Media Planning: How to Respond to Coronavirus Following Cancelled Pharma Events
Coronavirus is affecting events throughout the pharma show calendar. Here’s how to respond efficiently.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting us all.
We are seeing new cases and deaths daily in countries across the world and it’s in all of our interests to help slow down the spread of the virus, whilst also doing what we can to avoid contracting the disease.
Be sure to take the appropriate measures recommended by your local government.
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From a business perspective, specifically from a pharmaceutical marketer’s perspective, we also need to ensure that the impact on our organisation is minimal.
We are continually updating a list of affected shows and events in the pharmaceutical industry because of Coronavirus. Please be sure to keep a close eye on that list as most of this post, and indeed your media plan, will revolve around those events.
Marketing and media plans in the pharmaceutical and life science industries are usually formed around these events. So, if these events are affected - either postponed or cancelled - the plans will also be affected. Meaning that KPIs are also affected.
This post looks at how to respond to those affected events due to the Coronavirus outbreak. (Disclaimer: The media vendors might not want you to know about some of this… but it’s in all of our interests that the vendor-advertiser relationship survives and that comes down to the advertisers who pay for the advertising space.)
STEPS TO TAKE FOLLOWING AFFECTED SHOWS AND EVENTS DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
Below are 10 steps to take (in order) to ensure that you are responding in an appropriate manner to the events affected by Coronavirus so that your marketing and media plan audience, as well as their KPIs, can still be met.
Grab a coffee and read on.
1. DON’T PANIC
I cannot stress this enough: Should you find that an event or trade show you were attending and advertising around has been cancelled, do not panic. Why, is two-fold. First, the event organisers will do everything they can to get the events up and running again at a new date because it’s in their financial interests to do so. So although this isn’t ideal, the event may still go ahead. Second, for your media plan, even if the event is affected, your placement can still reach its intended audience; they will not be going anywhere and will still respond to marketing messages.
If you are responsible for your organisation’s event management and stand, you will have more work to do and you will need to run through your inventory to re-arrange everything. For this post, however, we’re focusing on the media plan itself.
2. LOCATE ALL SHOW-RELATED (PRINT AND DIGITAL) PLACEMENTS AND ADVERTISING
The first port of call, we need to locate all of our placements. A media plan in the pharmaceutical and life science industries will include a lot of events and trade shows. As we have seen, many of these events - at least for Q1 and Q2 - have either been cancelled or postponed, therefore, you will need to review all of these shows as well as all of your bookings. Have any been affected? Will future events likely be affected? Begin to look at the affected events in relation to your media plan to understand the extent of changes that are ahead, as well as the work you need to do. Make it a weekly task to review these events. Any adverts booked against a postponed/cancelled show issue needs to be located right away.
3. GET IN TOUCH WITH THE VENDOR/REPRESENTATIVES
Next, get in touch with the reps. Ring them up ASAP - do not email as this might cause a delay in the response. Call the representatives and ask them what contingency plans are in place to deal with cancellations and postponements of this sort to advertising bookings. If your agency manages your bookings, it is likely that they will already be on the case, but get in touch to double-check. Any delay here could impact the solutions proposed.
4. FIND OUT IF THE EVENT IS EITHER CANCELLED OR POSTPONED
If the show is postponed, you need to ensure that the publisher commits to whatever additional distribution they were going to undertake. You are looking for that publisher to say: “We were going to have an additional thousand copies with the advert, as well as re-run the original show ads during the new show date.” The publishers themselves will usually have a Plan B for event cancellations (as show cancellations are actually more common than you think, albeit not on the same scale we are currently seeing). If the show is cancelled, and you have a print ad in a show edition, then you will likely receive a refund. Determine what the publisher is doing regarding the status of the show. Also, confirm those additional distribution copies will be there at the event on the new date.
5. REVIEW TIMESCALES: HAVE YOU GOT TIME TO TWEAK ADS?
If the event is cancelled, flash stands and any other event-based messaging and CTAs need removing or editing, if you have time to change the copy. The reason we are suggesting a speed reaction is because print deadlines when you might be able to get tweaked ads into the issue. You do not want digital campaigns to run until the new CTAs are decided upon with their assets created.
