of the crisis. The pandemic basically reset the operating system of the world. And with that comes a lot of panic, but I think good marketers saw it as an incredible opportunity to develop messaging for this new operating system. (Participant #15) One participant talked about significant events in recent history that shaped the marketplace in the twenty-first century. The first significant events were the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, which created common ground and unity among much of the U.S. population, resulting in a “War Against Terror” that lasted more than a decade. The 9/11 crisis had a strong economic effect with people buying products to help the U.S. economy and showing their defiance of the attacks. The second significant crisis of the twenty-first century was the collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008 and subsequent recession. It was at this point that companies started to think about brand purpose, to make it public, and to tell consumers why they needed to believe in the brand. The advertising style became more about soft-sell storytelling and entertainment and less about persuading people to buy a product by focusing on features and benefits. This era was amplified by web 2.0, early social media, and participatory sharing as “brands became something we followed” (Participant #15). COVID-19 ushered in the next era as consumers were stuck at home contemplating life during months of lockdowns, connected to those outside their own home primarily by technology. There’s always something that marks a decade. COVID inevitably is going to mark this decade and what it marked for brands was a shift in what they needed to do. It was no longer enough to talk about your purpose and to tell people why to believe in it. What are you doing about it? (Participant #15) The characteristics of this new, post-COVID era are further defined by five additional high-level consequences that are described in this chapter, including an acceleration of existing trends, brand transformation vs. demise, emergence of the empowered consumer, the future of (agency) work, and better crisis preparedness. For one, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends that were

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already in motion, including the way technology influences almost every aspect of our daily life, the fragile state of our mental health, and continued social and racial inequalities to name but a few. As cultural change agents, brands and their agencies contributed to this new reality by the way they responded to the crisis and its different phases, including all positive and negative actions as well as inactions. Some brands and agencies radically transformed themselves during the crisis after looking inward and improving themselves in an effort to help consumers and society more meaningfully. Some adjusted to the situation only temporarily as the crisis unfolded, while others ignored it and didn’t survive. The pandemic also marked the emergence of the empowered consumer. People expected brands to help during this time and punished those that didn’t or that seemed to take advantage of the situation with negative comments made public through social media and/or by boycotting them. Another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is the way agencies and brand communicators might work in the future. Part of the bigger “future of work” discourse affecting all sectors of the economy, the advertising industry had to not only learn how to function during lockdowns but also when and how to return to work. The future of agency work will certainly look different from the pre-COVID era. The final consequences highlighted in this chapter are advertisers’ takeaways from the COVID-19 crisis in preparation for the next complex crisis. Acceleration of Trends

A major long-term effect is that the pandemic and strategies used to respond to the problems and challenges it presented, served as an accelerator of trends that were already happening before the crisis unfolded but at a much slower speed. These trends that were significantly accelerated by the health crisis include an expedited shift from analog to digital communication, direct-to-consumer marketing, a mental health crisis, a stronger focus on diversity and inclusion, and sustainability. Digital Communication

Stranded at home due to social distancing and lockdown orders, consumers turned toward technology to stay in touch with friends and family as well as work. Although streaming video was technology that was already in motion before the pandemic, people turned toward the technology for entertainment (as live entertainment and sporting events were canceled) and to stay informed about the pandemic. The wide adoption of streaming video prompted new feature films to be released on streaming services as movie theaters were closed. Social media use exploded as people tried to stay connected with others and gave rise to platforms like TikTok, which provide user-generated content that is entertaining and informational. Web conferencing software enabled much of the workforce in the knowledge creation sector to work from home and kids to attend school

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virtually and became a communication staple even when people returned to a physical work environment because of the cost efficiencies it created. The abundance and rapid adoption of apps and other forms of technology also changed the way agencies communicated both internally and externally with clients. Agencies reported using many different tools for communication, day-today customer relationship management, and accounting purposes, which became cumbersome. People are a little frustrated with having to look at like three or four different places to just have a conversation so we’re actually vetting some new agency software right now and going to a holistic solution instead of all these disparate platforms that don’t talk to each other. (Participant #13) While these technologies already existed before the pandemic, people flocked to them during lockdown because they became a lifeline to the outside world, provided education and entertainment, and even facilitated home delivery of food and home goods. In many ways, people tested and pushed these technologies to the limit and many of them are here to stay. Looking ahead, it would make sense to assume that technologies that can connect people during crises will always be in demand and continue to evolve. The question is, what would happen if a complex crisis destroyed our communication infrastructure (i.e., a natural disaster), rendering it useless? How would we work remotely, attend school, and communicate with loved ones over extended periods of time? Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

Another trend that already existed before the pandemic was a focus on direct-toconsumer marketing. Before the pandemic, brands started to sell to consumers directly through their own and others’ websites as well as social media, but it was mostly a supporting strategy in addition to traditional retail distribution chains. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when retail stores and restaurants were closed, they had to determine how to sell online and deliver products to their customers. As with so many trends that started before the pandemic, businesses that already had an online infrastructure set up were able to adapt to the situation a lot easier than those who relied only on serving customers through the physical storefront. Agencies became a lot more involved in solving their clients’ larger business problems, including setting up online stores and corresponding infrastructure, developing and marketing restaurants’ curbside pickup service, and more. Several participants predict that direct-to-consumer selling and e-commerce in general are here to stay as consumers have become accustomed to the added value provided by retailers and restaurants.

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However, participants also emphasized that, based on market research, consumers are looking forward to being back in stores and having physical shopping experiences. What this means for the future is that retailers and restaurants should have a contingency plan for selling and distribution in case of additional lockdowns. Even if a business model depends on selling in-person, it will be imperative to invest in developing and maintaining an online presence that could be up and running seamlessly if a similar crisis occurs. Mental Health Concerns

The mental health crisis has been in existence in the United States for some time and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated it even more. In a yearover-year comparison, the average share of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder rose from 11 percent in early to mid-2019 to 41.1 percent in January 2021 (Panchal et al., 2021). Fear, uncertainty, confusing messaging from the government as more information about the virus became known, social isolation, as well as job loss and health implications from the disease increased mental health issues, including anxiety, burnout, depression, and substance abuse. During the pandemic, these effects manifested in unpredictable consumer behavior that needed to be monitored in real-time, as well as employee reactions. Creatively, participants of this study emphasized the need for nuanced messaging that acknowledged the crisis without “being tone deaf” and provided emotional comfort instead. In the third phase of the crisis, when lockdowns were eased and people started to resume their lives, messaging highlighted life in the new reality without sugar-coating it. Participants spoke about authentic messaging that humanized the brand and connected it more deeply with the consumer. Most of the participants of this study described an agency workforce that was highly productive and dedicated in spite of working in isolation and carrying a heavier workload. At the same time, they were concerned about employee burnout and long-term mental health effects particularly among the younger employee base. Several agencies provided temporary help in the form of counselors to help employees cope. However, it was not clear whether these practices would continue after the pandemic. Significant crises like COVID-19 will likely generate a mental health toll not only during the crisis but long after. As the world adjusts to the “new reality,” brands need to continue to keep a close eye on changing consumer behavior due to the changing mental health situation in the country, while also providing continued mental health support to employees. Stronger Focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Participants talked in depth about how the COVID-19 pandemic and intervening conditions helped them think about important issues affecting society and

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the role their industry played in improving the lives of underrepresented and misrepresented groups of people. One of the biggest issues is that messages that are intended for diverse audiences are often created by people who do not belong to those groups and therefore lack a true understanding of what might resonate with audiences that are culturally different from them. The advertising industry realized even before the COVID-19 pandemic that it was not diverse enough to serve non-White audiences and created multicultural internship programs such as the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Building Leaders and Creators (BLAC) supported by Procter & Gamble to diversify its ranks (Craft, 2021). Agencies noticed that many of their clients had similar challenges within their workforce, particularly in leadership positions. The COVID-19 crisis exposed social and racial inequalities in society, particularly when the Black Lives Matter movement took hold of people’s conscience while they spent more time at home consuming media due to the lockdown. One participating agency was located in a city that experienced social unrest during that time and was counseling clients not only how to respond in the moment, but how to create lasting, systemic change to decrease the amount of social inequality that still exists.. Brands and agencies that recognized the need to change themselves instead of simply expressing their support of social change had an opportunity to transform into organizations that could not only function but help drive the new reality, which is discussed in detail in the next section. Sustainability

Another trend that has been on the horizon for a while is the urgent need to save the environment. This need was clearly in motion before the pandemic but only the most progressive brands and agencies pursued it aggressively in the work they created. COVID-19 and the restrictions that it imposed on society, forced us to think creatively about how to move forward. It also showed us what’s possible in terms of creating efficiencies. Several participants of this study talked about learning how to pitch using web conferencing tools, collaborate synchronously and asynchronously, and create better relationships with clients, negating the need to constantly travel (see chapter 6). The COVID-19 pandemic also accelerated consumers’ thinking about sustainability as planes were grounded and people found joy in spending time at home or exploring their own states of residence. I think people are wanting to be more mindful of their carbon footprint and the amount of travel and flying that they do. I think people have also reconsidered the life they want to live. People have now invested in making

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their home a really multifunctional space that they like spending time in. So I think that will be a lot more parsimonious with international travel. (Participant #18) Several participants identified sustainability as the next “big thing” in advertising, partly because saving the environment is not only urgent but irreversible if not tended to, and partly because brands that produce things and agencies that compete for the business are expected to do their part to help solve the problem. Brand Transformation vs. Demise

The severity and magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic in conjunction with the intervening and contextual conditions discussed in chapter 5 had powerful implications for brands and set up a new era for marketing and advertising. While the previous section described how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a lot of trends that were already in motion, this section discusses how brands could tap into those trends to position themselves for success in a post-pandemic world and a new reality. It is a great time to not just think about what your brand stands for, but what your brand can do on a sustained level. There’s a huge distinction between being performative and being an ally and what being an ally entails is that brands should be held accountable. And if they’re going to make a corporate responsibility statement, they damn well better show their longterm investment in it. (Participant #15) Moving from talking about change to creating it, the COVID-19 pandemic is a story about transformation. Widely considered a complex crisis, it acted as a catalyst for change, shifting transactional relationships with consumers to elevated partnerships that not only exist in, but drive a new reality. Although plenty of brands stepped up during the crisis to provide temporary crisis relief, several used it to change their core values and work toward sustainable, permanent change they want to see in society. Therefore, one of the main effects that emerged from this study is that complex crises like the COVID-19 pandemic force brands and agencies to step up to the challenge, identify, or revise their core mission and values and then live up to those values to help consumers and society cope with a severe threat while also improving the future. The adversity helped them transform from brands that sold things to brands that truly made a difference, not just during a crisis but every single day. You need to have a role in culture that is tied to your business problem, but it is not putting your business problem at the center of the conversation.

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Crafting a brand role is the evolution from talking about purpose and what you believe to mobilizing it into action, into words, into how you will habitually commit to showing up in the lives of consumers. (Participant #15) As several participants mentioned, crises are “great opportunities to innovate” (Participant #1) and “moments of opportunity” (Participant #15). One brand that stepped up was Facebook, which, before the pandemic, had been a widely used brand but not a very loved brand. It had found itself struggling before the pandemic because of the way it handled a number of things happening as the world’s largest social media platform, including spreading fake news during elections, not adequately protecting users’ privacy, and not doing enough to fight online bullying. When the pandemic hit, Facebook and its parent company Meta immediately recognized the important role it played in connecting people and ran the campaign, “We’re never lost if we can find each other.” The campaign, which was released during the first phase of the pandemic, featured usergenerated images of real people during the crisis along with the voice of British poet Kate Tempest reading her poem, “People’s Faces.” The commercial ends with the tagline, “We’re never lost if we can find each other” and raises awareness of Facebook’s COVID-19 support page (The Drum, 2020). This work laid the foundation to change people’s minds about the social media giant, who redefined its core competence (connecting people) and how it can help fulfill a significant need during tough times. But the transformation went beyond delivering Facebook’s core competence as part of an advertising campaign. Later on during the crisis, Meta pledged $100 million to help journalists’ mission to cover the COVID-19 crisis (Stebbins & Suneson, 2020), extending its focus on actively contributing to crisis relief efforts. COVID-19 exposed and thereby reminded people of underlying systemic societal problems such as racial inequality and social injustice. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, complex crises accelerate trends or truths that were already in motion. When brands reached out to agencies for help with responding to these issues, it became clear that instead of treating the symptoms through ad campaigns, they needed to identify and change the underlying causes. Several participants talked about the heightened urgency to create inclusive content for diverse audiences, realizing that their own workforce, particularly leadership, was overwhelmingly White. They doubled down on developing strategies to diversify their employee base, which included offering multicultural internship programs and adding more diverse freelancers to their workforce. One participant talked about the importance of adding diverse voices to the leadership team and how difficult it was to attract diverse talent to the C-Suite, particularly during the pandemic. Other participants described offering workshops focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and hiring coaches to improve their work on

