Behind the Mask. PR in a Post Pandemic Landscape

In less than a week the public face of Britain will be half-hidden behind a mask. A Saturday shopping spree will be punctuated with the removal of those little strips of cloth as we pull them from our faces to breath the outside air before slipping back behind them to pass through the doorway of the next shop.

In contrast, now is the time to remove the mask that hides your business - in a metaphorical sense. 

There has never been such a time of uncertainty and presence. A time of expression and representation. A time of consideration and humanness. PR has always been a potent tool – perhaps now though, it is more potent than ever.

In the shops we will find new ways of communicating; raising our voice, using our eyes, gesticulating with our arms. 

In business we are also finding a new way of operating and communicating; using signage, changing our messaging, adapting our offering - and showing we care. 

The way you or your business communicates with its customers has a huge impact on how people perceive your brand - and getting your brand behaviour just right during the pandemic will create either admiration and trust or disdain and disgust.

Our collective attention is riveted on the pandemic’s daily effects and consequences in our lives. As a PR specialist, I see it – every day. Like you, PR professionals have been asked to awaken, reconcile and adapt. Words like 'unprecedented' have become commonplace vernacular. 

For now the PR formula reads something like this: 

• how is your business is responding to the virus
• how it is adapting
• how is it helping to make lives better
• what are the safety measures in place
• discounts for key workers
• home fitness for mental health 
• reinventing product lines to provide essential goods. 

But what’s the formula for the future?

I recently wrote a piece on Linkedin about PR and how it is about telling a story of real lives. None more so than after COVID-19. Humanness is so important. People have been at the heart of the news in the last 4 months; helping each other, clapping each other, raising money, fighting back from the brink of death…

Human connection is communication. Communications is about humans; how they think, what motivates them to act, the messages that resonate best.

While market research, buyer personas, data, and all the amazing resources we now have to get inside the brain of our customer are priceless and crucially important to understand the people we are trying to connect with, they don’t necessarily support the cultivation of human connection. It's taken a worldwide virus to do that.

Humanness is the reason why journalists LOVE a case study. They are often the key to your story being run or not. We all want the human angle, one that resonates and elicits an emotional response to leave a lasting memory of your message. A meaningful case study where your product or solution has changed someone’s life is always effective. It promotes your business in the context of a real person, without rattling off a huge list of USPs.

Digital communications during the pandemic have provided us a brilliant opportunity to reach and connect with people in a way we never could before. Right into their personal space, into their kitchen, onto their sofa, in conference with their children…showcasing their humanness.

Somehow we had all begun to lose connection, despite the numerous social media platforms designed to facilitate it. We began to forget that all humans have lives beyond what we see (or are allowed to see) and connect with digitally.

Increasingly, consumers are looking at who we are as a business before they look at our offerings. Sentiment matters. People and practices are a reflection of a brand and echo its values. Always ensure that what you say, intentionally and authentically delivers brand trust - both on and offline.

I expect that we will continue to experience the pandemic’s imprint on consumer behaviour, mindset and choices for many years. Now, more than ever before, there is unrelenting power in human voice and choice. As brands move forward into this new era, they will be asked to pay attention, consider more, think differently and say what matters.

Are you ready?