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Beyond event cancellations, the coronavirus' impact on advertising starts to sink in
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Beyond event cancellations, the coronavirus' impact on advertising starts to sink in

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Hello! First off, I hope you're all healthy and as isolated as possible in these jittery times. Like most of you likely are, my colleagues and I are all working from home, and I remind myself daily, I'm fortunate to be able to.

Welcome to the Advertising & Media Insider newsletter, where we round up all of our big BI Prime coverage of the past week. Last week was all about events being canceled and companies shifting to working remotely. Now, we're just starting to see the beginnings of how marketers and media companies are adjusting.

While many advertisers have already pulled back spending, a big question they're facing is how they should market in this unprecedented situation, when people are shopping less, if at all, and may be less receptive to certain kinds of messaging.

The advertising question is a particular predicament for those buzzy direct-to-consumer startups that rely on constant sales data as they test and learn. Many have all but ceased advertising altogether, and the prospects of many of those companies are in doubt.

Read Tanya Dua's and my story here:

'Businesses will shut down': The coronavirus threatens to crush direct-to-consumer businesses' wild growth

Lauren Johnson has a breakdown of how TV companies will be hit, based on their exposure to live sports and news, courtesy of UBS analysts. There's much ado about live sports being canceled, but sports is still a small part of overall viewing.

TV sports viewing will 'go from bad to abysmal' in the coming months, but analysts say NBCUniversal and Fox are best poised to weather the coronavirus

Meanwhile, companies like Roku and Condé Nast are wide open for business from advertisers that are looking to replace the live audiences lost by canceled live sports events.

Leaked document: Top ad agency predicts that cancelled NBA and NCAA events will cost TV networks up to a 25% drop in viewership

If you're in the live events business, things are especially dire. Patrick Coffee talked to an agency whose whole business depends on live events about how it's pivoting its business when face-to-face meetings are no more. More research, more virtual events are the name of the game.

How an events agency that has worked with Hilton and Barack Obama is safeguarding its business as the coronavirus wreaks havoc on live events

And influencers are feeling the effects of the pandemic in all kinds of ways, from canceled ads to live events

Audree Kate Lopez

There's a lot more about how the coronavirus is impacting media and advertising. See more of our coverage here:

Esports broadcasts have quickly adapted as sports leagues have shut down, but online-only competitions present challenges for pro gaming

Industry analysts break down how the coronavirus could impact giant ad holding companies like WPP and Publicis

A top ad agency is telling clients to stop avoiding coronavirus-related content as the practice caused ad prices to rise

Disney has closed its parks around the world and risks losing $2 billion in revenue if they remain shuttered for 30 days, analysts forecast

SXSW's cancellation left sponsors and attendees in the lurch. An email from the organizers shows how they're trying to recover.

That's it for this week. Stay safe, and as always, if you're new to this email, sign up for your own here.

- Lucia