THE GAME HAS CHANGED

By: Firas Nassar | Associate Creative Director | Another In Kingdom

We all agree on the changes that are happening around us (the social media revolution) and their ability to rapidly impact and effect behaviour. The social media scene is fast paced with constant innovation. Yesterday it was Instagram Stories, today it’s Tiktok and a sprinkle of LinkedIn and tomorrow…who knows? As marketeers it is our role to help predict the future on behalf of our clients; making sure we are up to speed with what’s coming next, what’s engaging the new generations and how can we best disrupt and influence.

The biggest challenge in this is not understanding the audience, or the channel. It’s not even creating the right message! The biggest challenge is convincing clients to venture into the unknown (well it’s not really that dramatic), but we do have to invest much time, effort and research into guiding clients out of their comfort zones.

Now consider that all of this was happening before COVID-19.

With the pandemic upon us, take into consideration the increased social media consumption of consumers and the daily changes in those consumption habits. There is something new every day and now we have to be more pro-active than ever, not only in channel selection, but also in terms of listening, creating messages and engaging in a manner that demonstrates a brand’s understanding and appreciation of the target’s uncertainty, worries and concerns.

With people stuck at home, working from home, teaching at home and depending on internet speeds to stay connected, we have to remember that our competitors are thinking the same thing too. To stand out we have to really connect with our audience (yes, we understand that’s common knowledge) but we really have to find that unique consumer value proposition. The era of emotional vs. functional is upon us! Making consumers trust us, turn to us and appreciate us is the macro level objective we have to keep in mind before we think tactically.

There are many that say, “things will go back to normal soon.” In my opinion, I say that this pandemic has set the foundation for the future of communication. We can now start to pay our respects and extend our condolences to conventional newspaper, magazine and even radio as we welcome in channels that are more measurable, more targeted and allow for conversations between brands and audiences. It is time to dig deep and adapt in order to succeed in creating equity for brands and returns on their digital investments.

It is the right time to spend money on communications but spend it effectively.

If you want to stay up, you must show up.