Anticipation was building, confirmed attendance was high, organisation was impressive. On 28th April, our global network, SERMO, was coming together for its annual conference - this year in Cape Town. SERMO is a close knit network – brought together by choice, not by ownership, we consider ourselves a love match rather than marriage of convenience. So the annual conference is a crucial part of our infrastructure. The core objective to share and collaborate and plan the year ahead is matched only by our commitment to catching up and having fun. Of course, if you are a PR network, your host country is ahead of the game in planning and logistics, and knows the best places and ultimate experiences. In short, plenty to look forward to. Then… Covid-19 hit. We were first aware of this in January when our Chinese partner, Adventi, sent out a note to us all pleading for us to source some masks from our home territories. In the UK we found 300, but were surprised how tricky that was. Clearly something global was about to happen. The conference, of course, was cancelled, but the role it played in our lives was not. In fact, that need to come together was stronger than ever and so we organised the conference via Zoom – our first virtual conference – 14 countries took part.
So, what did we learn?
This is truly a global issue
All countries were affected, all had seen income drop, all had shut offices. Clients in fashion, travel and offline retail were the hardest hit sectors. Tech and online business the least. Nearly all the agencies had received some level of government assistance but there were some notable exceptions – Russia, China, South Africa and Poland. Our Chinese partner noted the irony of France and Britain offering more state support than its communist government. Lockdown rules varied significantly with some (South Africa) banning the sale of alcohol & cigarettes and severely restricting movement out of home. Italy and Dubai have similar restrictions on movement. China, coming out of the crisis, is doing so cautiously and carefully, but there is considerable optimism. Business is returning to normal but with plenty of protective processes in place – temperature checks, overnight street and transport deep cleaning and so on. Hong Kong has been particularly affected as it moved from one crisis (social movement) and straight into Corona and suffered a four month lockdown. But even here there is optimism with high hopes for the New Bay Area becoming China’s Silicon Valley. Flare Communications is looking into working more in Macau as the ‘new triangle’ of Southern China, Hong Kong and Macau develops.
Flexibility and agility are game changers
An agency’s ability to pivot and change direction is directly related to how it is faring. Many agencies are providing adapted services to clients – our agency in Hong Kong is providing training in social selling to a beauty company whose in store consultants are in lockdown. Eclipse PR in South Africa is creating virtual media junkets to launch new shows on Netflix. Many (including M&C Saatchi Talk) are shifting focus from product work to reputation management and corporate consulting. All are finding lockdown working enlightening and have many protocols in place to manage isolation and maintain morale. Few believe that returning to the office will come back exactly as it was before with many lessons learnt about how we thrive and interact.
Media landscape
Many countries are sensitive to the isolation of influencers, KOLs and media and have put programmes in place to reach out and support them. Online media is thriving, but in many territories traditional titles are shutting and there is a fear that the traditional media landscape will not recover. Events and experiential, which make up a considerable part of all our work have, of course, been put on hold but virtual launches, live streaming, and @home events have begun to replicate some of the impact of face to face.
In summary
One thing is certain; around the world the human spirit thrives even in challenging times, the need to connect and share drives new technology and adapted ways of working and “creativity can’t be quarantined”.
