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The COVID19 pandemic has disrupted the habits of millions of people, companies, and mostly brands across all sectors. 

Consequently, some brands quickly switched to the “REACTIVE Mode” by either taking part of the conversation about this global contagion, or simply by rethinking their business model based on unprecedent customer behavior, hoping to keep the brand alive and ongoing.

Many brands raced to ride the wave, however by applying  a short-sighted and opportunistic approach during these times. In my opinion, a short-sighted approach in such situations would not fuel the brand positively and won’t add brand value in terms of image building, especially knowing that no one is genuinely able to predict how things will evolve post COVID19.

Sadly, this pandemic has also revealed that the creative communication of most of the brands was missing a “spark” on many levels, compared to the importance of such a global case:

• We saw very few powerful campaigns tackling the crisis, and it was even a challenge to remember them.
• We noticed brands spending a lot of effort and energy with minimum impact on their audiences, as most strategies are either being implemented in the wrong way while scratching the surface of the problem, or simply missing the brand’s essence and going for a more generic approach.
• Moreover, brands and marketers became more focused on doing marketing stunts rather than focusing on the real Problem/Need/Solution.

Overall, the main objective of the excessive efforts done is likely to keep the brand top-of-mind and to build goodwill among consumers.

Brands taking part of social distancing whether through their logos shift or specific campaigns was always a positive step especially on an educational level. Logo shift was one of the few powerful graphical executions we witnessed that addressed the crisis with an educational message at $0 cost; simple, bold, creative solution with maximum impact.

Moving forward, brands should never remain silent in such times, they should definitely take part of the conversation while maintaining their brand essence and persona.

Creative effectiveness is always achieved through:

• Setting a clear communication objective for every piece of content, however over-planning it might lead you to miss the opportunity.
• Focusing on relatable communication that is bespoke to your brand.
• Avoiding generic creative approach for any brief and injecting your brands values and character in every delivery.
• Creating a specific marketing funnel for your communication that will help deliver the right message and achieve effective results.