Catch has demonstrated its marketing flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting away from its usual messaging, CMO Ryan Gracie told Ragtrader.
During the height of the lockdown, the eTailer moved to focusing on essential items and a message of support.
"At the start of lockdown we shifted our messaging away from our everyday deals, to focus on a more reassuring message that we’re here to support our customers with everything they need," Gracie said.
"We understood that a lot of our customers were struggling to access essential items due to the initial panic buying craze, so we wanted to make sure that those items were front and centre, and even more easily accessible than before."
However, the business also recognised that customers were also be looking for content to uplift, with Catch moving to focus on this too, Gracie said.
"To balance the more serious messages, we also ran social campaigns aimed at encouraging our customers to laugh and have a bit of fun during what was a really difficult period of time for many Australians.
"One particular campaign focused on ‘Lockdown Laughs’, and rewarded customers for sharing their entertaining videos while in isolation.
"We saw a fantastic response, with really high engagement, which showed us that our customers were open to more light hearted content during this time too," he said.
To back up its compassionate marketing message, Catch also introduced a roundup function at checkout, a feature which is still operating today, Gracie added.
"To help the communities that have been greatly impacted by the events that have taken place in 2020, we’ve introduced a roundup function at checkout.
"The idea is to encourage customers to roundup their purchase amount to the next dollar as a donation to the Australian Red Cross.
"This was originally introduced during the bushfires earlier this year, but rolled out more permanently in the past few months to help even more local communities across the country," he said.