2020 has hit and hurt us all, but if we can find a silver lining here, it’s that this pandemic and uncertain economic times are teaching us resilience and innovation. The popular axiom “Necessity is the Mother of invention” never felt more true now. There’s also another popular axiom, “From chaos comes opportunity.” Both proved true in the past months, where we found ourselves reinventing strategies to deliver certain projects.

The bottom line? Be flexible, but keep your focus narrow.

Allegra, like other companies big and small, a Pasadena advertsing agency found itself suddenly pivoting previously-scheduled in-person marketing efforts during COVID-19’s Shelter-in-Place – Safer at Home to online events and meetings as well as relying on other virtual solutions such as Zoom gatherings, public service announcements, and activism to remain part of customers and constituents ever-changing day-to-day lives. One such major project was developing an online business directory for the city of Fountain Valley that had to be re-imagined as an online portal to communicate which businesses were open since so many had been forced closed. Residents, as well as Fountain Valley business owners, were unsure of where to go to find current information.

Transforming this project taught us many lessons, which can apply even after COVID-19 are no longer front-and-center in our daily lives.

• Stay nimble and be solution-driven: Much of what was happening in 2020 is somewhat out of our control. But we have good news! Necessity is the Mother of Invention, and perhaps a crisis is when creativity can shine. COVID-19 taught us to be flexible with our platforms and don’t become too stagnate. Remain focused on the message, and even acknowledge the state of the world in your messaging if that’s relevant, but be open to new platforms for pushing out the message.
• Dive Deeper into everything your company is doing. Much like the show “Undercover boss (one of my favs), Take one week to visit each department of your company (big and small) and get back in the weeds. I know, as business owners, we don’t want to be in the weeds, but we’re in a different place now. We used to know all the ins & outs of every aspect of the business and may have lost touch with the nitty-gritty details. Use this time as an opportunity to regain an understanding of what’s going on every day across the company. Ask your team questions!
• Take a look at your competitors. If you stay on top of the competition, you’ll continually improve your business in two ways. 1: You know what they are doing and can take action to stay ahead.  For example, if all of your competitors have new shiny websites, you should think about how your company looks online. 2: Take that same knowledge and find where they are making mistakes and pick up that slack, highlight that product or service, and show how you’re the better choice.
• Regularly talk with your top employees and managers in the company to work together to create new ideas. Pull your most creative minds in the room to brainstorm and rebuild an open culture and make a path for the best ideas to come forward.  Your business success will no longer solely depend on you and your thoughts.  The more, the merrier!
• Reach out to your clients and see what they’re missing. Pick up the phone and talk with your customers.  We recently received a call from our bank to simply check-in and see if we needed anything.    
• Keep the social media conversation going: During these uncertain times, where would we be without Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? Thankfully, we’ll never know because social media helped us stay connected during a long period of disconnection. Brands from retail to restaurants to nonprofits relied on social media platforms to remain in their customers’ or clients’ lives, reminding everyone that as frustrating as these times might be, we were all in this situation together.

Here at Allegra Consulting, where brands evolve, a marketing company in Pasadena, CA, we’re innovating marketing tactics and campaign activities that work to reinvent brands during these uncertain economic times.  Strategies that can quickly pivot platforms and ideas that can lead to new approaches and even a template for future projects.