Wave 5: Signs of pandemic wear-out

Wave 5 of our weekly POOL research, which examines how COVID-19 is affecting media consumption and consumer behaviors, took place W/C April 9, with over 1,200 participants.

Wave 5 has four key insights:

• Sentiment continues to be down this week, with more Americans feeling overwhelmed with the impact and confused over conflicting guidance being given. Five weeks in, people are increasingly worried about the uncertain future that awaits them, not only from a health perspective, but from an economic perspective as well.

• Americans are embracing the idea of community and togetherness. Majority report that it’s a community effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.

• Americans are continuing to purchase basic needs, including fresh food. Self care, beauty, and home supplies are top non-essential items purchased.

• Americans are asking brands for more info and content from product availability to virtual experiences. There’s a continued fatigue with COVID-related news, so people, especially those under 40, want to see in humorous content from brands and are turning to streaming video and social sites for entertainment.

More takeaways and insights from MediaPost, which looks dives deeper into 'pandemic wear-out':

Excerpt: After weeks of increasing consumer awareness of brands playing a role in addressing the pandemic, American awareness of COVID-19-related marketing may have peaked, according to the latest in an ongoing series of weekly tracking studies conducted by Mindshare's U.S. Consumer Insights team.

For the first time since it began asking the question on (beginning the week of March 11) on an unaided basis, the percentage of Americans who said they were aware of any brands helping with the crisis declined, with less than half of respondents citing a brand playing a role.

The study, which is drawn from Mindshare's ongoing Pool survey of the American public, shows signs of wear-out in media consumption patterns, as well, with the percentage of Americans reporting they are spending more time listening, reading or watching media content related to the crisis declining for the first time in the five weeks it's been tracked.

Check out the full piece in MediaPost.

More stats and data: