Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Reasons to be Cheerful: bringing humanity to digital media

As the coronavirus pandemic has quickly become the new normal, NDA wants to celebrate the positives of our current situation.

We ask Chloe Grutchfield, Co-Founder, RedBud and NDA’s adtech columnist, what she has to be cheerful about.

What, if any, positive long-term impact on the digital industry will coronavirus have?

One very obvious and very practical impact is on remote working. Hopefully the lockdown will encourage companies to continue promoting remote working. What a great large-scale test we’ve run for remote working!  

These odd times have and will continue to bring so much creativity in our industry. The communications I’ve had from brands have been so ‘human’ rather than ‘business’.

I’m hopeful that this will continue and that the digital industry will help keep the bond that some brands have built with their consumers.  

What positive impacts on long term consumer behaviour shifts will it have?

Consumers will remember the brands that did the right thing and those that didn’t. Hopefully this experience will make us more curious and encourage altruistic consumers that buy from companies with the right values, rather than those that focus on profit at all costs. 

What positive impacts have you seen on how your business operates?

Relationships are getting stronger than ever, more ‘human’. The line between home and work has become so blurry. We feel closer to our team than ever before: they’re an extension of our family.

We count the days until we can all see each other again in the office. It’s going to be amazing!

We’ve built much stronger relationships with our clients too. We’re meeting their families, waving at their kids in the background, having virtual drinks with them. We talk about how we’re all in this together.

It’s ‘humanised’ further a lot of our client relationships. 

What have you been most heartened about in how your staff, partners, customers or clients have reacted to the new normal?

We’re a small business and a lot of our clients who work in much larger companies have sent us lovely emails to ask how the team are doing and how our business is coping.

We’ve also had suppliers get in touch spontaneously to offer changes in payment terms.

And our team have been truly amazing: really embracing working from home, bringing a lot of energy and positivity to our daily calls and bi-weekly quizzes.

It’s made the whole experience… actually enjoyable! 

What technologies have you been most impressed with during this new situation and do you think conavirus will hasten their uptake or development?

Actually, more than the technologies themselves, I’ve been impressed by how people and charities have used those technologies to better help others. Covid-19 mutual aid groups all around the country are organising via Whatsapp and Google sheets the delivery of food and medicine to people that have self isolated or are vulnerable.

 It’s quite amazing what neighbourhood initiatives have been able to do in such a little amount of time with technology.

I’m looking forward to seeing what some clever startups have in the works to help fight the spread of the virus. I’ve seen some very intriguing and exciting LinkedIn posts from health-related start-ups… Watch this space!