This has been a year!

And while in many ways it’s been one that people are eager to forget and move on (and grow) from, it too has provided important lessons to brands. This has been especially evident as I’ve watched year-end lists and recaps come out over the past few days. So, having looked at quite a few myself, I’m compiling my favorites, and throwing our hat into the ring with some reflections on the past year and its impact—and how I was proud to watch the Monks show up.

 COVID Accelerated Transformation

Of course, much of 2020 was defined by the pandemic and the critical role it played in digital transformation across industries. For a quick look at COVID-19’s impact on ad land, just have a look at Campaign’s most-read features of 2020—each of which speaks directly or indirectly to challenges faced by brands and agencies alike since the pandemic broke out. At number three on the list is an interview with our own Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital, in which he called the pandemic a “burning platform for digital acceleration.” 

That was in April. Fast forward to December, and many brands have been able to achieve quicker transformation at speed than in the decade before. Early in the pandemic, virtual events offered an opportunity to quickly pivot existing plans of in-person experiences into safe, digital ones—and since then, we’ve been able to help brands make such experiences more accessible and inclusive to audiences who may not have ever been able to participate with them physically, a benefit of digital that will likely continue once large gatherings return.

The loss of in-person events is far from ideal, of course. But it’s been rewarding to find clever ways to show up and extend events beyond what was once a limited audience. And we also saw organizations and events that would have otherwise suffered to reach new audiences, like BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival—a cherished but hyper-local event that we were able to take to the global stage.

Brands Must Virtualize at Speed and Scale 

Virtual events are great—but they’re also just an initial step within the larger imperative for brands to virtualize, according to Forrester research commissioned by MediaMonks on the next phase of digital transformation. Both in response to the pandemic and beyond, it’s time for brands to build distinct digital environments that deliver on brand promise.

So, we’re delighted that The Queen and the Crown, a virtual costume exhibit we made in collaboration with Netflix and the Brooklyn Museum, made Adweek’s list of takeaways from brands that adapted to crisis in 2020. “Pre-pandemic, choosing an ideal venue was key to ensuring an impactful brand activation,” writes Adweek. “While most people couldn’t visit their favorite institutions this year, brands found creative ways to digitally bring the venues to fans.”

Our digital venue makes an impossible experience a reality—the physical costumes would be too delicate to display in the real Beaux-Arts Court in Brooklyn Museum, which is virtualized in the immersive digital exhibit. Atmospheric sounds like footsteps and meditative music convey the vibe of having one of the museum’s most beautiful spaces all to yourself. Bringing the costumes of Netflix original series “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” to life in a unique way, the exhibit gets at the heart of what we mean when we talk about virtualization.

Beyond Shiny Awards, 2020 Became About Driving Impact

Despite the challenges and stressors of the past year, I’m most proud of our people whose creativity and ingenuity gave us a lot to celebrate. In the 2020 International Webby Winner Index, MediaMonks ranked at the top of “The Best of the Netherlands” for the third year in a row with three wins, two nominees and three honorees. The Index notes that “Dutch creative shops lead mobile experiences honored at The Webby Awards. From Studio Dumbar to DPDK’s Nike Reactor in the 23rd Annual Webby Awards, creative teams in The Netherlands are crafting unique, experimental digital experiences”—and we’re at the top for the region.

Among some of our most award-winning work (including the Webbys) is Spacebuzz. Spacebuzz is a virtual reality experience that takes students on a journey into Earth’s orbit, letting them experience the “overview effect” that changes your perspective on the world forever—showcasing the transformative power of technology in an educational environment.

This level of impact is what really defines award-winning work, according to Wesley ter Haar, MediaMonks Founder, who also serves on the Cannes Titanium Lions Jury. “Famous work doesn’t always move the needle, so while good ideas are great, the scale of those ideas and the way you commit to them define what truly wins and makes real cultural impact,” he says. In a year where brands have been expected to show up to support audiences in meaningful ways, it’s a good thing to remember.

We Kept Up Our Momentum—And Will Continue into 2021

Despite a historically challenging year, we’ve been fortunate to continue growing without skipping a beat. We—alongside Circus and Firewood—made the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing feature based on growth from previous years. And through the unitary structure that aligns each of our teams, we’ve been able to tackle a couple of “whopper” deals, from powering the BMW & MINI marketing engine to satisfying cravings around the world with Mondelēz.

And that momentum hasn’t let up. In The Drum’s reflection on notable mergers and acquisitions this year, they gave S4Capital a shout-out: “Announcing its first pre-tax profits in November, it’s certainly a group with momentum and remains stock market stardust,” they write. “Its more recent deals have been bolt-ons for the existing core S4C businesses rather than new platforms; but with bold plans it may not be long before we see the next platform deal.”

So, what does 2021 have in store for brands—or for us? I don’t have a crystal ball; and although Wesley may, it is highly likely that beyond the pandemic’s influence, the need for impactful, culturally resonant creative and virtualized experiences that bridge together offline and online will remain. The brands that are best equipped to provide both are on the path to winning the decade—and we’ll be with them every step of the way.

In a post-COVID world where hypergrowth will go from the unicorn story to a key business imperative, the industry will need to redefine digital transformation to a lean, iterative approach that connects the customer decision journey. To succeed in this future, brands must not only pivot their efforts now, but act fast to envision how they will meet the needs of audiences into the future.

Since COVID-19 cases surged globally, we’ve seen several businesses pivot their manufacturing practices at unprecedented speed, from Pernod-Ricard’s hand sanitizer production to Ford’s protective face shields. Both brands’ rapid change in operations demonstrate an urgency to transform with agility. Likewise, many are now realizing the need to transform and adapt digitally—not only in response to the pandemic itself, but also its eventual resolution, with no well-defined window of time between those two moments.

This might sound overwhelming, but the solution is simple if you merely shift your perspective on what digital transformation means during COVID-19: the pandemic doesn’t call for unprecedented change as much as it reinforces and hastens the changes that brands have been trying to implement for the past decade. “Things have not changed as much as they have accelerated,” says Joe Olsen, Chief Growth Officer at MediaMonks. “While other crises reshaped the future, COVID-19 is making the future happen faster,” underscoring the need for digital transformation that had always existed.

Brands can look at Starbucks as an example of this: its app, allowing customers to place an order before visiting stores and make contactless payments allowed the brand to continue enabling pickup orders in the early stages of COVID-19’s spread. On the other end of the pandemic, this contactless, digital infrastructure is likely to provide reassurance to a changed society that aims to limit the spread of germs without sacrificing convenience.

Another brand whose strong digital infrastructure continued to aid consumers’ needs is Nike. Supporting consumers through a digital ecosystem that includes not only ecommerce but also an app dedicated to video workout content led by a network of fitness trainers, Nike experienced lower than expected losses during the worst of COVID-19’s spread in China. In the west, the brand quickly leveraged its expert trainer network to offer weekly livestreamed workouts via YouTube, which MediaMonks helped to produce alongside Wieden+Kennedy in just days before the initial livestreamed event.

Transform at Speed with Lean Strategy and Development

While brands have long understood the need to transform, for many of them the process has seemed lengthy and abstract. Now, brands are quickly understanding the specific actions they must take at speed—compressing the transformation process. “For many brands, digital transformation has been in the back of their minds, and now it’s front and center,” says MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar.

“There will be long-term effects that won’t magically go away once this is ‘over,’” he says. “Think about what this means for your brand, how services are going to change between your products and people, and opportunities to act differently.” Among some of the primary needs are brand ecosystems, access to first party data and truly owning the brand experience.

Brands may be surprised to find that they can make these vast changes faster than they thought possible. “The slowness, overhead, lack of agility the industry is known for has to change much quicker now because you have to play an important part in what’s happening,” says ter Haar. Noticing this need, we’ve eliminated roadblocks to develop a lean strategy and execution process to ensure rapid transformation in just a few weeks.

Here’s how it works. First, brands begin building scenarios and strategizing around the current landscape and where their brand fits within it. “Identify scenarios and changes in social behavior,” says ter Haar, noting how discomfort about flying may persist to further challenge the travel industry, which has been especially hit hard by the pandemic. “Be proactive by thinking about how your brand fits within this new world.”

This helps the brand identify challenges while also approaching their transformation with a sense of purpose. In addition to prioritizing KPIs and identifying requirements and limitations in technology, teams will have to envision how the tech will ultimately be used by audiences.

This feeds into the next steps: collecting design and UX insights while importing available data into a backend architecture. This may be the brunt work in planning a new platform, but this “get ready” phase can be done in just a week with UX and tech teams working concurrently. By having both teams work together from the start, you eliminate time wasted on creative ideas that ultimately aren’t practical in a technical sense.

Finally, the team develops, builds and tests for quality assurance before launching—followed by an ongoing test and learn phase to further improve the product or highlight new audience needs. With the proper planning steps in place, brands can move from idea to market in just a month.

Connect Random Acts of Digital to Build Brand Coherence

It’s possible that you’ve already invested in random acts of digital—also known as the siloed and disconnected digital experiences that consumers may encounter at different touchpoints. A simple way to boost digital maturity and prepare for the future is to connect these random acts of digital into a cohesive customer decision journey.

Taking stock in your existing digital strategy is an important step in finding new opportunities to connect with consumers within an uncertain landscape. Again, don’t forget your sense of purpose, either. To accommodate a sense of wanderlust in travelers whose plans had been canceled, for example, Marriott pivoted its content strategy around staycations—including links to its ecommerce platform featuring products that its hotel rooms serve as showrooms for.

In her report, “Best-In-Class Digital Leaders Embrace These Four Guidelines,” Forrester VP, Principal Analyst Sucharita Kodali notes that digital leaders “focus on their core products. While innovation is crucial, much of what the best digital disruptors do is continue to focus on their core product, or ‘keep the lights on’ work.” Minor, iterative tweaks and quality-of-life improvements can ladder up into premier digital experiences.

Understanding this, we partner best with brands embarking on digital transformation initiatives that can prioritize speed over perfection. Building on the foundation of your existing digital strategy, look for the simplest (and most effective) changes you can make to carry momentum on the way to larger-term goals. This approach isn’t just about building speed; when prioritizing velocity in the transformation process, rigorously test and measure performance to apply those learnings to successive iterations and phases.

Own the CDJ to Continually Support Audiences

One of the biggest challenges fueling digital transformation is that brands may miss out on the value of engaging with consumers if they rely solely on channels they don’t own, with insights on those interactions lost within walled gardens. Chief to connecting a coherent digital journey is eradicating data silos and building insights driven by first-party data. One need only look at how retail has been affected by COVID-19 to see this in effect.

“If you look at CPG brands who exclusively sell through retail, many of them don’t have a business now,” says ter Haar. “When owning the consumer journey, you have to have a direct relationship with your audience.” He notes that in addition to selling directly to consumers, you also build a more active, ongoing relationship that lays the foundation for when they want to buy further down the road–highlighting the important role that assistive content and digital experiences can take right now while consumers are craving entertainment and connection at home, even if it’s not strictly conversion-based.

While digital transformation has long conjured up the notion of years spent with consultancies that are all talk and no action—and resulting in plans that are obsolete before coming into fruition—it’s easy to see how many brands have viewed the process as a daunting slog. But today, advanced digital maturity is table stakes; and with a need to adapt at speed, brands can act right now on steps that drive fast results.

You can’t achieve hypergrowth without reactivating customer obsession.

If you follow the ad industry at all, you’ve almost certainly seen article after article championing those who’ve leaned into their brand purpose amidst the pandemic. Some go as far to encourage brands to find purpose–and while purpose is certainly important, many brands that claim to be purpose-driven still miss the mark, failing to drive real, visible impact. This can easily backfire, leading to criticism of exploiting societal challenges for their own gain, like accusations of greenwashing.

“During this time, this idea of whether brands helped, how they turned up and whether they’ve done the right thing has taken hold,” says MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar. “That’s about responsibility: can you take on a role that is more meaningful than a nebulous idea of brand purpose?” That notion of responsibility is key. Brands that have made headlines in their response to COVID-19 didn’t always center their role around their purpose; instead, they’ve shown up in other ways by innovating to fill the societal cracks that the pandemic had exposed.

David Rotman, Editor-at-Large of MIT Technology Review, writes in his assessment of the overall COVID-19 response that, “We’re great at devising shiny, mainly software-driven bling that makes our lives more convenient in many ways. But we’re far less accomplished at reinventing health care, rethinking education, making food production and distribution more efficient, and, in general, turning our technical know-how loose on the largest sectors of the economy.”

His point highlights a real problem in brands’ ability to pivot resources and rapidly innovate when new problems arise. While purpose may be important for a brand to have, it’s this ability to step up and support consumers—and broader audiences—when and where it matters most that has become so critical today.

The fundamental disconnect rests between the purpose exhibited in some brands’ everyday messaging versus the way they do business, exposing a difference between brands that have only recently begun to consider a higher purpose versus those that were born from a need to change the world for the better. Ter Haar explains this pitfall succinctly: “Those brands chase after purpose but don’t have it as a real driver of the organization.”

Turning Words into Action

To identify how your brand can identify and fulfill its role, look beyond a vague or broad sense of purpose and instead focus on specific actions that make sense for the brand given its value prop or resources. We saw many brands show up this way, like AB InBev and Ford, who shifted factory production and supply chains to bottle hand sanitizer and make ventilators, respectively.

But brands don’t have to always make such heavy lifting to make impact. Headspace is a smaller brand that has done well by offering a free collection of meditations to everyone: “weathering the storm,” which is tailored specifically for the reality we’re in right now. Even more importantly, it’s offering free access to its entire library for the unemployed and for healthcare professionals. While these are simple maneuvers, they do well to deliver on Headspace’s promise to make guided meditation accessible for everyone.

Ensuring that purpose permeates every part of the organization is critical—not just messaging, but also in the purchase experience (like the “buy one, give one” model popularized by Toms Shoes) and how it treats its employees. As arbiter of the brand-customer relationship, this means CMOs must have a seat at the table to collaborate with other leaders of the organization more closely. But ter Haar notes that founder-led organizations like Airbnb, who had to lay off workers earlier this year in response to the travel industry being brought to its knees, made the best of a difficult situation by connecting laid off employees with new job opportunities.

“It was a great reflection of their marketing purpose. They managed to do it in a way that strengthened the brand,” says ter Haar. “Marketing is such a reflective part of how they position as a brand—and that’s where marking should be. If you have a strong brand perception, it’s in everything you do.”

Lay a Foundation to Build the Brand Role

For many brands, the ability to execute its role is also directly related to its digital maturity and agile capabilities. Having a strong foundation in both allows them to identify opportunities to support consumers in new ways and reallocate resources to execute those initiatives quickly.

A great example of this is the Boost with Facebook content series. Facebook has long hosted events for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and had reached out to our team in Sao Paulo to create the experiential portion of their upcoming events local to the region. When COVID-19 struck, the team had to quickly pivot the programming to a digital setting. “As their partner, we considered how we could quickly pivot to meet their audience where they were online and tailor the content for that new format,” says Carolina Brandao, Senior Film Producer at MediaMonks.

While the original purpose of the event was to train attendees in using Facebook’s marketing tools, the digital version switched gears to also include resources that could help SMBs survive and thrive through the pandemic. Programming takes the form of live panels as well as live-to-tape spots—all directed remotely—that bring together local politicians and leadership from bigger brands, offering broad insights and support to SMBs. Our team in Sao Paulo handled content for all of South America, including programming in both Spanish and Portuguese.

“This project is a perfect example of how MediaMonks was able to change, adapt and help our client create completely new solutions,” says Brandao. “One week before, we weren’t doing remote shoots or livestreams yet, but we were able to pull that off successfully.” Brandao is also proud of the tangible effect that the content has for the SMBs that rely on Facebook for marketing and connecting to consumers. “In the end, this is actually helping someone who is going through a really tough moment to get their feet on the ground and get the right resources.”

For brands that are more siloed, it can be difficult to make such a quick transition. But just like with any initiative to become more agile, a simple solution is to experiment with organizing small, multi-talented teams. By refreshing the existing structure and building urgency around fast solutions—privileging speed over perfection—your teams can rapidly prototype and build new solutions as they arise.

While purpose is important for offering a waypoint or a path for the brand to move toward, it’s this agile response that becomes critical to fulfilling its role. Once a brand is properly prepared, it is better positioned to show up and tangibly build value at speed—and directly support audiences, no matter what form that takes.

From brand role to transforming digital experiences, it’s time to (re)activate customer obsession.

Si bien puede parecer que el mundo se ha paralizado de ciertas formas, en otras las cosas se están moviendo más rápido que nunca. En poco tiempo nuestro equipo de producción y films ha hecho un esfuerzo increíble para desarrollar un espacio de grabación seguro para la producción de contenido, conservando el mismo nivel de calidad que esperarías de una sesión tradicional.

Ubicados en nuestra oficina de Ámsterdam, nuestros estudios de producción internos se han diseñado para cumplir con los estándares de seguridad al mantener a los miembros de un reducido equipo al menos a 1.5 metros de distancia entre ellos. Otros miembros de la producción (como el director o el equipo de la marca) observan desde otra habitación o desde una ubicación remota a través de una transmisión en vivo.

Esto es posible a través de un proceso de filmación automatizado, impulsado por el uso de robocams que se han usado durante mucho tiempo en nuestro contenido enfocado en alimentos y tabletop. Al consolidar cada paso de la producción bajo un mismo techo — incluidos los creativos, la escritura de guiones, los tratamientos, la preproducción, la creación de escenarios para el equipo de estudio y la postproducción — o de forma remota, el proceso reduce el riesgo y coloca a las marcas dentro de un conjunto seguro de manos (lavadas).

Al Considerar Nuevas Soluciones, Crea Estrategias Alrededor De Tu Producción

Si bien es alentador que las marcas aún puedan lograr un estándar de alta calidad para hacer films, este es un buen momento para detenerse y reflexionar sobre estrategias de producción anteriores. ¿Podría alguno de los cambios que hacen hoy llevarse a largo plazo? “Estamos viendo que aún se pueden hacer cosas sin los componentes elaborados, o sin la necesidad de viajar, para diseñar servicios,” dijo Wesley ter Haar, fundador de MediaMonks, al público en el seminario web de APR Virtual Town Square. “Todo es aún un poco más rudimentario, como cultura, probablemente seremos mucho más conscientes de nuestro impacto en el mundo y de cómo logramos superar esto.”

A medida que la cultura continúa moviéndose hacia lo digital a un ritmo sin precedentes, las marcas pueden comenzar a perfeccionar sus estrategias de contenido al considerar primero cuál debería ser el resultado ideal. Por ejemplo, ter Haar señala que las marcas ven el contenido basado en la conversión como una alta prioridad para satisfacer, con la necesidad de desarrollar ese contenido más rápido y con un mayor valor.

Pero las necesidades de los consumidores también están cambiando, ya sean sensibilidades estéticas informadas por memes y creadores de contenido independientes o la aparición de nuevos comportamientos digitales. “Hay numerosas formas de desviar los esfuerzos de la producción tradicional,” dice ter Haar. “En lugar de hacer una grabación tradicional con 80 personas, ¿por qué no hacer que 80 personas hagan su propia grabación?” Este giro en el estilo de rodaje abre nuevas e interesantes oportunidades para el contenido, como asociarse con influencers o explorar un solo tema a través de diferentes puntos de vista.

Encuentra Oportunidades Creativas A Través De Restricciones

A medida que las marcas continúan considerando los cambios que deberían hacer en las estrategias de producción en este momento, también deberían estar atentos al futuro. ¿Cómo pueden las restricciones que existen hoy ayudarnos a todos a lograr formas aún mejores de trabajar mañana? Ter Haar compara las nuevas estrategias de producción con el cambio que las empresas ya han tomado al trabajar desde casa. “Si bien ha sido relativamente fácil para nosotros cambiar a trabajar desde casa porque somos una organización global, también es agradable ver que las cosas que se sentían como si solo pudieran funcionar en persona, funcionan de maravilla al hacerlas de manera digital.”

Esta observación lleva a casa el sentimiento de que, si bien la velocidad a la que ha cambiado el entorno puede haber abrumado a algunos equipos, presenta también una oportunidad para desarrollar nuevas soluciones creativas, por ejemplo, reducir los costos de viaje o volverse menos dependiente de reunir equipos grandes en una sola ubicación. Al trabajar con las marcas para comprender y satisfacer las necesidades a medida que surgen, saldremos de esta situación más fuertes que nunca.

Hay más oportunidades para reevaluar tus estrategias de marketing y producción.

Recent months have brought up all-new challenges for brands, and as the situation continues to unfold we’ve never seen a better time to refocus advertising on delivering real value and reactivating customer obsession. “It’s the time to start thinking about the scenarios for how your business and your brand will live in a different world,” says Wesley ter Haar, MediaMonks Founder. Innovative production approaches have arisen throughout the world as many brands continue to “keep moving” – as the shift towards digital becomes increasingly inevitable, speaking to a time post-COVID-19 as well. 

VFX Transports Us to Another World

For MediaMonks, we’ve updated our traditional approach to shooting with new formats (including our new safe, sanitized shoot studio) but additionally, we’ve continued work via other established types of production that remain within local safety guidelines by the very nature of being digital. One such visual experience was created last year between our Mexico City and Amsterdam offices to bring to life an eight-meter high panther made of flint-like material, an entity made of smoke, among many other things, to recreate the Mayan underworld in “Xibalba” for Mexican beer brand Victoria Cerveza.

In “Xibalba,” we follow our protagonist on an emotional journey through the underworld, where he fights mythical beings in a fantastical setup for the chance to meet with his loved ones once again. This scenario demanded the creation of several visual elements that, to achieve their full effects, could only be done through VFX artistry.

From the get-go, one of the main challenges for the VFX team was to create all the visual elements in just ten days. “We needed to think of a way to work very efficiently without compromising quality, so we could stay ahead of the curve and do multiple reviews a day,” says Okke Voerman, VFX Lead at MediaMonks. “There were also shots with some heavy smoke simulations without the time to do a lot of iterations. By connecting our Houdini artist with one of our VFX compositors, we layered many renders to get the smoke that we wanted.”

But that was not the only challenge. The film, shot in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, home of the ancient Mayan civilization, was produced and edited in Mexico City, while the VFX treatment took place at the same time in Amsterdam. 

“Working from different offices around the world can be very challenging. To make it work, you need to look for the benefits it can bring and focus on those,” explains Voerman. “By having our VFX production team setup in Amsterdam and our client-facing producers in Mexico, we had more hours in one day than normal.” So instead of working just eight hours a day, we combined our work in different time zones to achieve an otherwise exhausting 16-hour workday. Our diverse teams in two continents worked together to create a high-quality film in time.

