Brands are pulling or pausing their ad spending as the COVID-19 crisis puts a strain on their businesses, but new research shows that consumers may not want them to stop advertising altogether.

A March 2020 survey by GlobalWebIndex asked internet users in 13 markets whether brands should continue advertising as normal. Nearly four in 10 US respondents ages 16 to 64 agreed, and a similar share (35%) were neutral, compared with 28% who disagreed. (The global results were on par with those in the US, at 37%, 36% and 27%, respectively.)

In another March 2020 survey from Kantar , just 8% of consumers in 30 countries thought that stopping advertising should be a priority for brands. But 77% of respondents said they wanted advertising to “talk about how the brand is helpful in the new everyday life,” and 75% said it should “inform about [the brand’s] efforts to face the situation.”

That suggests that while consumers don’t expect brands to abandon advertising, brands should rethink their strategies. Campaigns that were planned pre-pandemic may no longer be appropriate as consumers clamor for information about how the crisis is being handled and how they can stay safe. That includes information about how brands are responding to COVID-19.

GlobalWebIndex’s research offered guidance on what those efforts should be. In the US, 80% of internet users agreed that brands should provide flexible payment terms, 70% said they should offer free services, and 66% said they should close nonessential stores. Another 59% of respondents agreed that brands should suspend normal factory production to help produce essentials.

Further evidence of consumer receptiveness to coronavirus-related brand messaging comes from advertising analytics company Ace Metrix . Research published in mid-March showed that 86% of US ad viewers were open to brands mentioning COVID-19 in their ads. More than four in 10 (42%) respondents said any mention was OK, which was roughly on par with the number who said it depended on the message or brand (44%).

Brands that continue to advertise during the pandemic may be concerned about their ads appearing against coronavirus-related content. Those fears are understandable, but they may be unwarranted. In a March 2020 survey by Integral Ad Science (IAS) , 78% of US internet users said their view of a brand whose ad was adjacent to coronavirus coverage would be unchanged vs. just 16% who said they would have a less favorable opinion.

Despite consumers’ openness, advertisers should still tread carefully. As with other social or mission-based advertising tactics, companies can still get COVID-19 messaging wrong. Brands perceived as taking advantage of the situation or not taking it seriously may face backlash. In the Kantar study, 75% of respondents said that brands “should not exploit [the] coronavirus situation to promote the brand,” and 40% said they “should avoid humorous tones.”

This article originally appeared on eMarketer.com .

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Next-gen 5G wireless networks are just starting to light up around the globe, promising beefier video streaming capabilities like greater speed and more robust reliability. The deployments can’t come fast enough, as share and time spent with over-the-top content continues to grow, especially in emerging markets.

Events like Australia’s drought-driven fires, the coronavirus pandemic and other news events – like national elections – all are driving up time spent watching video on smartphones, as Brightcove’s Q4 2019 Global Video Index (download the complete report here ) found.

The quarterly Video Index, which is based on more than 400 billion anonymized data points from Brightcove customers, found that time spent watching streaming video during Q4 increased 23% Y/Y globally, with spikes in news viewing in Australia Y/Y and Q/Q.

Smartphone get 55% of the world’s video views

Smartphone share of video views neared 55% in the quarter and time spent watching video increase substantially. Globally, consumers spent 30% more time watching streaming video on iPhones and Android-based smartphones than they did during the same period a year ago.

Even tablets, which have seen their share of video views stagnate in recent quarters, saw time spent watching increase 6% in Q4 2019, compared to a year earlier.

Computers, while still seeing strong usage in short-form video viewing (0-5 mins.), were the lone device where consumers spent less time watching videos in the quarter. Computers, overall, actually also saw a sharp decline in the number of videos viewed during the quarter; that number was down 10% from a year ago.

The biggest winner in terms of global growth were connected TVs, with time watched up 114% and video viewing share growing 25% in the quarter,

The 2% decline in time spent watching videos on computers and 10% drop in views are indicative of the evolution taking place in streaming video. Where we once talked about the democracy of screens, that whatever screen at hand was the one we were most likely to choose to watch, viewers have evolved and now use mobile devices to source content on the go, and to watch that content on connected TVs.

