Creativity in the time of COVID

COVID has been introduced into the public vocabulary this year with other terms like lockdown and social- distancing. The virus may go away, but these words are here to stay. And so are many of other changes that have come into our lives. Including the way we live. There are going to be, changes in the way we shop, changes in the way we socialise, changes in the way we work and changes in the way we consume. Many of the things that we thought were important are going to drop-off from our consumption matrix. We have come to realise what is of true value. Or at least we hope so. With the Corona Virus not having spared the rich nor the power. The young nor the old. The cohorts of Gen x and Gen Y have to be re-evaluated in the context of the behavioural changes that COVID has brought in. How are consumers going to behave in this changing world? Will essentials triumph over luxury goods? To what extend? We also have a short memory, or that’s what the past has shown. We forget easily. This brings to mind an old saying of Bill Bernbach, 'Do not look for what has changed in people. Look for what has not changed in people over 100s of years. Like love, greed, envy, and other emotions. Focus on them and you can never go wrong’. So while there are going to be many observable changes in the way we live, in the long run, though we may modify our habits, we are likely to essentially remain the same. As for communicators, the medium and the tools may change but the art will remain.

There are some businesses that are doing well and will continue to do well and there are some businesses that will do badly and some businesses that may become extinct. We have to wait and watch how much of behaviour modification is going to happen. But what’s on the horizon is large scale destruction of a few industries and a whiplash effect on the economy as a whole. It is not just a depression of the economy that’s on the horizon that’s the big worry. It’s a depression of the psychological kind that’s going to swallow a lot of us. How are we going to stay afloat? how are we going to survive? how are we going to soar? These are the essential questions that need answers.

Cash is King

As uncertainty looms, people trust cash more than anything else. Not just regular people like you and me. Even Warren Buffett who has been hoarding cash for a long time to use in his own words ‘ when others are fearful’. But the funny thing what we have noticed is that in a time like this even when others are ‘fearful’, Buffett is still not using his cash hoard of more than $100 billion to buy companies on the cheap. Because this is not an ordinary depression. This is not the trough of a wave, more a flatlining heartbeat. When it can be revived, how it will be revived, and what will be revived, very few people have a clue. So cash is the safe bet. So people are going to hoard cash. And when people hoard cash, the economy is going to take a dive. Spending will be low, essentials will take the upper hand. The question now is how are we going to make the consumers spend? How are they going to get the confidence to spend? And if they don’t spend the economy will be hit and everyone will suffer.

The top-down economy.

The issue with the economy, in general, is that it has been engineered top to bottom. So the foundations are weak and when there is a disaster the edifice is going to crumble.

The top-down economy is basically an economy built for the rich. It's built from the top. This is fine when the economy is chugging along, then it will benefit everyone. There is the filter-down effect that keeps the world going and making the rich richer and everyone else happy. But when the tsunami of recession hits the economy things are not hunky-dory anymore. People at the bottom and middle are rendered jobless and they are the first ones to be hit, and which means they are not going to be spending and that means no sales and which basically means everyone loses. The pyramid is no-more there. It has crumbled. When the economy has been razed to the ground, there is no more top of the pyramid. Just rubble.

The inverted pyramid.

The companies who have followed the inverted pyramid format are going to be the winners. Companies and institutions that have actually given importance to the masses are going to win hands down. They have the infrastructure to serve the poor and the middle-class in cities as well as small towns. They have strong logistical capabilities if they are offline and strong technology if they are online. They are not niche brands. They are brands that have democratised services and consumption. Companies like Amazon, Jio, Netflix, Britannia and Hindustan lever will continue to race ahead. And the one thing you will notice, it’s well known powerful brands that are going to survive. That’s why building a brand is so important.

End of the superhero era

Advertising has been riding on the myth of the superhero for some time now. From the myth of the cowboy to the age of the Superhero has been a smooth transition. From comic books, the superhero has transitioned to real life through advertising that championed people like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Carl Lewis, Tiger Woods and others to superhero status. After COVID, I feel this would be a hard story to sell. Superheroes have been passing the ball, instead of scoring. The real Superheroes have been the doctors and the nurses who are fighting the battle at the frontlines. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Nameless people doing heroic acts. While the superheroes before have been injected with heavy doses of killer instinct, the new heroes would be filled with compassion and empathy. The archetype of the hero and the hero’s journey as enunciated by Joseph Campbell in his seminal 1950 work ‘The Hero with a thousand faces’ may have to take the back seat, at least for now. And the new archetype could be the Guardian. These are times when we need protection more than heroics. Someone with compassion and empathy yet an ordinary person like all of us.

