Suzy Webinar: Brand Building in Uncertain Times: 3/30/20

• Okay everybody, thank you for joining our webinar. This is now our third webinar that we have hosted here at Suzy since the onset of this unprecedented crisis. I hope everybody is staying safe. I hope everybody is taking advantage of some of this time with your family and keeping in touch with loved ones, and I hope that you’re able to kind of keep focus on business at the same time which I know is never easy. And that is what we’re here to talk about today is business. And it’s not easy to conduct business during these uncertain times.

00:32 - It’s not easy to build your brand during these uncertain times. There is a fine line constantly about wanting to on one hand continue to drive business as usual because companies need to make payroll. People don’t want to lose jobs. But at the same time not seeming as insensitive and understanding that the end consumer on the other side of the phone or the other side of the screen is dealing with a whole host of issues. So what we tried to do today is really tried to code this for everybody. We conducted research from our Suzy network of US consumers to hear from them, what are they looking for right now from brands? What channels were they using? And how should brands really look over the next weeks and months, hopefully not too many months, speaking to them about their products and services in a way that’s actually helpful to them. So we’re gonna jump in to it.

01:20 - At the end of this presentation I am thrilled to have a close friend of mine and board member of Suzy, Gayle Troberman who is the chief marketing officer of iHeartMedia. Gayle is gonna be talking a little bit about what she’s seeing in the radio and audio world and podcasting and in terms of branding and celebrity marketing in general. So super excited to have Gayle join. And hopefully this will be a format that we can really run with moving forward. So we’re gonna just get started and jump right into it. Again, I’m Matt Britton, CEO of Suzy and let’s try to have some fun today and hopefully get our minds off the craziness that’s going on outside of all of our doors. So greetings from the Suzy team.

01:57 - The Suzy team has been working remotely now since March 13th. It seems like we’ve, working remotely since 2013. I’m sure many of you guys feel the same way. It’s just sort of surreal to wake up every day and not go into an office and not see our close colleagues. At Suzy we have 75 employees with offices in New York City which is obviously the epicenter of what’s going on here in the United States as well as in North Carolina and Birmingham, all of our offices are shut.

02:27 - We’ve been doing everything we can to stay close-knit as an organization. It can be incredibly challenging at times to do so. I can’t imagine what companies of five or 10,000 employees are doing to stay closely knit. We’ve been doing things like twice a week having all-staff meetings, having departmental stand-ups every single day, having virtual office hours with leaders at the company so our employees know that they can actually communicate with somebody and things like virtual yoga and happy hours. A lot of things that many employees are catching on to now.

02:57 - I think just getting into the flow of things in business obviously was the hard thing, but now we’re entering week three of this and I think we are getting into a little bit of the flow at Suzy and hopefully you guys are feeling the same way. So as mentioned earlier, we conducted a study on March 20th and 21st using Suzy’s Market Research Software. We queried 939 U.S. consumers. Of course the data in the study is weighted for US Census representation across age, gender, ethnicity, or region so you have a weighted sample size of consumers you can feel confident in knowing represents the United States population. And we just put some headlines of what happened over those two days, things are changing so fast we find that’s often helpful just to give people a time stamp of what was happening when we conducted this study. And it’s just so crazy ‘cause when we first did our initial webinar, our March 6th, again, we were saying things like, this is gonna be the summer of the American road trip.

03:56 - Consumers will still seek adventures, they’ll just move away from the coasts, and now that seems kinda silly that we said that two weeks ago. So this is something that is changing so rapidly, it’s such a dynamic situation and that’s why we want to continue to provide value. On this call are customers of Suzy from all over the United States and all over the world as well as really anybody from the media or any brand or agency that wanted to listen in. So this is not something that we’re charging for. We want to try to add value and just show everybody what we’re seeing with the consumer as it changes so rapidly.

04:30 - So first and foremost, 58% of consumers are consuming more television and social media since the onset of the crisis. That should come to no surprise. People are home all day. Now all of a sudden they can watch CNN or another news channel in the middle of the day to learn about information. They’re on social media much more because they’re less in meetings with other people. Even when people are in Zooms I wouldn’t be surprised if they have another screen open and they’re tweeting or talking to a friend over Messenger. So we have screens open at all times. That number’s only gonna go up. Our eyes are glued to screens. I had a conversation with my son the other day who’s 12 years old saying, like what would happen if this happened when there was no internet? How would companies work? During ⁹⁄₁₁ when that went on I often wondered what would have happened if there was internet access on the planes and how we would have heard the passengers who were going through that horrible experience, what they were seeing.

05:22 - So I think the fact that we are in an era where there’s high proliferation, although not total proliferation, of high-speed Wi-Fi within the home, it has made this slightly more palatable and definitely helped with work productivity and the ability to access entertainment for sure. So although consumers are certainly going to the television and the phone so much more to consume entertainment-based content they still aren’t necessarily trusting the media for the core information on COVID-19. And what’s really interesting is that we have seen an increase in trust in the federal government since we first launched a study way back on March 6th. On March 6th only 19% of consumers actually said they trusted the US government for information on the COVID-19 crisis and now that number’s up to 53%. So that’s obviously a startling change in a short period of time.

06:18 - A big reason why is on March 6th if I recall I think the president was saying that this was gonna be a short-lived issue. I think we only had something like 20 people infected at that point and he was predicting it would go away. So those were concerned obviously that didn’t believe in that theory didn’t trust and now there’s a little bit more of an alignment. Obviously not total alignment. This is not a political webcast so we’re not gonna be going into that any further than that, but it’s interesting to know that the CDC and the World Health Organization are by far and away the most trusted sources for information about this crisis, and anything that you would look at as more mainstream media whether it be newspapers which to me that sticks out that newspapers outrank television and online and social media. People look at newspapers as a dying medium, but it seems to me that newspapers are not dying brands because consumers are still trusting them in a time of need as they’re outpacing their counterparts in traditional media.

