Lockdown, furlough and social distancing have changed the game for business leaders. Steve Jefferys, Client Service Director at Armadillo, shares four principles to navigate the next phase.
A few months ago, we were forced to abide by an equal norm: confined to our homes, allowed outside once per day and in forced isolation away from our social rhythms. We didn’t revel in it, but we knew where we stood and why.
Fast forward some weeks and we’re now in receipt of ambiguous official advice, losing our clarity in the process. It’s that clarity we could do with more than ever as we transition back to some form of normality. Lockdown Britain was a short-term hardship, but it sharpened our focus. It was a leveller in a time of so much bad news.
Commercially, it’s the same story. Businesses welcome some colleagues back from furlough, while others remain absent. Equally, some companies will be looking to restructure their operation.
The shifting sands have removed our leveller, with our leaders tested beyond their comfort zones to ensure their organisations don’t slip their bindings. Some leaders are made here; others will shrink in the headlights of uncertainty.
But regardless of the direction we take, one thing sits quietly beyond all else: the need for a refined version of leadership that stands the test of time. Clarified in uncertainty, yet practised unilaterally, here are four areas we may see ourselves turning to more than ever.
1. Leading the person, not just the employee
Leading is appealing to and moving in equal parts the rational and emotional sides of people. Successful leaders consider peoples’ wellbeing, motivations and needs and evaluate those against rational tasks and requests to influence them effectively. It’s a difficult balance to strike – I’ve certainly not always got this right – but it’s more important now than ever. We need to inspire people as people and hold them to account in an honest, supportive way with the whole package considered.
2. Communicating regularly, honestly, clearly and consistently
To lead effectively, you don’t do one of these, you do all of these. You don’t shun it; you prioritise it. You don’t hide from it, you embrace it and front it. In fluid situations like those we’ve experienced, people don’t expect rapid, right-first-time answers.
They do expect honesty, updates and clarity. And they expect to be treated as a grown up. In fact, regardless of circumstance, this should be the very basis of effective, minimum viable leadership. Our brains are wired to thrive with routine, and the routine and consistency of update and honesty binds more strongly than the uniformity of the message being conveyed. Respect will follow.
3. Showing humility: involving people and folding their contributions into something far bigger
Leaders make big requests and have big goals, but these goals and requests are only as good as the belief and investment people have in them. Leading is not shouldering everything and playing the hero. The most important lesson I’ve learnt is that success is in the fusion, blend and synthesis of many minds and inputs rather than an autocratic and rash statement of a solution without consultation.
Let people know where you want to get to. Then, invite debate as to why and seek agreement as to what needs consideration. After this, empower those with the most suitable skills and time to work towards this.
Often, this might mean the leader taking a step back as there are others better equipped. And that’s fine, especially if it makes the solution and achievement of the goal more effective. So even if total consensus isn’t possible, you can move people as one if you get them on the bus first.
4. Setting the tempo and then regulating the energies
People often say great leaders light up a room, but they’re not necessarily the biggest personalities with the loudest voices. Leaders do need to ensure their vision and tone are credible and energising – now more than ever – and something that people can invest and believe in. Equally important, however, is to ensure that the energy and commitment from others never waivers even if the ship changes course and especially when the waters get choppy.
The secret will be in ensuring there is enough latent belief from the outset that can be re-framed and re-directed without ever ensuring the wider vision is knocked off course. This will need every ounce of leadership muscle – influencing hearts and minds in equal measure – to be effective and long-lasting.
None of these areas are new or original to the last few weeks and months. They are, however, a refraction and distillation of those core leadership components that make up decent, human leadership for any time, not just hard times. It just so happens it’s taken a crisis for the mists to clear and expose them more clearly.
Article orignally published in Minutehack
As lockdown restrictions ease and businesses begin to open their doors once more, it’s time to focus on the road to recovery. Customers will want to be reassured of your brand’s actions and precautions, and businesses are reassessing how to communicate their plans.
It’s important to remember that many brands are still communicating, including your competitors. Customers want to hear from you now more than ever. People will be missing your products and services due to restrictions and changes in circumstance. Many companies are seeing higher open rates than before lockdown due to a captive audience (source: Campaign Monitor).
