How Marketers Are Channelling Bear Grylls During the Pandemic
This Bear Grylls meme is super relevant right now. Have you noticed how quick people and companies have been adapting to this whole pandemic situation? Big house fashion brands and manufacturers shut down their operations in order to make and deliver PPE to the frontline workers. Businesses quickly making it possible for their employees to work from home. Delivery companies hiring more drivers so they can continue to deliver goods on time. Teachers and professors switching over their program to online schooling. Birthday parties, gender reveals, anniversaries all happening over group video chats. I even know of someone who got married at home.
Large events, conferences and even concerts are being hosted online to keep people entertained. Recently, my team at LP/AD and the Lavin Agency partnered up and delivered a Facebook live event with some really cool speakers from Wired, Fast Company, the New York Times best sellers list, and Canada’s national treasure, Margaret Atwood. We also helped C.W. Shasky, a significant Canadian food broker who used to rely heavily on in person sales tactics, make the switch to an online sales platform. Now their restaurant partners can easily get their Tabasco needs and other products delivered straight to them in order to keep their take-out and delivery operations going strong. Yes, that was a shameless plug, but at least it’s relevant. Technology, while heavily relied on before, is being intensely relied on now more than ever. It’s all we have to stay connected with work, friends and family. It’s what’s keeping us sane. Businesses are relying on it to stay afloat.
What about when this whole pandemic is over? Not that it’s anytime soon, but you can’t help but wonder how different things will be. Will there be a continued limitation on how many people can enter a closed off space, such as grocery stores, retail stores, etc.? How much normality will we get back, when we get back? Certainly the drastic changes we make now, will hold its value once this is all over. People will realise they can do their jobs perfectly well from home, and may even reduce their time physically going into the office. Some businesses will realise they run perfectly fine without the need of a certain department or team and may continue on without them.
It’s amazing how fast things can change. Remember when 9/11 happened and the travel industry completely transformed? I wonder if similar changes will occur once this pandemic is over. Pretty sure birthdays will be different considering we probably won’t consume a cake after someone blows on it like we used to. Just as you’ve managed to adapt to this whole situation when it arose, prepare to do the same once we get out of lockdown and enter a new normal. Just remember that through sheer willpower, we can overcome anything. Except maybe aliens.
