NOTE: Like many of you, we’re staying home and preparing for a gradual return to the office environment. We’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

“Indian food near me.”

“Retail stores reopening.”

“Wine delivery service.”

If you’re like us, this probably looks like your search engine history at some point over the last two-plus months. While our personal and working lives have been forever changed, we’ve had an opportunity to learn a few things. 

In those first unsettling weeks of the pandemic lockdown, feel-good commercials from brands like Ford, Johnson & Johnson, and Charmin may have brought tears to your eyes. All the hashtags, “in it together-ness,” and sensitivity had us feeling some kind of way.  

Now—although the crisis is far from over—we’re sort of jaded, and we realize Ford is still trying to sell us cars, albeit a bit more gently than usual. Ad-industry friends joke about the overuse of words like “unprecedented situation” and “challenging times.” But deep down, we’re still taking comfort in hearing from the brands that define American life. 

Maybe you own a business. Or you run marketing for your company. Could be you’re simply looking to find the best way to balance your efforts and get the message out. If it was a piece of cake, everyone would do it, right?

But unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The good news is that we’re here to help and make sense of marketing in a time when it seems like there are endless options, technologies, and tactics.