During the pandemic, experts cited that internet usage increased by 50-70% driven by people's pursuit of online entertainment, and social media activity increased by 37% as the desire to make connections increased.
And for most of us with an older generation, teaching the elders how to use Zoom became one of the most fraught but needed lessons demanding a level of patience that only reaching for a glass of wine would aid.
But we all made it. Magical moments happened, like my aunt on her birthday seeing all of her siblings via facetime. Or my cousins newborn being introduced over Zoom to lots of happy eager family faces.
And now as we start to see a glimmer of what next, we are faced with a new digital world. All of sudden, digital skills have increased across generations. My mother now has daily video calls with one of her brothers, whereas before even email was a challenge.
So what does that mean for the marketer? Well, seismic change has happened. The digital skillset has arrived like a triumphant and victorious fanfare & it's across all age groups. For the silver surfers, that audience has quadrupled overnight, reducing loneliness, isolation and enabling greater connections. Now, more than ever, a greater number can connect & the internet is facilitating this.
For the workers amongst us, the workplace is no longer bound to a building, a desk or even a chair. Remote working has opened up a whole host of possibilities as to where one might work and how one might work. Becoming a digital nomad, for some, has now become a genuine possibility.
Remote working will be our new work reality for those that want it and flexible working in the office will become part of the new normal for those that still require physical peer engagement. Even recruitment has changed. I spoke to one MD and she told me that she now viewed her workforce as being the UK, not just London. Covid had enabled her to hire outside of London and that benefited her business in terms of cost and increased access to talent.
In terms of marketing, the channel mix will have an increased focus on digital. Already we are starting to see the post Covid world of ads that celebrate that things are back (MacDonalds) and the future will be better. For marketers, budgets will be dependent on what industry they are in and how quickly it can bounce back. They say fortune favours the bold but it will be a bold person to invest in an unsure economy.
There have been winners and losers in Covid. If at the start, you were digitally-enabled then you had a fighting chance, but for the laggards, they were beaten to the ground & suffered. I witnessed one company boom in Covid as their product turned from might to a must buy and on the flipside I spoke to another CEO, whose closed his agency doors, as overnight his clients stopped spending.
For those that experienced the boom, I wonder how sustainable that is coming out of the pandemic? For those that saw revenues decline, I question how long it is going to take to recover & how CEOs might take a cautious approach which will impact on any marketing spend.
For all of us, the truth is we don't know. We don't know how long recovery is going to take or for how much longer the boom is going to last, but there is one thing that remains constant throughout, which is the voice of the customer who will be our guiding light through this most uncertain period.
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