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behalf of brands as well as their own efforts to increase employee diversity. Agencies also expanded their range of services (chapter 6) beyond brand communication to counsel clients on broader issues such as implementing their vision as a core component of their business. For example, if organizations claimed to support the Black Lives Matter movement but their entire board of directors was White, agencies provided counsel to clients to diversify from within. These types of actions contributed toward earning the right to have a voice about issues, such as racial inequality. Several participants emphasized the importance of moving beyond acknowledging the need to improve to actually doing it and committing to it long-term. This was an opportunity for brands to position themselves as allies, which younger audiences in particular have come to expect. Transformations do not automatically happen. If the brand is not able to adjust to the realities of a complex crisis quickly, it will likely not survive it, as was the case with so many brands during COVID-19. Some of America’s most recognized brands failed in that regard, including those whose primary audience consisted of business professionals. Hertz, for example, filed for bankruptcy but survived the crisis after business travel diminished due to lockdowns and travel bans. Iconic department store Sears fell victim to the economic effects of the crisis and closed all but 30 of its almost 4,000 stores. Van Heusen, a clothing store that had been serving business professionals for 140 years, was unable to address plummeting sales as professionals no longer needed to buy dress shirts because they were working from home (Chana, 2021). This “thrive or die” mentality and ability to pivot during times of uncertainty is based on how well brands are able to serve society (people and small businesses) not only during the COVID-19 crisis but beyond. The COVID-19 crisis led to a reshuffling of players, meaning some brands and agencies evolved during the crisis, while others chose to ignore it and perished as a result. The “thrive” aspect of this consequence is based on the belief that a complex crisis like COVID-19 is an opportunity for brands to create meaning and make a real difference. As mentioned in chapter 6, crises often present opportunities. While complex crises punish those who are unwilling or unable to adapt, they can also act as a big equalizer for smaller challenger brands (and agencies) that are willing to step up and fill gaps that bigger, more established organizations are reluctant to do. The Empowered Consumer

An important consequence of the COVID-19 health crisis was that both brands and agencies needed to recognize, plan for, and operate in a significant economic downturn and most likely a recession in phase 3. Participants of this study predicted a dichotomy in consumer behavior following the COVID-19 crisis. On one hand, consumers were expected to be more frugal, to pay more attention to sustainable products and to enjoy their homes they upgraded and invested in

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during the pandemic, while on the other hand, they may have the need to “let loose” after months and years of crisis. Several participants predicted a period of celebration similar to the “Roaring ‘20s” in the nineteenth century following the Great Depression. Participants spoke about potential changes in consumer behavior, which include elevated consumer expectations of brands to have a meaningful impact on their communities. Consumers will show their level of “approval” with their wallets, particularly during an economic downturn. Brand loyalty needs to be earned and re-earned with consistent, long-term brand actions benefiting society as well as the environment. Participants spoke in particular about younger consumers, namely those belonging to Generation Z and younger millennials, who are increasingly holding brands accountable for their actions. At the same time, consumers are paying attention not only to brands but also to the companies that own the brands and they are willing to “sacrifice convenience for a product that is more respectful of the environment” (Participant #18). Participant #15 added, “Gen Z is leading the charge in saying, ‘show us your long-term commitment.’ And if brands aren’t prepared to do it, they should be prepared to receive that negative feedback.” One phenomenon that picked up steam during the COVID-19 health crisis was “cancel culture.” Cancel culture is a twenty-first-century term for “public shaming,” when people publicly call out brands or individuals for unacceptable behavior and then boycott them. Although the participants of this study did not specifically talk about cancel culture, they were very much aware of the renewed power of the consumer, fueled by ever-expanding social media networks and influencers. With the availability of data, dashboards, and sophisticated digital tools, consumers are now in the driver’s seat to make decisions that reflect their values and influence their social networks at the same time. Just as transformed brands have become allies and partners, so have consumers. Brands that recognize consumers as active contributors, will likely fare well in a post-COVID world. Experts predict demand and co-creation of increasingly customized products and brand experiences that let consumers express themselves freely. Consumers also became savvy during the pandemic when products were not available because of supply chain issues. They created hacks to make do without said products and then shared their wisdom on social media for others to learn from (Davis, 2022). These shared insights are an important feedback loop for brands to pay attention to so they can continue to serve consumers meaningfully. Future of (Agency) Work

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the way people worked because of mandated health and safety precautions, they started to think about what mattered most to them. As their private and work lives started to blend, work-life balance

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became an important topic once again and a record number of workers left their jobs in 2021, a phenomenon known as the Great Resignation (Marr, 2022). A more recent variant of the concept is known as “Quiet Quitting,” which signifies a rejection of hustle culture in favor of spending more time outside of work and no longer going above and beyond on behalf of the employer. Many younger workers believe that the momentum is on their side, particularly after the Great Resignation created a significant gap in the workforce (Ellis & Yang, 2022). As the pandemic slid into phase 3 and there was light at the end of the tunnel, the “future of work” topic started to dominate public discourse, signaling a return to work for most sectors, including the advertising industry. Returning-to-Work Anxiety

The COVID-19 experiences will also likely affect the future of work in the advertising industry, particularly when it comes to leveraging technology to support remote work. Agencies learned how to recreate the creative process in a virtual environment, including brainstorming and production, and how to strengthen relationships with clients by checking in more frequently online. This study shows that for those agencies represented in the sample, the initial pivot to a virtual work environment was relatively seamless. As the crisis continued to progress, participants reported a very strong work ethic at their agencies but also burnout and the need to set and enforce work-life boundaries. Employees became used to working from home, connected through their laptops, while still creating award-winning work for clients. The majority of this study’s participants talked about how hard their employees worked during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, but they also mentioned rising levels of anxiety as leadership started to think about how to return to work after months of working from home. They reported anxiety among their employees around returning to a physical space of work because agency personnel, particularly younger talent, became accustomed to working from home and having a highly flexible schedule. The agencies that participated in this study had different timelines of opening their agencies back up—all in compliance with their state’s health and safety standards and many of them with input from their employees. To ease the return to the physical office, some agencies brought in outside facilitators to help with the transition. Physical vs. Virtual Space

This study revealed that most agencies’ employees were split regarding whether they wanted to return to work or continue to work from home and one participant described the decision as polarizing. In addition to differences in personal beliefs about the safety of spending time in close proximity to other people

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during different times of the coronavirus crisis, ad agency employees’ preferences appeared to be divided along three dimensions, including (1) their role in the agency, (2) generations, and (3) digital readiness. First, some of the participants reported that those whose role in the agency typically requires working with a group of people in close proximity (i.e., creatives) were more likely to want to come back compared to those who could complete their work virtually and alone. In addition, most participants indicated that their agency’s leadership strongly believed in having employees back in the office because the creative process requires in-person interactions in real-time and because a physical space is an important component of building and nurturing agency culture in the long run. “You can’t sustain culture without having a home base, in my opinion” (Participant #1). It is important to note, however, that there was at least one participant who predicted that his agency would not have any agency space after the pandemic because they had learned how to interact with each other and create strong work remotely. The second dimension was an apparent generational difference in terms of preferring to come back to a physical agency or continuing to work remotely. There is definitely an age boundary there. I feel like people who are roughly 40 and over are very, very much craving returning to the office. I think it’s just a slightly kind of pre-digital generation that just really wants the in-person thing and then you have all the millennials and Gen Z going, ‘No, we’re good actually, we quite like not coming.’ It’s surprising because you think it would be the other way around.” (Participant #18) The generational difference in regard to wanting to work in a physical versus remote space is likely connected to the fact that most members of agencies’ leadership teams are 40 and older. As part of their leadership roles, they are concerned with managing their agency’s workforce, building and nurturing culture, and making sure the quality of work that is being created is maintained. Several of the participants of this study served in leadership positions and talked about the important role physical space and regular work hours play in agency life and their agency’s ability to serve their clients in the best way possible. They most likely started their careers in advertising at a time when “the agency” as a physical space was providing inspiration, camaraderie, and space to brainstorm using physical artifacts, such as whiteboards, post-it notes, markers, etc. The younger generation felt comfortable working remotely, using new digital tools to facilitate their work. As digital natives, they grew up using interactive technology early in their lives and adjusted to a virtual work environment more easily. As tech-savvy junior employees they may be better equipped to create work-life balance based on their desire to build a life outside work. It will be interesting to

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see if their preference changes as they climb the career ladder and take on more responsibility, including leading teams themselves. Efficiency and Speed

Several participants described some of their experiences of operating as an agency during the COVID-19 crisis as a silver lining because agencies learned that they would be more efficient by leveraging virtual working environments when pitching new business and cultivating relationships with existing clients. They were able to negate the need for extensive and expensive last-minute travel. As one participant from a large, global agency said: I think we’ll change our approach to travel. [The agency] did a lot of last-minute “jump on a plane” to Cape Town because South Africa has a big pitch in two days. I don’t think that’s gonna happen anymore for a number of reasons, one being that we know that this actually works and it’s functioning. The other is our CFO has become very used to the fact that they’re saving millions on travel and expenses and are going to give us that cash back. (Participant #18) In addition to reducing travel expenses, it is also likely that agencies will be more intentional when they do send employees to travel, particularly on a global scale. Instead of traveling to countries separately to deal with specific agency teams or to meet with single clients, a global strategy director from a very large agency network predicts that agency teams and client meetings will be carefully planned and grouped by region. One reason for this is because of the cost-savings for the agency and another one is an increased sense of sustainability and reducing one’s carbon footprint. Agencies recognized that constant traveling to meet with clients also wasted a lot of time. One participant explained how digital tools have sped up the creative process and led to better advertising: I am a firm believer that creativity is most potent when it is hot, so the faster and the hotter you are able to keep it, the better it will inevitably be. We’re a small team that works fast. We think deep and we act fast and that’s our ethos. The work is always fresh and exciting and punchy, but when things get dragged out for too long, they can lose some of that intangible quality that can make advertising stand out from the pack. (Participant #15) The focus on speed and creating compelling work quickly was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation changed rapidly and agencies had

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to be able to move online fast, conduct market research in real-time, understand the implications for messaging, and develop and test new creative quickly: I think what COVID has pulled out is just how uncertain the reception that you’re going to get is going to be. In a way COVID has really just accelerated a process that, of course, has already been accelerating in our culture where change is just happening so much more quickly. If you don’t have a fast, responsive way of checking your work, checking your intuitions against the intuitions of your target, you’re in trouble. (Participant #11) With more complex crises on the horizon, feeling the pulse of the audience constantly through market research and being agile and nimble in adjusting messaging, tone, and voice on the fly will be key. Post-Pandemic Compromise

So what will the future of work look like for the advertising industry? Moving forward, most participants of this study agreed that the typical work setup will change based on what was learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants had differing opinions on what agency life will be like. Some envisioned an entirely remote working scenario without the need for a physical agency, whereas others eagerly anticipated a return to the agency space. Most participants envisioned a hybrid work environment, which, in the context of this study, comprises a number of scenarios. In general, a hybrid work environment means that employees would spend some days in the office and some days at home to accommodate those who want to come back to a physical agency and those who do not. Participant #7 described this concept as a way to use the physical space for meetings and to collaborate when in-person interactions are absolutely necessary. Working from home would be reserved for focused thinking. The agency would serve as a place for teams to work on creative presentations, briefings, or simply to check in with friends and colleagues face-to-face, whereas the home office would be used to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) to develop presentations, write, or to use as a quiet space to recharge. This type of work environment combines “the best of both worlds” (Participant #7) and seemed to be preferred by most of the participants from smaller agencies. This type of set-up may be easier for smaller agencies to achieve because fewer people require less coordination. With fewer people, specific days could be dedicated as either “agency days” or “working from home” days as long as everyone adheres to the same schedule. Some participants expressed concern about a hybrid agency environment because they did not see it working nearly as well as creating advertising in a

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physical space. Historically, agencies’ physical spaces have been the lifeblood of creativity and not having employees in spaces that were designed for teamwork and creativity would undoubtedly change that dynamic. Participant #18, who spoke from her experience with hybrid work environments during the pandemic, was skeptical about the concept, specifically when it integrates employees who are at the agency in-person and those who are working virtually at the same time. She pointed out that those who join meetings remotely via video conference would be at a disadvantage because they would not be able to read the “vibe of the room” and/or take in non-verbal communication cues. This is particularly important during client meetings but also during team meetings. She was highly skeptical of the effectiveness of a hybrid work environment. Another concept that emerged was flex time, where employees would work during different hours of the day. This concept was preferred by younger employees who might work during business or non-business hours, on weekdays, or on weekends. This type of set-up could work well for global agencies with subsidiaries in other parts of the world or for U.S. agencies with global clients. Participant #14 predicted that the 9–5 business culture may yield to flex time in 24-hour offices/agencies because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flex time allows someone to always be reachable no matter the day or time. If the 24/7 agency becomes reality, it would be optimally prepared to handle crises more quickly. However, not all participants agreed that flex time will have a prominent role to play in the future of agency work because it is not aligned with how the world works, at least not right now. Flex work is a great idea, but the way society works is, things are aligned. School time is aligned with work time so that parents can have childcare while they work, and if you start to flex all that up, it basically stops working unless you’re very rich and you can just pay for a nanny. So I think this is where you’re going to test the practicality of this hybrid fantasy. (Participant #18) Better Crisis Preparedness

The last consequence of the COVID-19 complex crisis is that agencies and brands learned a lot during the three-years-and-counting health pandemic. None of the participants felt that they were particularly well prepared for the COVID19 crisis, mostly because it was an unprecedented crisis of significant magnitude. However, they collectively felt they would be better prepared for the next complex crisis based on what they learned during COVID-19.

