With the coronavirus pandemic making professional video and photo shoots virtually impossible, brands have had to turn to the stir-crazy masses and internet backlogs for new content.

Buffalo Wild Wings and The Martin Agency have already pulled this off to entertaining effect with a new spot featuring a compilation of made-up home sports culled from online videos. The games span everything from treadmill hockey to recycling-bin hoops, providing plenty of offbeat ideas for filling the void left by professional sports shutdowns. The concept went from brief to live ad in just six days.

Meanwhile, the pandemic is already having a marked effect on the types of visual creative used in social media ads. One mar-tech firm reports that images and videos of certain types of everyday human interaction are down 30%, whether because brands are trying to be sensitive to social distancing norms or because such things are harder to produce.

Expect to see more brands plumbing the depths of online video as quarantine measures continue in the United States.

Patrick Kulp
Emerging Tech Reporter, Adweek
Patrick.Kulp@adweek.com

Donated media and pro bono efforts are spiking as brands come together to get urgent messaging out

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It’s time to finally take that project off the back burner

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Both race organizers put on popular virtual events last weekend

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