Here are five things it is important to bear in mind on your business’s road to recovery.
Start to think about how you reacted to the changes during the route to lockdown and reflect on that. How did you play it? Did you get it right? If you did not react as quickly as you would have liked, then think about what you would have done to keep customers informed from what you now know. You can use this to inform all of your choices moving forward – particularly in planning flexible communications like emails.
Think about what customers want to see from you. Remember to strike the right tone and support them. Customers are likely to want to be assured that they are being kept safe. They will also be looking for good value at a time when household incomes have decreased for the majority (source: Savanta). Ensure that you resonate with key consumer concerns at every stage of the process.
Loyal customers should be your priority so be sure to contact them first. These are the customers that provide you with the most value, and who in turn will receive the most value from you. This is a good time to think about your first party data and how you may be able to draw on what you already know.
In a world of three-hour queues for garden centres, manage communications carefully and avoid hype. You will never be in a position where it is acceptable to let the customer down or underperform. Now more than ever people need consistency, compassion and exceptional service from the brands they turn to and trust.
Scenario planning is key. Think of as many possible scenarios you can and how you could react to each as a business. Imagine it as a road map. CRM allows you to efficiently prepare different communications and templates that can be ready to deploy depending on the outcome.
It is also important to think about your competition and how this has changed. People may have found your product elsewhere during this period so it’s key to establish where customers have gone and ask yourself the question ‘how do we win them back’? Can your early communications remind customers why they choose your brand in the first place? This is also a great time to consider if you have any new customers as well. Ask what drew them in and how can you ensure you retain them?
It’s important to keep in touch with the general mood of the country at this time as news updates and situational changes are constantly happening. It is also key that you maintain your brand tone of voice and bring your brand personality to every piece of communication. Lockdown has seen diverse businesses all sending out similar messages of sympathy. It will be impossible to make an impact if you’re blending in with the crowd.
This article was written by Armadillo Client Partner, Jo Penn, and first appeared on Digital Marketing Magazine.
Could a crisis like the one we’re in now provide an opportunity for agencies to create closer ties to the brands they work with?
COVID19 is changing everything in our lives, including our professional relationships.
Steve Jefferys, Armadillo’s Client Service Director, explains in an article published in Mediashotz how this unique moment in our lives is focusing us on what those relationships should look like…
It’s a time-honoured saying that agencies seek to work in partnership with their clients as opposed to being just suppliers.
However, the daily intensity of delivering ‘Campaign X’ to reach ‘Quarterly Strategic Pillar Y’ by ‘Deadline Z’ leads to a need to focus priorities on the shorter term, meaning we’re not often close to meeting this ideal.
The recent global crisis has proved that it might take just that – a crisis – to get to the root of what a client-agency business relationship actually means.
The enforced lockdown as a result of Covid-19 has in many ways helped to strip back the client and agency relationship to its very essence: a partnership powered by subject matter specialism counterweighted with a blend of human empathy and emotional intelligence.
In fact, there are three ways we’re witnessing this in action at the moment (at least in the short-term)…
In pre-Covid-19 times, a typical client-agency relationship can be categorised more as a partnership the higher up the seniority ladder you go; where the bigger questions are being asked and answered.
The more junior interactions – largely focused on delivering ‘Campaign X’ – necessarily have a more transactional focus.
The current crisis has given everyone a shake, however. Suddenly, everyone is there for everyone: helping, advising, supporting, commiserating, delivering and being genuinely thankful.
Relationships previously only as smooth as the last campaign deployment now have a newer, longer-term and more deeply connected energy to them: galvanised through shared adversity.
This, in turn, is a great development opportunity for more junior client and agency staff, too.
It’s so easy to lead with work first, rather than lives first. From constant video calls with untimely background appearances from children to the newest form of competitor sports – homeschooling – everyone’s on a heightened state of alert.
With this in mind, treating each interaction with a lightness of touch has never been more important. Producing a laugh; getting to a feeling of solidarity; or sharing a look forward to happier times can shift frames of mind and support good mental health on both sides; turning what might have been a tricky, stressful day on its head.
