3.17 The Pulse Of Covid-19: The Trends Of The Past Week
We know many of our clients are working through dealing with the implications of Covid-19 on their business and day-to-day realities of managing work at a time like this (e.g., WFH isn’t for everybody). We thought it would be nice to send around the micro-trends we are seeing emerge in the market and how companies are reacting as a source of information, insight, inspiration, and maybe even a point of levity.
Harris was in the field last week and found that:
- Our recent poll found that 74% of Americans said they’re afraid of “accidentally spreading the virus to vulnerable people even if they’re not experiencing symptoms.” (see WWD article here)
- Americans 60+ are least worried and least informed about COVID-19, but as we know are most at risk (see Forbes article here).
- 66% of CFOs believe it will take less than a month until back to normal, and are most concerned about a global recession and decrease in consumer confidence (see PwC CFO Pulse study here).
Companies are filling the gaps: Consumers have been consistently looking to private companies for leadership and, at this extreme time, they are looking for all the help they can get.
- The new luxury, handsanitizer? LVMH is now pivoting three of their largest perfume plants to make hand sanitizer for France, free of charge.
- Ro, a US digital health company, developeda free Coronavirus Telehealth Assessment for anyone to take and then Ro will connect you to a medical provider for a free consultation.
- Grubhub/Seamless removed its commission fees for independent restaurants, offers ‘contactless delivery’ options for consumers (including emphasizing cashless pay and apps to beat checkout lines), and gives consumers the ability to round up and donate their change to the restaurant workers. Uber follows suit. So far, 19 states or cities have shut down restaurants and bars and restaurant workers have organized a relief fund. Meanwhile, meal kit delivery service Blue Apron sales surged 67%.
- T-Mobile Tuesday changed its promotional offer this Tuesday to a $1 donation for a COVID-19 ‘Feeding America Fund’, they are giving a minimum of $300K to the cause and up to $500K to supporting American families struggling with the side effects of the shut down.
- Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is deploying an emergency employee leave program.
- Planet Fitness to offer free at-home workout classes via live stream to ALL consumers.
- Grocery stores like Woolworths and Coles in Australia, are offering Elderly hours (opening stores one hour early for older consumers to get their shopping done) to protect the health of older consumers.
- Facebook is awarding $100 million in grants, ad credits to small businesses.
- Chinese automaker BYD, which specializes in making batteries for electric vehicles, pivots its production to become the world’s number one face mask producer in an effort to curb shortages.
The mental health connection: Companies are helping Americans manage anxiety and promote wellbeing during quarantining.
- Guided meditations are popping up on YouTube for a falling stock market.
- 10 percent happier, Dan Harris’ company, came out with a free coronavirus sanity guide, which offers practical tools to cope with stress, fear, and anxiety.
- Headspace unveiled free subscriptions to healthcare professionals working in public health settings through 2020.
- Cannabis sales are surging as the US and Canada battle with the anxiety.
- U.S. Starbucks employees can now get up to 20 free therapy sessions.
- Norway hosts a press conference just for kids to answer their questions on anxiety.
- Chipotle Together hangouts give consumers a chance to connect despite social distancing.
Consumers are in need of levity: Consumers are turning to entertainment to distract and occupy time, with estimates predicting a 60% increase in TV viewershipas quarantining continues.
- Netflix trends show consumers are entertaining their tweens (e.g., On My Block #1 in their top 10 shows in the US), looking for escape (e.g., Love Is Blind, #3) and still watching ‘Outbreak’ (#7) The full list of top 10 in the US includes: ‘On My Block, ‘Spenser Confidential’, ‘Love Is Blind’, ‘Lost Girls’, ‘Boss Baby’, ‘100 Humans’, ‘Outbreak’, ‘Trials Gabriel Fernandez’, ‘Elite,’ and ‘Angry Birds 2.’
- NBCUniversal is shifting from the box office release to on demand streaming – for $19.99 this weekend you can stream “The Hunt,” “The Invisible Man” and “Emma.”
- There are already 65 songs on Spotify that have coronavirus in them, meanwhile Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson created a playlist for everyone self-isolating.
- Tik-tokers are spreading levity, information and PSAs, like these:
- Vietnamese PSA TikTok craze dance challenge
- Nurse dances
- I will survive remix
- Gen Z reimagines 2020 graduation
- Half of all US parents with kids under 10 are now Disney+ subscribers, and parents are supporting each other with resources like 30+ Virtual Field Trips, childcare sharing apps, and virtual museum tours.
- Time Out New York has rebranded as “Time In,” providing a host of at-home entertainment options to help promote social distancing.
- Others are turning to good old fashioned offline entertainment, with knitting seeing a resurgence.
- Another market that’s having a moment? Bidet sales have surged as fears over toilet paper hoarding mount.
A 500ft glance at China: What’s happening now as the market works to recover and heal:
- Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan’s vice chairman of global banking and Asia-Pacific, predicts that the Chinese economy will grow 15% quarter-on-quarter from April to June, after contracting by 3.9% during the first three months of 2020, compared to the previous year.
- Today in Chinese consumers are what Bloomberg Media describes as “Revenge Spending”: going out to luxury retailers and malls and enjoying their sense of freedom again.
- Hermès International CEO Axel Dumas said he foresees “potential normalization” of operations with seven of its 11 stores in China beginning to resume operations.
- Apple and Starbucks have reopened over 90% of their stores in China (six weeks of total closure and disruption).
That’s it for now. Let us know if this was helpful, you’d like to subscribe to our email newsletter or if there are other burning questions we can help answer. We plan to keep providing updates in the following weeks.