Smartphones rule in emerging markets

While connected TVs are seeing growing video consumption in most developed markets, there are several, most notably developing markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and MENA (Middle East/North Africa) where mobile screen rule.

For example, 81% of all video starts in Asia-Pac were on smartphones in Q4 2019, up from just 45% a year earlier. Time watched jumped 38% and completion rates were at 48%, similar to the rest of the world (ROW).

In Latin America, share of video starts on smartphones was 57%, up from 43% a year earlier. Time watched was up a modest 4%, but completion rates on smartphones topped 50% for all video lengths (from 0-5 mins. through 41+ mins.), one of the better completion rates in the world.

MENA saw video starts on smartphones grow 78% Y/Y to take a nearly two-thirds share of video starts on all devices (64%). Time watched on smartphones was up a strong 41% with completion rates at 47%.

But smartphones play a major role in mature markets, too, especially, as we’re already seeing in Q1 data, during times of crisis, like the coronavirus pandemic.

Smartphone share of video views during Q4 in Europe hit 58%, and 59% in Japan/Korea. Australia/New Zealand saw share at 38% and North America 40%. But in three of the four regions, the number of video views on smartphones was up significantly, more than 65% in ANZ, 81% in Europe, and more than 60% in North America. Japan/Korea saw just a modest 20% increase in views, but did have the highest share of video views on smartphones among the four markets at 59%.

During crisis, news is king on a smartphone

As noted earlier, smartphones were a go-to source for information during Australia’s devastating fires late last year. During Q4 2019, news views were up 22% Y/Y on all devices. The biggest gain was shown by mid-form video (6-20 mins., a typical half-hour show excluding commercials), up 97% Y/Y. Views of short-form video (0-5 mins.), meanwhile, increased 31% and long-form content views were up 6%.

But smartphones led the pack.

Global Video Index data showed the number of news video views of all lengths doubled between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019 on smartphones in Australia. Short-form video views (0-5 mins.) were up 159%, medium-form video views (6-20 mins.) increased 182%, with the number of views for news-related videos over 21 minutes in length rising about 18%.

Short-form video views also increased on tablets and connected TVs (18% and 123% respectively), with computer views declining 13%. While medium-form content views increased 182% on smartphones, views also were up on tablets (85%), computers (60%) and connected TVs (43%).

The bottom line

With 5G on the horizon, there’s little doubt mobile will play an increasing role in the distribution and consumption of streaming video, especially on smartphones, the screen most often at hand for a massive proportion of consumers globally when they need news, for example, on the go.

For content owners, especially those for whom news content is critical, smartphones must be a pillar of any distribution strategy… it certainly is for viewers.

Stay tuned… and stay well.

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The workplace has changed dramatically in the past 8 weeks, with many organizations moving to a remote work environment, and forcing many companies to think about how to handle communications and security in a new way.

A mid-March Gartner survey of human resource executives globally found nearly 90% of organizations had encouraged or required employees to work from home . In the United States, the Federal Reserve reports that the number of Americans working from home has tripled in the past 15 years, and that was before it was mandated.

“Only a minority of employers plan to downsize or ask employees to take unpaid leave,” said Brian Kropp, chief of research for the Gartner HR practice. “Instead, most organizations are focusing on measures such as more effective use of technology and freezing new hiring to cut costs.”

But how we work from home, how we communicate with teammates, prospects and customers has come a long way, with video increasingly moving to the forefront. Working remotely only works if we can replicate the creativity that comes with face-to-face conversations between colleagues in the hallway, the high-energy team meetings as you get ready for a product launch, or the sales interactions that are key to any major deal. And, it means having the ability to share consistent messaging with your customers and employees, as well as host live virtual events.

Obviously, the answer is video; reliable, secure and customizable to the mission at hand.

But that’s a solution that many companies have addresses, but none have really solved. It’s also the biggest reason Brightcove is launching its newest product, Brightcove Continuum, which is designed to enable business continuity strategies to leverage video as they move forward at scale and with enterprise-grade security.

“Human beings communicate in many ways,” said Brightcove CEO Jeff Ray, in a video conversation from his home where he is working remotely. “But one of the most crucial ways is visually. When we can see each other face-to-face we learn so much more because we use so many visual cues to really tell a story.

