It is day 6 in the Covid House. All four of my family successfully passed the Covid test last week and we are now confined to quarters for the next ten days.
It has taken me a year to catch this thing from Wuhan in China. The mind boggles a little. Wuhan feels so far away and a year is a long time, yet here it is at my doorstep making me and my family feel rotten.
The symptoms of the virus also seem to boggle the best scientific minds. The list of different symptoms has reach 20, not including ‘Long Covid’. From personal experience it is the aching muscles, of the like I have never felt before, that is stressful. Yes it hurts, but what the hell is the virus doing?
Changed society beyond recognition
I am hoping / expecting that Covid won’t leave a lasting effect on my body, but I am certain the effects on ‘life’ won’t go away.
Everything is online
From the very first lockdown in March the demand for digital services has not stopped. Unsurprising given that our only connection to the outside has been through our screens.
The habit of face-to-face meetings has been broken.
- Doctors and GPs are finally using phone and online services.
- Teaching has finally gone online
- And Zoom call are the now the norm for business meetings
Introverts rejoice, you need not leave your front door to live a full life. And the planet may just have had a respite from the climate emergency.
The digital ‘bum fight’ got a whole lot worse
The extra extra online traffic means the fight over digital real estate has increase 10 fold since this time last year and the fight is on.
- Front page exposue on Google Search, Adwords, Shopping, Maps.
- Exposure on Facebook and its platforms
- Primary spot on Amazon
‘Growth’ agencies have sprung up by the dozen, led by young (usually men) with knowledge of the search and notification algorythms of the big three; Google, Facebook and Amazon.
This is because it is getting expensive to advertise online (supply and demand economics) but these clever guys know how to improve your targeting so you waste less of your precious advertising spend.
This trend of targeting people through their screens based on their behaviour is by far the most dominate means of marketing, but there is a darker side to this journey.
Watch the docu-film ‘Social Dilemma’ if you want the full doom, gloom and future armageddon.
Design still shines through
The saying, ‘people buy people’ needs updating. Covid has meant we can’t be there in person, and as good as a zoom call is you only get a fraction of the instinctive personal insight.
We insinctively judge people, a first impression made based on mannerisms, what people are wearing, how they smile, what they smile at, their hair, and so on.
Without those physical cues to judge we turn to other means;
- The tone in their email
- The design of their website
- The words on their website
- Their linked in page
- The production value of a website
A Crush we have always seen commercial design as an extension of you, and that has never been truer than it is today.
When will it be over?
Humans are such optimisitc beings ‘it’ll be over soon’ I’ve heard countless times in April, May, June, then November, December and still hear it in Jan 2021, and often from my own lips.
My holiday opportunities have become my preoccupation, along with the pub. I haven’t changed.
Those two things will change, back to normal, in time. Albeit slowly.
Marketing will reset back to be simialr to what it was, but there have been some permanent changes for good, in line with our habits.
If you are looking for advice on how to market in these ‘unprecedented times’ then please get in touch with Crush Design.