• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 14, 2020

After weeks of increasing consumer awareness of brands playing a role in addressing the pandemic, American awareness of COVID-19-related marketing may have peaked, according to the latest in an ongoing series of weekly tracking studies conducted by Mindshare's U.S. Consumer Insights team.

For the first time since it began asking the question on (beginning the week of March 11) on an unaided basis, the percentage of Americans who said they were aware of any brands helping with the crisis declined, with less than half of respondents citing a brand playing a role.

The study, which is drawn from Mindshare's ongoing Pool survey of the American public, shows signs of wear-out in media consumption patterns, as well, with the percentage of Americans reporting they are spending more time listening, reading or watching media content related to the crisis declining for the first time in the five weeks it's been tracked (see data below).

While there's not weekly tracking for it, Mindshare also asked Americans if they were intentionally limiting the time they spend with media specifically to avoid news about the pandemic, and it found significant portions of people in many regions and various demographics report that behavior (see data at bottom of article).