Our film promoting the HP Dragonfly convertible laptop was another collaborative tour-de-force, involving several award-winning partners working together across continents – among them being The Mill, an award-winning VFX house whose work touches feature films. The film’s special effects and beauty serve as a testament to the value of close, speedy collaboration between teams that are unconstrained by physical space.

A Closed Office, An Open World

With global production companies – working in TV, film, experiential and other visual content – having to close or otherwise stop work due to the economic effects of the pandemic, brands are understandably worried about how they can continue producing content. But new, innovative production methods and close digital collaboration enable them to bypass common constraints. 

As brands adapt to working through the pandemic, this spirit of collaboration and innovation become key to success. From virtual production and CGI to post-producing pre-existing content, there are many ways that brands can continue their output without missing a beat. “During this global pandemic, there are a lot of physical limitations which make shoots very challenging,” says Voerman. “In post production, we don’t have them.” 

It’s fitting that the premier digital experience conference went all-digital this year, as just one of many tech conferences that have rapidly adapted their strategies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic—building the on-demand streaming alternative in just a month. Pictured above, you’ll see MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar speaking at Adobe’s last tentpole event, Adobe MAX.

This urgency for stronger digital experiences served as a key theme for the conference. “We are clearly living in unprecedented times,” said Adobe Chairman, President and CEO Shantanu Narayen. “COVID-19 is changing everything about life and work as we know it. Now more than ever, we must come together as a community to share best practices to digitally engage with customers.”

During the keynote address, Adobe unveiled new tools and updated features that can help brands provide a better customer experience and reach their business goals: most notable is the Digital Economy Index, a tool that analyzes more than a trillion online transactions across 100 million product sales to help brands understand, act on and anticipate digital commerce trends. In addition to that and new updates to Adobe Experience Cloud Manager, Narayen called for a stronger relationship between CMOs and CIOs as brands spend 2020 refocusing their digital strategies and seek new ways to connect all known user data across the customer journey.

Digital is Table Stakes, and Brands Need to Adapt

 “Whether you’re replacing an in-person conference with a digital event, or working to engage with your customers virtually, the theme is the same: digital is revolutionizing how we interact with each other,” said Narayen. This sentiment has become all the more obvious in the past month, in which social distancing policies have shed a spotlight on the gaps that brands must fill in their digital transformation efforts and the need for emotionally resonant creative digital experiences.

Today, customer experiences are much more than just delivering delightful and relevant experiences in real time, it is supporting the users’ needs in an almost completely digital world. From e-commerce services bringing products to our door, to paperless contracts and virtual offices, or digital tools enabling students to continue with their education, “digital isn’t only changing and reshaping our daily lives, it’s driving the economy,” says Narayen.

This change isn’t exactly new, but has become a moment of reckoning for brands. “Everything has been moving remote and online in one way, shape or form over the years,” says Henry Cowling, Managing Director at MediaMonks San Francisco, in our most recent report on reactivating customer obsession. “This is the chance for brands to really look at that, and reinvent how the digital experience looks and feels, because they’ll need to do it eventually.” 

The Moment for Real-Time CX is Here

Prioritizing customer experience management has become fundamental in a world dominated by digital interactions. Users expect more and demand more from brands, and they do not have the patience to wait for it, they want it all right now. Brands need to understand and use their data to craft a personalized and relevant experience that their users will enjoy in real time.

In one breakout session, Adobe Principal Product Manager Trevor Paulson reassured audiences, “Almost everyone is trying to better understand the entire customer journey across all their channels … So, if you think you’re behind your competition, chances are you’re probably not.” Among the top challenges in customer journey analytics he identified are disconnected data, not enough data expertise and inability to action insights—each of which inhibit a brand’s ability to meet its audience’s needs throughout the full, end-to-end brand experience.

Cross-functional collaboration helps brands gather together diverse knowledge and expertise to bridge these gaps. Successfully achieving data-driven creative workstreams is key to building the creatively differentiated experiences that build brand love, assisting consumers wherever and whenever it’s most needed along the CDJ.

Get Ready for a Cookie-less Future

Third-party cookies have been a key part of digital experiences for a long time, but that is coming to an end. With browsers having banned them gradually over the last years, Google announced a few months ago that it will eliminate all third-party cookies in 24 months. We are entering a new era of cross-domain personalization enabled only for known users.

“Cookies aren’t that good for marketing, they overstate how many people brands are actually reaching, they lead to wrong demographic targeting, they miss conversions that are happening, and they overrepresent the individual you are trying to target,” said Justin Merickel, VP of Adobe Advertising Cloud. “They haven’t been great at providing the value that they were set out to do.”

“Delivering personalized experiences at scale requires rethinking the approach to data,” says Pari Sawant, Director of Product Management at Adobe. First, they must remember that personalization should aim to truly help consumers; and to execute on that need, they must realize the power of context over relentless retargeting.

Knowing that brands will soon not be able to use third-party data, which today may make up a good portion of all their data points, they need to rethink how they use it to build truly valuable experiences by owning, operating and maximizing first-party data. Data clean rooms offer one interesting solution; as brands aim to reinvent their CX strategies or digitally transform in a fast-changing digital landscape, brands can lean on their creative partners to highlight new technologies as they emerge and determine which make the best fit.

Customers Expect Control All Across their Journey

For decades consumers were forced to stay static and receive an experience where they had no input whatsoever, but with the emergence of digital and mobile environments, they have become empowered, and they know it. Consumers expect to have a say on everything, from the decisions they make, to the content they consume, at every single touch point. 

For decades, consumers have had little control over how their data was used by brands. But with brands focused on a need for building first-party relationships a cookie-less world, an opportunity emerges for them to empower customers. to become active participants in the creative experiences they consume. There needs to be a clear value exchange for users to part with their data, further driving home the need for content to be assistive. This approach requires brands to take ownership of the customer relationship.

