Newsworks Planning Awards chair Margaret Jobling, chief marketing officer at NatWest Group, writes for Campaign about what we can learn from the pandemic to change the way we approach advertising going forward.
This is a time like no other. If you cast your mind back just 12 months, it would have been completely inconceivable to think that we’d be asked to stay at home, to be locked away from friends and family, to live in such unknown territory. But here we are, getting by and looking forward to better days ahead.
From a business perspective, while we may be longing to meet our colleagues face to face, the good thing to come out of this is true agility and bravery. Against a backdrop of the global pandemic, brands have, arguably, been forced to create some of their most innovative and daring work in the past year.
At a time when the tools marketers typically have access to is limited, businesses are being forced to rethink how they engage with their customers.
This brings the importance of communication into sharp focus. The crisis has put both group and individual behaviours under unparalleled scrutiny. It’s a situation that demands effective communication. And not just that, but the right communication. Brands have had to respond with humility and understanding, capturing and appealing to the ever-changing mood of the nation.
