Coronavirus & Marketing Statistics 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unusual and worrying time for everybody in the world. In this confusing and difficult period, we wanted to try and get a feel for how marketers are responding to the unprecedented challenges they currently face – and how they plan to move forward. Data was gathered by surveying 160 marketing professionals, mostly based in USA. Data correct as of Friday 20th March 2020.
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How is the Coronavirus pandemic affecting working circumstances for marketers…
69% of marketers say the coronavirus outbreak has affected their work in some way.
Despite the disruption, 9 out of 10 marketers are still working, either remotely, or in the office as usual.
Over half of marketers say they’re working remotely right now, underpinning the rise of remote work as a business trend.
1 in 10 marketers say they’ve stopped work altogether – but, for 1 in 3, it’s “business as usual.”
Working conditions
What’s the impact on marketing spend?
Marketers are pretty much evenly split over how the outbreak will affect their budget. 48% expect their budget to be cut, while 46% expect it to be unaffected.
A small but considerable segment of marketers – around 1 in 20 – are reporting that changes and disruption to their existing plans have resulted in extra budget, unexpectedly available to invest in other marketing channels.
While a significant number of marketers (41%) have seen their plans disrupted or delayed, they’re still in the minority – with 59% reporting that their plans, for now, are intact.
What’s the effect across various channels?
Understandably, nearly three-quarters of marketers say they expect to pull back their spend on physical events, with particularly big pull backs on print (45%) and content (44%.)
Money looks set to be redirected particularly towards digital channels – particularly video (31% increase) paid ads (31%) and broadcast (28%).
Coronavirus spend chart

Where next?

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