As a continuation to Agent Amelia’s blog post last week on her biggest lessons learned in PR during the pandemic, I’ll be sharing the biggest lessons I’ve learned in marketing during the pandemic, as Agent99’s Digital Marketing Specialist.
For someone who’s quite accustomed to staying in their comfort zone, this period has definitely challenged me and taught me to think more strategically, pushing me to new creative ways of working.
When it ain’t moving, pivot
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the use of the word “pivot” so frequently, aside from that episode of Friends where Ross is trying to move his new sofa up an awkward flight of stairs.
When the proverbial hit the fan as Coronavirus became a serious issue, another serious issue arose – how to support our clients (as well as ourselves) to stay afloat. It was all hands (at 1.5m) on deck, coming up with ways to remain helpful, stay top of mind, and more importantly – stay relevant.
As many businesses where shedding staff, we were working hard to be relevant to our clients. If we could keep them going, we were keeping ourselves going. Additionally, working on growth of our own agency was stopped dead in its tracks, so pivoting quickly and coming up with alternative ideas when previous ideas were rendered irrelevant in a space of weeks, was astounding. But through team brainstorming and creativity, we weathered the storm with only a few bruises.
No idea is off the table
For someone who is a considered thinker and planner, coming up with ideas on the fly isn’t my forte. I love a good brainstorm, but I like to flesh ideas out so I’m confident that my thinking is solid behind any ideas I put forward.
The pandemic proved this wasn’t the time for holding my cards close to my chest. It was all about hustling (I don’t mean the lascivious way). It became a necessity to always have the business part of my brain switched on – tapping in to how we can be useful, how we can be relevant, timely, necessary, and ultimately, an integral cog to keep the machine moving.
So when it came to providing new ideas and concepts, I had to let go of any preconceived notion of presenting something that had been painstakingly thought through, but to just share what I had, rightly or wrongly and see if it was viable to be turned into a campaign, a strategy or even a piece of content that could position us as helpful and needed at a time when so much was uncertain.
Which leads me to my last learning:
What’s the worst that can happen?
I’m not a fan of rejection, so the thought of my ideas or hard work being shunned is a devastating one. So putting forward ideas that I would otherwise hold onto until I was satisfied with their potential outcome, turned into am opportunity to throw ideas left, right and centre and see which ideas stuck and which met the scrap pile.
At the end of the day, it became apparent to me that it was all part of the process – if an idea gets vetoed, just come up with another one. The next one might be even better.
As we’re (slowly) moving into recovery phase, I find myself continuing to learn and I’m confident in saying that my way of thinking and working has changed significantly in the past few months, and I’m sure will continue to change in the coming months. But if all else fails, pivot… PIVOT!
by Agent Raymond
Agent99 is an award-winning PR and communications agency based in Sydney. For more information about our services, contact us at info@agent99pr.com.
Further reading:
The biggest lessons I’ve learned in PR during the pandemic
How COVID-19 Will Shape the Way PR Looks in the Future
