How did small businesses fare in the global pandemic? Perhaps far better than bigger ones if our experience was anything to go by.
During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, untold thousands of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had to face the toughest challenge imaginable: surviving and outliving the COVID storm and the chaos it has wrought. Across the globe, it has been these businesses that have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s collatorel economic damage.
While local stats vary, according to Bloomberg News, more than 80,000 small businesses in the US permanently shut their doors between March and July last year. Considering that in a country like South Africa, SME’s represent more than 90% of all businesses, and employ over 50% of the country’s workforce (according to McKinsey), this figure is certain to be just as (if not more) devastating. In fact, The Small Business Institute indicated that almost a quarter (24%) of SME’s it surveyed in late 2020 didn’t know if their businesses would survive post-pandemic.
With this bleak backdrop now in place, let me paint a brighter picture. It’s about one local SME that not only survived the storm, but is learning how to sail through it.
Originally established as a media owner (with a billboard portfolio), Hluma Media only officially opened its bright red doors as a marketing and communications agency at the beginning of 2020. With the right team and collective vision in place, we hit the ground running… only to run headlong into March 2020!
The timing could not have been worse. We’d landed a wonderful new client, with an exciting, big, scary mandate, and we were ready to go. Initial meet and greets went better than imagined, and the briefs had started rolling in thick and fast.
By now, you know how this story goes. March arrived, and with it, the industry and indeed the world as we know it, shifted on its axis. For a small agency like ours, this could have spelt disaster, but instead, our size meant that we could seamlessly transition to working remotely and adapt quicker than most to our clients’ continually changing needs.
In UWC’s case, this meant that despite the lockdowns and load shedding, closed campuses and cancelled plans, we created some incredible work together. See for yourself…
First, we worked with UWC in putting together a razor-sharp brand refinement strategy and new marketing plan. Strategic brand specialist, Sophie Masipa, was instrumental in reading the brand accurately, distilling its essence and honing its brand promise into one that resonated with authenticity, difference and relevance.
Next, UWC’s 60th anniversary celebrations needed to pivot from being largely centred around a series of planned events and celebrations to ones memorialised on screen, online, in print, and through merchandise.
Apart from helping out with various other ad hoc projects throughout the year, we also set to work creating and producing an integrated marketing campaign for the brand based on the afore-mentioned strategy.
We conceptualised and produced a new strapline and look and feel for the brand campaign, then ensured it came to life on a range of mediums… from brand television ads, to virtual campus tours, posters, social media posts and a series of short video stories featuring poignant testimonials from current UWC students. At every touch point, no matter how varied the medium, the brand message remained clear: UWC offers its students the best of both worlds.
“Hluma Media has more than met the expectations of our University with the quality of work it has produced. I have no hesitation recommending them as an agency that offers solutions for all multi-media, branding and marketing needs.” Gasant Abarder, UWC Acting Director: Institutional Advancements
Reflecting back, and cognisant of so many other businesses that have not been as fortunate, we are humbled and grateful to be moving forward from strength to strength. Our on-going growth is testament to the fact that big ideas and small creative agencies go together like birds of a feather. And that hard work, talent and teamwork are always on trend. They are the anchors that can see us through the worst of storms and unforeseen future challenges.
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