07:13 - When we talk to consumers about linear media meaning not social media or not using mobile apps which have a two-way communication but more one-way media, you know, we asked them why they’re accessing linear media and it really broke down to two different buckets. The first is information media. You know, they want to stay in the know of what’s going on with this crisis and feel some semblance of control. For consumers that we spoke to it came out loud and clear that the more information they had then the more in control they felt of the situation. And when they were looking for information-based media the first place they were turning to was Google. They were conducting Google searches in a variety of different search terms to really uncover what was going on both on a local and national basis.

07:59 - They were also going into online newspapers. So we talk about whether it’s The Washington Post or Wall Street Journal or New York Times or your local paper in your local market, they were going there for information. Broadcast television news came in third. And radio came in the fourth. So again, very interesting that newspapers are ranking so incredibly high here. And then the second bucket of media is a completely different mindset of the consumer which we call entertainment media. And that’s really built to help consumers escape the noise and really give them a retreat from the chaos that they’re seeing in everyday life.

08:33 - And I personally have that light switch go off and on as well. There’s some times when I wanna just dig in and see what’s going on and there’s other times I just wanna shut it off. And when I wanna shut it off that’s where I’m going to my entertainment-based media. And it should go to no surprise that things like streaming platforms really are the main way where consumers are going to Netflix or Hulu. Broadcast TV is still up there. You know, we live in a country where if we live on a coast we feel like everyone subscribes to Netflix but in certain areas of America that’s definitely a luxury and they don’t have access to streaming platforms so broadcast TV.

09:05 - And then radio and then podcasts in terms of entertainment media. Gayle will talk a little bit later about the audio medium in general, but obviously when it comes to entertainment audio is still incredibly important as we look at radio and podcasts being the third and fourth most accessible and in-demand platforms for entertainment-based media. So when it comes for information-based media we asked consumers, you know, what media sources do you trust most? And what we start to see come loud and clear is again, Google was the place that consumers are going to when they wanna find out information because they can kinda dictate the type of information they’re getting whether it’s how many cases are in their local market or what’s the latest on vaccine or new treatment options or even things like what’s going on with the federal stimulus package and how it’s gonna help small businesses. But they’re also going to Twitter, and Twitter is a social platform that we’ll talk about a little bit later that has really jumped up during this crisis because of the real-time nature of Twitter. I’m sure many of you on the phone know that both Facebook and Instagram don’t default to a chronological feed meaning that the things that you see in the feed aren’t necessarily the most recently posted items.

10:15 - And when consumers are really in the know they want to know what’s going on at the moment which is why they’re really leaning into Twitter relative to other platforms. And then after that obviously you see a host of who’s who of media networks that consumers are tuning into. Mostly broadcast television networks as well as your large-scale newspaper brands where they’re getting their information media from. For entertainment media you see a whole different cast of characters. Obviously you see Netflix really at the top. Consumers are really stream-obsessed right now. There was a huge set of memes going out about the Tiger King which was something that I really enjoyed, I believe it was on Netflix, maybe on Hulu, just kinda shows the parity in a streaming space, but there are gonna be hits that come out on these streaming platforms without a doubt as consumers really are just bored and looking for things to do. So you see your Netflix, you see your Hulu, and you see Amazon Prime Video is really the three reigning streaming platforms. And then you see gaming platforms like Xbox pop up there. You see platforms like Spotify and iHeart that consumers are messaging, and then just like a long tail of cable networks whether it be FX or AMC networks that consumers are actually pointing to. Freeform, Nickelodeon, et cetera.

11:34 - TikTok has popped up many times in our research as a growing platform. It’s something that I think continues to be overlooked based upon its growing use and power amongst specifically the Gen-Z, but now kinda edging to the Millennial audience as well as in other trusted sources for media entertainment. So in terms of social media, and we talked about this during the last podcast, Twitter continues to see dramatic growth in usage. Over 47% of consumers say they’re using Twitter more than a week ago. You see YouTube growing as consumers can really access any type of video there.

12:09 - And then you see TikTok, and I just want to make a note here it doesn’t mean more people are using TikTok than Instagram or Facebook, it just means the people were using TikTok a week ago are using it 31% more. So you know, kids that are home and younger consumers, they love TikTok and the ones that are using it are using it more and more which is obviously really interesting to see. So again, Twitter’s a place where brands really might want to think about. In fact, we promoted this webinar over Twitter as a paid ad unit that performed incredibly well, better than any other social platform as a paid promoted tweet towards the right audience member. So we saw that loud and clear in our own marketing activities here at Suzy.

12:48 - So the other thing you really have to consider when it comes to consumers’ media habits is that their lives have changed. You know, no more are consumers jumping on subway or sitting in traffic when they’re headed to work anymore and because those daily media habits have changed, you know, platforms like podcasting are definitely being affected. During the month of March according to Podtrac podcast listening has dropped 10% while the entertainment or information-oriented podcasts have fared pretty well. That number’s really being dropped down by the true crime genre which was an incredibly fast-moving and fast-growing genre in podcasting which is actually down 30%. And I really think that has to do with the fact that if consumers are home they’re not on the go, they’re not in the car, they’re not in the subway.

13:33 - If they want to watch true crime content they’ll just watch it on TV versus having to listen to a podcast. You know, right now the commute for many people is just their stairwell, right? So many people don’t face too much traffic on their stairwell, but since they’re at home they’re shifting time that maybe they were using commuting in the past to doing things like gaming. So we’re seeing a 75% increase in online gaming during peak hours and that was actually according to Verizon according to a recent article in The Hollywood Reporter. So during peak hours a 75% increase in gaming. I love playing Xbox myself, and what’s amazing with a lot of these platforms is you really haven’t seen any degradation in service really across the internet.

