-- --
SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE:
In a market where there is only uncertainty, and where many industries have already collapsed, as businesses face ruin and scared consumers are hiding out in their homes - how do you market anything to anyone?
Firstly, there is an end in sight: look at China emerging to a semblance of normality in some areas in March, albeit with temperature checks all over, three months after the pandemic took hold in that country and mass lockdowns started in February. Yes, we have already been told that this pandemic may be with us for two years, as treatment protocols are refined and a vaccine possibly developed, but in about six months' time, after our winter South Africans will have an economy to rebuild, as will most of the rest of the world.
That is what we all need to start planning for now. Even in the face of total shutdowns, we all have skills and careers that we have invested in. We now need to reengineer them and look at how to do things differently. In any crisis situation, be it war or this unprecedented lockdown of our global society and economies, innovation thrives. We have to be creative to work remotely; to start new businesses if our current ones fail; to look at how to take our unique skills or hobbies or passion-projects and turn them into businesses.
South African futurist and future of work consultant at TomorrowToday, Graeme Codrington, has been releasing a series of videos on his YouTube channel to counsel business leaders on what to do next - this after his globetrotting career speaking at events and to companies for 11 out of 12 months each year was abruptly curtailed by travel restrictions. We all have to start thinking differently and more virtually, using online tools to connect and work and be more effective, he says.
Influential American site Politico also surveyed 34 leaders and thinkers across society, technology, the economy, health and politics, to find out how the world will be changed by this pandemic. It is a long but excellent read and will spark ideas as to how we will need to do things differently and how we will all be changed by remote-working and self-isolating for months, while trying to keep our work going. The main take-away from the article: Coronavirus will change the world permanently. A crisis on this scale can reorder society in dramatic ways, for better or worse. It is not only our ways of working that will change, but society in general. This needs to be taken into account in future business decisions.
Purpose over profit
However, before that, we need to support our immediate communities: our families, friends, customers and clients. Purpose over profit - that is how we have to go forward. All the futurists say plan and prepare. Accept there will be massive personal and business losses financially, which are unquantifiable at this stage, and so prepare for the worst-case scenario and plan what to do when society returns to a semblance of normality. What do people need now? Where do consumers need support now?
A young filmmaker in Italy, for example, had people share their stories from quarantine with him about what they would have done differently before the pandemic - his short docudrama has gone viral. There are many such projects that filmmakers and film editors could take on from their homes, for example. It may not be enough to pay the bills in the short-term, but may ensure a future in the long-term. Now is the time for empathy, supporting others and passion projects.
Global advertising agency Ogilvy has prepared a communications plan for its clients and partner agencies worldwide and shared it globally to aid other brands. Called COVID-19: How to Communicate in Turbulent Times, the agency advises: Using your expertise or brand capital to help during a crisis is not about commercial advantage or profit. It is about doing the right thing for society and showing a company's true values and citizenship.
Summing up the main findings in the report, Scott Kronick, Ogilvy's regional lead of PR and influence in the Asia-Pacific region, says that this challenging time for broader society is also a challenging time for marketers and communicators as they have to go into full-scale crisis communications mode. There is no normal right now.
This is Ogilvy's advice, as outlined by Kronick: First, it's crucial that communicators make sure they are dealing with accurate information. Times of crisis can be confusing and frightening, resulting in an amplification of speculation, conspiracy theories, obfuscation and censorship. Communicators must ensure that they are dealing with facts and not fiction, real information and not rumour.
Second, it's crucial to have an understanding of the ultimate goals of the communications being delivered. This is not a time to try to market or sell, but rather it is a time to reinforce the values that define leading organisations. What can be done given the various objectives we are working to address? It all comes to down communicating effectively.
And last, communicators need to properly place the ongoing crisis and issue in a greater context. What does it mean for globalisation, economic growth and more-and how does that play out as the world works to get through the crisis together?
Survival strategies
AdWeek reports that agencies will be forced to address technology shortcomings during this time and advises brands that cause-related marketing may work better than any other kind, as consumers need to feel supported. A growth in ecommerce is also expected, as all transaction systems move online and retailers beef up their online shops. I believe many small businesses will also upgrade to shop windows on social media and ecommerce platforms and online marketplaces will thrive.
While companies grapple with everything required to allow work
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- -- 
