Creativity and marketing in Times of Pandemic
A year ago, from today, if I were to say you that we are going to be locked into our homes for the rest of the year, you would rather laugh it off. If I were to say that we were to run an entirely remote work environment and attend the high-priority managerial meeting wearing our boxers below, you would rather think I were drunk.
And today, if I would tell you this, you would not laugh it off. Rather you would start preparing for the continuation of what we can proclaim as the worst humanitarian crisis the world had suffered together.
The list of challenges that we suffered is never-ending. With tons of personal and professional exhaustion, the previous year was a true trust of the market (speaking professionally) and brand managers.
Today, we will be telling you all about the challenges, adversities, and struggles our design community has gone through. The past year was a true teacher, giving life lessons none had ever studied or read about. And we will see how the crisis has shaped the design industry so far, and what we expect beyond.
The remote setting and its effect on productivity
Well, before we numbered how our people said their productivity changed, we would ask you to tell if your productivity improved, dipped down, or remained constant.
Working remote has its perks, yes, they do. Like, less distraction from the coffee machine, lesser heated political debates, lesser chit-chatting with your peers, etc. Hence, 32% of our people favor that remote environment improved their productivity. But again, 23% say that it took a nosedive. However, the rest 45% contradict that their productivity stayed the same.
When the number was better evaluated, it was figured that the do-ers say that their productivity has improved working remotely. Whereas the ones working on a senior level say it remained the same.
This not really depends on the post people work on, but the jobs they do respectively.
The duo of Collaboration and Creativity
Well, the figures here are debatable. 30% of our peers feel that it was difficult for them to pace up with creativity, and remote collaboration. Now, there are individual challenges, and a few are out of human control. However, 31% still said that they felt it was easier to creativity collaborate remotely.
However, age plays a much important role when it comes to categories the figures of how working professionals felt about collaborating creatively. A pattern that has emerged says that younger people found it challenging to that of older colleagues.
Well, this can certainly be defined in terms of work experience. Effective communication is an important aspect of effective collaboration; a skill that is developed only through time, and experience. Your experience also plays a vital role in persuading your decision-making and accountability powers in a remote environment.
The opportunity and Career option in terms of marketing
As soon as companies shifted remote, there were abrupt cost-cutting terms of company finances. Such as layoffs, and furloughs hit the marketing industry. However, between them, certain newer opportunities sowed their seeds, and there are a few lines that still serve the marketing industry and continue a little more.
With a cut in team members, relying on colleagues increased more than the average, and enduring challenges led to an increase in the communication within peers of an organization; both personally and professionally. This has resulted to enhance trust between managers and their team, and it looks that managers now can easily trust their colleague’s ability to pull off a certain task.
Not just that, a lot of marketing professionals had to take extra workloads that have increased their skills, challenging them to beat their limits. 22% of professionals now believe that this has increased their chances of career advancement in newer domains: thanks to the pandemic!
Teamwork and Communication
With all the major companies in the marketing industry working remotely. Phone calls, messaging, video calling, and instant messaging tools quickly became a major necessity of communication. 37% of market professionals believe that the number of phone calls and meetings they attend had increased in the pandemic.
When the pandemic began, and the preparation within the organization happened, managers were unsure of how the process of communication could be effective. Nevertheless, more than 40% of the working professionals believe that direct communication between their colleagues has now improved.
Impact of remote development
The beginning of your career is important in developing skills and grooming your working style. The traditional requirement is to learn the job and observe your seniors. Therefore, it is no surprise that close to 85% of marketers feel that being close to your team and managers is important.
When asked younger generation, and the once starting their career in the market during the pandemic about what they feel about the consequences of remote training, and development the figures surprisingly said that 31% believed it was a positive impact on their social, and working development, whereas 24% of them said it had negative impacts.
Only time can grade their score on optimism regarding remote onboarding and effective training. The lived reality of the marketing career is that the positive impact should always be clearer than that of the negatives. With more focused attention, an equal platform for meritocracy, and opportunity is diverse the industry needs changes, and it’s high time we bring one.
Is the future remote? Or long live the freelancer?
The flexible shift, boxer meetings, and emoji war in place of heated political debates are happening for some time now, and the pandemic full of crisis is all set to have some long-term marketing impact in the way organizations engage with their staffs in and out of the office.
A majority of marketing organizations believe that their company will focus on bringing more remote only talent as the normalization of working remotely from home has an overall positive impact on their growth.
Not just that, many companies, have already proclaimed long term work from home to a certain section of their employees. Therefore, one can anticipate the future to be remotely freelancing moving forward as the normalcy embraces.
Rebranding and brand activism in pandemic
On account of whether rebranding was a good option to consider in the pandemic, marketing experts have mixed critics.
It was a good idea to rebrand yourself and your brand during the pandemic says 49% of the marketing experts whereas, 14% voted against them. Not just that, a major pullback came when 37% of the marketing experts called that rebranding would not have any effect at all.
What’s more surprising was not the voting or the critics but the result. Cadbury changed its logo, Office 365 came up with rebranding, and so did Australia, but with a mixed critique.
The year 2020 did not just notice the largest humanitarian lockdown, but also stood up and noticed the “Black Lives Matter” movement following the tragic and debatable death of George Floyd.
No one was ready for the level of societal change both professionally and personally for more than six months. A lot remains uncertain on how the future will change in terms of marketing in the year 2021 and beyond, the result currently is that companies throughout the world have taken this down. In simple words, humanity has prevailed the pandemic and proved it to be more resilient and adaptable, together.