14:15 - I mean, I don’t know about you but I keep waiting for the internet to break and actually go down which I don’t even wanna imagine what would happen if that happened for a couple hours here in the United States or anywhere around the world, but there’s a tremendous, obviously, pressure on servers right now around the world, but 75% increase and part and parcel with that is a massive increase in platforms like Twitch which for those of you who don’t know is a property that’s owned by Amazon that actually allows consumers to stream in realtime their video games or watch other people play video games. And even here in 2020 heading in to 2020 the notion of esports or watching other people play video games was somewhat of an oddity. So many people just didn’t understand, why would people wanna sit around and watch others play video games? But now without there being live sports I gotta tell you, watching video games is not so bad. Last night, and we’ll talk about the iHeart event last night that, was catch with his son and it was like the closest thing to live sports I had actually seen in a couple weeks and I found myself fascinated with, if his kids were gonna catch the balls that Russell was throwing. So you know things are bad if you’re actually sitting on the edge of your seat to see if an eight-year-old’s gonna catch a pass by Russell Wilson, but that was kind of where I was last night when I was watching TV.

15:37 - So consumers are obviously looking to make the most of their newfound downtime. And they’re doing that through a variety of different ways. A lot of ‘em just wanna relax. You know, we live in a hectic world right now and kinda the reprieve from the everyday grind a lot of consumers have seen as sort of a welcome change amidst obviously a harrowing overall situation. Consumers wanna read more, connect with loved ones. Things that actually popped out here are things like exercising and eating well. Consumers wanna be healthy now.

16:04 - They do not wanna be susceptible to disease They wanna be in control for preventative measures. And if exercising and eating well are the best ways that they can do it, well then that’s gonna change their habits. And we saw that come out many times during our study that consumers are incredibly interested in the fitness and healthy eating category and the active lifestyle category whether it be buying bikes or whether it be performing online fitness classes or just eating organic, whatever it may be, we’re gonna really see that continue to grow. And this could actually really change the fitness industry. It was already on its way to being changed before this with platforms like Peloton where I think we’re gonna continue to see it accelerate.

16:43 - As well as learning a new skill, personal development. So taking care of yourself, connecting with those that matter, health and wellness, mental wellness, and learning new skills are things that consumers are looking to do. And then don’t forget that many people who are stuck at home right now are families, and you have many two-income households in the United States and they are starving for things to do with their kids. Obviously the easiest thing that many people are looking to do with their kids are, you know, you watch movies. It’s just the easiest thing that consumers can do. And that’s what many people are doing.

17:20 - Board games are another thing, and you know, just being able to sit down with your kids. But then you see things like cooking. Cooking is a huge topic that many consumers are really leaning into right now. If you think about it, in a pre-COVID world, and I guess that’s gonna be something you’re gonna be hearing a lot, the pre and post-COVID world, right, many people would order in or they’d go to restaurants or in two-income households maybe one of the parents would go out on a work dinner. But now everybody’s home basically every night and cooking has become a family ritual again much like it was in the ‘50s and ‘60s. And I think that presents a massive opportunity for many categories if you think about that time as a family as a bonding time and as a time to basically reflect as a family amongst everything that’s going on right now.

18:05 - And that’s something that popped up a lot in our research. So what are consumers seeking for at home? What are they looking to do more of? What do they really kind of strive to do to kinda get their mind off things? And we really had five major kind of buckets pop up here the first of which was digital experiences. And digital experiences could be defined a lot of different ways by a lot of different brands, but ultimately it’s replicating what an actual experience would be in the real world online and preferably with other people. That craving for interaction came out so loud and strong in our research, and 65% of consumers said they crave some sort of digital experience. We talked earlier about fitness, and I was a little bit surprised that this number was so high, but 58% of consumers are seeking for online fitness classes.

18:55 - People wanna move, people wanna be active. People feel like they’re stuck at home especially in major cities where Millennials have really gravitated towards, they don’t have a backyard. Now the parks and beaches are becoming closed. They’re literally stuck in their apartment. Many consumers, Millennial consumers have sacrificed the space and the privacy of the suburbs for the connectivity of being in major cities but with that you don’t have a backyard and in an environment like this that’s why online fitness classes are in tremendous demand.

19:30 - Skills-based classes, consumers wanna learn, kids wanna learn. Things like Coursera and Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning are in high demand right now as consumers have extra time all of a sudden. They think it’s a great opportunity to learn new skills for personal development. Live streaming and performances. I’m a big fan of the artist Ben Folds and the other night I just saw a tweet from him that he was playing live in his living room in front of the piano for an hour and I turned it on and I streamed NBA YouTube during dinner. And I have to say, it was really nice. And it kind of got me away from things for just a small amount of time just knowing that he was live and you saw all those fans that were writing in the comments what they wanted him to play and now Ben Folds is doing that every week.

20:11 - I think every artist should be doing it whether you’re a garage band or you’re Coldplay there’s really no reason why every artist shouldn’t be out there trying to connect with their audience live. You know, audiences are in need of it right now, and it’s fairly easy for artists who are no longer on tour who are sitting home who probably have the equipment to do it to be able to execute on this. And lastly, virtual parties. And I don’t know how many of you on this phone have been invited to a virtual wedding or a virtual birthday party, but there’s so many of these going on right now, you know, as consumers are really looking for a way to connect, as they’re looking for ways to connect better with loved ones and close personal friends. So again, these are the big five that really popped up for us from consumers. So the big question, and really what I want to spend the rest of our time before we speak to Gayle is where does my brand fit in, right? Where does your brand in these uncertain times fit in in terms of how to market at consumers? How much is too much, what is the right tone? You hear the word tone deaf over and over again.

21:21 - You don’t wanna appear tone deaf, and it is a balancing act. You do have numbers to make, you have employees to pay. Some companies don’t have that luxury. If you run a restaurant or you’re working for an airline or a cruise ship you don’t have the luxury to do business right now unfortunately, but if you’re lucky enough and fortunate enough to actually be able to conduct business it is definitely a question that we found on the top of a lot of consumers’ minds. I posted this post on LinkedIn last week and I had a ton of amazing feedback just talking about, like, before you judge that company for marketing its product know that they have a payroll to make. Before you judge that thought leader on running a webinar, know that their entire public speaking calendar is wiped out for the year.