The prosaic ‘how are you?’ agency missive so typical at the start of client calls now has a much more poignant, heartfelt tone to it. And people see the benefit of it. We should remember that when this has passed.
Rather than the normal ‘we’ll get onto that in the future’, the situation has enabled agencies to help clients think about tackling that bigger problem right now.
This is a positive step. It helps clients and agencies turbo-charge unlocking those more transformative problems whose solutions will pay dividends in the long-run.
This could be developing that new proposition, holding that long put-off budget conversation now or re-considering the whole channel strategy.
And it’s not just that these bigger problems are being tackled now. They’re being fast-tracked to solution quicker as client focus sharpens and we have the undivided attention of key decision-makers; keen both to future-proof their business and deliver discernible short-term output.
So what about when this is all over? It’s unrealistic to think we’ve fashioned a new utopia. Decades of office evolution and the last 20 years of digital acceleration won’t be undone following six crazy weeks.
However, the experience will have helped smooth the way for two distinctive, positive shifts.
Being there in the dark times – right alongside their clients – will give positive reinforcement to the outside perspective and rigour a good agency specialist brings to the table.
So rather than be a dispensable commodity that’s the first expense to go, the agency could be seen as the vanguard of changing things up (for the better).
The forced practice of stripping spend and priorities back to the essentials has highlighted where agency resources are best deployed. Agencies should see this as a positive.
So when the claxon call of 2021 budget setting comes around, agencies should feel emboldened and empowered to pitch their expertise at solving those problems that really need solving (and will pay long-term dividends).
Article first published in Mediashotz on 1/5/2020
Almost everything we do has been affected by Covid-19 – the way we use customer data is no exception. In adjusting your communication to reflect the sudden change in consumer habits it’s key to adhere to data guidelines, including GDPR.
You can only use data for the purpose for which it was collected, and only retain it for a reasonable amount of time before either erasing or reviewing it. GDPR doesn’t specify how long companies can hold information, but brands are advised to introduce their own guidelines to protect themselves and respect their customers rights.
If someone opted in but has stopped interacting you should consider removing them from your database after a year. However, online purchasing habits are likely to have shifted recently; in-store ones definitely have.
You don’t want to run the risk of inadvertently making a customer appear inactive when circumstances simply prevent them engaging as they otherwise would. The solution? Keep talking to your customers and find appealing ways to stay in touch with them.
Review your segmentation strategies
Many business rules for customer segmentation and targeting are based on purchase data, and so may need to be temporarily altered to reflect any changes in customer behaviour and purchasing patterns.
This could involve temporarily suspending the use of incentives to lapsed customers. Putting a pause into your segment criteria will enable you to accommodate this period of enforced inactivity.
Alongside reviewing segmentation strategies, you should also review any auto-triggered communications to ensure inappropriate offers don’t slip out under the radar.
Make customer relationship management a priority
Good CRM is impactful because it enables your brand to resonate directly and personally with people. With internet use purportedly doubling in the first two weeks of this crisis, email and online have really come to the fore.
Keep craft at the heart of your emails. There is no excuse for not sending out thoughtful and engaging comms. That means creating personalised and relevant messages.
As for content, the key is to identify what the customer wants from your brand during the crisis, and what they’re looking forward to when lockdown is lifted. My colleague at Armadillo, senior strategist Nick Beevors, has written a good guide here.
Looking ahead to life after coronavirus
Consider your warm-up strategy carefully when business begins to return to normal. Customers are going to be bombarded. How will your brand stand out from the crowd?
In some cases, a repermission approach will be a good idea. If customers were close to being defined as inactive before the slowdown in trading, it would be better to invite them to stay in the loop, rather than presume they want to. You may also be able to use legitimate interest and/or servicing principles to let a broader group of customers know your company is back up and running. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides some useful advice here.
Brands will have an important role to play as we gradually emerge from this crisis. Using your customer data wisely and considerately during this crisis will help you make the most of the positive times ahead.
Article originally published in Decision Marketing on 04/05/2020
Here are five ways you can bring a bit of colour and timbre to your emails.
