At the end of this tunnel, there is light. Depending on where you are, the light may be closer or further away, there’s now enough of it that we can begin to ask what the world will look like once we emerge. Three thoughts:
- People with jobs will have pent-up demand so we can expect consumer spending to jump as the lockdown eases. However, there are a lot of people newly unemployed, and the lockdown is going to come and go in various forms for probably 18 months or more, so the medium-term outlook is still very tough.
- The economy can be revived if the USA and the European Union both turn on the money printer and give the proceeds to folk who will spend it. Now is not the time to be careful, or we run the risk of things getting worse before they get better.
- People will first be relieved, and then they will be angry. Incumbent politicians will be blamed – in many cases, correctly – and where there are upcoming elections, we can expect them to be incredibly heated (I’m looking at you, America). People are not going to forget their dead.
What does this mean for affiliate marketing? Nimbleness. More than any other sector we have the ability to change direction on a dime. We can help clients do that too. Pay upon performance is the perfect pitch for this time. Now is the moment for performance marketing to shine and to gain a bigger share of brand budgets.