Brightblue Covid-19 Impact: Part 1 Impact on Business Performance

Our Brightblue REACT delivers insight into the COVID-19 impact across different sectors.

As we head past the peak of infection in the UK, our Brightblue REACT delivers a unique insight into how clients from different sectors have progressed over this period due to its ability to deliver modelling updates at the monthly level. This provides a unique tool to measure in near real time the impact that dramatic changes are having on business performance. This article looks at the factors that Brightblue have seen impacting our clients under Covid-19.

In terms of measuring these Covid-19 impacts, we have seen an array of differing effects:

Direct – impacting sales directly, which can be modelled using variations on the spread of COVID or using google trends

Indirect – how COVID has impacted other factors, such as market demand, media cost, media viewability and competitor impacts

In this article we highlight the various ways COVID has affected sectors.

FMCG

Direct gain

Increase in sales of almost 10% YoY for a leading FMCG Brand, with the ‘panic week’ (pre UK lockdown) far surpassing any previous week during Christmas. This was driven by:
More expensive mix of products being bought
Larger average basket size
A decline in the number of promotions being run due to high demand

Indirect gain

Cheaper media costs of up to 40% cheaper for some channels, presented a huge opportunity. Media ROI increased by 15% vs last year, with the best ROI seen, mainly from TV and VoD.

Financial Services

Direct loss

Reduction in demand driven by the lockdown of between -25% & -15% over April to June. Looking at this over time demand between April & June followed a v-shape

Indirect losses:

Drop in market demand
Short term economic downturn impact
Reduced brand health

Indirect gain

Cheaper media prices: TV costs fell 45% year-on-year, lead to ROI being 30% higher

DTC / E-commerce

Direct positive impact

Weekly sales for a leading DTC brand were up 50% YoY

Indirect positive impacts:

Generic Search shot up as more people are searching for items
TV cost dropped 44%, creating a huge ROI opportunity to capitalise on
Key offline competitors exited the market

Indirect negative impact:

Reduction in market demand

Action

Monthly updates throughout lockdown using REACT allowed our clients to understand & quantify how the impact of COVID-19 developed each month, offered some great opportunity to capitalise on the changing media costs and optimise media spend for even more gains than usual.

Where clients will gain most during this period is by staying much closer to the data and measuring the completely altered landscape more frequently.

More information on the impact of Covid 19 by sector can be found on the website: https://brightblueconsulting.co.uk/blog/

Get in touch to find out more.

Brightblue Consulting are a London based consultancy which help businesses drive incremental profit from their data. We provide predictive analytics that enable clients to make informed decisions based on data and industry knowledge. Through Market Mix Modelling, a strand of Econometrics, Brightblue has a proven track record showing a 30% improvement in marketing Return on Investment for clients’ spend. If you are interested to find out more please contact us through email by clicking here and one of our consultants will get back to you shortly.