After another unusual week against a backdrop of ongoing announcements from Downing Street that we have all now become accustomed to, it was a heartening moment to hear a thunderclap of appreciation for the NHS from Britain last night.
Despite being separated from extended families, friends and colleagues, it feels as if we are all still moving together as a wider community, with the individual changes we are observing on a personal level creating momentum within the bigger picture. We are all having to find the new normal. It takes time but feels like we are getting there.
Tuning into your core purpose to give back
From coming together to clap for the NHS, to looking for the wider purpose of our everyday behaviour, the will to do good for the wider good has also been translated into actions from brands. With many apps now offering subscription and paid-for services free of charge, many brands are stripping down to their core purpose, leaving marketing offers value-adds and sales driven quotas behind.
This situation forces all of us, as business stakeholders, to align our proposition and services with our purpose for existence more closely than ever. In our most bare form, what do we do for consumers and the wider world? And how can we use that to do better and be better, in a crisis situation?
In financial services, it isn’t quite as simple as offering a talking book app for free. However, there is an opportunity for marketers to communicate and articulate the small changes we as an industry and as individual businesses are making to help our customers to survive and thrive in difficult circumstances.
How brands react and behave now will define them for years to come.
Crisis Communications and a CMO Surgery
Which leads me to a few things that the Forum will be doing next week to share some expertise from our community with Members and their wider teams. On Tuesday 31 March at 1200-1245pm, we will be joined by communications experts Newgate Communications and their sister company Newington for a webinar on Crisis Communications.
This practical session will provide a multi-channel approach to crisis communication management, looking from both an employee engagement perspective, all the way through to public policy and government and investor relations. Register now using the link here.
I’m also really excited to tell you about our new ‘CMO Surgery’ panel discussion, which will be taking place weekly on Friday afternoons at 1500-1530pm. Register for the first session here. We will be bringing together some of our most senior Members, both from the agencies and financial services companies to talk about the challenges they have faced over the past week, how they’ve addressed them and what they will be expecting come Monday morning.
This will be an interactive session, where we will be taking your questions and requests for advice via the BrightTALK platform. We hope it will be a great opportunity to bounce ideas off some of our experienced senior marketers, as well as hear their perspectives and insights on front-burner topics.
A quick note on BrightTALK
Finally, a little reminder that you will need to register for a BrightTALK account to access our webinars. Once registered, you can quickly jump onto a webinar with minimal fuss. You can register here.
As ever, I wish you a peaceful weekend and hope that you can enjoy some time in the beautiful Spring sunshine that seems to have arrived upon us over the past week.
Don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you have any suggestions for events or content that you think the Forum should run. We are always delighted to hear from you.
Have a great weekend.
Speak to you soon,
David