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Crisis Playbooks

Several participants mentioned that their agencies developed crisis “playbooks” that they shared with their clients throughout the crisis. These playbooks explained how to respond to challenges created by COVID-19 based on historical crisis response advertising (i.e., 9/11, the Spanish Flu, etc.) as well as real-time market research. Agencies also produced playbooks for brand communication during other significant events such as the Black Lives Matter movement or protests. These playbooks provided guidance and were generally well-received by clients. However, they produced mixed results with one participant, who explained the difficulty of predicting what might happen in a rapidly changing crisis situation: I remember in March of 2020 sitting here working through a phased contingency plan for [brand X]. We had four phases that we were going to spell out of how [brand X] would respond in each phase and how we, as an agency, would help them get through each phase. I don’t know, maybe it was irrelevant after a week because of how quickly things moved and because you just didn’t know, and so we were probably at stage four by day four. And so I think it just points to the fact that it was really incredibly difficult to plan with any degree of accuracy or foresight. (Participant 19) Reflection and Planning

Participants recognized the importance of conducting a “post-mortem” reflection of COVID-19 but at the time of the interviews for this study (a year into the pandemic) had not engaged in this practice. They generally felt better prepared for the next crisis based on their experiences with technology during the COVID-19 lockdown and expressed strong interest in the results of this study in preparation for the next crisis. Several participants mentioned their heightened awareness about potential new crises that may require lockdowns or mandated social distancing/isolation, such as potential environmental crises, social unrest, and other health threats in the future. As complex crises keep changing, it is important to have multiple contingency plans in place in anticipation for the next crisis. Whether creating crisis response advertising ahead of time that can be deployed during the first phase of the next crisis, developing a plan for working from home, or determining how to repurpose a product, now is the time to discuss future crises with clients. Agencies should also discuss with clients scenarios during which brands should have a voice as well as scenarios when it’s better not to respond. All reactions are valid and say something about the brand even if the brand decides not to say anything. Either way, brands need to be prepared for pushback from consumers as consumers have

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become increasingly empowered during the COVID-19 crisis. Chapter 8 includes a Complex Crisis Response Advertising strategic planning grid that can be used as a framework for reflection and planning. Discussion

The results of this study indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic caused enough changes in the world of brand communication to initiate a new era marked by trends that were already in motion before the pandemic but are now fully present. These trends include even more reliance on digital technologies, blending both the physical and artificial worlds in the minds of particularly young consumers, as well as people working in the field of advertising and brand communication. These technologies in combination with lockdown and stay-at-home orders facilitated a much stronger reliance on e-commerce and direct-to-consumer marketing, de-emphasizing the need for retailers, sit-down restaurants, and other physical storefronts. Although physical stores and restaurants have bounced back from the lockdown economic slump, the e-commerce infrastructure and consumers’ expectations of home deliveries are here to stay. Other pre-COVID trends that have been exacerbated by the pandemic are mental health concerns of the public, which will continue to be important for brands and agencies to take into consideration when developing advertising campaigns and consumer marketing. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a much stronger effort to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion both in terms of how and what brands communicate, as well as diversifying the workforce that creates messaging for diverse audiences. According to several participants, the next complex crisis will likely have to do with climate change, creating a renewed urgency to examine what individuals, businesses, and industries can do to create more sustainable practices. In that sense, COVID-19 was a powerful lesson in finding new ways to do business without being wasteful. Technology made a lot of traveling in the advertising industry unnecessary as pitches and meetings could be conducted via web and video conferencing. Along the way, it leveled the playing field for smaller agencies to be able to compete with larger agencies. Although all of this would have been possible without the COVID-19 lockdowns, it took a pandemic to show the industry what was possible. The participants in this study expressed the need for brands to not only have a purpose, but to live up to that purpose and demonstrate it every day whether there is a crisis or not. Several participants distinguished between brand purpose and brand role, with the latter comprising a brand’s actions that will earn its right to have a voice around social, political, and other issues affecting society. As businesses and brands take on more important societal functions, they will increase both their power but also brand responsibility. And while having a brand purpose is key to be successful in a post-pandemic world, brands need to be

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careful not to “weaponize” it to affect change (Participant #12). At the same time, it is also important for brands to “stay in their lane,” meaning, if they do not have a clearly articulated brand purpose that is related to the crisis, they should stay out of it. Alongside brands, consumers have also become more powerful. While cancel culture had a moment in 2021, it seems to have morphed into more significant movements that hold industries, brands, and advertising agencies accountable for their actions instead of “canceling” them. For example, organized groups like Brandalism, Badvertising, and Adfree Cities highlight companies’ and ad agencies’ actions around environmental and other significant societal issues in highly visible places like billboards in high-traffic areas, instead of social media (Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, 2022). An important consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic according to this study is the way advertising agencies will operate. The themes that emerged were driven largely by employees’ preferences based on their working-from-home experience during the lockdown, as well as agencies’ realization of how much agency work can be completed faster and more efficiently. Other key drivers that will likely influence the way agencies work are efforts to be more environmentally responsible, which not only includes reducing their carbon footprint by traveling less frequently, but by being more selective about their clients to begin with. Another important theme in this research was the role of physical versus virtual office space and how each will impact agency culture. A recent report suggests that agencies will leverage technology to create an agency culture that integrates online and offline spaces for agency personnel, clients, and other partners (Wingate, 2022). Some participants of this study expressed concern about losing talent to the client/brand side if they didn’t create a hybrid and more flexible workspace, which “corporate America” is already starting to offer. The future of work in an advertising agency may include flex options such as offering employees to work from anywhere in the world for a significant amount of time as has already been demonstrated by Publicis Groupe (Bonilla, 2021), offering intriguing personal development opportunities for employees who value different perspectives. Summary

This chapter advances the emerging theory by discussing and analyzing the effects and long-term consequences of the strategies agencies and brands deployed (or decided not to deploy) during the different phases of the pandemic. The chapter synthesizes some of the themes that emerged in chapter 6 and takes a high-level view of how they may impact the marketplace in the future and permanently change advertising practice until the next complex crisis occurs. Providing an abstract view, this chapter theorizes

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how the COVID-19 crisis transformed brands and agencies and created a new, post-pandemic reality. It is divided into six overarching themes, including (1) a changed world, (2) acceleration of trends, (3) brand transformation vs. demise, (4) the empowered consumer, (5) the future of (agency) work, and (6) better crisis preparedness. Sub-topics covered in this chapter include the accelerated role of digital communication and media, the re-emergence of direct-toconsumer marketing, exacerbated mental health concerns, a stronger focus on diversity and inclusion, sustainability, returning-to-work anxiety, the new role of physical vs. virtual agency space, efficiency and speed, post-pandemic compromises, crisis playbooks, and the importance of reflection and contingency planning. Discussion Questions

1 Which of the consequences described in this chapter will impact the world of advertising and brand communication the most? 2 Which of the consequences are here to stay and which ones would you consider fads? 3 Are there any other outcomes that have emerged as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis? Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Has your organization experienced any long-term consequences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? How do they align with the consequences described in this chapter? How are they different? 2 Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your personal views of what’s important in your personal and/or professional life? If so, how? Have your reflections impacted the way you prefer to work? 3 How might your company or organization integrate its response to the COVID-19 crisis with existing CSR activities to amplify their effects? Suggestions for Future Research

1 This study discovered six overarching consequences/effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Additional research is needed to determine the conditions under which these consequences hold. 2 The consequences that emerged as a result of this study are based on the views of advertising professionals who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should explore whether additional consequences exist by adding consumer and client perspectives.

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References Bonilla, B. (2021, December 7). Publicis Groupe Allows Employees to Work from Anywhere in the World for up to Six Weeks. Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/agency-news/ publicis-employees-can-work-anywhere-six-weeks/2385866 Chana, C. (2021, May 25). 10 Franchise Brands That Did Not Survive the COVID-19 Pandemic. 1851 Franchise Magazine, Franchise News, Information, Franchise Opportunities. https://1851franchise.com/10-franchise-brands-that-did-not-survive-the-covid-19pandemic-2715801 Craft, E. J. (2021, February 6). Small Agency Coalition Unveils New Internship Program for Aspiring Black Creatives. Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/advertising/small-agencycoalition-unveils-new-internship-program-aspiring-black-creatives/2312226 Davis, E. (2022, April 26). Cognizant BrandVoice: Meet the new—and empowered—consumer. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognizant/2022/04/26/meet-the-new-andempowered-consumer/ Ellis, L., & Yang, A. (2022, August 12). If Your Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-yourgen-z-co-workers-are-quiet-quitting-heres-what-that-means-11660260608 Marr, B. (2022, November 28). Future of work: The 4 biggest workplace trends in 2023. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/11/28/future-of-workthe-4-biggest-workplace-trends-in-2023/ Panchal, N., Kamal, R., Feb 10, R. G. P., & 2021. (2021, February 10). The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use. KFF. https://www.kff.org/ coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-healthand-substance-use/ Robinson, T. D., & Veresiu, E. (2021). Advertising in a context harm crisis. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 221–229. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1925604 Stebbins, S., & Suneson, G. (2020, April 21). Amazon, Apple among the companies that are helping Americans fight COVID-19. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/ money/2020/04/21/companies-that-are-helping-americans-fight-covid-19/ 111565368/ Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. The Drum. (2020, April). Meta: We’re never lost if we can find each other by Droga5. The Drum. https://www.thedrum.com/creative-works/project/droga5-facebook-werenever-lost-if-we-can-find-each-other Wingate, K. (2022, January 12). Agency trends in 2022: Metaverse, sustainability, future of work | Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/agency-news/agency-trends-2022-metaversesustainability-future-work/2392526 Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. (2022). The Future 100: 2022. https://www. wundermanthompson.com/insight/the-future-100-2022

8 THE COVID-19 STORY Theory and Practice

Chapter Objectives

1 To describe the selective coding process and explain how it refined theorybuilding. 2 To present the refined theory of complex crisis response advertising in a visual model and a set of theoretical propositions for academics. 3 To offer practical applications of the theoretical propositions for professional communicators. 4 To demonstrate how the findings of this research contribute to the devel­ opment of crisis response advertising as a sub-genre of crisis communication. While chapters 4–7 provided evidence and in-depth discussions of complex crisis response advertising (CCRA) guided by the open and axial components of grounded theory methodology, this chapter presents the theoretical framework that emerged as a result of the selective coding procedure. It includes a concise story, visual model, and set of theoretical propositions of how the COVID-19 pandemic permanently challenged and changed crisis response advertising. The process led to a transformation of the marketplace and how the role of brands, agencies, and consumers has changed until the next complex crisis starts the cycle over. Selective coding is the “process of integrating and refining the theory” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 161). The categories that emerged from the study were inter­ related and organized around a “central explanatory concept” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 161) with the goal to further refine the relationships among variables. Selective coding starts by taking a step back and determining the essence of the research. After immersing myself in the data during the collection phase and DOI: 10.4324/9781003316879-8

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constantly comparing the data against the emerging framework, I distanced myself from the intricate nuances in the data and asked myself what main problems and issues participants were dealing with throughout the COVID-19 crisis. These were generally matters that emerged in the interviews repeatedly, without being prompted, and in slightly different forms. These developed into a central category that explains in an abstract way what the research was all about, including the salient issues and problems participants dealt with. After identifying the central explanatory category, I related other major categories that emerged from this study to the core to form an explanatory concept that ac­ counts for much of the variation of the data. To help with this process, I developed a storyline illustrating how the central category is connected to the other categories that emerged from this research. To provide more detailed information about how the model works, I developed a set of theoretical propositions researchers can use to further develop the theory of CCRA. The theoretical propositions were presented to and verified by the participants and adjusted based on their feedback (chapter 3). Following the abstract theoretical propositions is a set of practical applications illustrating how the propositions may be implemented in the profession in future crisis situations, building on the strategies described in chapter 6. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contributions this research makes in light of existing scholarly literature and provides suggestions for future research. Refining the Phenomenon

Before revealing the central explanatory category of this study, it is important to further define the phenomenon itself (“Phases of Crisis Response Advertising”), which was articulated during the open coding process at the beginning of the research (chapter 4). The purpose of articulating a phenomenon is to describe what is happening as part of the process under investigation by identifying repeated patterns of actions and events that “represent what people do or say in response to the problems and situations in which they find themselves” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). At the beginning of the research process, it became clear that participants described different patterns of brand communication based on how the crisis itself developed. Different Phases

