On Tuesday our Data Analytics Manager Lily (also known as the stats nerd) attended the (virtual!) MRG evening meeting to hear about all things Corona. Although this time attendees had to provide their own beer and wine, it was the highest attended evening meeting they’ve had, which shows the true dedication of researchers!
Here’s what Lily took out of the session:
- There was an initial period of panic and stress from the public when we were in the “life in flux” stage, this was highlighted in both ITV’s and BVA BDRC’s research, but now there is a slight lift in mood and optimism as people adjust to the “new normal” and look forward to the “over the rainbow period” when this is all over
- It’s the simple things that people miss the most (particularly hugging!) but there has been a dramatic rise in community spirit and doing things together as a family now there is a slower pace of life. People are also taking up new hobbies – respondents who had never played videogames before have started during lockdown so will be interesting to see if this conversion rate holds!
- As a nation our mood has stayed relatively flat over the past few months, but this is slowly lifting. Interestingly countries with stricter lockdowns (such as France and Italy) report a much lower average mood, whereas the US is the happiest of us all
- TV viewing has gone up drastically, particularly during the daytime! ITV talked about people still needing “light and shade” and that we want to watch both light comedies but also serious dramas, showing that we aren’t too impacted by this pandemic to still enjoy different genres of TV.
To find out more about how consumers are responding, check out the Pandemic Profiles – our new, easy to use segmentation that identifies the four different types of consumer, and what this means for brands.