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Sascha Lock, VP of Media
April 23, 2020

 

Nowadays, we’re concerned about many things: financial preparedness, getting sick, having enough toilet paper. For those working in marketing and advertising, we’re also concerned about things like shifting and rebuilding our media plans for resilience during COVID-19, an upcoming recession, and in times of volatility. It’s abundantly clear that there’s not a more necessary time than right now to pivot and protect our client’s businesses while protecting our own. But the compasses we typically use to help us plan and buy media can feel like they’re spinning.

The reality is that the rules of the media game and strategy of how to “win” have changed. Media consumption habits have seemingly changed overnight, publishers and ad exchanges have a surplus of ad inventory, but their revenue streams are hurting from things like ad suppression and blocking. And according to the IAB, a quarter of us have paused media through the end of Q2. Media planning today might feel as crazy as Joe Exotic from Tiger King, but there are ways to pivot your plans effectively without losing sanity. Here are five tips in doing so.


  1. Arm yourself with insights on consumer behaviors, channel trends, and brand reactions.

    Consumers - what are they doing and how do they feel? Did you know that 92% don’t think you should stop advertising? Watch out for topics like sentiment around your category, spending habits, content interests, and expectations from your brand or brands in your industry. 

    Channels - how is usage changing right now, and can we predict these things will stick for a while? Take note of immediate changes, like video content consumption being up by 60% and a boost in streaming numbers. Not all of these trends will remain in the long run. We will go back to our old ways once this is over, we’re commuting to work again, shopping in malls, and there are sporting events on TV. Try to understand the longevity of these trends and their implications on your current channel mix, with an eye for the future as well.

    Brands - how are brands within and outside your category reacting to the situation? And more importantly, how are 56% of those consumers who care reacting to their reactions? Observe the successes and flops, while pondering what to implement for your own brand. Live-stream something, make a statement, keep silent, or donate money to an SMB. Your actions could strengthen (or hurt) the rapport your brand has with loyal customers and prospects.

    Your agency and vendor partners can and should help with this task.
  2. Before making changes, try to extract maximum value from what you have.

    Now that you’ve armed yourself with external knowledge, it’s time to look internally and think about what’s worked for your brand in the past, if it will still work, and if so, for how long. Whether specific channels, tactics, or messages have been your workhorses or even shown promising results, you’ll want to determine if they can be salvaged, and how. 

    The ubiquity of digital in our connected lives has helped it weather storms better than other channels, for example during the last recession, which is an indicator of where your focus should be. If social has been a key e-commerce driver, you may be in luck as usage has exploded. Now may be a good time to double-down on this channel to increase frequency among your top-performing audiences.
  3. Look at your pie(chart), and at the ingredients available.

    If you weren’t considering making changes very soon, you likely wouldn’t be this far into the article. But much like a self-quarantined cook with skills (not me) can replace one ingredient for another, it’s important to know which replacements will produce something close to the original recipe. Think about the channels you’ll need to act on, and which replacements will disrupt your business the least.

    If live sports is your only reach-play, could you diversify your linear TV buy with non-sports programming, or flex into connected TV? If you’re committed to a handful of large networks like NBC and Discovery, they’d be happy to help you repurpose your inventory. Also, fire sales could be a short-term cost-efficiency hack to hitting new households and building reach. We’re predicting an insane marketplace for Q3 and Q4 2020 between $5B in political spending, $1.2B in Olympics reinvestments, and billions more in postponed sports, so now’s a good time to look in the pantry.

  4. Find opportunities in the moment. It may be a great time to do that test you’ve been putting off.

    My wife and I have delayed potty training our little girl for over a year. Guess what we’ve been doing this past week? It seems COVID-19 was the catalyst for an overdue yet impending action item, and in the same analogy, testing is critical to improving business. That same test mindset should apply right now, arguably more than ever, for business to prosper. Think about the tests you’ve been meaning to do and if now’s the right time to do them. 

    To use one example, Matched-Market tests work well when most variables are static. It may not seem like it, but right now may be a great time to do a MML: most everyone is at home (user equality across markets), and media plans have shrunk down to a handful of channels (fewer channels means less influence on clean results). And you may be able to negotiate discounts for running it as well.
  5. Reprogram your measurement strategy accordingly to track success.

    This step may sound obvious to some but shifting initial measurement strategies alongside plan shifts can be an afterthought, especially in chaotic times. As you’re thinking about making changes to your media plan, during COVID-19 or beyond, you may need to recalibrate your measurement strategy, data sources, and run feasibility checks with your measurement partners. If you’re implementing tests, ensure proper tagging is in place. Adding new partners? You may need new measurement solutions.

Hopefully, these tips will help you in pivoting your media plan. But just remember, you are not alone, and nobody has all of the answers. We’re all in the same boat. If you’d like to talk, please give us a shout, and we’d be happy to talk.

Check out the article on MediaPost.

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In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for September 2023. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. No Pumpkin Spice Here We joke about the obsession with Pumpkin Spice and how more and more products get rolled out each Fall for us to consume. We didn’t see that trend appear in our collection of search queries, but we did see other Fall trends - namely Football. Yes, College and Professional football are back in season and so are the keywords associated with each sport. We have a good list of phrases to share. Google celebrated its own birthday and Taylor Swift partnered with Google and took over everything, we think. There was a lot of interest in political figures and Apple released a new iPhone. Lastly, our need for information about severe weather was plain and visible in our research and we’ll examine the timeline of a couple of tropical systems. Google Celebrating Google As we stated in the August 2023 report, there has been a bit of a dry spell when it comes to keyword queries topping the 10 million query mark in a 24 hour period. Well, Google’s birthday brought an end to the drought. Its Google's 25th birthday - 9/26/2023 - 10,000,000+ queries This phrase was attached to a click on Google’s updated logo that was animated, showcasing all of the previous logos and ending on a modified one where the number 25 was used. Congrats, Google. Let’s see where the next 25 years bring. Taylor’s World Let’s just say it’s been quite a month for Taylor Swift and search interest. First, she partnered with Google to provide an interactive way to figure out the previously unreleased songs to be added to her re-released album “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” Google produced 89 puzzles that people could solve to learn the names of the new songs. You can see some interesting queries make the Daily Trends list. Taylor Swift vault - 9/18/2023 - 500,000+ queries Taylor Swift - 9/19/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Love - 9/19/2023 - 200,000+ queries New York City - 9/19/2023 - 100,000+ queries According to some sources, there was a glitch that occurred and prevented people from progressing with solving all the puzzles. The issue was reportedly fixed by Google and 33 million complete puzzle sets were solved by Wednesday September 20th. Moving on, there was news that Taylor was dating an NFL player. Did you hear about that? Well, the first rumor hit on the 16th and then interest really peaked on Sunday the 24th when she attended a Kansas City Chiefs game. Taylor Swift - 9/16/2023 - 500,000+ queries Travis Kelce - 9/24/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Travis Kelce is not a stranger to these monthly search trends reports (he was the top searched phrase on September 5th) but he is in a different stratosphere for sure. Other Phrases From The Entertainment Industry There were other phrases that made the list related to the Entertainment Industry outside of Taylor Swift keywords. It’s an odd assortment. First off, Jimmy Buffet passed away on the 1st but the search interest was recorded on the 2nd. Jimmy Buffett - 9/2/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Country music singer Zach Bryan announced the end of his boycott of Ticketmaster with dates for his The Quitin Time Tour. The next day he was arrested in Oklahoma. Zach Bryan - 9/6/2023 - 500,000+ queries Zach Bryan - 9/7/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries In other legal news, Danny Masterson, the actor who starred in the TV sitcom, That ‘70s Show was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on the 7th. Keywords related to the show and his co-stars made the list. That '70s Show - 9/7/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis - 9/11/2023 - 100,000+ queries :Lastly, MTV’s VMAs were held on the 12th, leading people to search for the highlights and news and the only film that made our collection of the daily top 3 was a Hulu exclusive. VMAs 2023 - 9/12/2023 - 500,000+ queries No One Will Save You - 9/22/2023 - 100,000+ queries September Holidays Last month had a couple of holidays that were queried heavily. Labor Day - 9/3/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Mexican Independence Day - 9/14/2023 - 200,000+ queries The Labor Day numbers were helped by a Google Doodle. Interest in Mexican Independence Day peaked on the 14th. Regarding Government Officials It was a busy month for people related to the federal government for different reasons. Mitt Romney announced he was not going to run again for US Senate on the same day that US Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was asked to leave a musical performance in Denver. Mitt Romney - 9/13/2023 - 200,000+ queries Boebert - 9/13/2023 - 100,000+ queries Later in the week, a CCTV video of the incident in the theater was released and search interest in the US Representative peaked higher. Boebert - 9/15/2023 - 500,000+ queries The Senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, was charged with bribery charges on the 22nd. Bob Menendez - 9/22/2023 - 500,000+ queries The last week of the month was filled with other phrases related to politics. Government shutdown 2023 - 9/25/2023 - 200,000+ queries Cassidy Hutchinson - 9/26/2023 - 100,000+ queries Republican Debate - 9/27/2023 - 200,000+ queries Dianne Feinstein - 9/29/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries People seeking information of this year’s potential government shutdown made the daily top 3 on the 25th. American former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson released a book entitled Enough about her time during the Trump administration. The second Republican Presidential Candidate debate was held on the 27th and the senior Senator from California passed away on the 29th. Maybe They Are Fighting For Clicks Colorado Buffaloes football has been quite the phenomenon this season and the timeline of keywords proves it. Colorado football - 9/1/2023 - 500,000+ queries Deion Sanders - 9/2/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Colorado vs Nebraska - 9/9/2023 - 200,000+ queries Colorado football - 9/15/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Colorado football - 9/15/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Deion Sanders - 9/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries Colorado vs Oregon - 9/22/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Colorado vs USC - 9/30/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries The AMP Agency team will keep an eye on this topic to see if the team’s popularity continues for the rest of the season. They certainly didn’t do well against Oregon. There are college football programs besides Colorado’s and here are the rest of the phrases that made the list. Georgia football - 9/1/2023 - 200,000+ queries LSU football - 9/2/2023 - 500,000+ queries Clemson football - 9/4/2023 - 500,000+ queries Michigan State football - 9/9/2023 - 500,000+ queries Ohio State vs Notre Dame - 9/23/2023 - 500,000+ queries It’s always interesting to get a measure of the team’s fan base by seeing the search volume in Google Trends. NFL The National Football League started up their season and here’s the timeline for the month including Travis Kelce, who had a bone bruise injury on the 5th. Travis Kelce - 9/5/2023 - 500,000+ queries NFL - 9/7/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries NFL - 9/10/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Aaron Rodgers - 9/10/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Cowboys - 9/10/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Aaron Rodgers - 9/11/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Eagles - 9/14/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Cowboys - 9/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries Chiefs - 9/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries Nick Chubb Injury - 9/18/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Steelers - 9/18/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries 49ers - 9/21/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Miami Dolphins - 9/24/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Raiders - 9/24/2023 - 500,000+ queries Bengals - 9/25/2023 - 500,000+ queries Packers - 9/28/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Injuries to Nick Chubb and Aaron Rodgers were also search worthy. Segueing to the other type of football and also player injury, there was only one instance of Inter Miami that made the daily top 3 in September 2023. Inter Miami - 9/3/2023 - 500,000+ queries Lionel Messi suffered an injury and did not play another game last month; therefore, the interest has dwindled. Here’s The New iPhone (Same as the old iPhone) As typical, Apple announced their new iPhone in September. This year, it was the 15th. iPhone 15 - 9/12/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Looking at last year’s announcement, the query volume was higher. iPhone 14 - 9/7/2022 - 5,000,000+ queries Should we infer anything from the drop in search interest? Maybe. The anecdotal reaction is that the new model isn’t much different from the previous model. Weather It’s Hurricane Season and we saw search queries tracking Lee and then a tropical storm that made landfall on the 21st. Hurricane Lee - 9/5/2023 - 200,000+ queries Hurricane Lee path - 9/6/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Hurricane Lee path - 9/6/2023 - 200,000+ queries Tropical Storm - 9/21/2023 - 200,000+ queries As we wrap up the report, we continue to look up and gaze at the Harvest Moon. Full moon September 2023 - 9/26/2023 - 200,000+ queries Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for August 2023. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. The Curiosities of August 2023 In August 2023, the most searched topics were varied. Some we could have predicted like the return of college and professional football, but others we could not including many natural and weather-related occurrences. Taylor Swift made our collection twice during the month along with other entertainment topics. The world of gaming had a month as three keywords related to that industry made our list. The former president’s legal troubles continued and sparked search interest in his latest indictments. Every Inter Miami game seems to be tracked by Google’s search audience and we’ll dive into the timeline of those queries. Lastly, once in a blue moon we see searchers wanting to know more about our planet’s natural satellite and we’ll examine that topic to wrap up the month. Let’s get into it! The Most Queried Keywords There were three keywords that drove over five million queries in a day. The first phrase was connected to the fire on the island of Maui. The second phrase captured the interest of the Finals game of the Women's World Cup where Spain was victorious and the third was related to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touching down on the moon Maui Fire - 8/9/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Women's World Cup - 8/19/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries ISRO - 8/22/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries It’s been a while since we have recorded a phrase that has driven over 10 million queries in a 24 hour period. We’ll see if this trend continues for the remainder of the year. Things That Entertain Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has been a major success and with new dates released and the USA leg of the tour wrapping up, her name as a keyword made our list. Taylor Swift - 8/3/2023 - 200,000+ queries Taylor Swift - 8/10/2023 - 200,000+ queries We will see if she continues to drive queries as she takes the stage again in November for three nights. Here’s a rundown of the most searched shows and movies last month: Only Murders in the Building - 8/8/2023 - 100,000+ queries Heart of Stone - 8/10/2023 - 200,000+ queries Ahsoka - 8/22/2023 - 200,000+ queries One Piece live-action - 8/31/2023 - 200,000+ queries Only Murders in the Building kicked off its third season on Hulu and the show Ahsoka from the Star Wars universe premiered on Disney+ on the 22nd. The Gal Gadot film Heart of Stone was released on Netflix along with the show One Piece, which is a remake of an animated TV series based on a Japanese manga series. Big Month For Gaming We usually see maybe one query related to gaming in a month. In August 2023, we saw three. Two were related to game titles and the other phrase was the name of a famous gamer. Baldur's Gate 3 - 8/3/2023 - 200,000+ queries Kai Cenat - 8/4/2023 - 500,000+ queries Starfield - 8/30/2023 - 500,000+ queries Baldur’s Gate 3 was released on the 3rd and the preload for Starfield preload began on August 30th for XBox on Steam. Kai Cenat, an American Twitch streamer, held a giveaway in Union Square, Manhattan on the 4th and it devolved into a riot. He was arrested on a few charges including inciting a riot. Yep, Still Didn’t Win As we had in July 2023, we had more lottery fever in August. Mega Millions Drawing - 8/4/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Mega Millions drawing tonight - 8/8/2023 - 200,000+ queries The Mega Millions drawing on the 8th had a jackpot winner, which was estimated to be around $1.55 billion. Terms of a Political Nature With two indictments and the release of a mug shot, Donald Trump’s last name made our list three times in August 2023. Trump - 8/1/2023 - 500,000+ queries Trump - 8/14/2023 - 500,000+ queries Trump - 8/24/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries With 2 million queries, it appears that people really wanted to see his mug shot. There were other political topics that were queried last month. Here’s the list of the rest of them. Ohio Issue 1 - 8/7/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Republican debate - 8/23/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Prigozhin - 8/23/2023 - 500,000+ queries Mitch McConnell - 8/30/2023 - 500,000+ queries On the 7th, voters in Ohio struck down Issue 1, which is a measure to immensely raise the signature and approval thresholds for citizen initiatives to amend the state constitution. The first debate of the Republican candidates for president in the upcoming election was held on the 23rd. Also, Yevgeny Prigozhin was reported to be killed in an airplane crash after leading a short-lived rebellion against the Russian military in June. On the 30th, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell had another episode where he froze up as he did on July 26th. We Have Both Kinds of Football Know this: If Lionel Messi plays for your team, people will search. Inter Miami - 8/2/2023 - 500,000+ queries Inter Miami - 8/6/2023 - 500,000+ queries Inter Miami - 8/11/2023 - 200,000+ queries Inter Miami - 8/15/2023 - 500,000+ queries Inter Miami - 8/23/2023 - 500,000+ queries The Miami International Football Club had 8 matches in the month of August. The dates of 5 of them drove people to search for more information about them and the team. We think this pattern will continue throughout the MLS season. You know that summer is almost over when the NFL queries start up again. Here’s the breakdown from the preseason: NFL - 8/3/2023 - 200,000+ queries Patriots - 8/10/2023 - 200,000+ queries Dallas Cowboys - 8/12/2023 - 200,000+ queries Eagles - 8/12/2023 - 200,000+ queries Chiefs - 8/13/2023 - 200,000+ queries Eagles - 8/17/2023 - 100,000+ queries Washington Commanders - 8/21/2023 - 200,000+ queries Steelers - 8/24/2023 - 100,000+ queries Trey Lance - 8/25/2023 - 500,000+ queries Did your team make the list? If so, it has a loyal and search empowered fan base. For Trey Lance fans, he was traded on the 25th from the 49ers to the Cowboys. College football started its season at the end of the month and Google was there for it. We collected these two phrases in our list. College football - 8/31/2023 - 200,000+ queries Nebraska football - 8/31/2023 - 200,000+ queries As we have seen in the last 4 years, gridiron football will be the most popular sports topic until the Superbowl (February 2024). Stay tuned for a large number of team-related keywords. Natural Occurances Beyond the wildfires in Maui, there were hurricanes, an earthquake, and celestial visions to be searched. Here is a rundown of all them. The Perseids were on display between the 11th and 13th and people wanted to know how they could see them. Meteor shower - 8/11/2023 - 200,000+ queries Meteor shower - 8/13/2023 - 200,000+ queries Hurricane Hilary impacted the US west coast last month. See the timeline of interest from the 16th through the 20th. Hurricane Hilary - 8/16/2023 - 500,000+ queries Hurricane Hilary - 8/17/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Hurricane California - 8/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries Hurricane Hilary tracker Live - 8/18/2023 - 200,000+ queries Tropical Storm Hilary - 8/19/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Hurricane Hilary Tracker - 8/20/2023 - 200,000+ queries As the storm made landfall, there was an earthquake that occurred at the same time. What a coincidence. Earthquake - 8/20/2023 - 500,000+ queries On the US East Coast, Hurricane Idalia was the storm that drove people to search. Hurricane Idalia - 8/27/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Hurricane Idalia path - 8/27/2023 - 500,000+ queries Florida Hurricane - 8/28/2023 - 500,000+ queries Lastly, with the second full moon of the month, people queried for three straight days to learn more about the “blue moon”. Blue moon - 8/28/2023 - 200,000+ queries Super Blue Moon - 8/29/2023 - 200,000+ queries Blue Moon 2023 - 8/30/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries With all that is happening in the world, it’s nice to think we still have time to look up and take in the view.‘ Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.

