How Public Relations Has Evolved Throughout The Pandemic
Photo by Matthew Guay on Unsplash
Midway through the second year of this “new normal,” we’re continuing to adapt and learn to live with the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. A lot has changed since the start of 2020 - travel restrictions, F&B closures, group size restrictions, work-from-home as default, the list goes on.
It’s still a priority to offer brands an opportunity to tell their story and to help connect with their target audiences, and public relations remains an important tool in the marketing mix with this goal in mind. However, how we communicate has also changed, and we’re constantly adapting our strategies as public relations professionals to best serve our clients, ensuring their stories are told despite all of the chaos from the pandemic.
As we look ahead, anticipating the return of travel, in-person dining and an easing of the day-to-day COVID restrictions, we’re reflecting on a few ways the team at Accela Communications has evolved our practice over the last 18 months.
Going Virtual
Let’s start with the obvious, because no conversation about adjustments due to the pandemic can ignore our shift to Zoom and online experiences. Working with consumer lifestyle clients, it’s always been important for us at Accela Communications to bring our journalists to visit our clients so they can experience them firsthand – and social distancing has flipped that on its head. We assess every client and campaign to determine how best to recreate these experiences while remaining within the regulations, whether that means pivoting to virtual tastings, sending experiential deliveries to their homes, or simply revisiting the format for more intimate live experiences when local regulations allow.
Adjusting Timelines
While we often used to plan on a quarterly or even annual basis for our retainer clients, the pandemic has forced a more flexible, short-term way of looking at our campaigns. With daily changes to local restrictions as well as travel requirements and border closures, it’s more important than ever that our team stays on top of what’s happening and remains flexible to change plans on a weekly or even daily basis. We’re always thinking of our Plan B - or even C and D - in case things change and we need to shift our activities at a moment’s notice.
Maximising Efficiency & ROI
The pandemic has had unavoidable financial implications, which means companies are more closely analysing their budgets to ensure every dollar is spent efficiently. While marketing budgets can sometimes seem like an obvious first thing to cut, we’ve found that our clients truly do see the value in what we do - it may just mean re-evaluating budgets and scopes of work.
Now more than ever, every marketing dollar needs to be proving value and it’s up to us as communications professionals to ensure our work is impactful for our clients. This has also meant expanding to include other services to maximise efficiency beyond traditional media relations, including digital and social media marketing, internal communications and other relevant needs.
Empathy & Flexibility
We have always prided ourselves in functioning as an extension of our clients’ teams, so with travel and hospitality businesses subject to operational changes with very little notice, we have worked closely with each of our clients to revisit scopes of work and budgets to ensure we can be there to support them when they need us most. Whether this means pausing a campaign temporarily or offering a bit of extra support above and beyond an agreed upon scope, we feel it’s important to support our network and ensure all businesses come out of this stronger together.
Opportunities for Upskilling
With the ebbs and flows of pandemic restrictions, our business has gone through quieter periods and extremely busy times for the team. When a team member has a quieter week or month, we ensure we’re using this time productively to keep everyone engaged. Whether this means using our extra time to catch up on admin work we’ve always been meaning to get around to or upskilling in new areas to provide further support to our clients, we’ve managed to see quieter periods as a silver lining to ensure our team is keeping up with the trends and providing the most value we can.
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As we continue to adapt and evolve, we’re committed to supporting our clients through every challenge that comes their way. Looking for a collaborative communications partner? Let’s chat! [email protected].