As described in chapter 4, the participants experienced the COVID-19 crisis in distinct phases, each of which had different characteristics requiring nuanced response strategies centered on what consumers needed at different times during the crisis. Although the participants used diverse terms to describe these phases, the essence of each phase was similar. The majority of the participants charac­ terized the COVID-19 crisis as a transformative condition that changed the way brands communicate and build relationships with people not just during the crisis but also as part of a new post-pandemic reality. The three phases that emerged

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include Phase 1 “Shock Absorption,” Phase 2 “A New Temporary Normal,” and Phase 3 “Re-Emergence/Transformation.” It is important to note that at the writing of this book, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve as new variants of the coronavirus sweep the world at different times. Therefore, the phases of CCRA are not necessarily linear but can overlap. In addition, inter­ vening and contextual conditions can slow down or speed up the duration of the phases or go back to a previous phase. As the research progressed and participants discussed their experiences in more depth, particularly during selective coding, two additional characteristics emerged. Lockdown and Social Isolation

In addition to three distinct phases, one attribute of the COVID-19 crisis dif­ ferentiated it from most other crises in recent history. The novel coronavirus posed a new level of public health threat requiring global travel bans, lockdowns, mask mandates, as well as social distancing orders in efforts to reduce the spread of the virus and keep people safe. In the United States, these directives differed by state but lasted for several months during 2020 and 2021 (CDC, 2022) and directly influenced the phenomenon of CCRA for two reasons: (1) they affected how people reacted to being isolated for extended periods of time and demonstrated the effects of those periods on people’s mental health and con­ sumption patterns, and (2) they impacted the highly collaborative and serendipitous nature of how advertising work is created. The health and safety regulations led to an abrupt transition from working in close physical proximity to creating adver­ tising in isolation, and then evolved to working in a new reality. Acceleration of Trends

Third, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as an accelerator of existing trends throughout the crisis and eventually became a catalyst for change, leading to a new post-pandemic reality. These trends emerged in several initial coding cat­ egories and include developments related to technology/digital communication; direct-to-consumer marketing; mental health concerns; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and sustainability (chapter 7). In addition, the crisis also reinvigorated and accelerated previously dormant consumer sentiments, such as a renewed focus on work-life balance, heightened social justice awareness followed by action, and political polarization leading up to a highly contested U.S. presi­ dential election and attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. The Central Explanatory Category

A central explanatory category represents the main theme of the research and is expressed as an abstract concept. It has analytical power and integrates all other

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categories to create theoretical propositions among variables. The central explanatory category that emerged from this research further refined the phenomenon, and related it to the other categories is “Complex Crisis as Catalyst for Change.” It meets (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) criteria for selecting a central category, which are: 1 All other main categories can be related to it, which can be seen from the storyline presented later in this chapter. 2 The central explanatory category appeared prominently in the data and was present in the vast majority of cases. All of the participants talked about how the COVID-19 crisis along with the intervening conditions contributed to brands redefining how they might contribute to helping people and whether there was room for growth beyond the COVID-19 crisis. 3 The way the categories are related in the model and theoretical propositions is logical and consistent. 4 The name of the central category is “sufficiently abstract” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 147) to be used to advance the theory. Adding the word “complex” to the central category signals that massive, long-term crises of significant magnitude are categorically different from most other day-to-day crises and brands’ responses to them. The words, “Catalyst for Change,” signify that complex crises tend to speed up trends already in motion prior to the crisis and that those trends lead to noticeable change, both positive and negative. 5 As the “catalyst for change” concept is integrated with other concepts, the theory continues to develop depth. 6 The central explanatory category can explain variation in the data as condi­ tions change, and it can explain contradictory cases. “Complex Crisis as Catalyst for Change” as the central category indicates the COVID-19 health crisis was influenced by significant intervening and contextual conditions and served not only as an accelerator of existing trends resulting in a new post-crisis reality for marketers, agencies, and consumers but also served as a catalyst for change to benefit society in response to an unprecedented health threat. The COVID-19 Story

As discussed in chapter 3, a complex crisis can be defined as consisting of one or more related or unrelated crises occurring at the same time and affecting multiple stakeholders in significant and multiple ways. A complex crisis is unpredictable, multi-faceted, and has long-term consequences. Complex crises unfold in mul­ tiple stages, starting with the prodromal stage, when a crisis is on the horizon but has not yet started. Some crises are foreseeable, while others are not. In the case of the COVID-19 health crisis, news about a significant virus outbreak in China emerged in the fall of 2019, followed by intermittent reports of cases in other parts of the globe, which were soon replaced by reports of waves of cases all

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over the world. Unknown in the prodromal stage were potential short- or longterm effects the pandemic would have on people, society, and the economy. Complex crises then enter the acute stage, when a government officially declares a crisis, or in this case, a pandemic. The crisis becomes chronic and mandates are announced in an effort to curb the effects of the crisis and/or help resolve it. Eventually, the crisis de-escalates and transforms from the chronic stage to potential resolution, which can be marked by significant economic effects. As of the writing of this book, the COVID-19 crisis has not had a definitive resolution as new virus variants continue to emerge. When using an advertising practitioner’s lens, the first phase of a complex crisis is “Shock Absorption” and includes the days and weeks during which the crisis develops, leading to an official governmental declaration of a pandemic and the weeks following. Because COVID-19 was an unprecedented health crisis in terms of scope and magnitude, none of the participants indicated being prepared for it other than trying to “work from home” shortly before the lockdown became a mandate. Participants strongly emphasized that their agencies’ number one concern was the safety and well-being of their employees, which was influenced by agency culture. Agencies sent their employees home, encouraging them to take any equipment needed to do their jobs remotely. They were also mostly flexible, letting employees settle into lockdown mode and allowing them “all the time they needed” to take care of themselves and their immediate family. Some participants recounted this transition as being fairly seamless, which was particularly true for smaller, digital agencies, as they already had in place the virtual infrastructure the world would come to rely on in the following 12–15 months. Some participants from larger agencies experienced this time of transition as chaotic, with one person describing it as a time marked by chaos and confusion. Externally, agencies worked with clients to help them respond to the crisis in the moment. Some were getting ready to launch massive campaigns that sub­ sequently seemed inappropriate in light of the uncertainty surrounding the impending crisis and helped clients pull back media dollars that were still recoverable. Others pivoted and created simple empathetic response messages in an effort to humanize the brand and position it as a “friend” who shared absorbing the initial shock. During this time, many advertisers relied on legacy media such as billboards and television to stay visible to consumers during the first weeks of the COVID-19 health crisis. Participants described the second phase of the complex COVID-19 crisis as “A New Temporary Normal,” which started when case numbers increased globally in the fall of 2020 and lockdowns continued to be mandated so families were unable to physically gather for the holidays as vaccines had not yet been made available to the public. Brands—particularly in the retail category—and agencies took notice as the crisis significantly interfered with the most profitable shopping season of the year. It was during this phase of the

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crisis that advertisers thought deeply about how they might help people, especially during the holidays. While brands tried to find their voice and connect with consumers in mean­ ingful ways in an environment that had changed dramatically, agencies focused on how to operate in this new temporary normal, which created significant barriers for an industry that generally thrives on teamwork and collaboration, spontaneous problem-solving, and developing original creative approaches and production value. Social distancing and working in isolation made the creative process more formal and required significantly more planning, resulting in burnout and mental health challenges among agency personnel. The top agencies expected the same level of work and creativity as they did before the pandemic, which was described by participants as tough and exhausting. Every interaction with another person (client or agency co-worker) required a scheduled meeting, resulting in a neverending sequence of virtual web conferences. The lockdown created challenges particularly for the creative teams, which usually work in close physical proximity during brainstorming and preparing for client pitches. According to Participant #18, “the really great ideas often materialize right before a big pitch and sometimes happen by accident”—components of the creative process that could not be replicated in a virtual environment. Some agencies tried out technology such as Miro, a virtual collaboration platform, to recreate the look and feel of a physical whiteboarding experience and reported some success. Overcoming the types of challenges that the pandemic presented pushed many agencies to become even more creative and innovative, ranging from asking celebrities and other talents to shoot video footage themselves on their cell phone to creating massive networks of freelancers around the globe. Digital technology made these connections possible but required agencies to trust and rely on people they had not previously vetted. Agencies also reported taking more creative and legal risks during this time in efforts to respond to rapid developments of the crisis as quickly as possible. Successful brand communication in the new temporary normal phase required creativity and speed and often rewarded those who took risks. During the second stage of a complex crisis, agencies focused on their own health as businesses. The more diversified an agency’s client roster, the better its chance of surviving a volatile economy in which product categories were heavily affected by the nature of the crisis. The agencies that were represented in this study reported only minimal layoffs during this time and credited their ability to serve clients in new ways such as assuming larger consulting roles than before the pandemic. Another area that became even more important during this time was market research and monitoring the shifting consumer landscape during a changing economy. Some of the smaller agencies applied for the governmentsponsored paycheck protection program to be able to retain employees and keep producing work. With cash flow disrupted as many advertisers went dark, some

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agencies were less selective about taking on new clients so they could survive. Later on, they became more selective to thrive. Agencies and clients encountered challenges they had not seen or experienced before such as a disrupted supply chain. Some product categories were so sought after, they could not keep products on shelves (such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper), while others halted production due to a lack of raw materials. Brands in these product categories usually stopped advertising because they did not have to create any type of awareness around the product/brand. Other product cate­ gories, such as restaurants, were unable to serve people in their physical spaces due to social distancing guidelines and had to figure out how to stay in business. Some agencies helped create smooth transitions to online ordering and curbside pick-up services. Other product categories were shut down completely such as airlines, hotels, and other lodging services. One agency helped a very large hotel chain repurpose its hotel rooms into professional office space for executives who were working from home who needed space to get work done or have a professional-looking and quiet environment for virtual work meetings. Another important component of the new temporary normal phase was the influence of contextual conditions such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 presidential election. It appears that the lockdown inadvertently forced consumers to pay more attention to important social and political issues because people were stuck at home, consuming more media, and realizing what was truly important in their lives. Brands sought counsel from agencies to determine if and how they should respond. Study participants agreed that brands needed to have a clear brand purpose to help guide their responses. However, they differed as to whether brands needed to respond to every single crisis moment. Several par­ ticipants agreed that responses needed to align with the purpose of the brand and that brands should only respond if they have earned the right to have a voice based on their ongoing brand actions. If they had not earned the right to have a voice, their “one-off” response to a contextual condition would be interpreted as opportunistic or even predatory. Several participants emphasized that brands struggled with aligning their actions with who they were as brands. Some par­ ticipants believed that all brands needed to react to important social issues, while others maintained brands should be highly selective. Instead of jumping on every single issue or cause, their opinion was that brands should carefully select only those issues that align with their brand identity. Although this appears to be a logical decision, some brands struggled to do so because they did not have a clearly articulated brand purpose. The third phase of complex crisis is called “Re-Emergence/Transformation.” It is characterized by brands and agencies embracing the crisis as an opportunity to re-define themselves by clearly delineating the role they want to have in society. Moving beyond selling products and services, brands wanted to benefit society and the environment, even if it meant alienating some current customers

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or clients. These transformations gave brands more power but also more responsibility. At the same time, consumers became more selective in what they purchased and held brands publicly accountable for their actions. In terms of the work produced during this phase, some brands attempted to “go back to normal” (using pre-pandemic messaging), while others emerged with a clear purpose and societal role. For some brands, the crisis and all of its contextual conditions re-emphasized the importance of changing the narrative around significant issues such as diversity and inclusion as well as sustainability, which were accelerated by the crisis. Organizations that did not adapt to the rapid development of trends that were accelerated by the crisis struggled in this phase and many declared bankruptcy. Another concept on participants’ minds was the inevitable return to work scenario after the lockdown restrictions were lifted. Realizing that the pandemic would pose a long-term threat, they imagined how agencies might work in the future. As employees in a highly creative field requiring collaboration and often a good measure of serendipity, the participants imagined a hybrid return-to-work model including both in-person and virtual work experiences. They revealed strong preferences about virtual work with younger participants generally being in favor of virtual work and older participants being in favor of in-person work. The third and last phase of CCRA also serves as a starting and preparation point for future crises. With brands transformed and positioned to serve consumers in a new reality created by the current crisis, they would benefit from reflecting on what they have learned as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, anticipating potential new crises, and determining how they may prepare in alignment with their values and overall brand identity. The Paradigm Model

The theoretical model developed in this research suggests that the outbreak of a significant health threat (COVID-19) shapes the phenomenon of CCRA, which occurs in three distinct phases: (1) shock absorption, (2) a new temporary normal, and (3) re-emergence/transformation. Intervening conditions (economic pres­ sures, social unrest, political polarization) alter the impact of the main crisis, while contextual conditions (health and safety, consumer behavior, technology) influ­ ence the strategies (consumer-facing work, agency operations, serving clients) used to resolve challenges associated with the phenomenon. The strategies result in a set of consequences/effects (a changed world, acceleration of trends, brand transfor­ mation vs. demise, the empowered consumer, future of (agency) work, and better crisis preparedness) that are part of a new post-crisis reality. The crisis itself ac­ celerates existing trends, serving as a catalyst for change. The CCRA model is expressed as a cycle because complex crises permanently change the marketplace. Every future complex crisis creates a new reality.

