Additionally, the future will and already demands proactivity and responsiveness from the communicators.
We can say for sure communication with the consumers, media and public, in general, will never be the same after 2020. Finding the right channel to communicate to your consumer using tailormade messages for the specific target group will still be an imperative of communication in the future.
It is estimated that the advertising industry will return to normal only in the second quarter of 2022. How do you assess the current market situation and what are your forecasts?
Having worked in a corporation and knowing the way corporate communicators think, plan and budget, I think it is more likely that advertising budgets, and therefore communication budgets as well, will fully unfreeze in H2 2021. I believe most of the commercial entities perceive 2020 as a year that has been eaten by locusts in terms of planned novelties, launches and profit. On the other side, we can say this was the year of the people – saving people’s lives, jobs, incomes and helping those less fortunate. We can say this year was the year of employer branding unlike any year before. As it was the year of online communication platforms and delivery services.
Will this situation affect the change of design and message with which it will be communicated in the future?
“Stay safe” is the global slogan of 2020 and basically the whole world economy embraced it. Physical distance, protective face masks, hand sanitation – all became a part of everyone’s new mindset. Worldwide communicators, as well. So-called “new reality” is not so new anymore. Taking care of ourselves and others became and will be the main communication course. All other messages will be knitted for at least another 9 months. After that, we can expect the return of the messages which we encountered before the pandemic. Hopefully.
“We can say pandemic and self-isolation contributed to TikTok becoming the dominate social network in Q2 2020 and still is”
It has been said that the pandemic contributed to the rapid transformation. Will some communication channels undergo their transformation and will some new ones appear?
We can say for sure communication with the consumers, media and public, in general, will never be the same after 2020. I think offline events “suffered” the most. Both on a global level and in V+O Communication, event management went 95% online. At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone assumed that that industry is dying. However, as time went by, it transformed as no other communication tool in the past decade. It almost became a new shiny tool everyone wanted to try and own. Suddenly, every panel and conference were on Zoom, WebinarJam, GoToWebinar or some other online platform. On the other side, having most or all employees work from home changed internal communication a lot – the way of communication with employees, the way meetings are held, the tone of voice. One gets the impression that the HR and PR departments worked as one as never before.
One more place saw changes. Social networks. We can say pandemic and self-isolation contributed to TikTok becoming the dominate social network in Q2 2020 and still is. People needed fun, humour and different connection with others and this platform gave them exactly that. Now we can see a lot of global companies embracing this communication channel which is quite cruel to non-authenticity and therefore very challenging to communicators. No copy/paste communication can be used here. You need to be witty and genuine in order for the TikTok algorithm to recognize you and their audience to accept your product or service.
What will be the key to communication in the future?
We in V+O Communication believe that the key to communication at any time is the truth. Additionally, the future will and already demands proactivity and responsiveness from the communicators. “Packaging” of the messages will be important, as well. Finding the right channel to communicate to your consumer using tailormade messages for the specific target group will still be an imperative of communication in the future.