Media Winners and Losers During Pandemic

Recently, Business Insider connected with 16 media buyers and asked their opinions about which media companies were poised to gain or lose the most because of the coronavirus crisis. PMG’s Leyla Foschi was part of the group who shared their thoughts about how the ad industry has been upended in the past few months.

A company that’s experiencing both ups and downs is Twitter. On the one hand, social media has seen use broadened as consumers turn to these platforms to get content they’d otherwise get from TV. On the other hand, according to Foschi, many brands have pulled back on Twitter spending recently because it’s filled with coronavirus news that scares off some advertisers.

As the economy struggles, marketers are turning more towards partners that can drive performance. That means sites like Reddit are at a disadvantage, because it’s better suited to branding than direct-response advertising. Citing their ad pixel and its inability to allow for audience building for ad targeting, “Despite usage being up, their consideration from an advertising perspective has almost disintegrated because their technology isn’t very advanced,” she said.

On the other hand, a company that has invested in direct-response tools is Pinterest, which Foschi sees potentially gaining during the crisis. “Prior to the pandemic, they mostly played in the upper-funnel space but they had more recently put out some products that would return at a higher rate,” said Foschi. “We have found that the sales organization is pushing hard there, and advertisers are receptive to it.”