FIGURE 8.1

Strategic Areas* (Meta Categories)

Phenomenon/Phases • Shock Absorption • New Temporary Normal • Re-emergence/Transformation

Intervening Conditions 1. Economic pressures 2. Social unrest 3. Political polarization

COMPLEX CRISIS RESPONSE ADVERTISING MODEL

• Consumer-Facing Work • Agency Operations • Serving Clients

Complex Crisis as Catalyst for Change

Consequences • A changed world • Acceleration of trends • Brand transformation vs. demise • The empowered consumer • Future of (agency) work • Better crisis preparedness

Future Crises • Health • Environment • Energy • Financial • War • Terrorism

Complex Crisis Response Advertising Model (CCRA).

Serving Clients: 11. Selection of clients 12. Expanded range of services 13. Relationship-building

Agency Operations: 8. Agency culture 9. Recruiting & retention 10. Managing resources

Consumer-Facing Work: 1. Real-time research 2. Nuanced messaging 3. Production pivots 4. Digital media acceleration 5. Crisis-relevant positioning 6. Activism/risk-taking 7. Ethics

*Strategic Areas

Causal Condition: COVID-19 • Crisis on horizon • Declaration of crisis • Mandates announced • De-escalation • Economic effects

Contextual Conditions 4. Health & safety 5. Consumer behavior 6. Technology/digital

Layers of Complexity

178 The COVID-19 Story

The COVID-19 Story 179

Theoretical Propositions

The grounded theory process led to several propositions regarding how and why CCRA works in the United States as perceived by leading advertising agency professionals. These propositions lay the foundation for future research inves­ tigating and quantifying the process of CCRA during the COVID-19 crisis as well as future crises with similar characteristics (i.e., long-term duration, national or global impact, different phases, consumer restrictions, acceleration of trends). What follows is a selection of the most profound findings grounded in the data: 1 A complex crisis occurs when multiple crises, challenges, or threats stack on top of one another. A complex crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic triggers consumer brands to engage in CCRA, which includes all practices related to creating consumer brand communication throughout the crisis. 2 CCRA in the United States occurs in phases, including shock absorption, a new temporary normal, and re-emergence/transformation in a new reality. Complex crisis response advertising strategies differ by phase. 2.1 The process is sequential with one phase leading into the next. 2.2 The length of each phase depends on the local realities created by the crisis. 2.3 Intervening and contextual conditions can slow down or speed up the duration of the phases or revert back to a previous phase. 2.4 The process is cyclical, meaning that complex crises have a life cycle that transforms consumers, brands, and agencies, and results in a new, postcrisis reality. 2.5 Phase 1 (Shock Absorption) includes the prodromal phase (pre-crisis) when a crisis is on the horizon and the acute crisis phase, when the threat is declared a crisis. 2.6 Phase 2 (A New Temporary Normal) includes the acute and chronic phases of the crisis, when health and safety mandates are implemented, and people’s lives are restricted. 2.7 Phase 3 (Re-Emergence/Transformation) includes the chronic and reso­ lution phases of the crisis, when health and safety mandates are adjusted or lifted, and a new reality emerges. Brands and advertisers not only respond to this new reality but help drive it. 3 Intervening conditions such as economic pressures, social unrest, and political polarization influence how brands and agencies respond to the health crisis as consumers get overwhelmed by uncertainty and fear. 3.1 Intervening conditions have the biggest impact during Phase 2, when health and safety mandates restrict consumers’ freedom in an effort to contain the threat, thereby creating a captive audience.

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3.2 Economic pressures affect consumers during complex crises in different ways and result in different consumer behavior patterns. 3.2.1 Unemployment, inflation, and recession will reduce most people’s purchasing power. 3.2.2 Lower-income individuals, Black and Latinx consumers, women, and young people will be affected disproportionately. 3.3 Complex crises expose social inequalities and provide opportunities for brands to affect change. 3.3.1 Brands that have aligned their values and purpose with an inter­ vening condition can gain people’s trust over time by helping them in a crisis related to the brand’s purpose. 3.3.2 Brands have to earn the right to have a point of view through regular and consistent brand activism. 3.3.3 Brands that have a point of view and act on it may polarize the market. 3.3.4 Consumers have the power to cancel brands by boycotting them if they are perceived to be part of the problem or appear to take advantage of the situation. 3.4 The longer a crisis lasts, the more likely it will be politicized. 4 Contextual conditions such as health and safety mandates (lockdown, social distancing, wearing a mask, testing, vaccinations, etc.), unpredictable consumer behavior (hoarding, minimalism, etc.), and technology influence the strategies brands and advertising agencies use to respond during the different phases of the crisis. 4.1 Health and safety measures affect consumers’ ability to cope with the crisis, providing both a sense of safety and loss of freedom. This range of feelings requires nuanced creative messaging. 4.2 The magnitude of a complex crisis affects consumers’ mental health. The more layers of crisis, the larger the effect on people’s mental health, which requires nuanced creative messaging. 4.3 The more a brand’s product category (vertical) is related to the crisis, the more consumers expect from the brand during the crisis. Non-crisisrelevant verticals can contribute to society in creative ways but consumer expectations are lower. Non-crisis-relevant verticals can stick to their precrisis strategy. 4.4 Consumer behavior during complex crises ranges from hoarding to selfsufficiency and minimalism depending on a brand’s vertical. 4.5 Technology becomes a lifeline for people to connect with the outside world during Phase 2. As people use emerging technology more heavily, its adoption rate increases.

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5 CCRA requires implementation of strategies in three overarching categories: consumer-facing work, the way advertising agencies operate during crises, and serving clients. The strategies differ by phase of crisis. 5.1 During the shock absorption phase, brands take minimal creative risk, show empathy and position themselves as a friend, irrespective of the product category to which they belong. Brands that stay visible will have a better chance of emerging from the crisis successfully. Agencies focus on keeping employees safe and retaining clients. 5.2 During the new temporary normal phase, brands’ primary focus is helping people through the crisis, which may include repurposing of brand assets for crisis-relevant brands and/or providing moments of joy and levity through advertising. Corporate social responsibility efforts are hyperlocalized, focusing on supporting communities in need. Agencies focus on talent retention and facilitating the creative process in isolation, while expanding their range of client services to stay afloat. Agencies are less selective about taking on new clients to survive this phase of the crisis. 5.3 During the re-emergence/transformation phase, brands progress from having a purpose to having a clear role in society, thereby affecting change. Agencies adopt a more flexible, hybrid work environment that is conducive to the creative process as well as the preferences of the workforce that creates the work. Agencies align themselves with clients who share similar values to thrive. 6 The CCRA strategies used by brands impact the degree to which they will emerge from the crisis. 6.1 Brands that stay visible during the crisis will fare better than those that go dark. 6.1.1 Legacy brands represent safety and nostalgia. 6.1.2 New brands represent new solutions and the future. 6.2 Brands that do not have a clear brand purpose before the crisis will quickly become irrelevant during the crisis and may not survive it. 6.2.1 Legacy brands run the risk of being seen as opportunistic. 6.2.2 Newer brands have an opportunity for an authentic, culturally relevant start. 6.3 Brands that do not have a clear brand purpose before the crisis have a unique opportunity to define one suited to the cultural moment of the crisis. 6.4 Brands that have a clear brand purpose before the crisis and live up to that purpose during the crisis have the opportunity to transform into an even more powerful brand after the crisis.

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6.4.1 When a brand’s purpose is aligned with its values and those of its customers, it can act as an accelerator of trends. 6.4.2 When a brand’s purpose is not aligned with its values and those of its customers, it has limited impact to drive business results. 6.5 Brands that have a clear brand purpose before the crisis develops can affect lasting change by implementing corporate social responsibility actions that integrate the main crisis and a select intervening or contextual condition that aligns with the brand’s mission, vision, and purpose. The brand transforms from having a purpose to having a role in society. 7 The CCRA strategies used by advertising agencies impact the degree to which they will emerge from the crisis. 7.1 Agencies that have a strong agency culture can pivot quickly to new work environments. 7.2 Generational differences will determine the future of work in an agency. Generation Z and younger millennials prefer flexibility and a hybrid en­ vironment, whereas older millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers prefer an in-person work environment. 7.3 Agencies will leverage technology to increase cost efficiencies. 7.4 Technology will create opportunities for smaller agencies to compete with larger agencies at the same level. 7.5 E-commerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising will continue to grow as brands move from on-premise sales to off-premise/online sales. Clients will need help building e-commerce and DTC structures quickly. 7.6 Brands and agencies’ crisis responses shape their level of crisis preparedness for future complex crises. 8 A complex crisis functions as a catalyst for change driven by brands. 8.1 It is an accelerator of trends that were already in motion before the crisis. 8.2 Brands and agencies that embrace these trends before the crisis will fare better during and after the crisis than those that do not. 8.3 Brands that recognize how intervening and contextual conditions influence the main crisis have an opportunity to affect change through intentional and meaningful brand activism. Practical Applications of Theoretical Propositions

The theoretical propositions stated in the previous section provide the founda­ tion for future research investigating and quantifying the process of CCRA as part of future crises. Although every crisis is different, there are significant highlevel practical applications that can be gleaned from these propositions. Several of

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these applications echo the tenets of issues management, which is part of an organization’s strategic management process of emerging social, cultural, polit­ ical, and economic trends (Dougall, 2008; Heath & Coombs, 2006). Practitioners may use the CCRA Strategic Planning Grid (Appendix B) to start the planning process in preparation for the next crisis. 1 A complex crisis consists of a main threat as well as multiple smaller crises that overlap and influence each other. Start monitoring fluctuating consumer behavior as soon as a complex crisis is on the horizon. 2 Recognize that complex crises have multiple phases, ultimately leading to the creation of a new market environment characterized by trends that were already in motion before the crisis. Identify these trends and determine how your brand can lean into them. Know which phase of the crisis you are in to tailor your consumer-facing positioning, messaging, and media choices. 3 Identify potential intervening conditions (economic, social, political pressures) early on and anticipate how they may interact with the main crisis. Identify if/ how your brand’s identity and assets are connected to any of the intervening conditions. 4 Anticipate the kind of contextual conditions that may arise in response to the crisis situation by understanding the nature of the crisis. Health crises may require social distancing and lockdowns, while environmental crises or war situations result in completely different safety mandates. How will the realities and safety mandates influence consumer behavior? How can your brand leverage its assets, resources, voice, network, and technology to help society cope? 5 Use the CCRA Strategic Planning Grid (Appendix B) to develop a fluid strategic plan around the three core categories of (1) consumer-facing work, (2) internal operations, and (3) external operations, covering the different phases of the crisis. Assess the crisis situation daily or weekly during phase 1 and at least quarterly during phases 2 and 3 and adjust your strategic plan. 6 Review your brand’s purpose, values, mission, and vision before the complex crisis hits and determine whether it is “crisis-relevant.” Can your brand make a difference in coping or overcoming the crisis based on its core competence and purpose? If it does, lean into it. You may develop a solution that connects your brand to the main crisis as well as a select intervening condition. Avoid jumping on every single intervening condition because it dilutes the message and distracts from your brand’s role in resolving the main crisis. If your brand or category is not crisis-relevant, develop crisis response advertising during the shock absorption phase and then switch back to your pre-crisis strategy with minor creative adjustments. 7 As an agency, develop internal operating structures that facilitate a work en­ vironment aligned with your agency’s culture before another crisis hits. Include a representative group/task force of your entire workforce when

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developing a crisis-proof work environment, recognizing that preferences will likely differ based on age. Simplify your internal systems and start using them immediately. The more tasks that can be automated, the better. 8 Recognize that every crisis presents challenges, opportunities, and responsi­ bilities. Understand that empowered consumers believe that brands and businesses are better equipped to solve crisis problems than the government. When they do, they will likely emerge from the crisis as trusted brands with a clear role in society. Advice from the Participants

In addition to the practical application of the theoretical propositions stated above, I asked the participants to share any additional advice they may have for other brand communicators based on their experiences with the COVID-19 crisis. The following is a curated list of insights from study participants not covered in the CCRA model: • Shift your mindset from seeing the impending crisis as a threat to it being an opportunity. • Reach out to your clients, particularly if your agency is on retainer as soon as the crisis hits to develop a strategic plan (see Appendix B). • Ensure everything your brand and organization does is aligned because mis­ haps will not be forgiven. • Flexibility during uncertain times is key as complex crises change quickly and unexpectedly. Pulling work that might be crisis-inappropriate but has already been queued in your media mix can be difficult. Negotiate flexible media buys that won’t penalize your client for pulling work, if necessary, even if it costs more upfront to do so. • Be open to learning new things and be ready to embrace new tools. • In phase 2 of the crisis, make your employees’ lives as easy as possible. Don’t assume you know what they need—ask them. For example, some may need space to work because their living situation makes working from home impossible. Others may need high-speed internet access. • Invest in an agency infrastructure that is conducive to working from home for long periods of time. • Meet one-on-one with your team members more frequently to maintain relationships, provide professional development, and establish a sense that every person matters. • Encourage your employees to get out and safely experience the crisis if they are comfortable. See first-hand how the crisis is impacting people’s lives. • Create and support boundaries in your agency to protect your workforce. Also, “when you’re working, be working!” (Participant #21).

