In March 2020, like most businesses, we shut down our office in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and went into the most extended period of remote work and crisis management that we’d ever experienced. Only this time, it wasn’t just a strategy for an isolated client or situation, it was all of us. While we personally weren’t sure what this was going to mean for our children, our clients or our business, all of our training and expertise came into play more than we could have imagined.

Historically, we’ve observed that most of our clients fall into one of the following categories, and the pandemic became a great equalizer for these groupings:

1. Originators
2. Collaborators
3. Participators
4. Observers

Aside from these categories, our clients are either digital natives or digital adapters. Natives were born into a world with the internet, while adapters had to adapt to the processes of social media.

• Originators generally take the lead on content ideation and creation. They are constantly thinking about what they can create and put out in the world. We help them flesh out those ideas or suggest slight alterations for the desired audience or result. Originators aren’t always up for altering their ideas or hearing opinions. There can be an element of know-it-all and there are many times that their gut instinct is absolutely correct and defies best practices. Failure, of course, is never their fault (ha!). Originators oftentimes want the content to tell the full story and might not interact past the initial posting/launch. Originators are generally the most concerned with “selling out.”

More of our digital natives lean toward being originators, but they also tend to focus on newer networks and are less concerned with data ownership or owned properties. Native originators usually post their content themselves, at least on certain networks. Native originators tend to be hyper-focused on daily analytics rather than the bigger picture and can at times be most affected by instant validation—good or bad. Native originators are generally more excited about new opportunities or networks but also tend to overthink the impact of their contribution.

By contrast, adapter originator clients may not fully understand the mechanics of all the platforms, but they do understand the importance of keeping content fresh in their communities. They can oftentimes be overwhelmed by new opportunities or networks, but will eventually onboard. Adapters can generally see the forest through the trees on feedback and analytics, but at times can be shell shocked by one particular content performing over another, especially if it’s worked for them in the past.

• Collaborators are generally the most balanced in terms of promotional and personal content. They are equally as comfortable birthing an idea as they are contributing to an idea that came from other team members. Native collaborators tend to be more swayed by trends (ex. what they saw on TikTok), while adapter collaborators are more swayed by peers (“Did you see what so-and-so did?”). Collaborators often have strong originator and participator traits, but largely feel comfortable with data and audience interaction. Collaborators feel relaxed interacting with people on comments and/or sharing and highlighting other people’s profiles on their channels. Collaborators understand that while they use their channels for certain marketing messaging, it’s equally important to remain involved, so people know the collaborators are interacting themselves. Collaborators commonly feel comfortable interacting with only two or three platforms while also understanding there are several more that need to be cared for.

• Participators tend to be adapters. However, over the last couple of years, we’ve had many conversations with younger natives who are becoming increasingly weary (personally, this gives me so much hope) of “what this all means.” Participators can be super-creative and open to ideas, but they often do not like to single out digital and social as its own beast. They sometimes prefer to look at their life outside the screens and figure out how they can piggyback their career obligations into content for digital. Sometimes the participator doesn’t have the digital world top of mind, but when prompted and reminded, will deliver. Participators, like originators, prefer to let the content BE the communication and rarely enjoy interacting unless it’s a planned stream, chat or activation.

This grouping is very popular in the entertainment space because it’s natural to lean on movies, shows, concerts, albums, long-form content, books and all the ancillary activities that come from dedicated content, press tours, interviews, performances, etc. Out of necessity, 2020 pushed a lot of clients from the participator category to the collaborator category. Generally speaking, most people who lean in the participator group are interested in data and feedback, but from a removed standpoint. While a participator wants to know results and action items for improvement or amplification, they generally react better to anecdotal advice on next steps rather than taking a deep dive into the numbers.

• Observers are almost always adapters and are equally some of the toughest and best clients we’ve had the honor to serve. Oftentimes, they can be the most critical because they can feel like outsiders looking in coupled with a lens that only relates to them. When you aren’t active on a certain platform, you don’t have the cushion or perspective about the general way people post, react, etc. When you are looking through your own window, it can be a head scratcher. In almost all cases, observers want to be involved in the content creation and deployment plan, but most times do not care to be swayed by the details of the performance data. Observers have a tendency to think of using their channels for promotional purposes only, so they need to be constantly reminded and prompted to participate in other ways. They tend to hyper-focus on activity in small increments, and then move on once they feel more secure about what’s happening (or they become more interested in another space where they are more comfortable). Observers are generally the most objective about their overall digital ecosystem. Observers can be participators out of necessity, not necessarily out of passion.