22:01 - And I think the feedback I got on this post really nailed down the point that people are struggling with the dichotomy of it all and hopefully this webinar will help you guys figure out the right path forward. So what consumers are really looking for for brands is brands that have some sense of humanity that aren’t just logos that are talking to consumers trying to sell them stuff but brands that are informative and honest and clear. Content is more important than advertising. I would argue there’s very little place for advertising right now. What’s the difference between content and advertising? Well advertising is, what is my brand’s unique selling proposition? You know, 3% more absorbent, 350 horsepower, right.

22:42 - Those are product attributes that then somehow get shoved down a consumer’s throat during commercial messages, that’s advertising. But content’s a little bit different. Content starts with the consumer. What is my consumer, what do they care about every day? What are their unmet needs and where’s my brand fit in? And when you think about actually communicating right now, I would argue it was always that way in the social media era but now more than ever brands really need to stay content-focused versus advertising-focused. Flip the briefing from, how do I market my brand to what does my consumer actually care about? 67% of consumers reported the brands they’re more likely to buy when they feel that they actually care about the consumer and their actual situation. So there’s certain sectors that really are ripe for messaging right now and others not so much. Consumers have said loud and clear they actually want to hear from food and beverage companies.

23:36 - Food is a big part of consumers’ rituals right now, again, especially ‘cause they’re not eating out. They’re doing less takeout, they’re always cooking or cleaning and food and the next time that they’re eating as a family is always kind of top of mind and that’s why probably consumers want to hear from food and bev companies. Entertainment, right, they need that escape and lastly healthcare, and I think healthcare plays a role that right now, you know, the CDC and the World Health Organization are playing in terms of offering consumers trusted content. Consumers trust brands in many ways the same way or in some ways more than they do institutions and the government and I think there’s a huge opportunity for brands specifically in the healthcare space to really be able to help consumers navigate this crisis with the resources at their disposal. At the same time, consumers have told us that they want to hear less from luxury brands.

24:24 - They want to hear less from apparel brands. Any product that they look at as superfluous, less of what you need and more what you want, they just think it’s less important right now. Now, I think brands like LOUIS VUITTON or a Hennessy who’s transformed some of their factories into making much-needed equipment for this crisis, you know, that’s great that they’re doing it. I would argue though that that’s not advertising. When we as consumers, what great advertising is a lot of consumers shared to us how Dyson was making ventilators and I think that’s just Dyson trying to be a good corporate citizen not necessarily an outbound marketing activity.

25:00 - And not every company has the ability to manufacture face masks or ventilators. So I think that if you are a brand like this I would definitely put your resources towards trying to give back versus marketing products that consumers, that they don’t really want right now nor can they actually afford. Consumers are cutting back on travel, they’re cutting back on luxury goods, they’re cutting back on gyms, giving other people gifts, things that everyone on this webinar probably expect them cutting back on. And they’re cutting back because they’re nervous. They’re nervous about their ability to pay back their loans and to make their very basic financial obligations.

25:34 - You know, there are so many people out there right now who don’t have a job. I just saw right before this webinar that Macy’s is putting on furlough 130,000 employees. In a normal week there’s about 300,000 people in the entire United States, maybe 500,000 people that are applying for unemployment and here you have one company getting rid of 130,000 employees. Now, they’re not laying them off, they are furloughing them, but it just kind of goes to show you the gravity of the situation. I was on another call this morning where there is a realtor who owned commercial properties throughout New York City that is basically saying that 70% of their tenants are asking them to delay or cancel rent payment for the month of April so it is really scary out there as many of you guys know and it’s not the time to be marketing products that consumers really can’t afford.

26:23 - And an interesting point that popped up during our last webinar is, over 40% of consumers are feeling more concerned about the crisis on days that the stock market drops. They almost look at that as a barometer for the crisis, and the more it goes up they have a feeling that maybe people know things that they don’t and they can be less concerned. The more it goes down they actually get more concerned about the crisis. So brands that are doing programmatic, real-time marketing it’s definitely something to keep in mind in terms of the stock market’s impact on consumer sentiment. So we identify three pillars of marketing that basically consumers have been asking for during the crisis.

27:00 - Pillars that they find as effective at communicating to them based upon their need states. And what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go through these three very quickly, talk about why these three pillars are important and what brands are doing a good job and then we’re gonna bring in Gayle for a little bit more commentary. But the three of which are escape, community, and utility. So let’s talk about escape first. Consumers are constantly seeking ways right now to laugh, smile, or share, to escape the daily realities of what’s going on. They really want to get out of the fishbowl of dread and get into somewhere where they can be in their own world, where they can feel creative or happy or feel connected with others.

27:40 - And to the extent that brands can help consumers create that escape, you’re really winning and you’re really offering consumers something tremendous right now especially given the fact that now’s a time right now where March Madness would be going on and there’d be the NBA season would be heating up and the Major League Baseball season would be starting. Live sports is a huge thread in the culture of America, and right now this country is devoid of live sports. And with that doesn’t just come the inability for you to watch a game or the ability for you to actually attend an arena, it takes away your ability for many people to have that water cooler conversation, to talk about things that are actually happening live to forge a sense of community. 47% of consumers are very much affected, for example, by the cancellation of the NBA season. You know, that’s a big number. They are feeling impacted that they can’t do something that was very much a part of their everyday ritual.