The COVID-19 Story 185

• When working different hours or at different locations, be reachable. • Consider adding a small production studio if you don’t already have one. • Connect your clients who have similar job titles so that they can learn from each other during crises (even if their brands are in different product cate­ gories). Agencies can facilitate group coaching sessions around specific topics. • At the end of the crisis, meet with each client and conduct a post-mortem analysis of what was learned during the crisis. Develop a document with best practices that can be used when the next crisis occurs. Also conduct a postmortem analysis within your agency to enhance internal operations. • Train your employees on different ways to communicate during non-crisis times in case your preferred way of communicating won’t be available during a crisis. Discussion

This grounded theory study provides important insights into how some of the most successful agencies and the brands they represent experienced an unprecedented massive global pandemic and what they learned from it moving into an uncertain future. The findings explore the core phenomenon in the context of advertising and branding and offer insights for practitioners in preparation for the next crisis. The exploration of categories, development of the model and storyline along with select propositions add to our understanding of crisis response advertising during one of the most significant global health threats in the last century. This grounded theory study provides a starting point for academic researchers to explore CCRA in more depth, while also giving practitioners concrete ideas of how crisis response advertising has evolved and how to approach it when the next crisis occurs. While most of the existing literature about advertising during COVID-19 fo­ cuses on the social impact of advertising, consumer behavior, and message framing during the very early stages of the pandemic, this study establishes that there were at least three distinct phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides new insights into how advertising practices differed in each stage. The findings of this study regarding the early stage of the pandemic are consistent with Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli (2021) and Shoenberger et al. (2021), in that brands tried to show compassion and empathy around solidarity, trust, resilience, and authenticity, while also creating positive reactions to emotional appeals with ethical overtones (Mangiò et al., 2021). However, after the initial “shock absorption” phase of the pandemic, consumers developed message fatigue and wanted to escape from the dire reality brought on by COVID-19. Brands fulfilled these needs by creating a sense of levity and even joy during the darkest hours of the pandemic. Existing crisis communication theories do not adequately explain the essence of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because they are rooted in organizational communication focused on managing crises caused by the organization. Image

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restoration theory (Elsbach & Benoit, 1997), for example, offers different ways in which an organization can address its involvement in a crisis and thereby manage its reputation, while situational crisis communication theory (Coombs, 2007b) suggests that an organization’s crisis response needs to reflect the level of crisis responsibility. The COVID-19 pandemic was a global crisis that all organizations needed to respond to in some way even though they did not cause it. Consumers expected brands to act and be part of the solution. Brands in product categories that were related to the crisis were in a unique position to build their reputation by helping people, but they had to do it authentically and without any kind of opportunistic ambition. One of the most important findings of this study was that brands need to earn the right to have a voice during complex crises by not only investing in pre-crisis messaging but engaging in continuous brand activism around issues related to the crisis. This finding is related to inoculation theory (McGuire & Papageorgis, 1962), which suggests that pre-crisis messaging can influence consumer response to negative news and create an immune system but takes it a step further by suggesting that brands need to build meaningful relationships with consumers before and after crises occur through their actions. In terms of best practices, agencies are advised to perform a post-mortem with their clients and employees to establish a playbook on how to operate before, during, and after a crisis as suggested by Coombs (2007a) as some of the participating agencies did. COVID-19 was a health crisis that was difficult to predict but much was learned from it. Part of the reflection on learning should include practices that were developed as a response to the crisis that may improve the way agencies operate internally with their employees as well as externally with their clients. Another critical component is documenting consumer behavior in the context of different verticals during each of the phases of the crisis. While the results of this study showed the willingness, creativity, and resilience of brands and brand communicators to help people and businesses in need, other studies about COVID-19 crisis response suggest that some brands used the pandemic to create a superficial sense of togetherness and unity with the goal of broadening the market and thereby increasing profit instead of actually helping people (Sobande, 2020). For example, Billedeau et al.’s (2022) work indicates that corporate social responsibility efforts by the auto industry are still internally motivated and executed. They criticize that even though tremendous efforts were made to help society, there is still little coordination among a small, common set of stakeholders to respond to a crisis. This finding is disconcerting given the mounting risks pertaining to public health and other crises. It appears that there is still a risk of under-action on the part of private sector companies. For this reason, Billedeau et al. (2022) call for additional crisis response efforts of private enterprise to provide help in future crisis situations.

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Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

Although appropriate for an exploratory study, this research is limited in that it consists of qualitative interviews with a relatively small sample, which may not reflect the experiences of every type of agency in the United States. Furthermore, it would be helpful to explore the CCRA model and theoretical propositions that emerged more fully by including not only advertising agencies in the sample but also clients and their lived experiences, as well as consumer perspectives. In addition, the theoretical propositions can be further developed and should be tested quantitatively not only in the United States but in other countries as well. Summary

As the concluding chapter, this chapter presents the grounded theory of crisis response advertising practices during COVID-19 in the form of a concise story and a visual representation of the CCRA model that emerged. Following the visual model and COVID-19 narrative is a set of theoretical propositions that interrelate the categories in the model. The theoretical propositions presented in this chapter serve as a starting point for crisis communication researchers for needed follow-up studies to advance our understanding of CCRA in the 2020s and beyond. The next section applies the main components of the theoretical propositions to a professional working environment and presents them as high-level best practices that can be implemented by practitioners when the next complex crisis hits. The chapter also includes a list of best practices mentioned by the partici­ pants of this study that did not necessarily fit the CCRA model but that provide valuable insights from their experiences of working in the advertising industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the chapter offers a discussion of the findings of this study in the context of the existing literature, conclusions, lim­ itations, and suggestions for future research. Discussion Questions

1 How can the CCRA model be applied to other types of complex crises (i.e., natural disaster, foreign or domestic terrorist attack, global financial crisis, etc.)? 2 What are the main differences between the CCRA and other crisis com­ munication models? 3 From an academic research perspective, which theoretical propositions would you be most interested in exploring and why? 4 From an advertising practitioner perspective, which best practices presented in this chapter do you find most helpful? Which ones will you implement in preparation for the next crisis?

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Considerations for Practical Applications

1 Review the news and make a list of potential complex crises on the horizon (health, environment, political and social unrest, financial, etc.). Which product categories will likely be most affected? 2 Compare your list of potential future crises and product categories against your client roster. Will any of your clients be affected? If so, how? Do you have a balanced client roster to offset potential crisis-related setbacks? 3 One of the themes that emerged from this research was that brands and agencies are potentially better prepared for future crises because of their actions and experiences during COVID-19. Review the best practices section in this book (chapter 6 and chapter 8) and use the CCRA Strategic Planning Grid (Appendix B) to develop a plan in preparation for the next crisis with each of your clients. Suggestions for Future Research

1 The CCRA Model that was developed as a result of this study proposes a process of crisis communication based on experienced advertising profes­ sionals’ experiences during an unprecedented crisis. The theoretical proposi­ tions now need to be tested quantitatively. 2 Additional research is needed to determine which of the proposed theoretical propositions might be applied to other types of complex crises (environmental, financial, war situations, terrorist attacks, etc.). 3 The theoretical propositions of the CCRA Model need to be tested against other advertising professionals’ (i.e., clients or brand side) and consumers’ perspectives. References Billedeau, D. B., Wilson, J., & Samuel, N. (2022). From responsibility to requirement: COVID, cars, and the future of corporate social responsibility in Canada. Sustainability, 14(11), 6658. 10.3390/su14116658 CDC. (2022, August 16). CDC Museum COVID-19 Timeline. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html Coombs, W. T. (2007a). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The devel­ opment and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10(3), 163–176. 10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049 Coombs, W. T. (2007b, October 30). Crisis management and communications. Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/ Dougall, E. (2008, December 12). Issues management. Institute for Public Relations. https:// instituteforpr.org/issues-management/

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Elsbach, K. D., & Benoit, W. L. (1997). Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 584. 10.2307/ 2393739 Ertimur, B., & Coskuner-Balli, G. (2021). Brands expressing compassion and care through advertising. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 230–239. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1925606 Heath, R., & Coombs, W. (2006). Today’s public relations: An introduction. SAGE Publications, Inc. 10.4135/9781452233055 Mangiò, F., Pedeliento, G., & Andreini, D. (2021). Branding rhetoric in times of a global pandemic: A text-mining analysis. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 240–252. 10.1080/ 00913367.2021.1927912 McGuire, W. J., & Papageorgis, D. (1962). Effectiveness of forewarning in developing resistance to persuasion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 26(1), 24–34. 10.1086/267068 Shoenberger, H., Kim, E. (Anna), & Sun, Y. (2021). Advertising during COVID-19: Exploring perceived brand message authenticity and potential psychological reactance. Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 253–261. 10.1080/00913367.2021.1927914 Sobande, F. (2020). ‘We’re all in this together’: Commodified notions of connection, care and community in brand responses to COVID-19. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), 1033–1037. 10.1177/1367549420932294 Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.

APPENDIX A Initial Interview Protocol

1 Please describe your background in the advertising/marketing industry and current role. 2 What categories of brands have you worked with and in what capacity? 3 Describe how you experienced the global health pandemic caused by COVID-19 in your professional role. 4 How would you describe the impact of the pandemic on brands that you have worked with? 5 How has the impact of the pandemic changed the consumer landscape in the last year? 6 How did you and your company prepare for the pandemic in terms of advertising and marketing practices? 7 How did you and your company adjust to the realities of the pandemic in terms of advertising and marketing practices? 8 Describe what you’ve learned from operating during the global health pandemic. 9 What are some “best practices” for advertising/marketing professionals moving forward? 10 Do you see any changes in the advertising/marketing industry as a result of the global health pandemic that will be challenging for brands to overcome? 11 Do you see any opportunities in the advertising/marketing industry as a result of the global health pandemic that brands can use to their advantage? 12 What can brands do to help society in general and consumers in particular cope with the effects caused by the global health pandemic? 13 Is there anything else that we haven’t covered that would help us understand the impact of COVID-19 on brands?

APPENDIX B Complex Crisis Response Advertising Strategic Planning Grid

Purpose: This strategic planning grid can be used to start planning brand communication in preparation for a complex crisis. It is based on the complex crisis response advertising model described in detail in chapter 8 and includes prompts related to planning consumer-facing work, agency operations, and serving clients during three phases of complex crises. Instructions: Use the prompts on the left to identify key elements of the nature of the crisis, the agency, and the brand and complete the gray areas of the grid. Table 6.1 in chapter 6 can be used to develop ideas based on strategies that were used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grid should be reviewed and adjusted at least quarterly as per this study’s participants.

Main crisis: Intervening conditions (broad): Contextual conditions (narrow): Potential restrictions + effective date:

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Appendix B

Agency: Number of employees: Employee needs during the crisis: Internal crisis comm. tools + purpose: Who is responsible for internal communication? How long can we make payroll? What loans/grants can we apply for to retain employees?