When the pandemic hit, suddenly there weren’t multiple layers to getting an idea to a client. In the first few months, there weren’t videographers or production experts on call who could facilitate, and there weren’t any other major scheduling conflicts. There were small teams asking what they could do and figuring out what was possible within the confines of what they had at their disposal. Almost all of our clients pushed their comfort levels. There was a great, overarching need to stay connected and, at least with most of our clients, a great, overarching desire to help, raise money, give people hope and simply entertain.

The busyness of this scary season was a great distractor. Quite frankly, we didn’t have any time to overthink our own personal situations. Like everyone else, life felt to be on shaky ground and in some cases, in shambles. People around us were getting sick (not in our immediate circle, but we were very aware of loved ones who were beginning to lose people) and losing their jobs and insurance. The fear of the pandemic was at an all-time high, the political rhetoric online was assaulting, and none of us had any idea when we might return to some version of normalcy. Compared to our non-music business friends, and other loved ones, while our world was stressful, we had community-based resources to lean on, we had associations willing to help us, we had banks ready to explain things to us and we had each other to call.

We knew, despite facing the same concerns of health, family, school, jobs, insurance and what our future held, it was our responsibility to keep the digital train on the tracks. As a Type A planner, I really had to retrain myself to take what the day had to offer and do what I could. Things were moving so fast and swung to such drastic extremes, being flexible was imperative. Having been through what I had experienced the prior year, everything in my life was compared to cancer. So, as bad as any moment got, the ability to get on my feet and try to make headway in the next moment was always in the back of my mind.

In the spring of 2020, we were still hopeful that our clients’ tours would resume in the fall, movies and product lines would launch during the holiday season, and television production would be back in full swing after a few months. As things progressed in the wrong direction throughout the summer and fall—and then eventually knowing we’d be without our live performances for most likely another year—the load we were carrying was getting heavier in terms of both work and personal duties.

Like everyone else, we felt pushed to our limit, but when I tell you we rallied, frequently it was in shifts. Sometimes it was me ringing the bell, needing help because my husband was working too (somehow, he continued shooting a movie during this time period). My kids were in/out of school frequently (I know I had an advantage here compared to a lot of other parents). Holly, a new mom herself, strapped her newborn Burton in, brought him over, and helped keep the kids entertained and loved so I could continue working. Ashley, Stevie and Jessie were all dealing with the same issues, and luckily when one of us was down for the count, we could all lean on each other. It was just as concerning to see other employees battle with their own fears and isolation. Life looked different, but it didn’t stop. We had a lot of touch-and-go moments as we figured things out, but we walked into 2021 a lean, loving, strong and focused team.

Everyone who was fortunate to be able to continue working had to adjust to the new way of life. In the beginning months, it was rather exciting. Some weeks we’d have upwards of ten live streamed “concerts” or “live” events and it was fun using Zoom. It was wonderful to see artists give free access to people purely to connect and entertain. They did this despite the fact that many were canceling tours, postponing productions, making difficult decisions to lay off employees, maxing out their credit cards to keep vendors like us on board, and worrying about their families and the world. It was nostalgic of the early days of social media when we stripped down all the layers and appreciated the gift of being able to connect. As the months stretched on, the fatigue of the situation began to sink in. Analytics began to decline on the streams (fans had so many choices, and of course, like any good trend, there was an oversaturation of the market). People had quite literally watched all the on-demand content they could stomach. And the internet—which rarely has the ability to shock me anymore—shocked even me with its depth of misinformation, negativity and downright nastiness during the 2020 election.

Clients who really prospered through these shaky times all had a few things in common, and I hope we carry these five elements into our strategies as permanent fixtures:

1. They let go of the idea that everything needed to be a production.
2. They realized that everyone was in the same boat, so they had some fun with the chaos and showed sides of themselves (even messing up when trying to figure out the technology) that were extremely endearing.
3. They were considerate of the viewer’s perception and kindly contemplated the reception of particular posts from many different angles before blindly posting.
4. They realized that a lot of what we’d normally accomplish in person could be handled by phone/Zoom, and it turned out to be a good way to cut expenses.
5. Clients and team members alike had a newfound respect for some of our grinds coming to a halt to take care of children or loved ones. For once, we weren’t all trying to pretend that we were doing it all perfectly.

Be good…online and in real life.
Jennie