By Rob Pellow, Digital Experience Director, at Armadillo
You know that feeling when Facebook tells you it’s your friend’s birthday half an hour after you’ve already written on their wall? It’s pretty annoying to get pointless notifications, isn’t it? But it also leaves you feeling that they should already know you have. It ends up looking like a much more basic approach than it should be
And that’s a problem with a lot of communication. You can gather all the data and automation in the world, but if you don’t add any human thought to it, then it underwhelms and loses its value to the customer. Which is a shame for emails in particular, where the size of the prize is potentially huge (the median email marketing ROI is 122% according to eMarketer)
The “white noise” in your inbox is the underwhelming, wallpaper emails that you probably get with frequency but that don’t do anything to convince you to interact with them or the brand that sends them. Bland is not where you want your brand to be. So, here are five ways you can bring a bit of colour and timbre to your emails – particularly during an unprecedented surge in internet use (up 30% according to Vodafone):
Moneysupermarket is a great example of a brand which has spent much more time thinking about its communications, sent fewer emails in response, and got better results. It’s not always about investing more in an email programme, just investing more time in thinking about and planning it.
One of the ways brand emails slip into the realms of white noise is by following a very linear path with emails: “we’ve got new products – let’s tell the world about them”.
Or they might spend too much time looking at a plan for a year in one go, filling slots, and end up scrapping around for content: “what can we send this segment at the end of October?”
The starting point actually needs to be “what do we want customers or potential customers to think, feel or do at the end of the year? And what effect do we want it to have on our business?” A monetary effect is an obvious one, but objectives can also include brand-building.
Amazon are undeniably big email communicators (in the US, Amazon owns a massive 30% market share in e-commerce according to Vero. I’m not saying Amazon has got their strategy wrong, but not every brand is Amazon.
Not every business has that level of data around their customers, what they browse for, what they buy. And not every brand has the breadth of products they can cross-sell effectively.
If the sole goal is to keep going until a customer buys, then Amazon’s strategy is working. But the power of the Amazon approach is often reminding people they need to buy something else from Amazon, rather than the product in the email. Think about your customer journey and if you’re not Amazon, don’t use theirs as a blueprint.
Keep your eyes on the prize. Each time, there should be a value exchange for the customer or prospect. What are you asking them to do, and what’s in it for them? If in doubt, think about the pub test. You’re talking to your mate over a pint (in the good old days when we could!) – you ask him to give you his email address and tell him all the cool sh*t he’ll get if he does. Would that convince him?
There’s a lot more to email than a quick lever to pull in the quest to sell more. Even if sales are your key objective, blanket “white noise” emails will do more harm in the long run, than good.
As I’m writing this, the world has gone into lockdown for who knows how long and the one thing people can’t do is be targeted for a quick buck. The doors are now closed. But CRM (and especially email) provides the perfect channel for continuing to communicate with your audience. To do this effectively, however, understanding all that I’ve talked about above is vital. You have to understand the role you would normally play in a customer’s life and then transition that away from sales and into authentic value.
I believe this will make us all better at understanding how people really perceive our brands, enabling us to communicate with them on a more human level once things go back to ‘normal’.
By Carolyn Carswell, Conceptual Copywriter, Armadillo
In the week lockdown was announced I opened an email from a high-end paint and wallpaper company. The headline read, ‘HOW WE’RE RESPONDING TO COVID-19’ in terribly serious capital letters. Important stuff. Of course I opened it.
Part of me hoped they’d be adding a new shade to their sample book. A gloomy, ominous, depressing shade of ‘Lockdown’, or perhaps the perfect muted and much-coveted ‘Loo Roll’. Maybe they were offering a 50% discount for all those stuck indoors who finally have time to add some statement wallpaper to the downstairs bathroom…
Sadly not. Instead, it told me their teams were working hard on producing and delivering, ‘so you can still order everything you need for your project’. It seemed a little off-colour.
Since then I’ve had emails from artisan tea companies with the subject line, ‘Don’t run out of your favourite tea!’, promising that bulk orders will get 10% off and jump to the front of the shipping queue; a message from a high-street accessories brand advertising their new season reductions on bobbles, headbands and earrings; and over 900 earnest words from the CEO of a bike and car kit shop.