The bar has been raised for consumers and brands alike, particularly when it comes to digital native newcomers who have forged deep relationships with consumers by aligning purpose with data-driven creativity. “The experiences they receive in the applications and services they use online every day have led them to demand the same from every brand they deal with,” said Nick McLachlan, Product Marketing lead for Advertising Cloud in APAC at Adobe. Between 65% and 70% of consumers expect highly contextual, personalized experiences in real time.

Brands face a unique challenge in order to fulfill the customers’ expectations; they need to create strategies that cater to those needs across every channel, taking a user-centered approach to how they do business. These challenges have come to a head in a year where fractures in brands’ existing digital strategies are apparent. Thankfully, the Adobe Summit streaming platform goes live at the perfect time for brands to begin refocusing their strategies for the rest of the year and beyond.

While it might feel as though the world has come to a standstill in some ways, things are moving faster than ever in others. It’s been only a week and a half since our previous post about seamlessly continuing production in a world changed by COVID-19, but in the interim our film and production team has put incredible effort into developing a safe shooting space for content production—retaining the same level of quality you would expect from a traditional shoot.

Housed in our Amsterdam office, our in-house production studios have been set up to comply within safety standards by keeping members of a lean crew team at least 1.5 meters apart. Other members of the production (such as the director or brand team) observe either from another room or from a remote location via livestream.

This is made possible through an automated shooting process, aided by the use of robocams that have long been used in our tabletop and food-focused content. By consolidating every step of production under one roof—including creative, scriptwriting, treatments, pre-production, set builders to studio crew and postproduction—or remote, the process mitigates risk and places brands within a safe set of (washed) hands.

In Considering New Solutions, Strategize Around Your Output

While it’s reassuring that brands can still achieve a high-quality standard of filmmaking, this moment serves as a good time to stop and reflect on previous production strategies. Might any of the changes they make today carry into the long term? “We’re seeing that you can still do things without the elaborate components, or travel, craft services,” MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar told audiences in APR’s Virtual Town Square webinar. “it’s all a bit scrappier—as a culture, we’ll probably be a lot more mindful about our impact on the world and how we manage to get through this.”

As culture continues to shift toward digital at an unprecedented rate, brands can begin honing their content strategies by first considering what the ideal output should be. For example, ter Haar notes that brands view conversion-based content as a high priority to fill, with a need to develop that content faster and at a greater value.

But consumer needs are also shifting, whether it be aesthetic sensibilities informed by memes and independent content creators or the emergence of new digital behaviors. “There are numerous ways to shift efforts from traditional production,” says ter Haar. “Instead of doing a traditional shoot with 80 people, why not have 80 people do their own shoot?” This twist on shooting style opens up interesting, new opportunities for content, like partnering with influencers or exploring a single theme through different viewpoints.

Find Creative Opportunity Through Constraint

As brands continue to consider the changes they should make to production strategies right now, they should also keep an eye on the future. How can constraints that exist today help us all achieve even better ways of working tomorrow? Ter Haar compares new production strategies with the shift that businesses have already taken by working from home. “While it’s been relatively easy for us to switch to working from home because we’re a global organization, it’s also nice to see that things that felt like they could only work in person are perfectly fine to do in a digital manner.”

This observation drives home the sentiment that while the speed at which the landscape has changed may have overwhelmed some teams, it presents an opportunity to develop new creative solutions—for example, cutting travel costs or becoming less reliant on gathering large teams within a single location. By working with brands to understand and delivering on needs as they emerge, we’ll emerge from this situation stronger than ever.

There are more opportunities to reassess your marketing and production strategies.

In responding to any crisis, brands always run the risk of coming off as exploitative—even when they have good intentions. As ad plans become further disrupted and brands seek to refocus their strategies, there’s one piece of advice that they can take directly from consumers themselves: be helpful and stay true to your purpose.

Ad Age reports that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “77 percent of respondents expect their brands to be helpful in what has become ‘the new everyday life.’ Only 8 percent feel they should stop advertising.” This finding drives home just how important customer obsession is in supporting audiences, a theme that’s explored in-depth in our report, (Re)Activate Customer Obsession.

The report notes, “We’ll look back on this moment as a time in which brands have realized the value in living up to their commitment to service, finding ways to build impact and provide comfort to their customers. This is the recipe for customer obsession—in which an organization ‘focuses its strategy and its budget on the technologies, systems and processes that win, serve and retain customers,’ as defined by Forrester.”

The sentiment echoes what MediaMonks’ APAC VP Growth Tobias Wilson wrote over at Campaign Asia: “The psychographic profiles of your consumers … have also changed—so make sure that you’re obsessing over your customers (mindsets and situation) first and foremost, not thinking about how your marketing plans have been disrupted and how much of a pain that is.” But what does that look like? Below, we examine a handful of brands that have answered the call by serving consumers’ needs within a “new normal.”

Google Arts & Culture’s Virtual Museum Tours

Museums have shuttered their doors to support social distancing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t explore some of the world’s best collections from home. Using the same technology that powers Street View on Google Maps, you can take your own personal tour through the hallowed halls of the museums—a refreshingly futuristic way to discover and observe artifacts from across human history. It’s worth noting that Google Arts & Culture has offered such tours for years, though social distancing has prompted a resurgence in interest in the platform.

Digitized collections help reinforce the reason why many of these institutions exist: to help patrons connect with history and culture. This goal powered our redesign and launch of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website, which collects stories and digitized artifacts related to more than 300 inductees. Focused on content exploration and discovery, the platform demonstrates the museum’s dedication to “to engage, teach and inspire through the power of rock and roll” in a time where digital has proven essential to social connection.

