In today's ExchangeWire news digest: Spikes Asia announces it's cancelling this year's festival as Coronavirus persists; The Drum announces the nominees for its 2020 Rose Awards; and an IAS survey finds that online content consumption is changing amidst the pandemic.

Spikes Asia 2020 cancelled as Coronavirus pandemic persists

Spikes Asia, the annual three-day event celebrating APAC’s creative industry, will no longer be taking place this year. The event, which is held in Singapore and consists of the Festival of Creativity, Spikes Awards, and Tanagrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards, had been scheduled for October 2020. However, the still largely unpredictable nature of the coronavirus pandemic has forced organisers to push the event back to an unspecified date in 2021.

The worldwide health crisis, which also saw the upcoming Cannes Lion festival put on hold, has already had a substantial impact on the global economy and on the security of many jobs and companies. It is with this in mind, according to the announcement from Spikes, that organisers made their decision: “The need to protect companies and people, and to support consumers, is taking precedence during this challenging time.”

Organisers will announce the new dates soon, and despite the “difficult decision” to cancel, Festival Director Joe Pollos, asserts that they are confident that Spikes “will return next year stronger than ever.”

The Drum announces its Rose Awards 2020 finalists

With the unfortunate news of Spikes Asia 2020’s cancellation comes positive news from another creative awards’ event: The Drum has announced the finalists for the Rose Awards 2020.

The Awards champion creative talent and innovation exhibited by brands from outside the UK capital. Focusing on advertising, digital, and design, the awards are a bastion of The Drum’s long-standing commitment to promote the work of non-London companies on a global scale.

The Roses celebrates a variety of achievements across the industry with 47 categories, including Online Advert or Campaign, Innovative Use of Technology, and Identity Design. Kelloggs, BBC Creative, Greenpeace, and Irn Bru are among the brands nominated for this year’s awards.

The date of the ceremony is now under review, the planned 14 May date having been scrapped in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. The Drum now advises its readers to check its website for impending updates on the Awards ceremony.

IAS survey reveals change in content consumption

Integral Ad Science (IAS) ran a rapid response online survey to find out how consumers perceive content related to Coronavirus. The survey was undertaken to provide insight into how consumers are changing their online content consumption habits in response to the crisis.

The results found that the pandemic has had a significant impact on consumers content consumption, with 73% of respondents having changed the types of online content they consume. Furthermore, 87% of consumers are digesting more news content as they search for updates on the evolving situation.

The study also found that consumers have a mixed response towards ads that appear alongside content related to the global health crisis: whilst 32% of respondents asserted that it was inappropriate for advertisements to appear next to Corona-related content, 31% stated that the suitability of such advertising “depends on the brand”.

The results of the survey indicated that consumers feel that it’s inappropriate for ads from travel, food, real estate, retail, and auto brands to appear next to material concerning the outbreak; health, pharmaceutical, not-for-profit, education, and government ads, however, are generally considered acceptable.