Email is taking centre stage thanks to the channel’s ability to respond directly and personally. We’re all glued to our phones, performing round-robin checks on social media, WhatsApp and our inboxes. As long as we’re social distancing, the reach of out-of-home channels is massively reduced. Email’s ability to cut through, however, is heightened. But with such a captive audience, nailing the copy tone is more important than ever.
Go back to basics
To start with, you might need to completely re-think your comms strategy. Take a look at your own inbox and notice the overwhelm. Consider where, in the midst of all the messaging, you want your brand to sit. What can you add that’s either essential information, or of practical use to people? Is it helpful? Is it appropriate? If not, perhaps the best thing you can do right now is stay quiet.
Deliver with empathy
The first ‘audience’ section of every good brief is designed to gain insight — because if we have insight, we have understanding. But be wary of empathy that is explicit or patronising. If you’re a seller of gardening equipment to a largely 50+ customer base, your audience may be more anxious than most. It’s better to acknowledge this anxiety indirectly, rather than adding to the load. Do they want to hear how you’re protecting staff, and read words like ‘worldwide pandemic’ and ‘unprecedented times’? I’d wager they’d much rather a calm and positive email bursting with inspiring ideas to keep them productive and distracted.
Stay on-brand
Consider your brand’s place in all this and use the same tone of voice recipients have come to expect. Maybe yours is one that can reassure with upbeat, practical advice. Or perhaps you’re best placed to add light-hearted distraction. Whatever your message, make sure it feels authentic. There is comfort and reassurance in the familiar.
Keep it light
Unless we’re selling essentials like food or pharmaceuticals, we have a responsibility to dial down the anxiety. Topshop are doing a brilliant job of this by dangling luxury loungewear in front of our eyes as we work from home in, let’s be honest, our comfiest dog-walking leggings. They’re acknowledging the situation, but they’re not using it as an excuse to become besties. Write copy that feels positive, warm, reassuring and empowering, and avoid copy that is too formal, too serious, or too brand-centric.
Keep it short
Right now we’re experiencing information overload. Even the government are sending texts. So when your customers check their inbox, they won’t thank you for delivering a tome. More is not reassuring. More is boring — and really quite overwhelming.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing in a crisis. Each brand (and audience) is different. But with a little forethought it’s possible to strike a copy tone that raises a smile and people’s spirits — instead of an eye-roll and a backlash.
This article first appeared in New Digital Age.
Carolyn Carswell is a Conceptual Copywriter at Armadillo.
In this time of crisis, effective CRM will help brands forge stronger bonds with people without any product changing hands.
By Nick Beevors, Senior Strategist at Armadillo
You’re no doubt reading this from home, given that 55% of the UK population have been holed up for the past week (according to the latest figures from Savanta). We’ve changed and the brands we know and love (and those we don’t) have changed. They’re either closed for business, offering a very limited service or are so busy we can’t get hold of them.
The emails from company chief executives definitely had their place at the start of the coronavirus crisis, and they continue to appear in our in-boxes, but there are only so many empathetic well wishes (neutral background, long-form copy) you can send over the course of 12 weeks (at least). So, what next? Well, quite a bit, if brands are tuned into CRM’s shifting but pivotal role. Here are some important areas to consider.
Flip the funnel
We generally spend more time talking in practical terms with our clients, but the theory is important here. The awareness–action funnel, with broadcast channels at the top filtering down to direct-response channels at the bottom, has been flipped. People are still looking to TV and print but, with customer behaviour changing completely, these media don’t have their former roles and, likewise, cinema and outdoor can’t work in the same way.
Meanwhile, we know that email and online are where people are finding their news and information (internet use has doubled in the two weeks, according to Openreach data). Email, in particular, is a key channel, not only because it allows you to talk directly to customers but because you can be relevant and flexible right up until you send. The ultimate response to the pivots we keep hearing about. Those communications at the sharp end of the funnel are now much more vital as people read and digest information. There’s an opportunity to use CRM in broader ways.
Usually in CRM we talk about balancing lifetime brand loyalty with next-time brand loyalty, with the weight stacked in favour of the latter. We now need to reverse this, with either no or fewer occasions to trigger the next-time purchase. Every communication needs to create and build brand affinity.