28:38 - On Sports Center if you tune into ESPN, you know, it’s a little bit depressing that they don’t have any highlights to show anymore. A lot of people, that was kind of part of their ritual. So people are really craving an escape. I thought what iHeart did, and I’m not just saying this ‘cause Gayle’s on the phone, but what iHeart did last night was tremendous for a lot of reasons. For those of you who don’t know, they partnered with Fox and created the Living Room Concert For America to raise money for a variety of charities helping people in need. Elton John hosted it and people like Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day all performed and the fact that it was put together, and I’m really eager to hear from Gayle in terms of what went into that, but the fact that everything was happening not only so quickly but it was happening live for everybody, finally I could go on Twitter and talk about things.

29:27 - You know and I posted, how did Lizzo get that Starbucks cup? And people are like, oh yeah, how did they get that? And even that little conversation that connected people was where the world had advanced to with social media where you had these common points of passion and interest. That no longer exists, those threads of affinities, and for iHeart to do that I thought was tremendous. Verizon is in the midst of a platform called Pay It Forward that helps small businesses where they’re doing live concerts. They had an incredibly well-attended live concert with Dave Matthews last week that performed incredibly well. And I think, again, any artist that can actually perform live even if for 20 minutes or just connect with your audience, I think it’s a massive opportunity.

30:09 - And it’s also a massive opportunity for brands to be able to subsidize it and really help consumers get this experience. For brands that are looking to kind of create the notion of escape and don’t really know how to do it right, I think it’s always a great idea to talk to consumers. Our platform Suzy is essentially built to allow brands to talk to consumers instantly through an always-on software platform. Other companies like JanSport are building their own Gen-Z think tank to help launch a TikTok campaign and they don’t wanna seem tone deaf and they won’t wanna seem like that they’re out of touch so by getting influencers who have mastered the art of creating content on TikTok they can be assured they’re not going to. And I think it’s a great way for brands that are venturing in to try to drive consumer escape to do so with confidence. The second of which is seeking community.

30:57 - Again, we’re devoid of live events, and people are really craving these experiences that bring affinity groups together. You know, I’m looking at over 500 people on this webinar right now, it feels good to me knowing that even if I’m staring into a computer screen in my basement that there are 500 people on the other line right now listening to what I’m saying. And you know, that’s just a small piece of the community that I crave and probably everybody else really craves. So how can brands kind of deliver upon that? You know, there’s things like BrewDog which created an online bar experience. You know, there was over 100 BrewDog bars that are taking part of it to really let people have those virtual happy hours and things of that nature, but I think the best way to kind of create community is around those passion points.

31:42 - You know, we talked earlier about live sports and music and things of that nature. I don’t know how many of you guys saw this, but on Friday night I was on Instagram and a lot of my friends were talking about a DJ who I know named D-Nice who basically had created this thing called Club Quarantine where he went on Instagram live and was actually just spinning a DJ set just like he would do at a nightclub in New York City or LA or Vegas on a Friday night. The only difference is that it wasn’t at a club. He was doing it in his house, and there were over 100,000 people who took part, but not just everyday people. People like Rihanna and Oprah and Drake and even Joe Biden logged in and you knew that they were taking part ‘cause they commented.

32:25 - And you know, there’s not many opportunities for most Americans to be able to be at the same party as Rihanna or Drake, right, but to know that they were listening to the same thing you were and to know that you could talk to your friends about that Biggie song that DJ D-Nice was playing gave them that sense of community. And I think this is an amazing opportunity. If I were a spirits brand or, you know, a brand that sold beer or an entertainment brand or a wireless service brand I would be all over sponsoring something like this because you’re really giving consumers something that they truly want. Last webinar we did last week, the beginning of last week I talked about HQ Trivia. HQ Trivia was an app that really took off and then kinda went under.

33:07 - Supposedly it went under and what really made HQ Trivia great, it was an application where basically at the same time or twice a day you could play in a live trivia game with your friends. And I was really happy to see this morning The Wall Street Journal report, or last night that HQ Trivia’s gonna return to an anonymous investor. Maybe somebody that was on my last webinar was one of those anonymous investors. I can tell you it was not me. But basically the fact that that’s coming right now back in the fold I think is a great example of community. You know, everybody logging in at the same time, participate in something, they can communicate with others around I think is a tremendous idea. And you know, this is funny.

33:47 - I talked about last time and I’m gonna be talking about it again and again because I think it’s a massive opportunity. You know, we heard from consumers that they want to hear from food and bev companies. We heard from families that cooking is now a nightly ritual. We heard from consumers they crave community. If I were a food and beverage brand I would create a live cooking show, and I would do it weekly. I would have ingredients that included ingredients that I sold. I would have a celebrity chef do it, and I would have America cook the same meal together and basically allow them to communicate over a digital platform together at the same time. I think that pulls together everything that consumers are looking for right now for family-based, community-oriented activity, and it’s just another idea that I think is ripe for the taking for the right brand to provide the entertainment value and to really provide the community what they’re looking for. And the last is utility. Utility is simply about trying to help consumers. It’s really not about trying to sell them.

34:44 - So it’s not about giving a 50% off coupon with a minimum purchase of $300, right. It’s really about saying, what do my consumers need, and how can I give them what they need without seeming too commercially-minded? And I think, you know, one basic industry that could really own that is the healthcare brands because consumers need information. They need information about how to know if they’re having the right symptoms or how to quarantine or what the right medications that they should be taking are to boost their immunity, and I think the healthcare brands can really shift their strategy, and some are already doing this, to really play that helping role and utility-based role for consumers. Peloton, just by them giving away a free 90-day subscription of its workout app is helping people exercise, and we saw that many people wanna do it. It’s another great example of a utility. LinkedIn, you know, we see that consumers want online learning, they want personal development so LinkedIn giving away free LinkedIn Learning classes at home or your favorite software company Suzy giving a webinar for everybody, that’s helping consumers learn. That is an example of utility.

35:53 - Or a startup like Meero offering free large file transfers. Again, giving consumers really what they need knowing that many consumers are working from home. And those are really the three pillars. And I know kinda the devil is in the details. And one way that you could obviously always think is again by talking to consumers, testing your ideas, making sure, letting consumers poke holes in your content before going to market because we are in uncharted waters. And we are in a world where no one’s been in before so you wanna test, test, test before you execute in this way, shape, and form. So that’s what I have for you guys.