Client: Brand: Product category/vertical: New or legacy brand: Is brand’s vertical crisis relevant? How can the brand help during the crisis? Brand’s biggest foreseeable crisis challenge: Brand’s current media mix: Brand’s crisis-adjusted media mix: Communication objective: Metrics:

Appendix B

CONSUMERFACING WORK

193

Phase 1: Shock Absorption

Phase 2: A New Temporary Normal

Phase 3: ReEmergence/ Transformation

Phase 1: Shock Absorption

Phase 2: A New Temporary Normal

Phase 3: ReEmergence/ Transformation

Consumer research: Nuanced messaging and creative: Production pivots: Digital media acceleration: Brand position during crisis: Activism/ risk-taking: Ethics vs. opportunism

AGENCY OPERATIONS Agency culture: Recruiting & retention of talent: Managing resources & fiscal responsibility:

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Appendix B

SERVING CLIENTS Selection of clients: Expanded range of services: Relationshipbuilding:

Phase 1: Shock Absorption

Phase 2: A New Temporary Normal

Phase 3: ReEmergence/ Transformation

INDEX

Entries in bold refer to tables; entries in italics refer to figures. 9/11 terrorist attacks xiv, 5, 7, 10, 23–7, 34, 45–6, 103, 151 acceleration of trends 151–7, 172, 177, 182 accidental cluster 70 accountability 93 activism/risk-taking 121, 137–8 Ad Council 23 advertising: impact of crises on 15, 20–7; responses to 9/11 in 5; use of term 3–4; see also CRA Advertising Age 44; Agency Standouts 55; A-List Agencies 48, 52, 54, 56–8; during COVID-19 127; Small Agency Awards 50, 52–3 advertising industry: before COVID-19 19, 27–9; collaboration in 80, 108; and COVID-19 1–2, 9–11, 33–4, 86–8; and crises 10; market value of 27–8, 33; movements criticizing 167; trade publications of 44, 48, 133, 148; turnover in 100 African-Americans 100–1, 180; see also Black Lives Matter agency culture 11, 74, 78–9, 88, 138–40, 167

agency days 163 agency health 11, 74, 79–80, 88 agency operations 13, 148; strategic areas for 121–2, 138–44 agency space 143, 161, 163 agency work, future of 152, 159–64 alcoholic beverages 33, 53, 98 Amazon 22, 111 American Association of Advertising Agencies 155 anxiety 31, 107, 141, 154; returningto-work 160 attacking the accuser 25, 71 attribution theory 8, 69 audience reactions, testing 127 authenticity 6, 61, 185 automotive industry 98–9 axial coding 48, 59–61, 121 axiological assumptions 44 back-to-normal messaging 27 backup plans 27 best practices 8, 15, 62, 121; for crisis response 24–5; high-level xii, 14, 187 Biden, Joseph 103–4 BLAC (Building Leaders and Creators) 155

196

Index

Black Lives Matter (BLM) 30, 77, 92, 101–2, 129, 155, 176; and crisis playbooks 146; and employee diversity 158; and New Temporary Normal 85; and smaller brands 50 black square 102, 129 black swan events 20 bolstering 71 borders, closed 75 boycotting 112, 152, 159, 180 brainstorming 74, 80, 140, 160, 175 brand actions 81, 102–3, 129–30, 138, 159, 176 brand activations 103 brand activism 81–2, 137, 147, 180, 182, 186 brand assets 25, 78, 181 brand communication xv, 2, 5; adjustment of 110, 146; and COVID-19 10, 12, 82, 95; and health and safety 107; impact of crises on 20–7; and market research 122; patterns of 171; playbooks for 165; and polarization 104–5; production as 130; and relationship-building 146–7 brand communicators 2–3 brand demise 158 brand loyalty 56, 159 brand positioning 77–8; crisis-relevant 13, 121, 135–6 brand promises, elevated 145 brand purpose 55, 62; and activism 81; and brand role 85, 166–7; and crisis response 86, 151; and positioning 136; theoretical propositions on 181–2 brand role 85, 157, 166 brand safety 105 brand service 55 brand side, competing for talent with 97, 142, 167 brand transformation 62, 113; and demise 156–8 brands, right to a voice 129 budget adjustments 127 burnout 108, 113, 154, 175; preventing 141 business apps 111 business continuity 74 Canada 98 cancel culture 159, 167

Capitol riots of January 6, 2021 104–5, 120, 172 carbon footprint 155, 162, 167 Carell, Steve 84 causal conditions 60, 95, 178 cause marketing 5, 24, 81, 84 cause washing 57 CCRA (Complex Crisis Response Advertising) xii, xv, 2, 40, 185; conceptual framework 7–8; initial categories of 11–13, 74–82, 75, 88; phases of 86–8, 171–2, 179; research agenda 14; research design for 8; theory of 171 CCRA model xii, xvi, 8–11, 14–15, 177, 178, 184, 187–8; member checking of 61–2; theoretical propositions of 179–82 CCRA Strategic Planning Grid 14, 166, 183, 188, 191–4 CDC (Centers for Disease Control) 29–31, 106, 172 change, catalysts for 156, 172–3, 177, 182 change agents 145, 152 childcare 101, 164 China: COVID-19 and 29, 71; and Spanish Flu 21; Trump’s attacks on 103 cleanliness 31 clichés 66 client care 11, 74–7, 88 client check-ins 77 client roster 75, 79–80, 100, 175, 188 client selection 144–5 climate change 166 close proximity 160–1 Clubhouse 29, 134 CNN 105 coding 11, 40, 48–9, 58–61, 63, 121, 170–2 collaboration 79–80, 172; software for 140, 175 comfort 26, 105; and food 32, 109; messages of 134–5 comfort zones 52, 138, 147 communication: informal 79; as initial category 74, 78; non-verbal 164; simplifying 139 communication practices 3, 20, 41 communication style 78 compassion, expressing 6 competitors, paying attention to 122–7

Index 197

complex crises xv, 2, 7, 12–14; advertising during 34–5; brand roles during 77; as catalysts for change 173, 182; COVID-19 as 4, 14–15, 57, 70; definition of 42; and grounded theory process 60, 62; main and smaller components of 183; phases of 12, 129–30, 173–5; planning and evaluation in 146; theoretical propositions on 179; transformative power of 86; see also CCRA compromise, post-pandemic 163–4 computer analysis 59 confidentiality 58 conscious awakening 92, 110 conscious consumerism 10, 33, 35, 109 consequences 178; in grounded theory 13; high-level 151 constant comparative method 46, 58 consumer behavior 185; changing 52, 95, 122, 154, 159; and COVID-19 6, 33, 35, 108–10, 114; documenting 186; industry reports on 127; intentional 29; media metrics for 134; monitoring 76, 122, 183; unpredictable 92, 154, 180 consumer expectations 29, 77, 110, 114, 159, 180 consumer segments: crisis-relevant 128; value creation for 129 consumer trends 30–3 consumer/community care 11, 74, 77–8, 88 consumer-facing work 13, 148; strategic areas for 121–38, 178 contact tracing 32, 104, 106 contactless mobile payments 32 contingency plans 121, 154, 165 cookies 134–5 Coombs, W. Timothy 67 core competences 145, 157, 183 core phenomenon 11, 59–60, 62, 87, 185 core values 156 corporate America 5, 23, 26, 92, 142, 167 cost savings 143–4 counseling, strategic 76 COVID-19 pandemic xi–xii, xiv–xv, 1–2, 20; brief history of 29–30; changed world resulting from 150–1, 168; as complex crisis 4; and consumer trends 30–3; consumer typology specific to 128; and crisis management 68–72; economic

impact of 95–100; high-level consequences of 151–66; impact on advertising practice 9–14, 66–7; intervening conditions during 91–2, 95–114, 120–1, 137–8; and issues management 73–4; ongoing nature of 34, 47; phases of 34, 47, 63, 82–6, 121, 123, 129–30, 171–2, 185; post-mortem reflection on 165–6; scholarship on advertising during 5–8; story of 173–7; trends before 28–9; unprecedented nature of 39–40 COVID-19 tests 131 CPG (consumer-packaged goods) 32, 52–3, 109 CRA (crisis response advertising) 2, 9, 19, 34–5; and 9/11 4–5, 24–6; in context of COVID-19 6–7, 13–15, 40, 59–60, 67, 170; emergence of 46; historical 165; see also CCRA creative inspiration 130 creative process 79, 85, 97, 160–2, 175, 181 creative risks 26, 82, 137–8, 181 creativity, and nuanced messaging 121, 128–30 crisis, defining 67 crisis communication 9, 19, 67–8, 86; CRA as sub-genre 46; effective 72; general framework of 7–8; organizational 15; use of term 4 crisis communication plans 53, 69, 86–7 crisis communication scholarship 1, 11, 40, 67–8, 87 crisis communication strategies 25, 29 crisis management 4, 86; anticipatory model of 68; phases of 68–73; and Zoom 113 crisis moments xii, 34–5; anticipated 68; communication during 4; consumer behavior in 109–10; historical 127; information during 31; reactions to 15; simultaneous with COVID-19 39–40; types of 19–27 crisis playbooks 77, 88, 146, 165 crisis preparedness, better 151, 164–6, 182 crisis relief 9, 136–7, 156–7 crisis response 4, 69–71; integrating intervening conditions into 137; organizational 26–7; strategies of 71–2; see also CRA

198

Index

crisis responsibility 8, 186 crisis types 70–1 CRM (cause-related marketing) 12, 93–4, 114 CSR (corporate social responsibility) 3, 12, 91, 115, 168, 182; and brand positioning 136; components of 93–4; history and definition 92–3; impact of COVID-19 on 98–9, 114, 130; internal motivations for 186; in local community 137 culture war 105 culture-breaking work 55 data analysis xii, 8, 11; in qualitative research 41–2, 58–63 days off, paid 143 Democrats 18, 103–5 denial 8, 25, 71 depression 107, 154 description, rich and thick 62 digital agencies 50, 54, 79, 134, 139, 174 digital first mentality 133 digital media: acceleration 13, 121, 132–5; shift to 28, 33, 81, 95, 111, 152–3 digital readiness 161 digital technology 10, 12; and creative process 85; and economic growth 28; impact of COVID-19 on 31–2, 175 diminishing strategies 71 direct-to-consumer marketing 28, 135, 152–4, 166, 172, 182 disaster-response organizations 5, 25 diversity 85, 94; of clients 80, 100, 144; of employees 132, 141, 157–8 diversity, equity and inclusion 154–5, 166, 172 doing good 81, 84 drivetime radio 133–4 earned media 4 e-commerce 109–10, 134–5, 166, 182 economic downturns: advertising during 10, 28, 133, 143; anxiety during 31; messaging during 130; and social unrest 114; see also recessions economic growth, drivers of 28, 33–4 economic pressures 120; during COVID19 12, 71, 92, 95–100, 114; in New Temporary Normal 83; theoretical propositions on 180

Edelman Trust Barometer 20, 110 efficiency 155, 162–3 emergent design 42 emotional appeals 6, 185 emotional messaging 129 empathy: messages of 81, 83, 87, 128, 135, 174; neutral 44 employees: fear and uncertainty of 139; health and safety of 74; junior 74, 141, 161; laying off see layoffs; making lives easier 184; right equipment for 142–3; younger 108, 154, 161–2, 164; see also talent recruitment and retention empowered consumers 151–2, 158–9, 184 entertainment industry 55–6 environmental crises 165, 183 epistemological assumptions 43–4 essential brands 129 ethics 13, 121; and opportunism 138 evaluation, frequency of 146 explanatory category, central 171–3 explanatory concept 170–1 extended parallel process models 68–9 Facebook 28, 112, 138, 157 Facetime 84, 112 fake news 31, 112, 157 financial crises, advertising and brand communication in 21–2 financial crisis of 2008 2, 151 financial hardships 21, 96 first responders 30, 69, 136, 138 fiscal responsibility 54, 99–100, 142–4 flex time 164 Floyd, George 64, 101–2 focus groups, online 127 food 10; impact of COVID-19 on 32–3 food insecurity 30 Fox News 105 freelancers 53; building network of 132, 175; and diversity 141, 157 friction 146 “The Future 100” 28–9 future of work discourse 152, 159–64, 167, 182 gaming 112 General Mills 32 General Motors 23 generalizability 60 Generation Alpha 103

Index 199

Generation Z 81, 103, 141, 159, 161 generational differences 161, 182 geo-location technology 134 Glaser, Barney 45 going back to normal 85, 177 going dark 11, 24, 83, 85, 87, 100 goodwill 4–5, 24–5, 71, 93, 98, 136 Google 28, 134 Great Depression 5, 20, 22, 159 Great Recession 22, 151 Great Resignation 97, 142–3, 160 greenwashing 94 grocery purchases, nonperishable 109 grounded theory xii, 2, 40 grounded theory design 8, 10–13, 15, 45–6, 185; case study 46–7; data analysis and coding 58, 62; data collection and procedures 47–9; data types 57; description of sample 49–57, 51, 62–3; recruitment and interviewing 58; timeframe 57 grounded theory methodology 40, 45, 49, 57–9, 62 hand sanitizer 98, 136, 176 hangover period 85 hate speech 112 health and fitness apps 112 health and safety 106–8, 114, 180; adhering to standards 131; of employees 74, 82; and food 32 health and wellbeing 35; COVID-19 and 31 health crises 10; advertising and brand communication in 21 health inequities 101 healthcare 29–30, 50, 97, 128; see also telehealth hierarchies, flattening 140 high-level counsel 145 hoarding 12, 95, 109, 122 holiday messaging 84 home deliveries 153, 166 home goods 84, 153 home offices 99, 163; see also working from home hospitality, impact of COVID-19 on 30–1 hotels 98–9, 176 human breakdown activities 70 human capital 54 image repositories 132 image restoration strategies 7

inclusion 85 in-depth interviews 8, 15, 41, 46 inflation 20, 96–7, 180 influencers 3–4, 52, 159 ingratiation 25, 71 in-home media 110–11 initial interview protocol 58, 190 inoculation theory 8, 68, 86, 186 in-person interactions 79–80, 86; and creative process 161; and online platforms 146; selling through 154 Instagram 28, 112 Internet service providers 84 intervening conditions 91–2, 95–114, 120–1, 137–8; identifying 183; theoretical propositions on 179–80 Ipsos 128 IRT (image restoration theory) 7–8, 69–70, 185–6 isolation 21, 95; physical 31, 95; working in 85, 141, 172, 175 issues management 73–4, 93, 183 Latinx 50, 101, 180 layoffs 12, 83, 100, 143–4, 175 leadership teams 75–6, 157, 161 learning, post-crisis 72–3 legacy brands 62, 181 legacy media 81, 111, 133, 174 levity 84, 87, 105, 123, 181, 185 local community 98, 137, 144 lockdown 2, 11–12, 30, 35, 106; advertising industry during 50, 55, 174–5; and agency health 80; and CCRA 172; communication during 78, 95; crisis moments during 40; data collection during 44; and digital technology 120–1, 152–3; future crises that may require 165; and initial categories 74–5; lifting of 87, 177; media consumption during 133 loneliness 29, 107 long-term commitment 94, 159 long-term partnership 78, 136 lunch-and-learns, virtual 140 luxury brands 129 McDonald’s 22, 99 McLuhan, Marshall 106 MAIP (Multicultural Advertising Intern Program) 155