“There’s a lot more to a conversation than just words,” he said. “And that’s why we believe Brightcove Continuum is so important; not only as we navigate the COVID-19 crisis, but as we navigate forward after we’ve defeated it. To really develop a bond, to trust, to rely on, to get to what matters, you need to see who you’re talking to. After all, seeing is believing.”

Brightcove Continuum is designed to help businesses enhance productivity and achieve goals using video to create a more human connection. And, it helps ensure organizations run effectively, securely and with minimal disruptions. 

Brightcove Continuum enables clear, concise communications across an organization. While the COVID-19 outbreak may have brought video to the forefront, savvy companies have been using it as the tool of choice when it comes to securely distributing information throughout an organization, and to the community. Increasingly, leaders are providing updates on how the business is being affected while advising on possible solutions.

Companies can also use Brightcove Continuum for educational purposes. Whether it’s incident response or compliance, video has shifted how companies are ensuring their employees are trained and certified on what to do during certain situations. 

And, as workforces become more remote, Brightcove Continuum can help facilitate alignment on overall business objectives. From external marketing to employee updates, video has become the go-to technology for engaging audiences and communicating a consistent message. 

Brightcove Continuum allows companies to harness the power of video securely and reliably.

Brightcove’s platform has market leading reliability, and built into Brightcove Continuum are security options that can be configured to meet the strategic needs of a business, without the risks that meetings will be compromised or networks infected with malware or viruses.

Brightcove Continuum is a solution that can be scaled from small team live or recorded training, to sharing executive communications and even sharing a live event with more than 1,000 virtual attendees… and also have those assets available as on-demand videos to share with any audience, simply, quickly and efficiently. Live and recorded content can be viewed via a web portal and through a mobile app.

Finally, Brightcove prides itself on being awarded the TSIA Support Staff Excellence Certification for the past six years. Brightcove delivers 24/7 support with SLAs as fast as 15 minutes. There’s also an option for a dedicated support representative.

The bottom line: Brightcove Continuum helps companies keep critical communications and business activities intact across the entire organization.

There’s a new requirement for video in the enterprise. And, while it may be driven currently by the crisis surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, it’s also part of what is an evolution of business. We see that remote work is becoming more the norm than a necessity of last resort; it’s critical that we keep the human connections that power today’s business.

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Ad giant WPP pulls dividend, buyback and outlook as clients cut spending

Fallout from the coronavirus outbreak has been more rapid than from the 2008 economic crash, sending different sectors reeling more quickly and leaving many companies with zero revenue and no reason to spend on marketing. Companies like WPP, the world’s biggest advertising company, have felt the hit and are struggling. WPP has pulled its dividend and share buyback and withdrawn its 2020 guidance.

It’s not alone, as 90% of US ad execs say coronavirus pandemic disrupts campaign plans Who are the 10% NOT seeing an impact?!?) & OTT news viewing surges

And we’re not talking a minor disruption. Nearly 70% said COVID-19 has had a major impact, (this was a survey taken in mid-March… things obviously have worsened in the weeks since then.) Nearly an equal number said 2021 ad spend likely will also be reduced.

The bottom line: The impact of COVID-19 is rippling through the industry. Despite more content being watched, less product is being purchased, creating a conundrum for marketers and a revenue shortfall for content distribution companies. Add to that the gradual shutdown of the content creation industry – studios are closed, sound stages are empty and post-production houses are slowly running out of work.

There is an upside. 

In the US, the first three weeks of March saw total estimated streaming minutes hit 400 billion, an 85% bump from a year ago, Nielsen said. 

Live news streaming also has seen big increases. Preliminary numbers from Brightcove’s Q1 2020 Global Video Index show streamed news has seen even bigger gains. Where overall streaming numbers increased nearly 2X, streaming news numbers were up more than 3X through March 15 compared to a year ago; specifically, January was up 4.5X, February 4X and March 3.25X over the previous year. 

March 13, the day President Trump declared a national health emergency, was the biggest single-day for streamed news consumption in the quarter.

What’s that mean? 

