Marketing In The Age Of A Pandemic

The destructive impact of COVID-19 is being felt across the world among both large and small businesses. As many others, those of us in the advertising and marketing field have had our lives and work dramatically disrupted. However, this is especially true for agencies that specialize in events and experiential marketing.

So how are agencies navigating these difficult times? We reached out to a few agencies on Agency Spotter to learn more.

Meet Tangram International Exhibits

Tangram creates intelligent brand experiences that connect you with your customers. Designing for trade shows, retail environments and special events Tangram articulates modern culture through new forms at the intersection of art and technology.

The hard reality

As an agency that specializes in events, Tangram has been hit rather hard. Steel Swift, President of Tangram stated, “All of our work has been cancelled or postponed until at least September 2020. We are also finding that our customers are reserving cash and not paying us.”

In addition to events being cancelled and postposed, Swift strongly believes that experience marketing will radically change as a result of this pandemic. In the future, Swift expects to that experiences will need to be smaller in scale and also more tightly curated to be able to allow smaller groups to enjoy the experience safely, look for forced traffic flows, and metered throughput.

Helping the world

With all of their upcoming events cancelled, Tangram partnered with one of their vendors to produce plastic disposable face shields utilizing the agency’s CNC capabilities. Swift indicated that their current production is 2100 units per day.

Swift mentioned, “This has given us a small amount of work, but is a real morale boost for the team to know that while we are helpless, we are pleased to be of some help during the crisis.”

Making events virtual

Tangram is now officially offering to create virtual trade shows for their clients. Despite being digital, Swift explained that they are aiming to help customers create an experience similar in look and feel to a trade show exhibit with similar messaging, content, traffic and workflow.

Interested in working with Tangram to make your next event virtual? Learn more here.

Meet Pan Up Productions

Pan Up Productions is a full-service creative content agency based out of NYC, Los Angeles, and Austin. Their work includes everything from commercials, branded content, experiential coverage, and a heap of social and digital campaigns.

Using this time wisely

Instead of dwelling on lost time, Robert Ravenscroft a director and producer at Pan Up Production elaborated on how their team is making the most of their time. Ravenscroft said, “We are currently postponing our productions until later dates; however, we are using this time to brainstorm and come up with content ideas and strategies for our clients.”

Social distancing makes video production a rather difficult task, but that can’t stop them. Ravenscroft explained that they have set up remote post-production bays and are working in that realm to continue developing and creating content in any way that we can!

Sending their wishes

Ravenscroft stated that their primary focus is the safety of our friends and loved ones along with not contributing to the spread of the virus. He concluded, “We hope everyone stays safe and healthy. We can’t wait to be back into the full swing of developing content and productions.”

“We hope everyone stays safe and healthy. We can’t wait to be back into the full swing of developing content and productions.”

– Robert Ravenscroft, Director and Producer, Pan Up Production

Curious to learn more about Pan Up Productions capabilities? Check out this full campaign around Little Italy in the 1950s they produced for Netflix’s The Irishman.

Meet Groove Jones

Groove Jones is a studio located in Dallas, Texas with a staff of about 50 people. Dan Ferguson, Partner and EVP Digital Engagement, explained that the pandemic has provided their company a few interesting opportunities since they focus so much in the digital and interactive space.

Keeping employees’ spirits high

Ferguson said, “We do so many productions in the Virtual Reality space, we decided to start holding meetings in VR. We’ve also been having client calls using VR…”

By doing this, Ferguson is able to keep his team’s spirits up as they continue to work from home. In addition to this, it also provides Groove Jones an opportunity to share what they’ve been working on with their clients.

“While it will never replace a personal meeting, it is a great step to engaging with your audience at this time,” Ferguson concluded.

Lending a hand to clients

The St. Louis Aquarium, a client of Groove Jones, as many others impacted by COVID-19 were forced to shut their doors except for essential staff. Since their guests could no longer visit the aquarium, they were able to turn an interactive installation Groove Jones created into a shared event by streaming it to their stay-at-home audience.

Ferguson explained that the Otter Chat event featured the animated host, who chatted with social media director Amber and Josh, one of the aquarium’s handlers while streaming the event on Facebook Live.

Over 2,000 people watched it live. By the next day, over 25,000 people had watched the event.

See the original St. Louis Aquarium case study here.

A Special Note To Brands

We just wanted to take a moment to address that while you may not be thinking about Agency Spotter please remember that we’re here to serve as a resource for you and your agencies during these uncertain times.

With the cancelation of so many events and many brands slowing down marketing efforts, now is a great chance to show your agencies just how much you appreciate them. Give back to your agency partners by taking the time to leave them a review. Agency Spotter, Google, and Facebook are just a few places agencies would appreciate some extra love.

How To Leave A Review On Agency Spotter

To leave a review, make sure you’re logged in to Agency Spotter. Then visit the agency’s portfolio page and look for the “Review Agency” button in their Ratings section.

Once client reviews are submitted, the Agency Spotter team verifies the identity and credibility of each reviewer, and only allows those that meet strict criteria to remain published. Please note that only clients of an agency can review them. This can be former or current clients.

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