Looking back on a busy and challenging May...
Welcome to the ‘new normal’…
May has been a strange month for everyone. For our team, the month came with new successes, challenges and learnings as we continued to help our clients with their ‘new normal’ as well, too, navigate working life in quarantine!
It’s been a learning experiencing to balance our busy working days with the new challenges on the home front including home schooling, puppy training, squeezing in our essential shops, and wondering what we can snack on next, however, we are so grateful that we’ve been kept busy and engaged by helping our clients adapt their communications strategies to our ever-changing world!
‘Doing their bit’ or moving online…
Throughout the last month it has been difficult to watch so many businesses suffer under the pressure of Covid-19. This being said, we’ve also been inspired by the creativity shown by a vast number of local businesses – many of whom we are proud to call our clients – who have diversified their offerings, supported those working in their industries, helped those in need and entertained the nation during these difficult times. This month we’ve witnessed this determination and innovation first-hand as our clients hosted live auctions online, organised acoustic guitar gigs by global superstars, and supported local communities through food deliveries.
We were proud to play our part as Wilsons Auctions launched ‘A Bid for Kindness,’ their initiative to raise valuable funds on behalf of many charities who are suffering as a result of Covid-19. Working alongside Callow Events, we helped to promote this unique initiative which resulted in £45,000 being raised to help charities across the UK and Ireland. Press communications highlighting Parr Group’s generosity to help local communities and our key workers were issued across the UK and Ireland. Team Impact also helped to communicate important safety messages from Grant Engineering to installers throughout Ireland and an online training webinar series and also spread the word that Cavan-based Victor Mee Auctions would be able to resume its monthly auctions through the power of the Internet. We also helped the newly-launched Consumer Code for Online Dispute Resolution to get alternative dispute resolution practitioners back to work through a secure Online Dispute Resolution platform. For the past three weeks we settled in to Facebook live on Thursday evenings to enjoy Lowden Livingroom Sessions - live gigs from iconic Northern Irish artists, organised by Lowden Guitars and Oh Yeah Music Centre.
Planning future projects…
We worked with our clients to adjust press and social media strategies as the ever-changing coronavirus situation evolved. We also spent time planning some very exciting client projects for the months ahead! Watch this space as we gear up next month to unveil an innovative new energy brand, launch an app which will make life a little easier for managing payrolls and continue to find exciting ways to help tell our clients’ stories and share their news throughout the summer.
Improving our team…
We are strong believers that knowledge is power, and to ensure we’re as powerful as we can be for our clients and ourselves, we dedicated time throughout May to developing our own industry, digital and theoretical knowledge. As a team we spent many ‘out of office’ hours exploring webinars on Google Analytics and LinkedIn marketing, immersing ourselves in books about crisis communications and our favourite heroes in business, re-committing to the Agile Manifesto, delving into the future of sustainable tourism, and more!
We believe that continued personal development is so important, but just as important is our internal team relationship, which has been made more challenging to maintain now that our only contact is virtual! Of course, we haven’t let that stop us and have enjoyed virtual pizza and prosecco Fridays, a ‘cheesy’ delivery for a special birthday, and making sure to keep the lines of communication open constantly to stay connected via emails, Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, Skype, and more in this time of isolation.
What a productive, testing, and rewarding month it’s been! We look forward to seeing what June brings.
Team Impact. x
