Aligning Your Content for a Post Pandemic World

While a lot has been said about brands adapting themselves to post Covid challenges, not much is articulated about the ‘How’ they can do that. Content is the chief tool of communications and engagement that any brand uses with their stakeholders. While the canvas for content will vary – depending on whether it’s an advertisement, a blog, a press release or a tweet, the bigger question one must ask is whether a brand’s content is adapting to the changing nuances of different times.

Key approaches could be as follows:

1.    Incorporate the current transitional terminology in your communication. There is a lot of concern about health, safety and mental-emotional well-being of individuals both personally and professionally. A brand’s content must address these concerns and feel ‘pan-responsive’. Yet care must be taken to not over-do it. There is a fine line between authenticity and credibility on the one hand and exaggeration on the other. Try and stay on the right side.

2.    An example of this that I would like to share is a new print ad of Cadbury’s Unity Bar that appeared this week as a full page ad across papers. It had the face of smiling woman who spoke of the ‘sweetness’ of Indians and attempts to celebrates India as it stands united in its diversity. New York Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao was among the many commentators who criticized the ad as it seemingly trivialized racial divisions. My personal take was that it’s messaging was weak – it was not strong enough to demonstrate that it was taking a stand against what is a serious problem. It was so watered down that is almost seemed farcical. In short, the message, both in terms of what was written and the visual that accompanied it completely missed the plot. The visual for example was just a woman smiling at the camera – it had no connect with the narrative.

3.      The keyword strategy that brands use needs to align and respond to current trends and interests. For example, if one analyses impulse driven voluntary searches during Covid 19, people would not be interested in group activities, sports and adventure activities. Impulse buying would also be at a low, and people are more inclined towards home based activities. Content needs to be built around these concerns, incorporating restrictions and modifications so that it feels contextually appropriate.

4.      Google trends and Exploding Topics are examples of sites you can consult to look at safety concerns with relevance to your industry. If you represent a luggage brand for example, simply enter the term, ‘luggage + safety’, you would find a large number of concerns around travel come up and this can be used to frame your content accordingly.

5.      Identifying, engaging and promoting new trends is also something that the pandemic has given brands an opportunity to do. With isolation and an enforced quarantine leading to lack of group and in-person engagement micro-entrepreneurship has boomed rapidly along with the growth of digital products and services. Companies like Razorpay, Paytm and Instamojo facilitate freelances and micro entrepreneurs to sell anything from exotic recipes to make up tutorials, from handicrafts to social media skills online. A social e-commerce platform like Meesho, for example has received a great boost by the constraints of Covid 19.

6. Evaluate what other brands are doing and work out an appropriate approach with your brand. For example, is there a current need gap in the ecosystem that makes your product/service even more pertinent or relevant?

To summarize, your content strategy needs to be more responsive and adaptive to a continually changing landscape. Staying well informed, syncing new changes into the brand discourse and conforming to a wider perspective are the key determiners of how impactful your brand can be.