Pernod-Ricard and Other Distilleries Produce Hand Sanitizer

Famed liquor brand Pernod-Ricard has shifted its factories to produce and bottle hand sanitizer for FEMA. The frenzy to buy hand sanitizer had become a meme in the earlier days of the COVID-19 spread across the US, but has become more troubling as governments have faced shortages. The move shows that Pernod-Ricard is willing to pull out all the stops to mobilize at speed and skill to meet important needs, regardless of profitability—sticking true to its values to “live together, better.”

Snapchat Drops its “Here for You” Feature Early

Originally scheduled to release in April, Snapchat dropped its “Hear for You” feature on March 19. The tool surfaces up mental health content for users who search for terms related to anxiety, depression, suicide or bullying—and it’s easy to see how many users’ anxieties have ramped up in the past couple of months.

As a brand, Snap is dedicated to “empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together,” a mission that the brand has interpreted in surprising ways. Speaking to The Verge, a Snap spokesperson explained how that sense of connectivity and community informed the tool’s development: “Here For You was informed by studies that show that connecting with friends, whether in person or online is often the best defense against feelings of loneliness and anxiety.” By quickly pushing the feature before its scheduled release, the move follows the advice of Michel de Rijk, APAC CEO of S4Capital, that “in times like this, it’s more about speed than accuracy.”

Facebook Offers Tools for Small Business

Among those hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic are small businesses. In addition to offering a new section of its app that keeps general users informed about COVID-19, Facebook launched its Business Resource Hub, offering tools and resources for brands to keep connected with their customers or facilitate remote working, including a Small Business Resilience Toolkit to prepare—and bounce back from—a crisis. Facebook also unveiled a $100 million grant program to further support small businesses.

In 2017, Facebook changed its mission statement to “bring the world together.” While people are physically distancing themselves, many small businesses continue to operate as essential pillars of their respective communities. By helping them keep the lights on, keep their employees supported and keep the world moving, Facebook continues to serve that mission.

While this moment in time has been difficult for many people in different ways, it’s inspiring to see brands step up to wield their platforms and influence for social good. By placing people first—whether customers or employees—and finding new ways to embody their purpose, brands can instill goodwill and continue to support their consumers when it’s needed the most.

Put your plan in action to better serve customers.

Social distancing has radically transformed the way we live and work, forcing teams to collaborate with one another remotely and requiring brands engage with digital audiences in new ways. Despite this unprecedented moment of change, one thing remains constant: customers’ desire for connection, entertainment and content. How can in-house agencies keep up?

Meeting these needs will test the strategies and models driving brands’ in-house agencies. While IHA’s are known for their proximity to the client, cost efficiencies and speed of delivery, they must adapt in navigating the “new normal” we’ve all found ourselves in. Below offers some tips on where to focus your efforts in continuing to meet your audience’s needs without sacrificing quality and efficiency.

Double Down on Customer Obsession

Brand experiences thrive on inspiring an emotional connection by bringing people together and meeting customers’ needs where and when it matters most. With this, in-house agencies have a big advantage: they know the brand better than anyone else, often serving as a conduit between decision-makers and consumers. By aligning an understanding of customers’ needs and the brand’s purpose, in-house agencies are ideally positioned to recognize the new needs of their audience and enhance the customer experience.

“The first thing that brands are faced with is to go back and look at their brand purpose,” says Warren Chase, Chief Operating Officer of Firewood Marketing, which merged with MediaMonks late last year. “How are they anchored in that purpose and keeping their customers interested and engaged?”

At this time, having a clear dedication to purpose means recognizing how customers have been impacted by COVID-19—whether it’s a need for entertainment, managing stressors in their lives, a drive for connection or something else. “How can brands empathize with customers?” asks Chase. “Just be honest, transparent and open. Once you have that openness and transparency, people understand.” And that sentiment isn’t limited to customers alone; Chase mentioned how Uber, just as COVID-19 began spreading significantly in the United States, notified users of proactive steps the brand was taking to protect their drivers.

Next, consider how well set-up your in-house team is at acting fast in response to shifting customer needs. The mass push to staying at home might be only the first big change we see this year; as consumers come together through new ways of interacting and engaging, brands and their internal agencies must keep on their toes to realize opportunities for connection.

“All brands operate differently and say they involve the agency at different stages—some further upstream, some further down. When you’re in house, there’s proximity to leadership, to insights and data, and to decision-makers,” says Chase. “You get alignment super-fast when new needs or opportunities arise.”

Working From Home Doesn’t Sacrifice Quality

Having a brand strategy and to recognize opportunity is one thing, but how do you continue producing content when your in-house team is literally working at their houses? Production at home is still doable; even if mobility and personnel are seriously limited, you can still strategize around offering impactful content with just a single room, a single actor and a smart media plan.

This is an excellent opportunity for your team to heighten its creative efficiency through a fit-for-format approach to producing content. One of the simplest ways to do so is by refreshing or optimizing existing content in a way that quickly results in relevant assets at scale. We’ve taken a similar approach in transforming a handful of existing assets into a social awareness campaign that grew more effective week after week, using performance metrics to continually optimize and drill deeper into audience segments.

This same method could be incredibly useful for brands who must reassess a content strategy, optimizing it to better reach consumers at home via digital channels. When high-quality stock video is added to the mix, you can keep your creative content current by translating the brand narrative to different contexts with the footage available. And through fast, scalable digital animation techniques, you can continue producing fresh, new content without missing a beat.

Proactively Build Digital Maturity

While digital transformation has been slow and incremental over several years, brands have only begun to recognize the imperative to elevate the need for creative, differentiated digital experiences due to COVID-19’s rapid spread around the world. But for in-house teams lacking the digital maturity and skillset required to make such a rapid change, brands can fill in capabilities gaps through partnerships.

