1) We’re Magnetic has always been an Experience First Marketing agency that has taken a consumer-first approach to our work for our clients. As the world suddenly changed in mid-February, we quickly dove into insights and research to understand how the consumer mindset changed with it, and proactively planned for what different variations of experiences might look like. This included virtual and digital experiences, hybrid approaches, and live moments. We identified early on that we’d need a range of experiences to meet the waves of opening and closings across the country, noting that the basic necessities of life would be what people crave--things like human connection; joy; comfort; and safety. We also noted that drive-ins could be a unique option for a live experience and shared it all proactively with our clients.
Specific work has included designing and producing a 3-week live streamed Virtual Drag Brunch series for Klarna to help support the drag community and the entertainers who lost work due to COVID-19. To keep it as engaging as a broadcast TV show, we included pre-recorded video content and had special guests. We’ve also created virtual sales tools for our clients designed to enable them to deliver a unified brand approach when doing video conferences. We’re also building AR and VR worlds for a few of our biggest clients that will enable consumers to explore a virtual experience, just like they would at a live experience.
2) We pride ourselves on being a truly diverse group of people at We’re Magnetic. The increasing call for social justice and the reality of how it impacts our team, and those around the world, has been extremely important to us. As a company we took this seriously, and first looked inward to encourage open dialogue and ensure our employees felt supported. Within the industry, we have continued to participate in the ongoing dialogue with other industry leaders. We are also part of the Experience Good Agency Coalition that is tackling issues around COVID, diversity, and social injustice. With regard to our clients and work, we have continued to take a consumer-first approach to helping our clients navigate what’s on the minds in the hearts of their consumers in order to create compelling and authentic work for their brands.
3) Our clients continue to look for ways to bring positivity into the world that is authentic to their brand. We have seen some of our clients add additional, new projects to address these timely issues. We have also seen them focus funding and resources within their organizations to ensure they are meeting the needs of their consumers and society.
4) This year has seen a lot of great work. For me, the passion of the creatives around the world who entered the UN’s Call for Creative submissions to tackle COVID-19 was impressive and inspiring. The Real Heroes Project, which celebrated the frontline workers by bringing together athletes from every sport to change their jersey names, was timely, authentic and moving. I also loved the Apple Maps update to get the Black Lives Matter street mural that led to the White House up in near record time. It’s a great example of looking at tech creatively to make a statement for good. Other campaigns that stood out were Nike’s Don’t Do It and Sesame Street Standing Up to Racism on CNN, which brought a unique approach to tackling a difficult subject. Then there were campaigns that I found effective for different reasons. The Awkwafina 7 Train Takeover in NYC put a fun twist on the daily drone of the train by allowing passengers to hear her voice announcing station stops, while Burger King’s Moldy Whopper made me jealous for its stopping power.
Our firm helped American Express create a new platform called #ExpressThanks that launched on Employee Appreciation Day. The effort aims to encourage colleagues to show appreciation for each other and for companies to do the same for employees. The goal of the program addresses a huge issue within corporate America. It’s a big, ambitious platform that has the goal to become an annual effort, similar to Small Business Saturday.
5) The biggest takeaway from work this year is that we simply can never forget to expect the unexpected. We all need to be ready to quickly pivot.. As an agency that does a lot of work in live events and experiences, this has always been part of our DNA. But with the realities of COVID-19, it put us to the test. For one client, our plans to do an immersive month-long experience had to shift, leading to something that is going to be equally as magical in a virtual world. For another client, the plans for a national tour disappeared all together. So you take a deep breath, and keep hustling to create opportunities and help solve problems.
The other big lessons I learned this year, or actually relearned, is that there’s no time to overthink things. Agility and nimbleness are the key to success for agencies and clients. Our gut is usually right. And a small focused team is often the way forward.
I was also reminded of how much I love this industry and the people I get to work with each day. I miss the casual interactions in the office more than I thought and the simple joys that are a result of being face to face. That said, I also learned that working remotely can work really well, be efficient, and some version of it is here to stay for our industry.
6) Looking forward, we’re going to go through peaks and valleys due to the changing landscape of COVID-19 from city to city, and region to region. This means clients will be unsure of what to do, fearful of committing big budgets, and agencies will need to help them create plans that can easily go back and forth from digital and virtual, to smaller live experiences – with variations of content being in the mix to drive scale.
When it comes to content, we’ll start to see more innovative and interesting forms of virtual engagement and webinars, as people are already experiencing webinar fatigue. This is something we are already working on with our clients. We’ll see the quick and fun content that doesn’t need to be overproduced continue to fill our streams and inboxes. But we’ll also see more highly produced experiences that take cues from broadcast TV, infusing interstitial pre-recorded content, surprise and delight moments, two-way interaction, and innovations that are built for our new world landscape.
7) Our agency is a female majority owned company. We take pride in the diversity of our employees, and look to do the same when it comes to who we work with as partners. When it comes to new talent, we have had internship programs every year across departments where the talent works on real client projects, are part of teams, and also work on a special intern project. The goal of the program year-over-year is to bring our interns on full-time or help them find a job with our friends and partners across the industry.