Communication during the coronavirus lockdown has taken many creative paths in the advertising industry.
The Friday drinks trolley replaced by the virtual Zoom catchup, the Monday staff meeting with an electronic get together.
These don’t quite measure up to the face-to-face variety but they maintain that human connection.
At MediaCom, a staff meeting turned into a scene from The Anchorman, a series of American comedy movies.
This is how the photo (top right) was introduced:
You stay classy, MediaCom
The award winning MediaCom News team, Nick (Ron Burgundy) Thomas, Bebhinn (Veronica Corningstone) Carey, Ben (Brick) McCallum and Trent (Champ) Millane went live to give their Sydney team a breaking news broadcast yesterday during the agency's town hall. Delivered in character, and sprinkled with infamous quotes from the legendary movie, Anchorman, audiences have coined it as “the best company meeting” so far! Congrats to everyone involved.
“That picture is from one of our weekly town hall meetings," says Willie Pang, MediaCom CEO AUNZ.
“Everyone has settled into a new normal and we’ve come to the realisation that finding the moments to fiercely defend our culture is super critical.
“We do dress up parties and all sorts of initiatives in our various offices, across Australia and New Zealand, to keep the spirit alive, so to speak. It's a bit of fun.”
Pang is doing twice weekly updates to staff.
“Consistency and volume of communications from leadership back to the staff has significantly lifted through this period of time," he told AdNews.
“We have a HR chatbot that we use to give as many staff as possible a forum with which to give feedback to the business.
“Ironically staff engagement since we went into isolation has actually gone up."
Fridays have turned into a MTV cribs-style event (where stars bring the viewers into their homes).
“We get our leadership teams to introduce their families and walk through their houses and share their lives," says Pang.
"That's an example of us trying to try to break down some of the barriers and make everyone a little more human.
“When you're doing Zoom calls, and you're sitting around in pajamas, everyone tends to be a little bit less intimidating. It's just warmer when you see someone sitting in their kitchen.
“And there's not that presenteeism or bravado that happens when you're sitting around in the office."
Pang found working remotely difficult at first.
“I'm one of those hyper-extroverted types. I enjoy having people around. So I was randomly calling people, saying: Let's just chat.”
However, he has now settled into a rhythm.
Last week he went into the office for the first time since lockdown began.
“I had to get up and put a shirt on for the first time in three months, and then fight my way through traffic.
“I realised that, in my heart, as I was driving, that I didn’t miss this."
Generally, most have settled into a rhythm.
“We are running staff surveys and something like 70% plus, in addition to feeling better, say the preference is to either maintain or predominantly work remotely forever.
"As a group, we are asking: 'How do we make sure that we're capturing people's preference and still making sure that productivity is up at a point where client work is as good or better than it was before."
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