Marketing Dive notes that filling these skill gaps can be challenging amidst hiring freezes and cost-cutting in response to the pandemic. “My belief is that marketers and companies will not look to take on full-time employees in lieu of [third-party services providers] during the downturn, the reason being that there is a tremendous amount of costs with doing so,” Forrester Principal Analyst Jay Pattisall told the publication. “Companies will likely want to outsource those to the extent that they can, because in the long-run, that’s a more cost-effective way to deal with it than making significant investments in employee infrastructure.”

This is the time for brands to act boldly, with a need to reach customers like never before. Whether adapting production efficiencies or finding new ways to reach customers within a shifting digital landscape, there are many options available for in-house agencies to better respond to audience needs through customer obsession. Thankfully, in-house agencies are well-equipped to adapt, and despite these rapid changes one thing should remain: a dedication to solving consumers’ needs through creative expertise, a clear sense of purpose and unparalleled brand knowledge.

It’s time for IHA’s to reassess strategies and reactivate customer obsession.

With social distancing taking hold around the world, people are turning toward screens and machines now more than ever for connection, comfort and entertainment. Despite this unprecedented opportunity to connect directly with consumers through content, many brands feel hampered by those same social distancing policies, which limit their ability to produce content.

Whether stuck working at home or seeking a partner somewhere in the world who can safely secure a shooting location, there’s never been a more necessary time for speed, quality and value. Thankfully, even if mobility and personnel are seriously limited, you can still strategize around offering impactful content with just a single room, a single actor and a smart media plan, which was the recipe used for our Northgate Market Super Bowl campaign.

We’re confident that resourceful brands of any size can likewise generate high-quality content under great restraint, including at home. Below are just a handful of ways that they can do so, either by themselves or with the guidance of a creative and production partner.

Considerations for Shooting at Home

Livestreaming is a relatively simple alternative for brands seeking to build an authentic, transparent connection to those at home. In fact, TV broadcasters around the world have begun livestreaming their reportage from home offices, sometimes even with a pet in tow. While livestreaming is great for maintaining a connection with audiences, brands should pay special care toward having the necessary equipment setup—even for the simplest of livestreamed experiences.

“Livestreaming has a lot better value than most people think,” says Lewis Smithingham, Director of Creative Solutions at MediaMonks. “But while people don’t need satellite, giant server farms or origin servers, it’s worth asking yourself: what happens if I lose my feed, if my kid kicks out my power cable, or the dishwasher blows a fuse?” Anticipating hiccups like these in a professional context becomes especially imperative given the fact that networks are under strain while millions of people work from home or stream content simultaneously.

Partnering with an influencer can mitigate some of these concerns: they offer that same penchant for authenticity and are well-experienced when it comes to connecting with fans at home. The more casual atmosphere of an influencer speaking directly to their close audience can also ease worry about a momentary loss of connection. In addition, content creators are adept at producing first-rate content at home without the need for having a director “on set” to achieve quality, having all of the equipment on-hand that they need.

And speaking of equipment for producing traditional video: while rental houses may still be open in some parts of the world, you can never be too certain when situations change overnight. This is where there’s still value in leaning on a global partner who can zero in and identify regions that safely and securely enable production.

But a safer bet would be to simply use your smartphone, if nothing else is readily available. Their cameras have become so advanced that any flagship phone is likely to offer a professional-grade output. (If you don’t believe us, have a look at any of these films shot on smartphones.)  That said, different teams using different devices can lead to compatibility issues; for example, some phones might be more difficult to export to post than others due to differences in file type or software compatibility.

Can’t Shoot Anything New? Easily Refresh Existing Assets Instead

This moment offers an opportunity for brands to really get creative and think more agile in terms of content production—and one of the simplest ways to do so is by refreshing or optimizing existing content in a way that quickly results in relevant assets at scale. We’ve taken a similar approach in transforming a handful of existing assets into a social awareness campaign that grew more effective week after week, using performance metrics to continually optimize and drill deeper into audience segments.

This same method could be incredibly useful for brands who must reassess a content strategy, optimizing it to better reach consumers at home via digital channels. When high-quality stock video is added to the mix, you can keep your creative content current by translating the brand narrative to different contexts with the footage available.

But a more unique way to refresh existing content and offer something new is through animation. There are a handful of different techniques used by our global animation team to produce animations for brands, two of which work well with existing assets: the cut-out technique, which animates flat assets and backgrounds, or 2D motion graphics. Both of these methods are highly scalable, adaptable and fast to produce, making it easier to squeeze value or quickly iterate new content when needed.

Innovate with Entirely New Ways to Shoot

Before social distancing, a lot of businesses balked at the thought of remote work—and most of them probably discovered they can remain just as productive from afar after all. The same can be said for shoots on set; consider having a production team—with minimal personnel to ensure regional safety regulations—overseen by your team via livestream, as if you were there in-person. A team distributed across the globe can help identify where and when these opportunities are possible, ensuring they’re executed with safety and security in mind.

Those with bigger expectations in mind can take a cue from game engines. “If I were a camera operator, I’d be learning how to operate a camera virtually,” says Smithingham. “Do an activation within an online game. There are ways around this and do shoots virtually; if you look at The Mandalorian, the whole thing was shot in one room. Brands can lean into that and do wild and crazy stuff.”

Content shot within a virtual space would certainly challenge brands to rethink their content production strategy. But it could also help them be seen as innovators—and become more relevant at a critical moment: interest in videogames has spiked in the past few weeks as a means of entertainment and gathering with friends virtually.

By marrying together a technical and creative mindset, brands can find the most effective and accessible solutions to generating content while working from home. “We don’t think anything is impossible,” says Smithingham. “From ensuring livestreams don’t miss a beat to connecting with content creators who have high-end tools in house already, any challenge is doable or fixable.”

There are more ways to (Re)Activate Customer Obsession.