5 things working from home has taught me about Marketing
Is this the new normal way of consuming media?
Like many, my working world has changed significantly over the last few months. Not only did I start up a new company, I went from working in an office (something I had done since I was 20) to working from home. There are lots of blogs, and even Linked In Learning courses on how to get the most out of working from home (no, I don’t have a plant, or tea station in my home office), but, what struck me about the change in working from home was how my interactions with traditional marketing channels have changed (that and the fact that I can eat a whole packet of biscuits on my own apparently)!
According to Finder.com more 60% of the UK's population have worked at home since COVID-19 broke out, and with the government advice still recommending that businesses let people work from home if they can. We must, as marketers, understand how this has impacted our audience. Here are five things I’ve noticed about my marketing consumption:
Radio and Spotify ads don’t reach me
Having always worked in an office where music pumped out of people’s laptops, and the office Alexa’s; I’ve realised something since working from home – I work best in silence. That means that the many (many!) adverts I used to have pumped at me from Heart FM, or Absolute (90s) (radio staples of the office who can’t agree on a music genre) don’t reach me anymore. Nor (thank goodness) does my desire to enter their text to win competitions (which several £££'s later I still have never won).
2. Out Of Home Media has no impact
I live in a remote village, meaning that there is no traditional out of home media near my house (unless you count the village noticeboard); the out of home media I do see is on my daily journey to pick up my daughter from nursery. During which time I am normally recording a voice note to my husband reminding him to pick up things for dinner and concentrating on stopping her crying, thus meaning I don’t see the inevitable Coca-cola, and McDonald's adverts I will whizz past in my car.
3. My interest in social influencers has increased
Perhaps this is working from home, perhaps it’s a product of COVID-19, or becoming a mum for the first time, but it’s fair to say I have developed an obsession with some influencers. Stacey Solomon is single handily responsible for me buying several toys and clothes for my daughter, and Mrs Hinch is the reason that I now own everything from a Shark Vacuum, to a Scrub Daddy Sponge (things I did not know existed 6 months ago!). I now have more time to scroll through Instagram stories in a way I didn’t when I was commuting to the office – when walking my dog, or have the inevitable (“The Host is aware you are waiting, and will let you in shortly” message on a zoom call).
4. I’ve finally embraced YouTube
Over the years I’ve helped clients and businesses I’ve worked for spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on YouTube, but never been an active user myself. I just never understood why people would watch YouTube when you have TV? Well, now I don’t have to sit in a car stuck in city-centre traffic my day begins by doing a YouTube work out (I’ll be honest, its normally Joe Wicks); followed by getting ready where I inevitably watch a video on how to become a millionaire or pay off my mortgage early (I can recommend The Break channel for these videos – though as yet, I can confirm that I have not managed to achieve either status). But, the extra time, without the commute means that I can expand my mind (and hopefully slim my body); but it also means that I am experiencing all of the array of adverts that YouTube has, and indeed experiencing first-hand how influencers work with brand partners to create great content.
5. The load speed of a website is everything
Fancy, exciting websites with full-scale video such as Six Flags, or websites that a clogged up with advertisers (such as The Bristol Post, Liverpool Echo, or any other number of local paper sites) are frankly, extremely annoying. Wi-Fi at home can be extremely cantankerous, and the load time of these sites is painful. In my village, you can tell when schooling finishes for the day, because our internet stops working as the village attempts to connect to Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime. So my advice to website designers and brand owners is to always remember that functionality will always be more important than the exciting features of your website. If your site takes too long to load, customers won't wait around to see what exciting features you may have.
Have you spotted any changes in your media habits recently? Let us know!