Covid-19 Update: eCommerce, Gaming & Getting Creative

The last two weeks have seen many firsts, like negative oil prices, the star-studded Together at Home awareness concert, and all sorts of people older than 16 taking to TikTok to entertain us all.

Here at the Digital Marketing Institute we are committed to supporting our students and members. Check out our spring update for lots of useful pointers to our library content that’s relevant for you right now. This news review is published every two weeks as an overview of what’s happening in the world of digital marketing. We’d love to hear your feedback or suggestions, or any articles you have written yourself.

Animal Crossing, an Escape for the Socially-Distanced

My own at-home family life has been saved by kids playing multi-player games like Roblox and Minecraft but what’s really taken the gaming world by storm has been the latest release of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. Almost 2 million copies were sold in Japan alone in its first three days. This is the game of the moment, an escapist, slow-moving and friendly universe which feels both secure and adventurous to the millions of stay-at-home players looking for something to distract them from their own real-life surroundings. It might even keep them away from the busy streaming services, like Netflix and Disney Plus. This fascinating article from The Drum looks at how brands have been managing to make themselves indispensable elements of the game’s environment, from clothing designs by top fashion houses like Gucci to the Getty Museum’s art-generator for characters’ homes.

The State of Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation. It’s the phrase we often come back to, always exploring what it really means. (Indeed at DMI we recently recorded a podcast on just this topic). One big element of the concept is moving your operations to digital, and for many brands, the Covid-19 crisis has pushed them to move faster with that transformation. A recent survey of Australian and New Zealand businesses shows that 73% claimed to have successfully moved their workforces online. Read more.

How to write, perform and produce your own album… in a lockdown

British singer-songwriter Charli XCX might be staying close to home in LA but that hasn’t stopped her producing new music. Going full omni-channel, she appealed to her fans for review demos, give feedback on lyrics and ideas through twitter and zoom calls, and got fans to provide visuals and remixes. The result is a uniquely isolation-era sound and emotion. Read more. 

In Other News

• The Australian government is taking a concerted stand to push back against local media content being used for free by Google and Facebook. Read more.
• Many people are wondering how the cinema industry can survive the crisis - there is even a whole Wikipedia page devoted to detailing what festivals, releases and productions have been affected. But there is hope, as the industry has survived worse, from the Spanish Flu to the advent of television.
• It's always a good time to think about micro-influencers and how marketers should consider making the most of them for niche and new markets. See this blog post from Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board.
• You might, like me, remember fondly the Budweiser’s Whassup ad, from (ahem) 2000. Well, it’s back - with a new quarantine theme. A brilliant revival. 
• This Canadian news story looks at how dating apps are proving even more popular in a time of pandemic. Read more.
• ECommerce giant Amazon has of course seen massive profits in the last few weeks, but also legal issues in France, labor issues in the US, and general newsworthiness.
• Speaking of retail, the big American department stores have been hit especially badly by the crisis, outlined in this New York Times article.
• And finally. The pandemic-related creativity continues apace. Here’s one of our favorite sites of people dressing up as famous artworks.

Stay tuned for our next news roundup in two weeks, sign up for our upcoming webinars  and keep listening to our podcasts. 

The Membership Team