Communicating During COVID-19: Responding to the Mood Shift

What’s trending?

In the coming weeks it can be expected that the focus of the Canadian public and our politicians will be on rebuilding and recovery efforts. Provinces have begun to rollout their plans for how to transition our lives back towards some semblance of normalcy. The name of the game will be slow and steady. At the same time, we have seen a decline in interest around COVID-19 from the public. According to Google Trends, interest around COVID-related search terms peaked at the end of March and has been falling since.

This isn’t to say that Canadians no longer care, but that their mood has begun to shift. They are looking forward, interested to know when social distancing will end and what comes next. We see this in the most recent round of Abacus Data research.

Abacus Data

It is important for different sectors and organizations to pull together their communications plans on how they will be an integral part of the greatest rebuilding effort our nation has ever seen.

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spark*tip

In order to cut through the noise, make sure your communications align with the policy objectives of government stakeholders and focus on how your organization will help Canadians in the coming weeks and months. To borrow a phrase, this is the moment to “ask not what your country can do for you - but what you can do for your country.” Use this frame for each piece of communication you are going to push out. If it’s clear how your needs align with government needs, you will be a step ahead of most.