It’s impossible to sugarcoat; things are unsteady for so many of our fellow neighbors, friends, colleagues, communities, and peers right now. The current Coronavirus pandemic is uncharted territory leaving many individuals and businesses in fear for what’s to come and weary of what the future looks like.
While the current economic landscape is quite uncertain, it leaves us with no choice but to look for the helpers, strive to be helpers, and imagine what we want the future to look like. With that being said, the individuals who are fortunate enough to be at home or are now with extra downtime should use it to their advantage. The disruption in our economy, lives, and day-to-day routine could be what so many potentially need to reinvent themselves and their business. Now, more than ever before, we have a new perspective to answer questions like “What’s truly important?” and “How do we become better than we were before this?”
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
― Fred Rogers
At LEVY, we’re unwrapping the pieces necessary to discover the answers to those questions. Our CEO, Francois Gau, has created the initiative, “Marketing Must Go On”. This initiative stresses the importance of marketing and demonstrates the value in effectively communicating and bringing brands to the forefront for our customers, our stakeholders and our teams. While we’ve had an overhaul to our daily routine due to the pandemic, including all team members working remotely and no face-to-face interactions with our clients, we’re investing today to see results in the future. We’re working full steam ahead to help our clients and colleagues push back against this enormous setback, while also reevaluating how we do business and moving into the digital space even further than before.
The “Marketing Must Go On” initiative applies not just to our company, but to the clients we serve as well. Nicholas Burcin, our Manager of Web Development, says “The importance of ‘Marketing Must Go On’ is tied to the preparation to start growing business as soon as the epidemic clears. Marketing during the crisis allows brands to position themselves well for the future.”
Our Manager of Marketing Automation, Cathy Snyder, looks at this initiative as an opportunity to introduce new technologies to our clients, “I’ve always thought that the future of marketing is digital. By introducing more Artificial Intelligence to our clients and consumers, we will be able to understand behaviors in a way that we never have before.” The future is digital, and now is a great time to invest in forward-thinking alternatives to traditional tactics.
In the world we live in now, competition is undeniable and fierce. “Businesses need lead generation to survive,” says Myriam Gau, our Manager of Marketing. If marketing efforts are completely abandoned during this time, the negative impact afterwards will be inevitable. We all still need to find a way to reach out and find people, even when remote.
At LEVY, we’re incredibly lucky and thankful to continue to be able to perform our work while at home. While working remotely is a significant adjustment to our normal routine, we’re adapting.
If you’ve never worked from home before, it can certainly be a challenging adjustment. Our key to a successful transition lies in our utilization of project management software and video conferencing. Our Senior Art Director, Dan Kerekes, attributes the ease of change to these various programs, “By having the ability to use tools such as Wrike, Uber Conference, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, I’m able to keep up with client needs just as I was able to at the office.”
*Note: Microsoft Teams is now available for free due to the crisis. Learn more here.
The main challenge in reaching people remotely for the team members at LEVY is the inability to meet our clients and customers in person right now. “Outside of industry events and in-person meetings shifting to remote work and video calls, not much else has changed within the strategy,” says our VP of Business Development, Lauren Norris. “The conversation has shifted though, where talks of market shift, stability and change are top of mind, which helps us as a vendor to these industries be hyper-aware of their needs at the current time, yet also allowing us to be agile and strategize ahead of what’s to come.”
Our Director of Production, Trisha Etherington, mimics that statement. “We implemented video conferencing quickly, and the response and adoption of it from our clients was just as fast.”
Additionally, because industry events such as trade shows have been cancelled due to the crisis, it’s forced the team at LEVY to shift focus and turn to digital marketing tactics to utilize for our clients. With our audiences remote, what do we do to gain their attention?
“LEVY has been cultivating and perfecting the best ways to reach people for more than 30 years now,” says General Manager, Amanda Uhme. “Even before the crisis, during the last 18 months, under new leadership, we’ve modernized more quickly, shifting from 65% traditional communications to 65% digital communications.” At LEVY, we are taking this downtime to further capitalize our efforts in the digital landscape.
While we have no way of knowing when exactly the world will return to normal, we do know that it will eventually. And when it does, we believe that the importance of marketing will be evident.
We have to have hope for the future, and “Marketing Must Go On” encompasses that. You can learn more about our initiative and how we can help you Make Your Marketing Count, especially in these difficult times. Schedule a meeting with us to find out how we can assist you with your marketing strategy today.