CIANJ Commerce Magazine September 2020 Live | Page 60

■ Annual Best Practices Guide
Continued From Page 56
MARKETING, ADVERTISING, PR AND PRINT/DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Amy Delman
Public Relations LLC
By Amy Delman,
President
This pandemic has afforded
me the opportunity to speak
more frequently with both
clients and media contacts since everyone is
at home. These virtual or phone meetings,
although business-related in nature, do delve
into the human aspect of how we are all dealing
with this crisis. For me, it has truly deepened
and strengthened a universal need for
connection beyond the business realm. Moving
forward, I feel this time has opened a door
into how my services can branch into areas
that would not have been discovered if business
had not changed so significantly. My best
practice will be to continue to use virtual technology
as a frequent way to stay in touch and,
when the world opens up, weave it in with onsite
and in-person meetings.
Clear Tunnels
By Richard Waltman,
President
A digital magazine distribution
partner with a remote
workforce, Clear Tunnels recognized
our business model
would be an effective solution for clients decentralizing
their operations. Unfortunately,
COVID‐19 caused the furlough of essential
employees, accelerated the decentralization
and created opportunities for outsource partners.
To address this, we increased our design
and production capabilities, added web
design, network development, production
services and advertising sales to our suite of
services. Using our Virtual Private Network,
clients collaborate wherever they are, whenever
they want. A natural extension of our
expanded service offerings is consulting. We
work with clients to optimize processes and
reduce costs. We also began to offer mail
list management for both conventional and
e-mail lists. Understanding that the best way
to stay viable during this crisis and beyond
was to expand rather than contract our business,
Clear Tunnels now offers solutions for
the new normal.
Coyne PR
By Tom Coyne,
CEO
Our secret is purposeful connectivity.
We have been able to
recast our strategies to reinvent
every aspect of our business,
from media tours to influencer events to creating
commercials to achieve client objectives
in a virtual world. We extended this approach
to maintaining our strong sense of culture
while working remotely. Our weekly schedule
features virtual staff meetings, cooking classes,
meditation sessions, story times, nutrition
bootcamps and Weekly Wisdom Lives (where
our teams share industry best practices with
each other). We do as much video conferencing
as we can via Microsoft Teams and Zoom;
seeing each other won’t ever replace being together,
but it really helps as we know the eyes
are the windows to the soul.
MARKETING, ADVERTISING, PR AND PRINT/DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Marketsmith, Inc.
By Rob Bochicchio,
President
At Marketsmith, being prepared,
solution-oriented and
innovative is in our DNA.
When the effects of COVID
began to unfold, our team quickly analyzed
the roadblocks our clients could be facing
and identified two key issues—the immediate
switch from live events to virtual experiences,
and major budget reallocations or cutbacks.
To address the former concern, we developed
and launched TravelStill, a fully turnkey remote-produced
digital video solution. More
than a “toolkit,” TravelStill deployed with
complete concierge-level service. Shortly
thereafter, we launched BrandAmplify, an
affordable way to engage a large, loyal audience
through mainstream media channels.
This strategic combination of broadcast and
digital retargeting pays immediate dividends
without the upfront investment of traditional
television advertising. Our agency’s ability
to quickly pivot and provide these new resources
that can meet our clients where they
are has helped them keep their business goals
on target.
58 COMMERCE www. commercemagnj.com
Results Advertising
By David I. Green,
President and CEO
An ad agency is all about collaboration—creatives
and management
working together to
maintain client expectations.
With the pandemic reshaping this traditional
work strategy, Results Advertising has had to
add a new dimension to our agency’s business
model. Pre–pandemic, we had already taken
steps towards integrating videoconferencing
and other forms of digital collaboration—a
move we further explored to keep the team
unified regardless of locations. We’ve also designed
our office in such a way that it encourages
creative freedom by offering team members
ample workspace, private offices, and
wide-open areas for ideation. While this type
of setting does foster creativity, in the era of social
distancing it has been instrumental in cultivating
a healthy and safe work environment.
For us, the key to adapting to this reimagined
workplace will be keeping true to what has
kept the doors open for 30-plus years: flexibility,
proactivity and resourcefulness.
Splendor Design Group
By Adam Taylor,
Founder and
Creative Director
There are three main components
in our tech stack that enabled
us to migrate and adjust
very quickly to the COVID work environment.
The first: file storage. Years ago, we made the
switch to 100 percent cloud-based storage of
all of our files. Our people can securely access
any file at any time. Second: multiple devices.
Everyone on our team is connected across a
multitude of devices: smartphone, tablet, laptop
and desktop. We’ve got access. Third: communications
and management software. We
leverage multiple platforms to communicate
internally and with clients: Zoom, GoToMeeting,
WhatsApp, e-mail, Apple Messages, text
and Slack. And for project and client management:
Google Docs, Asana, Slack, Trello, Agile
and Outlook. But these are all just tools. The
quality of our work is also greatly influenced
by our levels of motivation. We feel it’s critical
to check in with each other and keep people
positive and inspired.
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