‘Worried, distracted, stressed’: Coronavirus crisis takes a personal toll on marketers

As the UK enters its third week of lockdown, the coronavirus crisis is having a personal impact on marketers’ lives.

According to an exclusive survey of 849 UK brand marketers conducted by Marketing Week and its sister title Econsultancy, 49% are ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ concerned about their job security, while 6.1% have experienced a change in job status.

More than half (59%) say their position has been scaled back since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak, while 32% have been made redundant. Just 9% of marketers have seen their position expanded.

Job security appears to be more of a concern for marketers working in smaller organisations (revenues of £50m and under). Over half of respondents (55%) working in smaller businesses are very or somewhat concerned about their job security, compared to 40% of marketers in larger organisations.

Marketers working for businesses with revenue of more than £50m are more likely to have seen their position scaled back (71%) than their counterparts at smaller businesses (54%). While 29% of marketers in bigger businesses report being made redundant, that number rises to 38% in smaller companies.

Worries take hold

Over two-thirds of UK brand marketers (38%) say they are worried by the current situation. Some 32% report feeling distracted, while 17% say they are too busy to feel anything.

Despite more than a third of marketers (36%) adopting a ‘keep calm and carry on’ mentality, 15% report feeling frustrated and 11% say they are deeply stressed. On a positive note, 11% feel optimistic the situation will improve.

Worries appear to be taking more of a toll on marketers in smaller businesses. Some 41% say the feel worried, compared to 32% of marketers working in larger organisations. Furthermore, 12% of marketers in smaller organisations feel deeply stressed, versus 7% in larger companies.

However, 24% of marketers in these bigger businesses say they feel too busy to feel anything, compared to 13% in smaller companies.

Since the lockdown came into force and brands switched to remote working, 49% of all marketers say they are doing much more/somewhat more work, versus just 13% who report doing much less work.

While 21% of marketers say the are more efficient than normal, over twice as many (46%) say they are feeling less efficient.

Almost nine in 10 marketers now delaying campaigns in response to Covid-19

When it comes to workload, a similar situation is being experienced across all sizes of organisation. More than half of marketers (52%) working in large businesses say they are doing much more/somewhat more work than prior to the coronavirus lockdown, an opinion echoed by 48% of marketers in smaller businesses.

Likewise, 44% of marketers in larger businesses say they feel less efficient than normal due to the new working pattern, compared to 47% in smaller organisations.