Wave 4: Health is at the forefront of Americans’ minds

Mindshare's weekly POOL research examines how COVID-19 is affecting media consumption, consumer behaviors, and more. Week 4 (also known as Wave 4) took place W/C April 2nd and surveyed over 1400 people across America.

Wave 4 has four key highlights:

• Sentiment remains down for Americans as they’re worried and saddened over the COVID-19 crisis and the uncertain future they (and the country) are facing. The hardest hit areas like the Northeast are most worried. More positive sentiment like hope and prepared remain fairly steady week over week.

• Health is at the forefront of Americans’ minds, and not only are they worried about themselves or someone in their family getting COVID-19, but with their general health as they stay home. More Americans are trying new recipes and about half are concerned about putting on weight. This is a place brands can help, both from a self-care or stress-reduction perspective, but tips on remaining healthy while at home.

• Americans are tuning in less to politics and news than last week – this might speak to some news- fatigue that’s developing as the weeks progress. Instead, they are turning to content related to food, home, and education.

• Media use is rising, especially online. Traditional media, like newspapers, books, and radio, are not experiencing huge increases of consumption/viewership like streaming services are.

More takeaways and insights from MediaPost, which looks at our "striking emotional and time spent patterns" across all four waves:

Excerpt: The report drills into a variety of other changes that the anxiety, social isolation and life and work disruptions the health crisis are having on Americans use of media and their relationship with brand marketing, but the long-term impact may not be fathomable for some time to come.

"With our routines broken, we see new habits emerging and everyone getting creative to help solve for this – whether that’s through virtual togetherness via video-chatting, interacting with celebrity/influencers live on social media, or participating in a streamed fitness class," Mindshare's Fragale, explains, adding: "Trends around self-care continue as Americans are looking for ways to relieve their stress, from picking up hobbies and buying self-care supplies, to cooking more and trying out new recipes (like TikTok-famous Dalgona coffee), to spending more time online and binge watching shows. This is an area that brands can help people with – over the weeks we’ve seen the number of people who want brands to provide humorous content nearly double (9% to 19%, and higher for younger adults), and nearly half want tips on how to stay healthy or relieve stress."

"We’ve been tracking the impact of coronavirus on Americans for four weeks now, so we’ve seen the changes in how it’s affecting every aspect of their lives – from how they spend their time, to what they miss about life before, and how they feel about brands pitching in."

Alexis Fragale, Director of Consumer Insights

Read the full article in MediaPost, including more insights from Alexis Fragale, Director of Consumer Insights.

More stats and data: