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Padilla’s Insights + Strategy and Digital/Social teams scanned the news media and social media conversations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic to bring you the week’s noteworthy developments:
Brand Responses
Brands are still engaging in three ways – with the third being the biggest shift in the “next normal” evolution:
- Recognition via health, community safety and education.
- Being a creative and emotional outlet – and adding some fun to the tonality.
- Anthemic messages of a “next normal” are now embracing the ambiguity of the situation and realizing there’s no answer to what’s next – we’re in a “now normal.”
Topic Mapping
Major news topics include:
- Facebook allowing employees to continue to voluntarily work from home until July 2021.
- Schools and decisions to reopen (or not) with specific focus on the role of tuition and how some institutions may not survive the pandemic.
- Positive COVID-19 cases within MLB and NFL.
Social Buzz
California declares Los Angeles and San Diego public schools will be remote in the fall as cases spike. Conversation turns back to surging U.S. numbers versus other countries. Hydroxychloroquine enters the conversation again as a conference of “Frontline Doctors” makes claims about its efficacy. Photos emerge of Georgia schools with crowded hallways and nominal masks. With the 2020 election becoming more imminent, the most prominent tweets in the past two weeks came from political influencers. President Trump was notably absent from influential tweets, only tweeting twice in the past two weeks about the pandemic.
COVID Creativity
It’s no exaggeration to say this year feels like a horror movie. And now, a few filmmakers are making it official. All over YouTube, you can find inventive homemade horror shorts taking the pandemic as inspiration. And a new movie Host, filmed over 12 weeks in quarantine and entirely on Zoom, debuted on the horror channel Shudder.
For more insights on this week’s coronavirus communications analysis:
For questions, guidance or support with your brand’s communication efforts, Padilla’s COVID-19 Response Team is here to help.