Taking creativity out of the cold storage.

When the economy is doing well, creativity is not important. People will buy anyway. They don’t need too much persuasion. The artists of persuasion, the advertising agencies will recede in importance and 100s of agencies providing me-too creativity will rise. Which is what we have seen in the last couple of decades. Consumers have money and consumption is high. People will splurge money and continue to live well above their means. Brands will realise that even with half-assed creative they can still do well. Cheaper agencies are hired and creativity takes a back seat. It’s all about analytics and number of posts and other more quantifiable things that matter. The brands who had thought otherwise and had used the best creative people and the best agencies even in good times and had not compromised on the brand are the ones that are going to do well. For many years creativity in advertising has really been in the freezer. It’s time to take it out and put it back on the burner. Because in a recession you have to convince that singular customer, who has the money and who has a choice, to buy your brand. He needs to be persuaded to buy your product. He needs to be seduced with the allure of your brand promise. That consumer is going to plug his money into the brand he cares about. Or the one he values. If you see the history of advertising you will see that creativity poked its head out during the 30s, just after the great depression, in advertising and after the war years again started to gain importance before peaking in the 60s and 70s. The same situation is going to happen now. The really creative agencies are the ones going to be in demand and consequently, the best creative people will also be in demand and they will start to get highly paid for their capabilities. Below are some industries and suggestions on how they could approach their brand communication.

Real Estate- shedding inventory

Real estate has been an industry that has been badly hit. Before the COVID saga the residential segment, especially the luxury residential segment had been seeing a glut of undifferentiated luxury offerings and inventory was peaking at an all-time high. While commercial space was zooming ahead with the advent of coworking spaces. But now things are set for a reversal of fortune. All the commercial builders have to start reimagining their businesses considering work-from-home is here to stay. To offset this, they have to start building brands that companies would love to work out of. Which means safer places to work out of. Less open, more cubiclized interior design will gain importance and at the same time they will have to make sure that air stagnation is minimum. Residential segment will start gaining momentum, people will want to invest in assets that are safe and will give them returns. But in the near term residential will suffer only because people will give more importance to liquid assets but that’s going to change soon. More expensive, higher-end and perceivably safer residences would sell better is what the trend researchers are saying. Here too, it is the time to go out and tell the public about yourself, your brand and to build confidence in them. And the best time to do that is now. During the recession. This does two things for the brand 1) The brand will be perceived as strong and not affected by the recession and consequently, the company will appear to be strong 2) It will also get your inventory moving and improve cashflows.

Fashion- Spread joy and happiness.

When people are depressed they want to dress well. They want to look upbeat. They watch movies and love to listen to good uplifting music and dance to great songs even if it is in the safety of their homes. So when they are going out they would like to wear good clothes. Though the spending on this category will be minimal and you may not get the benefit of your advertising now, the fashion brands that try to spread cheer and happiness will be forever remembered. They will be seen as positive brands and will be treated as friends

Consumer brands- The consumer is king, once again.

For FMCG, this is the time to up the spending on advertising. This is the time to start being creative and for spending money on creativity. Not the time to cut back as most brands will be thinking. While media spending can be reduced as clutter is less, these brands should up their ante on creativity. This will keep them top-of- mind and will be seen as a supportive player in a crisis. They should also be focussed in doing purpose-driven work. Maybe supplying things to the needy, helping the governments, helping with using their logistic network to supply food and clothes to the displaced.

Agencies-Light at the end of the tunnel.

Agencies should start hiring top-of-the-line creatives and shedding fat. They should refocus on their core product which is creative. Maybe Media Planning should come back to be part of mainstream creativity. The rightful place for media planning to be. Digital agencies should vanish, or they should become suppliers who provide media buying services and digital studios that do back-end work. So that idea of digital advertising being different to mainstream advertising will cease to exist. Building websites and apps should remain a core competence of design agencies.

Not just in agencies, creativity is going to flourish everywhere. Human beings by nature are creative but when we are satisfied and live a routine life we become complacent and let our creativity go to sleep. A challenging environment will bring the best out of everyone because it demands us to leave the known and grasp the unknown. The known is book knowledge, the unknown spurs creativity. So people are going to invent new businesses, they are going to find new ways of doing things and like every recession, this one too will spawn new thinking. And there will be a new world out for the taking. And just as day follows night, creative people will be the ones ruling this world. So put on your thinking caps and sharpen your brains and go in for the kill.