200

Index

manufacturing sector 97–9 mask mandates 6, 72, 95, 106, 130 mask-wearing hesitancy 69 meaning, in grounded theory 46 media buying 81; automatic 105–6; flexible 184 media consumption patterns 133 media ethics 138 media metrics 134 media placements 50, 127 media polarization 105–6 media spend, keeping intact 132–3 media strategy 51, 53, 108 medical equipment 91, 98–9 megadamage 70 member checking 61–2 memoing technique 58 mental health 31, 114, 180; deterioration in 95, 107–8, 152, 154, 166; of employees 76, 175; and smaller brands 50; and social isolation 172; and web conferencing 146 mental health support 139, 143, 154 message fatigue 135, 185 message framing 6, 185 messaging 6–8, 23; adjusting on the fly 163; adjusting to phase of crisis 129; authentic 154; in CRA 10, 25; during lockdown 80–1; emotional 129; pandemicappropriate 107, 131; pre-crisis 8, 68, 85–6, 177, 186; and product categories 129; tiring of COVIDrelated 83–5 Meta 157 methodological assumptions 45 Millennials 141, 159, 161 minimalism 12, 95, 122 Miro 80, 140, 175 misinformation 31, 112 mixed motive model 24 mourning 6, 151 mythologies, new 151 natural disasters 21, 36, 70–1, 153, 187 Netflix 111 new brands 62, 181 the New Temporary Normal 82–5, 87–8, 172, 174–5, 177; adjusting messaging to 130; brand positioning in 136; response strategies for 123–6, 181

New York 43; advertising agencies in 49, 54–5, 57 non-profit organizations 94, 112 nostalgia 84, 109, 181 nuanced messaging 121, 128–30 onboarding 75, 141 online conversations, transactional nature of 146 ontological assumptions 43 open coding 11, 13, 48–9, 58–9, 121, 171; of initial categories 74–82, 75 operational counsel 145 opportunism 35, 138, 186 opportunity, moments of 34, 157 organizational crises 10, 14, 25–6 original work, producing during pandemic 81, 107, 131, 141 over-communication 78, 139 participant selection 48 partnerships, establishing 25 patriotism 5, 10, 24, 26 Paycheck Protection Program 100, 143, 175 payroll 74; securing 143 People of Color 100–1, 130, 144–5 philanthropic endeavors 99 phone calls, and anxiety 141 physical space: and agency culture 78–9, 163–4; changes to during COVID 27; employees never having visited 43, 75; and virtual space 160–2 pitching, virtually 80, 143–4, 155 planning, frequency of 146 police brutality 1, 73, 95, 101 political polarization xii, 9, 92, 95, 103–6, 112, 114, 120 post-crisis phase 7, 67, 72–3, 86 post-crisis reality 13, 173, 177, 179 post-mortem analysis 53, 127, 146, 165, 185–6 post-traumatic stress 107 practical applications xii, xiv; considerations for 15–16, 35, 64, 88, 115, 148, 168, 188; of theoretical propositions 171, 182–4 pragmatists 43 pre-crisis phase 68, 73, 87 preparation phase 68–9, 86 pre-production 144–5 preventative care 106

Index 201

privacy, impact of COVID-19 on 32, 35, 138 problem-solving, spontaneous 85, 175 prodromal stage 173–4 product categories: and brand responsibility 8, 77–8; crisis-relevant 24, 128, 136, 138, 180, 186; differing impact of COVID-19 on 176; during recessions 22; see also verticals product tampering/malevolence 70–1 production pivots 13, 121, 130–2 professional development 141, 184 profit-share 139 programmatic advertising 105–6 project-based work 144 propositional statements 41 protective gear 97 psychological recovery phase 72 public perceptions 87, 94–5 public relations, use of term 3–4 public transportation 108–9 Publicis Groupe 167 publicity 4 qualitative interviews 62, 187 qualitative research: alternative approaches 63; characteristics of 40–2; philosophical assumptions of 42–5 qualitative research design 8, 11, 43, 62 quantitative research 41, 44, 47, 60–1, 63 quarantines 21, 30, 95; and digital technology 32; guidelines for 106; hotels used for 98; and political polarization 103 questions, open-ended 58 Quiet Quitting 160 racial injustice 12, 101–2, 120, 152, 155, 157–8; and social unrest 92, 95 racism, systemic 101 Radical Return 85 reactance theory 8 real-time research 13, 52, 121–8, 145 rebuild strategies 71 recessions 10, 21–3, 180; advertising spending during 6, 20; and COVID-19 77, 100 recycled content 123, 131–2 re-emergence/transformation phase 82, 85–8, 172, 176–7; adjusting messaging to 130; response strategies for 123–6, 181

reinforcing strategies 71 relational perspective 68 relationship, statements of 59 relationship building 13, 76–7, 146–7 relationship management 37, 153; software for 147 reliability 60 remote onboarding experience 75 remote work 86, 125, 160 renewal, rhetoric of 72 Republicans 18, 104–5 repurposing 84, 97–9, 136, 181 reputation management 1, 8, 69–70, 73 research funding, amping up 127 research questions 8–9, 43, 45, 48–9 researcher bias 61 resilience 6, 147, 185–6 resource management 13, 122, 142–4 resources, and talent care 75–6 respirators 98, 136 response efficacy 69 responsibility: accepting 71; of brands 12, 40, 45, 77 restaurants: closure of 30, 32, 80, 109; crisis-centric messaging by 128; direct-to-consumer marketing 153–4 return to better 86 returning to work 78, 85–6, 160 rhetorical assumptions 44 rhetorical criticism 26 risk communication 68–9, 73–4 risk mitigation 137–8 sampling: non-random 41; theoretical 40, 47–9 Saudi Arabia 24 scapegoating 71 SCCT (situational crisis communication theory) 8, 70, 186 selective coding 11, 49, 59–60, 63, 170–2 self-efficacy 27, 69 self-sufficiency 122, 180 self-sustainability 95 sensationalist language 21 serendipity 86, 172, 177 service range, expanded 145–6 serving clients 2, 13, 148; strategic areas for 122, 144–7 shareholder value 93 shock absorption phase 11, 82–3, 86–8, 172, 174, 177, 185; adjusting

202

Index

messaging to 129, 183; brand positioning through 135; response strategies for 123–6, 181; technology during 111 site selection 48 Slack 80, 139 smaller brands 50, 133 smartphones 26, 28, 81, 111, 131 social constructivism 42 social distancing 6, 30–1, 61; and business continuity 74; and creative process 85, 130–1, 175; guidelines xiv, 27, 95, 176; impact on advertising 106–7; mandated 14, 66, 72, 81, 95, 165; and political polarization 103 social inequalities 15, 101–2, 130, 155, 157, 180 social isolation 57; and CCRA 172; mandated 60, 83; and mental health 107–8 social issues: Ad Council and 23; brand alignment with 50, 73 social justice issues 54, 102, 172 social legitimacy 69 social listening 127 social media: and direct-to-consumer marketing 153; doing good with 84; and economic growth 28; and empowered consumers 159; follower counts on 4; increased use of 152; media buys on 81; misinformation on 112; negative traits of 31; rethinking 133–4; time spent on 109; and wokewashing 102, 129 social unrest xii, 1–2, 9, 12, 120; brand views on 81; during COVID-19 92, 95, 100–3, 114; future 165 software 59, 80, 140, 143, 147, 153 solidarity 6 Spanish Flu 10, 21, 34, 37 speed 162–3 spending patterns 108–9 sporting events xiv, 28, 92, 111, 152 stakeholder theory 93 stakeholders: and crisis communication 4, 7, 67–8; repairing relationships with 69–70, 87, 99; use of term 67 stay-at-home orders 32, 72; and BLM protests 101; lifting of 87; and presidential election 103

stock footage 66, 107, 131–2 strategic areas 13, 121–2, 147–8, 178 strategic plan 99, 183–4 strategies: in grounded theory 12, 121; implementation of 181; pre-crisis 180, 183 Strauss, Anselm 45 streaming services 81, 133, 152 study participants 49–57, 51; advice from 184–5 substance abuse 154 suggestions for future research 16, 36, 64, 88–9, 115, 148, 168, 187–8 Super Bowl 28, 107, 132 supply chain issues 9, 26, 71, 83, 95, 176; and empowered consumers 159; and repurposing 97–8 sustainability 29, 85, 155–6, 172, 177; and smaller brands 50 sustainability-conscious brands 53 talent acquisition, post-pandemic 142 talent care 11, 74–6, 88 talent recruitment and retention 13, 74–5, 122, 140–2, 181 Taylor, Breonna 101 Teams 139 technical failures 70 technology: and communication 79; leveraging 127, 139–40, 160, 167, 182; rapid development of 95, 110–14, 153, 180 telehealth 108, 111, 113 Tempest, Kate 157 theoretical framework 59, 170 theoretical propositions xii, 2, 8, 11, 14, 170–1, 179–82, 187–8; and coding 60; generating 46, 173; member checking of 61; reviewing 57 thought leadership 145 Tiktok 29, 133–4, 152 togetherness 84, 186 tone deafness 78, 88, 128, 154 transformative conditions 82, 171 transparency 50, 56, 78–9, 94, 110, 139 travel 162 triangulation 61 Trump, Donald 29, 103–5 trust 6; levels of 139; and relationshipbuilding 147

Index 203

uncertainty 1, 6, 9, 34, 72, 82–3; and client care 76; and communication 78; flexibility during 184; and mental health 95, 106–7; and misinformation 112; pivoting during 158; and thought leadership 145 under-communication 78 unemployment 22, 30, 96, 180 United States 9; advertising industry in 2, 27–8, 33, 48; COVID-19 health crisis in 11, 29–30; crisis moments in 20–7, 39, 151; lockdowns and social distancing in 172 United States presidential election of 2020 1, 6, 39, 120, 172, 176; and advertising revenue 28, 33; and brand risk 73; COVID-19 and 95; and New Temporary Normal 85; and polarization 103–4 user-generated content 107, 131, 152 vaccination 30, 72, 85, 104, 106 vaccine hesitancy 31, 69 validation, methods of 40, 60–1, 63 value, added 77, 111–12, 145, 153 value-based messaging 129–30 ventilators 98, 136 verticals 50, 77; crisis-relevant 144 victim cluster 70–1 video conferencing see web conferencing video content 111, 131 virtual environment 32, 140–1, 160, 175; business meetings in 99; creativity in 140; as democratizing 80, 143; natural conversation in 113 virtual work 86, 177 visual model 2, 61, 170, 187 war, acts of 10, 22–7 War Advertising Council 23 war against terror 151 WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) 57 Web 2.0 151

web conferencing 78, 112–13, 152–3; and audience reactions 127; connecting and elevating via 139–40; and relationship building 146; and young talent 80; see also Zoom websites, data collection by 32 wellbeing 10, 29, 31, 35 wokewashing 57, 102, 129 women: in 1920s 21–2; economic pressures on 180; in study sample 49–50, 57 word-of-mouth 94 the work, as initial category 74, 80–2 work environment: and agency culture 183–4; cost efficiencies in 80; facilitating transition between 141–2; flexible 97; generational differences in preference 182; hybrid 80, 86, 99, 163–4, 177, 181; see also virtual environment work ethic 108, 160 working from home 74, 167, 174; and agency culture 138–9, 184; invisible consequences of 140–1; mandated 71; post-crisis 80, 163; right equipment for 142–3; and technology 111, 113; transition to 78–9, 142 work-life balance 29, 31, 159–61, 172 World Bank 20, 30 World Health Organization, declaring pandemic 29, 82 World Trade Center 23, 27; see also 9/11 terrorist attacks World War I 21 World War II 20–3, 30, 34 Xfinity 84 young people: economic pressures on 96, 180; and mental health 107–8 Zoom xiv; client meetings via 77; and communication 78, 139–40; culture of 112–13; interviews via 44, 58 Zoom fatigue 113, 140