Local businesses in New York have been thrown a lifeline by a global ad agency offering free tutorials and marketing services at reduced rates to help combat the economic impact of COVID-19.
We Are Social, which has big brands on its roster including Samsung, adidas and Uber, wants small and medium-sized firms to take advantage of its social media expertise.
It comes as high street footfall plummets amid mass quarantine efforts and social media usage skyrockets.
Benjamin Arnold, managing director at We Are Social in New York, said: "We’re New Yorkers, too. And we want to help support local small businesses and their employees during these difficult times.
"So many businesses that aren’t used to operating in the social space now need to do so to survive. We’re here to help. If you’re a local NYC small business in need of marketing assistance then get in touch and we’ll work to budgets that work for you."
Influencer agency Obviously, which analyzed 260 of their own campaigns including more than 7.5 million Instagram posts and data from 2,152 TikTok influencers, found a 76 percent increase in daily accumulated likes on Instagram #ad posts over the last two weeks.
Research unearthed a 22 percent increase in Instagram campaign impressions from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 and a 27 percent jump in engagement on average on TikTok from February to March.
Meanwhile, Facebook is doing its part to assist businesses impacted by the coronavirus with a $100 million grant program for 30,000 small companies in 30 countries around the world.
We Are Social’s US office, based in NYC, said it is offering a free initial video consultation for all businesses and is willing to work on budgets that are more affordable during the challenging days and weeks ahead.
"Let’s talk about how we can create compelling social campaigns together," added Arnold.
We Are Social encourages businesses to contact letstalk@wearesocial.com.