News content distributors, especially newspapers and magazines, should be looking to launch or expand their streaming channels to respond to the COVID-19 crisis because users increasingly are turning to streaming, especially on smartphones, to keep up with breaking and developing news. News programming also is an excellent replacement for canceled sports for brands looking to stay in front of consumers… as long as they can tolerate the grim news.

People are most likely to be streaming Netflix during the pandemic

Bad news for Quibi, Peacock, and HBO Max? Maybe so. A March 27-29 poll showed more consumers signed up for a streaming service than they had in Q1 a year ago. About 35% said Netflix was their platform watched most often, 10% said Hulu and 9% said Amazon Prime.

The bottom line: Even with massive unemployment, Americans continue to take SVOD services. The share of adults making less than $50,000 who took an SVOD service in Q1 rose to 33%, up from 26% earlier this month. 

The data also shows services set to launch this spring aren’t attracting subscriber interest from most consumers… yet. BUT, as the flood of original content becomes a trickle because of studio shutdowns, consumers will look for streaming alternatives like Quibi, HBO Max et al. While intuitively it may seem a risky time to roll out a streaming service, the new reality of social distancing won’t go away overnight and new SVOD services with niche and other original content will be appealing to consumers.

ESPN sees significant ratings fall without live sports; what will sports fans, teams and leagues do moving forward ?

Anyone who’s looked to ESPN during the COVID-19 outbreak for entertainment will see hours of programming related to old UFC bouts, and an increase in the amount of shoulder content that’s trying to fill the void left by canceled live sports.

ESPN is taking a significant hit. Viewership is down 50% from a year ago between March 12-25.

It’s not alone.

Without live events, unique viewership at Golf Channel is down from 5.23 million in the week beginning March 9 to 3.19 million the following week. By way of comparison, the same week last year recorded 5.25 million unique viewers.

The bottom line: Sports viewers will come back to TV.

But the problems that have chased fans away from nearly every venue over the past five years aren’t going away, and they’ll only be exacerbated by concerns about COVID-19 for months, even after the games resume.

How will teams replace the revenue they normally get from tickets, concessions, and merchandise?

Will they all survive? The COVID-19 epidemic already has claimed one league, USA Rugby, which announced it was filing for bankruptcy protection.

Will others be hurt as badly by zero attendance AND the need to make-good on rights deals?

Eventually, networks will look to get their money back for the rights to games never played, to offset the lost revenue from ads that have canceled.

So, look for a lot of new rights deals and, especially for digital rights that are up for grabs by traditional players and newcomers.

Leagues and teams (like networks) will be looking to add more incremental revenue streams, streams that will include more niche content from sports teams looking to restock their cash reserves. That’s a huge opportunity for streaming.

WarnerMedia sets Ex-Hulu boss & Amazon exec Jason Kilar as CEO

Jason Kilar – Hulu’s CEO through its birth and infancy – will lead AT&T’s WarnerMedia nameplates including HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. movie studio. Kilar takes over for longtime AT&T exec John Stankey, who famously told HBO staffers at a town hall following its acquisition by the telco that they needed to up their content creation to go head-to-head with Netflix in terms of volume.

Kilar is no stranger to his own controversy, sending a memo to his then bosses –that included Comcast, Disney and Time Warner – advising that linear TV was dead and streaming was the way of the future.

Shortly after that memo, he left Hulu to launch and lead streaming service, Vessel.

The bottom line: If anyone can expand HBO Max internationally to the extent AT&T is hoping (demanding), and shepherd the other streaming services AT&T has acquired, it’s Kilar.

He’s already focusing on making sure the technology is up to snuff – which really is key to any streaming deployment – and knows that the international market is one that’s ripe for the biggest growth.

Stay tuned… and stay well.

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In the last few weeks, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of organizations forced to close their physical doors and set up operations, meetings, and events in the virtual world. No surprise, video has remained a core tool for enabling these organizations to stay connected with both employees and customers. Today, we are sharing a quick tip on how to scale your Zoom meeting to hundreds of thousands of attendees , leveraging Zoom and Brightcove Live.  

With Zoom + Brightcove Video Cloud, remote and geographically dispersed speakers can join a Zoom meeting or webinar to create a multi-speaker experience, such as a company town hall or a live webinar panel discussion, that can cost-effectively scale to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of attendees. By copying and pasting Zoom’s RTMP stream into the Brightcove Video Cloud Live module, you can securely stream the source video and capture detailed video analytics for large scale events within seconds.