What to say?
This shouldn’t be the time to scrabble around for content or look for hooks. The starting point should be the essence of the brand. What does it stand for? Establish what this means if the product is taken out of the equation. How can the brand deliver its message to the customer, over and above putting product in their hands or allowing them to experience it in the normal way? Be creative and ensure the answer is relevant to channel, brand, and customer. There’s a big opportunity here to do this right.
How to communicate and how often?
The power of our channels lies in personalisation and relevance. Generic welcome messages on apps and in email programmes should have been the first thing to change as they will most likely not work at the moment, and certain types of communications need to be mothballed completely. We’ve seen a general shift to weekly communications that resonate.
Also, think about the level of personalisation now – if you’ve built good brand affinity then keep everything human and personalised (and if you haven’t built a good brand affinity, should you even be emailing this audience in the first place?). Everyone’s craving human interaction in our new socially distanced world. When before have you even considered getting together with your old uni mates for a game of Quick Draw? Meanwhile, the official notices are still needed and need to be in news style and centred on hard facts.
Tangible examples
We’ve reviewed a lot of recent communications from our makeshift desks. The ones not working are the ones that carry on regardless, for example, the travel brand giving us ‘a bit of travel inspiration’. Not what we want or need to see at the moment.
The winners, meanwhile, are those doing things a bit differently. For example, in the same category, the brand sending older travellers a quiz or a puzzle to do. It might not be right for all but the company has adapted, its being more relevant to its customers and their new home-based lifestyle.
How is your business responding?
More than a million of us came out on to our doorsteps to applaud NHS workers. Burberry is making masks. Dyson is producing ventilators. This is all great news and brilliant to know. There’s extra visibility for these kind of initiatives at the moment. Think about your customers, your brand but also the wider world, which is increasingly relevant.
On the flipside, don’t make the mistake of navel gazing. I’ve seen communications from luxury brands asking their customers to buy vouchers to support them in the future. We all like paying it forward for a local business we love and have an affinity with, not so much for a multi-million-pound luxury retailer.
Build new routines
A change from “life as we know it” also give us the opportunity to build new routines. I used to be a hardened smoker and starting a new job was a good excuse to quit once and for all. CRM also has an important role to play in triggering these new routines.
Done right, companies have a part to play in the overall recovery and CRM during this time could actually help brands forge stronger, longer-term bonds with people, without any product changing hands.
This article first appeared in Campaign.
Nick Beevors is a Senior Strategist at Armadillo.
Armadillo joined the IPA
Some good news – we’re pleased to announce we’re joining The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. This gives us the opportunity to connect with 266 agency members, who are responsible for over 85% of all UK advertising spend.
With 25 years of industry experience, our IPA membership acts as a further indicator of our standing within the marketing and advertising space, and demonstrates our commitment and professionalism within the sector.
We’re seeking to support staff development with the industry-recognised CPD and training available through the IPA, therefore enabling our 45-strong team to develop their skills and progress in their careers, whatever their level.
Patrick Mills, IPA Director of Membership and Professional Development, comments “We’re thrilled to have Armadillo back in IPA membership, and joining our thriving South West and Wales community. We very much look forward to working with them.”
James Ray, CEO at Armadillo, comments “Once the preserve of a select type of agency, the term advertising is wide-reaching today and reflects great work that resonates and has an impact on its audience. We’re extremely pleased to be joining an organisation that supports and celebrates the best in the industry, and are keen to aid and enable our team to develop themselves professionally and personally through our membership with the IPA.”
Whilst many people are experienced in remote working (we’ve always had the option of doing so when needed) it’s now non-negotiable, and with an undefined end-date. Add to this the fact that many people will now have to juggle children and other family members in a confined space, whilst trying to concentrate during a particularly stressful period, it feels like we’ve been catapulted into a different era.
But so far, so good. With one week under our belts, we’re into week two of working from home. We thought we’d share what we’ve learnt so far.
