• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 20, 2020

Ad industry interest in consuming business-related content has not only normalized, but is surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to an analysis of weekly increases content consumption from Bombora.

Interest levels which crashed at the end of March following work-from-home restrictions put in place at most major advertisers and agencies, has been trending upward ever since and has actually spiked beyond pre-pandemic levels.

That's the overall picture, but interest in some subject matter is growing much faster than others, according to Michael McLaren, CEO of the B2B Group at Merkle.

“'Demand Generation' continues to spike with brands as an ongoing evaluation of the best means to pivot existing demand generation efforts continues to be an urgent need," he says, adding that, "'Local marketing' saw a big increase in intent over the past two weeks among brands, likely because they are looking to advertise and market in those places that are reopening."

"Social listening" has also seen a big jump in interest among brand marketers in recent weeks, as has "LinkedIn."

“Social listening” also saw a huge jump in the past two weeks among brands, likely to gauge customer sentiment and propensity to buy in correlation to reopening.

"A few things have happened," McLaren explains, noting " LinkedIn has seen a huge surge of applicants in the healthcare field after allowing front line employers to post jobs free of charge, and they recently launched virtual events."