No one will blame you if you are too late and the original ad still runs - everyone in the industry is aware of the disruption Coronavirus is causing. But do aim to catch the ads before they go live if you can.
6. FOCUS ON DIGITAL
Possibly to the most important element - tackling the digital bookings promoting your stand presence. That means e-blasts, banners etc. Ensure that the bookings are still scheduled to run for the pre-arranged event date. If the event is cancelled, cancel the booking but ask the representative what else can you do with the money. £2,000 on a booking to inform your audiences that you will be attending a non-existent show is just marketing budget wasted, and for the publisher, is completely irrelevant to their audiences. So tweak the message for relevancy. If nothing can be done, you should expect your £2,000 back. But remember that the audience is still relevant to your organisation, so keeping the ad is perfectly fine, just ensure that the objective/landing page/message/CTA is different from that originally intended.
7. REFER TO YOUR PLAN B (OR CREATE ONE)
Peruse the idea of Plan B with reps and publishers. They will, for the most, have a secondary offering for when the initial booking doesn’t go to plan. It’s also recommended that you, as a Marketing Manager, address your own Plan B and activate the contingency planning procedures. If you don’t have a Plan B for cancelled events and run a number of events through the year, I’d suggest you create one for this crisis and for future instances.
As for the media plan, the Plan B will require that the additional distribution copies still be present at the future show, and if the show is cancelled, run adverts in the issue. Change the message to “We were hoping to see you at the now postponed CPhI North America, and if you intended on coming to speak to us, here’s how you can do it.” The CTA could be a webinar registration or a brochure download. Many of the events affected are running digital versions of the event instead, which could be a future consideration for your pharmaceutical organisation.
8. CAN YOU GET SOMETHING EXTRA?
The worldwide Coronavirus outbreak has forced the event organisers to postpone/cancel events through no fault of their own. The publishers then have their booking affected, also, through no fault of their own. But as the customer, if you are not getting what you paid for, and what you expected to receive, then you are more than entitled to have your money refunded or have some other added value offers thrown into the mix should you still be happy to go ahead with the booking. Yes, the inconvenience is real and the booking might still go on without a show, but you may be able to get more bang for your buck then what you ever would have received. Explore your options so that both parties are satisfied and are working together during such unfortunate circumstances.
9. IS IT TIME TO TWEAK THE PLAN AND ADOPT NEW TACTICS?
Perhaps the event is cancelled and you will receive your money back. You realise now that Q1 and Q2 will negatively impact your bottom line, with your marketing plan in its current state looking unlikely to hit its objective. But you do have additional budget. In this case, let’s make sure Q3 and Q4 exceed expectations and make up for a poor start to the year. This is a great time to look at other tactics and marketing ideas to reach your intended audiences. There may be a number of other tactics and approaches which you might not have considered, or have considered but not been able to allocate resources. Now’s the time to do so. Tip: Review your content options.
10. IF THE SHOW IS CANCELLED… ASK FOR THE PRE-REGISTERED DATABASE
If the show organiser is the same owner as the publication you have your bookings with, ask if you can still contact the pre-registered show audience digitally. So everybody that was going to go to the event (your target audience) could potentially be contacted by yourself and your team. The pre-registered attendees might be different from the actual circulation so be sure to ask for this database, so this could be a hugely valuable exercise. This is a big ask, though. But should those registered opt-in to third party communications, there is nothing wrong with getting in touch with them providing that the organisers are happy to do this. What harm could asking do?
EXTRA BUDGET? THINK ABOUT SPENDING IT
Don’t be in a rush to pull the budget, that spend is there for a reason and there is no point finishing the year with a surplus as there will be missed opportunities. As far as possible, keep the plan, keep the exposure and keep supporting the industry and the vendors within it.
We’re continually following Coronavirus developments regarding cancelled and postponed events in the pharmaceutical industry and there are currently upwards of 40 events affected. Keep an eye on this list. But what is certain is that your marketing plan will also be affected - be prepared, and consider new marketing tactics and allocate your budget elsewhere. We shall also be publishing a list of possible digital avenues this to get in front of your audiences this week in the wake of the cancelled events…
Need a hand with altering your media plan? Get in touch with me directly and we’ll schedule a call to explore your options: gareth@orientation.agency.