This post is part of our ongoing blog series highlighting our CMS practice at AMPXD; learn more about how we select CMS solutions through our other stories. As a large worldwide enterprise software organization with multiple product teams, marketing teams, customer communities, and outreach programs; VMware knows the daily challenges of managing a robust blog ecosystem and its content.. With over 40 different corporate blogs, VMware tasked our CMS experts at AMPXD with creating and managing a centralized authoring environment. Before our engagement the VMware teams had disparate blog instances in multiple platforms which made both content and user administration difficult to coordinate and manage. The organic growth of the various blog platforms also created the situation where they lacked brand consistency with various blogs’ look-and-feel resembling different brands. This lack of cohesion resulted in end users browsing between properties having jarring experiences as brand assets and user interface elements were unique to each blog. The AMPXD team in coordination with VMware stakeholders audited their internal workflows and business needs and identified WordPress Multisite as the ideal platform to enable blog authoring for the entire organization. The extensibility and control features of creating a WordPress Multisite network allowed for consistent user interfaces via brand controlled themes, a centralized user repository integrated with SSO, and one true dashboard to manage content and sites across the organization. AMPXD completed the migration of the existing VMware corporate blogs to the WordPress platform and, as part of the work, unified all of the disparate user interface elements of the blogs into one true corporate blog theme. The VMware blog network now has consistent styling elements whether you are browsing content from VMware Latin America or reading about the latest tips for utilizing vSphere The flexibility of the WordPress platform and the ability to create multisite blog networks has enabled VMware to create a robust blog ecosystem with over 40 blogs specialized to VMware products and disciplines. Utilizing content syndication mechanisms, VMware now has one blog space that is an aggregate of all corporate content across the blog network, giving customers one portal to discover and consume corporate content from across the whole ecosystem. By centering on the authoring workflow and optimizing the WordPress platform, the VMware team’s ability to easily manage authors, themes, system integrations and plugins has allowed the enterprise to focus on creating rich content and communities. Over the course of our ongoing series of posts around technology, we will share stories of uniquely different CMS solutions in practical implementations. If you have an upcoming CMS project or need to discuss content management strategies, the team at AMPXD would love to assist you with your needs. Reach out to us via our Contact Us form. You can also read about our entire suite of Experience Design and Website Development capabilities on our Services Page.

  • 3 min read
  • September 14, 2023