36:29 - And now I am going to open up a interview or a discussion with my dear friend Gayle Troberman, Gayle, can you hear me? - I can, how’s it going? - Hey, Gayle. So great to see you. Thanks so much for taking the time. I know you guys have so many great things going on. Gayle is the chief marketing officer of iHeart. I’ve worked with Gayle for nearly two decades going back to her days at Microsoft so it’s kinda surreal. - Crazy. - In this environment. So Gayle, I’d love to kind of start off with having you maybe just talk about, you know, the event that you guys threw last night on Fox and I guess what went into it.

37:06 - You know, the partnership and the execution, logistics that went into it and frankly how it all turned out. - Yeah, it was for those of you who saw it was a pretty amazing event on every level. It was the Fox iHeart Living Room Concert for America last night at nine, it was supposed to be the iHeartRadio Music Awards which we’d been planning for a year, we had, you know, booked all the artists, created a beautiful, scheduled live televised event with amazing performances and surprises and brand integrations and all of that had to obviously be canceled. - Wow. - Because no one can come together to have the iHeartRadio Music Awards. And it’s probably not the best context to be celebrating people who’ve had great, successful years in music. - Yeah.

37:58 - - So we talked with our friends at Fox quite a bit over the last week and decided, you know, should we do something, should we do nothing? Which I think is the question most marketers are wrestling with in Zoom chats around the nation right now. And we talked a lot to the artist community and folks who were gonna be part of the show originally and some other artists like Elton John who really wanted to do something that mattered in this moment and what we came up with was, you know, I think a lot of the data, the Suzy data you just showed supports, people really are craving a couple of things. They wanna do something. I think we all wanna contribute and try to help in this moment, particularly folks who are fortunate and are in a pretty good situation right now. So the artists were like, what can we do? At Fox and iHeart we certainly, we had the airtime already blocked and so the next question became, what do people wanna hear and what matters? So we decided to make it a fundraiser. So a lot of brands like Procter & Gamble came on board, YouTube, many, many others contributing to Feed America and supporting first responders’ families. And we raised a whole bunch of money.

39:19 - And then the next question became, so we’ve got brand empathy and we’ve got a good reason to do this, we’re supporting the community. We’ve got an amazing number of talented artists who wanna jump in and support. And then the third question is, what do you really want right now both on television or streaming? And you know, what do wanna spend an hour of your life with your family watching? And that came down to entertainment. And I think some of your data also showed, I think, you know the news gets a little overwhelming. There’s a lot of harsh realities we’re all dealing with right now and people are looking for a little escapism.

39:56 - And so you know, that’s why we felt like an entertaining show, an uplifting show with a little dose of the right messages and there were some serious moments and some shout-outs to first responders and healthcare workers. We had a doctor actually performing phenomenal songs. - That was amazing. - And then we had some real, you know, reality checks in there of what’s going on in the world today and how we all need to pay attention, but we had some great entertaining moments from Mariah Carey and Billie Eilish and Billy Joe Armstrong and I mean, just phenomenal talent but it’s always challenging doing a live-ish show and doing it from people’s living rooms without their bands and the sound checks and all the support that they’re used to. A huge congrats to every artist who had the guts to go live and really just sing and play in their living rooms and be real and stripped down and authentic. And the response was phenomenal. - Yeah. - I think we set a new record for the time slot from what I hear. - Wow.

- On broadcast so I think– 40:59 - - That’s amazing. - We reached around nine million people without the digital streaming. And anyone who missed it, you can still catch the show. It’s streaming for the next couple of days on YouTube as well and– - Great, we’ll send out the link to everybody who’s on the webinar. So for brands that want to work with artists right now and entertainers to help give consumers that type of escape, what should some of the things they should be thinking about are? - Sure, you know, I think you hit on a lot of them.

41:26 - What is appropriate for your brand to say right now? You know, I think as a brand marketer by background if you know your brand you know your voice. You have a sense of where you should and shouldn’t show up. You know, the first thing, and we’ve been doing a lot of work with brands at iHeart is, let’s put a spotlight on anything you’re doing that’s good for consumers or communities. You know, if you’re not charging late fees. Like you said, if you’re giving people ever storage or leniency, you’re CVS and you’re giving free delivery.

41:58 - You know, any of those brands, T-Mobile if you’re giving people extra data without charges. Whatever your brand’s doing it’s important and it’s great. And we’re encouraging people to let us tell the story for them. Sometimes it’s hard to pat yourself on the back and talk about great things you’re doing. If you come to us at iHeart we can let our personalities go on air and have the personalities and podcast hosts talk about great things that you’re doing for you so consumers will know about them and can take advantage of them, but you won’t feel like you’re out there shouting a little bit too loud or like you said being tone deaf. - Yep, absolutely.

42:39 - Another thing we saw in our research was like audio and the whole audio category, podcast, radio, et cetera really kinda pop, what’s your take on, I guess, the role of that medium during these times? - Yeah, it’s interesting, as a live local medium in a normal week we reach about 270 million, about nine out of 10 consumers in America on broadcast radio and as you said we’re all sort of seeing patterns shift. We’re seeing a lot of listeners who used to listen to us when they got in the car are now going to their smart speaker and saying, hey Google or hey Alexa, play my favorite radio show. So we’re seeing a ton of growth and about 40, 50% lift in smart speakers and smart TV listening. We’re seeing huge lift, about 60% lift in web listening. So we’re seeing the fact that we’re live and we’re local and we’re human in the moment I think is very important both as a trusted resource for consumers and also as part of that conversation, that sort of escape from consumers. - Yep, absolutely.

