Opinion: Moving Forward, Looking Back

Author: Marine Tanasekar Lim

It’s Time to Act.

For
what feels like forever, 2020 has been dishing out life lessons for everyone.
Its impact had set unprecedented effects and now, we are about to live it
permanently.

With
challenges come rolling one after another at an alarming speed not only on a
national scale but also in the business fronts and individuals; everyone is in
it together. The PR landscape is also affected and has been evolving and
keeping in pace with Covid 19 challenges. Human brands take powerful new form
as brand avatars commanding a new presence across the digital worlds. Consumers
demanding relevance as a service ditching templates that no longer serve its
purpose. And with lock down measures implemented throughout the world, being
socially connected became the new buzz word. The future of social now takes on
a total whole new meaning.

Living
in an almost lock down city with the economy at a standstill, major players are
minimizing their PR and marketing efforts and relooking at its expenses
columns. Most of the FMCGs, retails, F&B, service industries are hard hit.
PR and marketing plans made 3 – 6 months prior are now put on hold, new
projects are shelved and event launches are permanently striked off the list
till things are in the clear.

Being
in the PR industry, we are not spared too. But we chose to look at the
opportunities that rise amidst the challenges. We embrace this period of
uncertainty to move forward with our clients embellishing the vision of “together
we will survive beyond the pandemic.”

absolute
PR as an award-winning Singapore based lifestyle PR agency, established since
2005 had survived through the tough times of the global financial crisis in
2008 – 2009 as well as the turbulence periods of a business start-up in its
initial stages. We understand how a business needs to adapt to the changes of
the environment, evolve accordingly and ride through it. Somehow, Covid 19 is a
little different. The magnitude of changes that need to be adapted is wide and
varied, from national level, to sectors down to each individual business needs.

The
business landscape is also transforming with new rules that are set to change
the world

we
used to live in.

In
absolute PR, the power of PR is reinforced, New directions are planned. Shift
of focus is definitely gearing towards the digital world where our target
markets and audiences are migrating to. Mobilising the business and bringing a
whole new game of awareness to the digital world is going to be spelled out as
the new 2020 goals and directions.

Come
June 1st, we will be launching our own absolute key opinion consumer
influencers where absolute PR will hand select a group of local influencers to
grow as powerful opinion leaders who will set apart from the rest in the
market. PR services will also be covering digital needs in providing a digital
voice for brands who need their digital space. On our own, we will also be
looking at building our own digital spaces in coming up with a series of
podcasts – absolutely REAL to catch up on real issues on real people. This is
in the pipeline to launch on July 1st.

COVID-19
has put an adverse impact on the global economy, no doubt. While we hope the pandemic
will be controlled in time to come, the resultant economic slowdown may take a longer
period of time to recover.

It’s
time to act. Rather than adopt the wait and see approach, we proactively seek
to move forward in the right direction while looking back to pick up on what we
have learnt. And whenever you think of quitting, think of why you started this
business in the first place.