At Armadillo, we’ve been fully cloud-based for a year now (for files, emails and calls) so when desks became dining tables there was no disruption. We’re also Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Experts, which means our client infrastructure is accessible and maintainable from anywhere. That’s really helped ensure a smooth transition.
Since working from home we’ve been kick-starting the day at 9am with an all-agency video call. It‘s less than 15 minutes, but it gives everyone the chance to say good morning, see each other’s friendly, smiling faces and share any key info.
We’re using video chat a lot, actually – whether it’s for an organised team meeting or a quick question that it’s easier to ask face to face. Some have also set up groups with their usual desk mates so they can keep the office camaraderie alive.
We’ve seen some great initiatives popping up as people find new ways of keeping in touch and add some essential social connection to their day.
For example, we’ve started a book club. Our first read is ‘The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work’ by Shawn Achor. We’ve created an open chat room where we can share thoughts as we go and have a date for a group video chat to discuss it.
We’ve also added a new feature to our weekly agency meeting; Agency Through the Keyhole! A willing participant snaps a few shots of their home and we go on a virtual tour via a shared presentation screen, taking guesses at ‘who lives in a house like this?’ in the chat column.
With high levels of uncertainty and change, wellbeing is critical. We’ve recognised that it’s important to look after yourself and include things in your routine and home setup that make you feel good.
One advantage for lots of people is that at home they get to see their pets. Taking a break with them can help you relax and calm your mind. We wish we could all borrow Becky’s gorgeous dog Roo, or cuddle up to Sophie’s adorable mini-lop rabbit Elio.
But really, it’s whatever works for you. Ella, our Creative Digital Designer says: “I kept myself sane by buying fresh daffodils, lighting some scented candles and doing some light weights from my chair.”
If you’ve got any other ideas we’d love to hear them.
Things are changing all the time at the moment: the physical environment we’re in, the type of support our clients need, the hours we do now we’re juggling work and family… We need to stay adaptable and flexible, and focus on what’s truly necessary, day by day.
Our Conceptual Copywriter Carolyn Carswell has created a stand-up desk using a chest of drawers in the quietest part of the house. Our Client Partner Jo Penn is walking on her home treadmill whilst taking conference calls to get some steps in and keep the energy flowing. Our Strategy Director Fiona Craig has made it clear that, now we’re working alongside our children, it’s fine to see their interested faces popping up on our screens. “Let’s make them part of it”, she urges.
Companies will adapt. National and local brewers, including BrewDog and Psychopomp, are switching to producing hand sanitiser, either giving it away to vulnerable people and charities, or requesting donations to support relevant charities. Restaurants and food producers are switching to delivery, where safe and practical.
The key is to keep processes going but appreciate that things are in flux. To be open-minded. And to pivot. One thing’s for sure; we’ll learn a lot – and probably keep hold of a lot of our learnings – when this period of isolation comes to an end.
Get outside if you can. Make time for your daily dose of exercise and don’t compromise. A family walk, solo run or cycle (whilst maintaining distance from others, of course) can make a world of difference. Our Client Services Director, Steve Jefferys, gained some brownie points and cleared his head by mowing the lawn on his lunch break. Take your laptop into the garden. Sit by an open window and see the world beyond your four walls. And remember, this is temporary.
Some advice from our Non-Executive Director, Ann Hiatt, was to pick two or three key things to focus on each day. Giving them proper attention is likely to be much more useful and productive than doing a little bit of everything and not being able to give any of it the head space it needs.
No one knows how long this situation will last, and our main focus is everyone’s health and safety. So we’ll keep sharing our hints and tips to help people navigate this remarkable new set-up.
What we do know is that, when the time comes to socialise in person again, not only will we enjoy meeting up with the whole team and celebrating, the agency way of life and ways of working will undoubtedly change. We believe it will be for the better.
By Ann Hiatt, Non-Executive Director of Armadillo.
I’ve spent 15 years of my career working at companies that didn’t exist when I started high school. It was inconceivable to imagine that my first job after university would be working directly for Jeff Bezos at Amazon in 2002 – the time he invented e-commerce. My next step was equally as unimaginable; working for what is now a trillion-dollar technology company as Chief-of-Staff for the CEO of Google. The technology we invented during my 12 years at Google has changed and shaped modern society, commerce and even democracy. I literally cannot remember how I navigated my life before both of these companies became such dominant presences. Saying that, I’m grateful that I got through high school before the data-permanence of Instagram was invented to document my teenage awkwardness!