- Really, you know, 43:48 - I think people really rely on broadcast radio and so they’re finding it in new ways in the home which is great. - Yeah, for sure. We got some questions coming in from the audience so one of which is, do we have information or what advice would we have for smaller companies? Mid-sized, smaller companies that don’t have the resources of a Verizon or a Procter & Gamble. What advice would you give to them? - Sure, you know, I think a lot of the advice is the same. You might use some different media and channels to get your message out, but whatever you can do to support your customers whether it’s leniency, it’s tools, tips, advice, connecting them to resources that matter, you know, depending which category you’re in and then go out into some of the earned media, too. If you’re not ready to do a big paid media campaign get out on your social sites and your earned channels and tell people what you’re doing and lean into partners.

44:46 - You know, I always think as a small-or medium-sized business a great way to go is to rely on partners and come together with some other folks. Put your assets together. And you know, a lot of what we always say is, you know, start small, start in one market. I think right now I sit on all these panels, right. Matt, you and I, we all complain all year long about all the clutter in media and how hard it is to break through and get heard and it’s so expensive. I would tell you right now you will probably never get more affordable media with higher consumer engagement. - Wow.

- Because consumers 45:25 - are paying attention, we’re not as distracted and they’re both seeking out more information and content and they’re paying more attention so every dollar you spend right now I think has an exponential value compared to what it will be when everyone floods the market again. - Yeah. - So whatever media whether it’s local radio, whether it’s digital and social. I would say go big right now if you have limited budgets because those dollars will pay off more than they will when all your competitors come back in and media rates go back up. - Great point, yeah. We’re seeing the same thing even in B2B. It’s funny, I got a question, can you comment on B2B brands? And I’ll just say I do think a lot of the same advice exists. I mean, doing something like this which is essentially just doing a webinar offering value, helping people navigate this is just a great way to add value, you know, businesses have customers, too. They just happen to be other people.

46:18 - And right now it’s kind of like it’s all merging together, right, ‘cause we’re all working at home. I’m going upstairs and using Tide detergent and then I’m going down to my basement and taking a call so that separation of work and your personal life really are being melted together right now for sure. - Yeah, it’s so true. You know, I mean, we’ve seen all these trends and it’s interesting seeing them collide right now, right? We saw such growth in live events and event attendance and ticket sales both for sports and music and concerts and now we’re seeing like last night just huge attention and that coming together in the home. So I do think work and life have always, they’ve been on a trajectory of blurring. Now it’s almost indiscernible between where work and life begin and end these days, and it’ll be interesting to see if we come back to more boundaries or less as we come out of this.

47:13 - - Absolutely, by the way, if you’d like to ask a question if you just click on the Q&A link on Zoom you could type in a question and we’ll try to get to as many people as we can. And another question that came in is, what’s the risk of quote unquote we did this good thing brand message overload if all brands start talking about their philanthropic efforts? - Yeah, you know, I think particularly if there’s something the consumer should know, you know, some value for the consumer that they can take advantage of I think it’s perfectly okay to let people know. I think it’s like any campaign. Usually there’s, you know, I think when you look at the data the consumer tolerance, you can go for a pretty high reach and frequency before you actually get people get backlash. I think as marketers maybe we’re overly sensitive to that. I know at iHeart we always look at the data about whether we should keep spinning a song.

48:11 - And usually just when you’re going, oh my God, I can’t hear that song again actually most people in America are still discovering it. - Yeah, great point. - So it does take a lot of reach and frequency to break through. But again, I think the tone and wherever possible if you can let someone else deliver the message instead of you shouting it I think it’ll be better received. And we’re seeing a ton of brands coming to us and saying, hey, can we get your personalities to talk about some of the efforts and initiatives we’re doing? - Right. - We even created a new spotlight on businesses doing good where we’re just running free airtime for brands. - Oh, wow.

- That are doing great things 48:50 - in the community and consumers wanna know so we’re out there telling that story. - That’s great to know. Another question came in, economists talk of the lipstick effect yet according to your survey consumers want to hear less from luxury brands. So what I would say is, I think how consumers act and their habits are different from what they wanna hear on media and advertising. - Mm-hmm. - So yes, we have seen research that some consumers do still wanna get dressed up and put on makeup or look their best for Zoom, but I think traditionally beauty companies have really been more image-based advertisers and using models and it is about the image. And they haven’t necessarily gone too much in the utility or entertainment, and the way that they’ve portrayed escape is more in the luxury variety which I don’t think is, so I think if they’re gonna go to market it’s gonna have to be slightly shifted from what’s worked with them in the past.

49:42 - And again, so I think there’s a difference between what consumers consume and what they actually wanna hear from so– - Yeah, we do a lot of work with our friends at L’Oreal and you know, I think a lot of the beauty brands have been on a journey of really understanding. L’Oreal’s a great example of, there’s a brand that’s about beauty but also as a brand is very much grounded in this idea of worth and understanding a woman’s worth. - Yeah. - And so now would be a time to talk about that message and amplify that message. And so many of the good things they do to support women of worth and causes and charities. And they have some phenomenal stories that probably a lot of consumers haven’t heard.

50:22 - Now might be a terrific time to actually amplify some of those amazing stories that may not get noticed sometimes as much as the new product introductions and launches in a more normal marketing moment. - Yeah, couldn’t agree more. What do you think about offering coupons to consumers? So what about, Gayle, like even talking about a luxury brand or any brand. I saw, I think it was Hyundai advertising if you were impacted by the crisis you won’t have to make any payments for X amount of months. Auto companies are coming on really strong with financial offers, but how does impact your brand long-term if you’re discounting and you’ve never discounted before? How do you look at that? - Yeah, I think right now, you know, it’s interesting. I was looking at some podcast data this morning and our podcast listening at iHeart is up.