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Brightcove’s just-released Q4 2019 Global Video Index (download the complete report here ) found a big increase in the time spent viewing streaming video on a pair of devices — smartphones and connected TVs.

The increase on screens at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of size seems out of character with the streaming world, but it may simply be an example of evolution. Where we once talked about the democracy of screens, that whatever screen at hand was the one we were most likely to choose to watch, viewers have evolved and now use mobile devices to source content and connected TVs to consume it.

Tablets and desktop computers are losing ground, meanwhile, with computers taking the biggest hit, a decline in video views of more than 10%.

Online news becomes a staple; especially in crises

If there’s any doubt streaming video has become mainstream across the world, how consumers are getting news related to the coronavirus outbreak should put an end to it.

Data from Brightcove shows streaming media/entertainment and streaming news numbers are riding a surging wave of viewing, almost certainly driven by the coronavirus crisis.

Whether it’s social distancing prompting consumers to camp out in front of screens to watch streamed entertainment, or a need for the latest news that has viewers checking in on developing stories more often, Y/Y streaming numbers have seen big gains.

In the first two weeks of March, for example, the amount of time spent viewing news video increased 14% from the previous year, while the actual number of videos viewed jumped more than 31%.

On March 13 alone, when U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, time viewing news online increased 47% from a year ago and the number of news videos views jumped nearly 66% – the highest total for a single day in Q1 for the past two years.

Broadcasters used to be the go-to source for developing news stories, but the COVID-19 crisis has shown that consumers increasingly turn to streaming news sources for the latest updates – as well as in-depth coverage of news that’s important to them. With streaming, news providers can update news on the fly, provide broader, deeper coverage, and pull in points of view from around the globe. And, they don’t need to worry about fitting reports into arbitrary time slots. They have the flexibility to tell a better story.

Q4 2019 Global Video Index sees rise in time watched

Time watched overall during Q4 increased by nearly a quarter, up 23% Y/Y, according to the Q4 2019 Global Video Index. Connected TVs saw time watched more than double globally, up 114% from a year ago, with smartphones rising 30% and tablets up 6%. Only computers saw a decline in time watched, about 2%.

Australia/New Zealand saw time watched on connected TVs increase 173% with North America seeing a significant increase in time watched on smartphones, more than 53%.

Marketing & Sales see rise in mobile use

In Q4, smartphones were the name of the game for marketers trying to reach consumers online. More than 62% of all marketing video views were on mobile devices globally.

Asia-Pac saw an even higher percentage of marketing video on smartphones, 82%, up from 55% the previous year. ANZ increased to 55%, Europe was at 62%, Latin America 61% and North America 53%.

Computers saw the second largest share of retail and marketing video views in every region with tablets trailing and connected TVs even further back. While smartphones earned a bigger share of video views in every market, computers lost share. Asia-Pac saw computer’s share of video views drop by more than 50%, Japan/Korea saw computers fall behind smartphones for the first time, as did North America. MENA saw smartphone share grow to 49%, pulling even with computers during the quarter. In every other region smartphones surpassed computers.

Tablets slipped in every region and connected TVs saw limited growth. But connected TV share is likely to add pace over time as viewers continue to look to the big screen for content, more premium content makes its way onto CTVs and marketers follow.

Engagement (time spent), meanwhile, with retail and marketing video on smartphones is up in every market: Asia-Pac (+380%); ANZ (+41%); Europe (+78%); Japan/Korea (+12%); LatAm (+52%); MENA (+91%); and, North America (+71%).

The bottom line

As the Global Video Index showed, Q4 traditionally has been a quarter of growth for OTT with the holidays driving viewing time on new devices and company’s racing to get content and platforms into the public eye.

But Q1 this year could see significant change as the coronavirus begins to have an impact on how critical information and news is shared around the world.

The true measure of just how far streaming video has come will be even more apparent in Q2, as large portions of the world’s population begins to “shelter in place” to slow the spread of the virus. Will the amount of streaming video consumed increase? Of course it will.

Stay tuned… and stay well.

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