However, rapidly developing technologies can be a worry for many. Recent advancements of AI and machine learning have conjured up images of Hollywood movies where robots take over and enslave the world. While there are serious issues and ethical debates to be had about how we want to shape these capabilities and apply them to our modern world, I remain optimistic.
The opportunities for good are enormous with the computational power of AI and machine learning. These systems are able to process vast amounts of data and recognise patterns that no human could ever analyse and comprehend, let alone at those speeds. This will permeate every single industry and be incorporated into our daily lives in some dramatic and imperceptible ways. This offers opportunities for major advancements in fields that could save lives and perhaps, our planet.
Medical
We now have AI systems that can predict cancerous cell development more accurately and much earlier than human oncologists. We are also seeing implementation of medicine dosage tracking automation that has the possibility of saving countless lives from medicinal overdose or dangerous drug interactions.
This doesn’t remove the need for skilled doctors, nurses or pharmacists. In fact, it frees up these medical professionals to do what humans do best – connect and care for each other in a non-equational way. Wouldn’t it be liberating for both you and your doctor if you had more time together to discuss your overarching health concerns and initiatives rather than only having five minutes together because of paperwork and processes that could be automated?
Travel
Whilst working at Google X, the ‘moonshot factory’, it was like travelling in a time machine, catching a glimpse of the technologies of the future. One of these companies I watched from infancy was Waymo which has developed revolutionary driverless car technologies. Driverless cars will save lives by removing distracted drivers from the road and improving transportation efficiencies, which also means more time and money back in your pocket. It also has the potential to eliminate thousands of cars from the streets through car sharing applications. When we move to this model, there will be less need for vast parking areas which take up 30% of modern cities and whose concrete is a major pollutant of our planet.
Work
There are also great opportunities to improve the quality of work for traditional jobs in our economy. Manufacturing, for example, could benefit in quality and production speeds when humans are freed from repetitive, tedious tasks and allowed to redirect their brain power towards creative and more meaningful work. Also, it could help many avoid accidents and repetitive motion injuries. AI could also allow us to automate dangerous work currently done by humans, such as work requiring chemical exposure and toxic environments. Machines could also become the first responders for dangerous situations like wildfire fighting or cleaning up toxic spills.
The other side of the coin
Through this technology, some workers will be displaced, modern civilisation has seen this pattern several times before and it is something to be taken very seriously. For this reason, it is more important than ever for modern workers to consistently up-skill and stay current in their respective fields. Those who are complacent will be left behind; that is a fact that history has taught us over and over. Governments have a vital role and responsibility to provide these educational opportunities and incentives for workers and the next generation in order to remain, or become, major players in the modern economy. Universities and trade schools need to revitalise programs to direct students towards skills and careers that are built to be adaptive, analytical, creative and cross disciplinary.
Despite my passion for this technology, there are major concerns that keep me up at night; admittedly they won’t make a great Hollywood movie but they deserve our prime time attention:
First, I worry about a consolidation of skills and power among a privileged few. I would like to see companies and governments do more to ensure a more inclusive and diverse community of computer scientists and ethicists involved in not only developing these technologies but also in creating international standards for their application. We need more diversity represented to fight unconscious bias from creeping into systems that will be difficult or impossible to correct in the future. I also fear that if these AI powers are not kept in check, we could lose vital civil liberties that we enjoy in modern democracies.
The jobs of the next generation more than likely haven’t been invented yet. Some traditional work may disappear but, that will make room for work that is enhanced by inherently human characteristics which can be enhanced by AI partnership; including creativity, relationships and responding to anomaly situations. My optimism in technology is rooted in my faith in humanity to remain dedicated to improving the quality of life for all. Don’t turn away from technology that you don’t understand. Lean in, ask questions, remain curious and sceptical, add your voice to the conversation which will shape the future of our planet.
This article first appeared in Digital
Ann Hiatt is Non-Executive Director of Armadillo.
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