51:09 - I know you showed some stats from Podtrac that showed declines. - Yep. - Actually at iHeart our podcast listening’s up about 6% and what was most interesting is, we’re also seeing a slight dip in true crime. So I think people are looking for a little less negative, scary news, we’re getting plenty of that. And people are looking for different types of podcast content and the number that kind of blew my mind to your question is, the biggest category of podcast listening growth we’ve seen in the last week was business and finance or money podcasts, those are up 78%. - Wow. - Week over week. - That’s utility, right? - Right, so I think, you know, I think right now you really can’t underestimate the consumer need for all things financial support, advice, and help.

52:03 - The economy is going through a really challenging time. People are anxious about that so I don’t think this is a moment where you’re gonna see a lot of long-term negative impact from offering people discounts or reassurance or assistance in alleviating some of their pain. I think everyone would welcome that, and I think right now you have to play the long game. You know, as marketers we talk a lot about this usually Matt, right, what are the signals today? Which digital data, which stats? How do I follow them, how do I react in the moment? I think as a marketer right now play the long game. Do the best thing you can for your consumers.

52:45 - Give them the best offers, the best incentives. Give them help and support in their communities. Do whatever you can to be useful and to be empathetic. And I think that brand equity that you can buy right now will last you for years to come. I think people will really appreciate it. - I agree, this is a time when I think the new set of brands are going to be built during this time if they can really focus on the consumer. - That’s true.

- This I think 53:11 - is super relevant to iHeart given its efficacy in the local marketing space and that local advertising space. The question was, with the local automotive markets where some are still allowed to be open and sell cars, what’s the best way to get the message out? So you’re a local car dealership. You know, given the luxury pushback, given everything we talked about, how can they get that message out in a way that will really resonate with consumers? - Sure, you know, I think we’ve seen in the, like you said, in the automotive space I think we’re seeing a lot of national brands at kind of the tier one level through to the dealers offering unprecedented incentives for consumers. And maybe today isn’t the best day in New York to leave your house at all never mind to leave your house for a test drive, but I think a lot of these programs that the automotive companies are launching now, I’m sure they’ll sustain in market for some months to come. And I think it’s a great opportunity to really make your product accessible and affordable and be empathetic to consumers who might need to make a purchase or might need to upgrade a vehicle to get to their jobs and maybe something that they couldn’t have afforded just a month or two ago can now be accessible because you’re being lenient on your fees so you know, I think it’s, at a local or a national level I think making your product as available and accessible and affordable as possible to the consumer, like you said, those are the brands that are gonna win long-term. - Yep, for sure.

54:45 - And then we’re gonna wrap it up, but I thought this was, given that you’re no stranger to working with ad agencies throughout your career, we have a bunch of agency people on the phone and one question was, what ways can agencies help support our clients’ brands best? We wanna be good partners. How can we be there without looking opportunistic? So you know, what would you be looking for from agencies right now, what does help look like? - Sure, you know, I think right now I think brands wanna lean into their agencies for data. How are things changing? That’s why I’m sure people are listening here today to get some fresh, timely data from Ask Suzy on where the consumer zeitgeist is in this moment. I would say lean into trusted media. I think right now where you show up and the credibility that that medium or that partner brings is gonna be as important as what you say. At iHeart we always score high on trust. Radio tends to be the most trusted medium in all the research that we’ve done. And so look for trusted partners.

55:51 - And I think speed and agility are gonna matter now more than ever, we all talk about that. We all demand that of our agencies. I think as marketers sometimes we’re all guilty of overthink and I think now is a moment to say, hey, we can do something more affordably and more efficiently than we ever could six months ago or we ever will be able to in six months. And I think the agencies that really win with their clients are the ones that aren’t going to spend time overthinking, they’re gonna encourage their clients and find ways to get in and act and have impact and learn and build some real longterm value now that again would probably cost you a lot more later. So you know, I’d encourage the agencies to be bold and take risks for their clients and encourage their clients to be bold and do the right thing. - Yep, so to wrap it, Gayle, I mean, so had the successful event last night.

56:49 - What’s next for you as you work from the West Village where I know you’re working out of? What do you focus on next? What can we expect to see from iHeart in the weeks ahead? - Sure, here in New York we’re paying tribute every night on Z100 so every night I believe at 8:00 p.m. you can tune in, turn up your radio, listen to Alicia Keys’ Empire State of Mind and watch the Empire State Building synchronized real time as a tribute to the healthcare workers. - Wow, so cool. - Here in New York and around the nation, a little fun moment. And then we are 100% open for business. We are broadcasting live on 850 plus radio stations. We can turn around audio advertising. We didn’t talk about production and the challenge and even if you have a new message getting it out.

57:42 - We are producing spots daily for all of our brands to make sure their messages are as relevant and timely as they need to be. So if you have something to say people are listening. They’re listening on smart speakers, they’re listening on laptops and phones. And we can get your message out at scale. And we can tell your story for you hopefully in a trusted, credible, authentic way so let’s take the some risks, let’s get out and have a voice and let’s keep capitalism going. - Yes, well Gayle, thank you so much for doing this. I know you have a ton going on.

58:17 - Can’t wait to be able to see you in person again, but for now this’ll have to do, but best of luck to you guys and wish the whole team at iHeart my best and we will be in touch real soon. Thank you so much. For everyone else who is on the phone I just wanted to thank you for joining. We will be doing a lot more webinars. We have created a hub at suzy.com/covid19 which has real-time data and a consumer sentiment tracker that’s being updated daily. You can also sign up for future webinars. We will be running at least one a week, maybe two. We’re getting a lot of requests from inbound brands so feel free to check-in there.

58:51 - If there’s anything I can do for you personally whether it be Suzy-related or just you wanna bounce ideas you can reach me via email or on Twitter @MattyB. Suzy is a software company that allows companies to conduct on-demand instant market research from the consumers that matter. So feel free to reach out to us. If you’re one of our clients, thank you for continuing to support us. For everyone out there I wish you nothing but health and happiness during these uncertain times. Hang in there, we’re gonna get through this together.

59:21 - And until next time, thanks so much for joining, thanks everyone. .