Brief:

• Joann is promoting on social media an expanded program that urges people to make protective face masks for all Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The craft and fabric retailer's campaign includes targeted local advertising on Facebook and Instagram, per an announcement that social ad platform Tiger Pistol shared with Mobile Marketer.
• The targeted campaign is the latest step in Joann's "Make to Give" campaign that started earlier this year. The retailer began providing free sewing supplies for face masks after seeing a surge in activity among crafting and sewing communities that volunteered to make protective clothing for healthcare workers grappling with the crisis.
• During the first two months of the campaign, Joann customers crafted 150 million masks and donated them to hospitals and health care facilities throughout the U.S. Tiger Pistol's platform can show social media users up-to-date local information about store openings and closings, per its announcement.

Insight:

Joann aims to improve the efficiency of its "Make to Give" campaign with more a localized approach that targets social media users in specific geographies. Tiger Pistol claims that its platform can deliver local advertising at a national scale, which is meaningful for a retailer like Joann that has a national presence but also is subject to the differing lockdown policies of specific regions. Facebook and its Instagram photo-sharing app provide a way for advertisers to reach local audiences based on information about their users.

Joann is among the brands that have developed campaigns to showcase how they help communities during the pandemic. That messaging is crucial with 84% of consumers saying they want to see brands contribute to society and 80% want brands to show empathy, per a survey by researcher Morning Consult. That sentiment has driven a 41% jump in cause-related marketing, the Interactive Advertising Bureau found in a survey of advertising executives. Brands such as Cottonelle, Honda, Michelob Ultra, Pebbles cereal and Snapchat also have touted their efforts to provide relief to people during the pandemic.

Joann's campaign comes as many marketers have suspended campaigns in response to coronavirus lockdowns. The pullback led consulting firm BIA Advisory Services to cut its estimate for local ad spending by about 11% to $144.3 billion this year. As many regions start to reopen, there's likely to be an uptick in local advertising, but with many retailers, restaurants and small businesses facing restrictions on their operations, the rebound may be slower than seen in past recoveries.