Insights Studio Series: What Brands Did in 2020

The most frequently asked question of ARF’s Knowledge Center in 2020 was, “What happens if a brand goes dark during a recession?” In 2020, our best response was what happened during the Great Recession of 2008. Those analyses suggested it could take three to five years to recover if a brand went dark.

The ARF has studied what several CPG brands did during the COVID lockdown and how their actions impacted sales and share of market into 2021. This is the first of an annual analysis tracking how long it may take brands to recover if they go dark.

While 2020 may have been unique in that it was a pandemic driven recession, consensus is that advertising in complex times is here to stay; consider inflation driven by high gas prices driven by a war.

Several case studies will be presented.