Social calls for Olympics to be cancelled

The most popular question people are asking in relation to the 2020 Olympic Games (according to BuzzSumo’s question finder) is: “Should the Olympic Games be cancelled?”

The IOC seems to be considering this because of criticism by athletes and the public. The committee emphatically ruled out cancelling the Olympics, but said it will consider a scaling down of the games, and delaying them. But that wasn’t enough for Canada, who pulled out yesterday.

If you ask social, there’s resounding support for cancellation. There were 108.6K public online mentions of the Olympics over over the last 30 days, and sentiment-segmented revealed the conversation to be 88% negative because of the refusal to cancel or postpone.

Around 80.3K users called for the games to be cancelled or postponed, citing coronavirus fears. 5.6K mentions praised Canada for their decisive action.

Across all mentions, sadness was the most dominant emotion (34%) with people upset at the IOC not taking Covid-19 seriously, and the prospect of no event. Fear (31%) and disgust (21%) followed, with social media users shocked by the IOC’s lack of action.

The dominance of negative emotions in reaction to the IOC and the Olympics shows consumers are paying attention to who is cancelling or postponing events, and why.

In this case, it’s a lack of action driving negativity.

The rise of the virtual bar

Humans are very adaptable. Humans really like a drink. So when in lockdown, what do humans do? They adapt their drinking.

Enter the virtual bar. With workplaces, cafés, bars, and pubs being shut down around the world, and people keeping their distance from one another, drinkers have turned to video call and chat tools to continue socializing over a drink.

We’ve found a big uptick in social mentions around the concept, spiking last Friday as pubs were ordered shut in the UK. People are having casual drinks, wine tastings, and even quizzes to keep in touch and stave off cabin fever.

The idea is likely to get more popular as more people go into isolation. This could be a lifeline for struggling bars. Many are looking for new ways to get revenue while they’re closed.

Running their own virtual sessions could be a good way to do this by selling things like gift vouchers or online quizzes. If they use platforms like Twitch, they could take tips too.

Meanwhile, beverage companies should take note. If they want to take advantage of the trend, they’ll have to figure out how they can make their product the virtual drink of choice. Expect to see some try their hand at it very soon.

Vacation refunds postponed and unhappy consumers stranded

In the last 30 days vacations have become a hot topic, with 80,962 english language mentions in the US and Europe. Of sentiment-segmented conversation, 82% was negative. The reason? It comes down to people no longer being eligible for refunds, stranded vacationers, and people condemning jetsetters.

This situation is likely to become even worse as the UK announces a suspension of holiday refunds. It’s policy is expected to be similar to that of the European Commission, which updated its guidance about refunds for cancelled holidays, encouraging vacationers to accept vouchers or a credit note, rather than cancelling.

And as flights continue to be grounded, because of travel bans, travellers are condemning airlines for bad customer service. Of sentiment segmented conversation over the 14 days, 92% of the conversation was negative about major US and UK air travel providers. Travellers were agitated their flights were cancelled without a phone call, email, or plan for the future.

We found examples of people sharing their stories of abandonment, and calling upon airlines to help them get home.

Although the news is changing minute-by-minute, consumers are looking to service providers to give them answers and solutions. Brands must be proactive with customer outreach in times of uncertainty – consumers are unlikely to forget about traumatic experiences with airlines once this all blows over.

McDonald’s shuts up shop

The biggest restaurant chain in the world is temporarily closing down all their locations in the UK and Ireland. This includes deliveries too. According to McDonald’s, that’s turning down 3.5m customers a day.

At first glance, it’s very negative.

Online conversations about the closures were 13% positive, with 48% of them negative. You’d be forgiven for thinking the fast food chain was taking a brand hit, but it’s not so simple.

Of the negative mentions, 30% were sad. And when you dig into them, you find that the negativity is driven by people being upset they won’t be able to get their burgers and nuggets anymore. The same can be said for a fair few of the angry messages too.

Ultimately, a lot of the negativity is being posted because people love McDonalds and are going to miss it. Meanwhile, announcing they’ll be donating their unused food got them a decent amount of positive responses too.

This should be reassuring for McDonald’s. Obviously they’re taking an unprecedented economic hit, and it’s likely closures elsewhere will be coming, but they can hold out hope that customers will flock back when they eventually reopen.

Other businesses will have to shut their stores too. Now’s the time to think about how customers take it and what can be done to help soften the blow?

Get more data for free

As well as these daily bulletins, Brandwatch has also opened up free access to a Covid-19 global dashboard in Insight Central for all customers.

Looking at trends, demographics, and press coverage, it’s the perfect way to get a worldwide picture of how the planet is responding to Covid-19.

Thanks for reading

That’s it from us. We’ll be back again tomorrow. If you know someone who’d benefit from these bulletins, send them this link.

Many thanks,

Brandwatch Response Team