• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, September 24, 2020

Last time, we took a look at a few of the avenues that marketers are exploring to attain a tighter grasp on their data, brand narratives, and SEO. This week’s data showed marketers and agencies on a similar quest for control as they’re forced to reckon with a fall and winter of distracted consumers and a pandemic that remains undeterred in its ability to upend normal business practices. 

“Field marketing” rose exponentially in the beginning of September. This could indicate that brands are looking for ways to take their in-person strategies online as the threat of a second coronavirus wave looms. Field marketing can take many forms and, like almost everything, the ways in which field marketers can engage their target audiences are evolving. Whether it’s encouraging communities to get out to vote or getting a product on the shelves in front of  customers, the shift from traditional to digital marketing has presented a unique challenge for field marketers to come up with innovative new approaches to communicate and track their field marketing initiatives.

“Social business,” defined as a business that has specific social objectives that serve its primary purpose, has been trending upwards among US agencies since July. Brands followed suit showing a spike in interest earlier this month. While the importance of creating a purpose-driven organization has long been understood, profound disruptions and uncertainty have presented new opportunities to completely rethink how we do business. Companies can no longer afford to ignore their social responsibilities and we’ll begin to see more brands and agencies alike coming up with human-first, integrated solutions that flow into social solutions.

Online safety and security has taken on greater levels of importance in recent months as internet usage during COVID-19 reached an all-time high. As a result, we have seen an increase in content consumption around topics related to “Brand protection” since the beginning of August. By engaging in brand protection, businesses can actively prevent bad actors from infringing on their brand illegally by using their intellectual property (IP) and/or brand name. 

As we strive to create the frictionless buying experiences our consumers expect and deserve, brand infringement has the ability to trigger a variety of undesirable consumer emotions that could potentially impact your company’s profits, reputation or both.