We have often heard that parenthood, rather motherhood, is a completely different journey. Actually, who am I kidding, it’s a rollercoaster ride, that to for a lifetime! And anyone who tells you otherwise, please don’t take it at face value.
Today, my raison-d’etre for talking about motherhood, is to draw a parallel of how bringing up a child and building a successful communication campaign are probably two similar journeys! Why, you would ask? Because the energies that kids come with, ensure you have a hands-on 24-by-7 job! And I’m fortunate to be able to draw from my personal experience with the 7-year-old boy at home; thus helping me share these insights vividly.
So, sharing few ideas on how we could relook at our next communication campaign, and if I’m way off-track, then bear with me and take this piece as generated out of simple creativity!
Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat!
All kids are curious, there is no doubt about that. And possibly this curiosity is what drives them with an urge to know everything around them. This is what makes them – ask questions, express plainly when they can’t understand what’s happening, or maybe share their perspective of what they learnt. This stems from sheer curiosity and absolutely no reluctance to ask. Could we do the same for our campaigns? Keep asking, reading or simply getting as many details as possible about our brands, before we plan a campaign? Yes, these are basics, we all do this. But you see, I’m just sharing reminders, so whether its post-COVID, during pandemic and yet another new environment, we should stay focused on our approach.
Create infectious energy reserves!
My little one loves his playtime in the evening (for hours) and craves for morning playtime as well, before school (yes, the e-school!). This time could include everything from playing various sports, just going for long walks, cycling or simply calling friends outdoors. And let me tell you this is completely infectious and have noticed kids relish an environment where everybody enjoys playing. This is the kind of camaraderie probably we need within our teams, with our clients or external partners. The joy of working on a campaign or designing a new story, simply thinking of new techniques to build engagement & visibility – could be anything. All this is just enjoyable if we ensure that the whole team is collaborating to achieve the end goal with immense enthusiasm. Probably why ‘best places to work’ retain loyal employees and witness better outcomes, within the available resources.
Don’t restrict to a genre in music or age-appropriate sport
Going niche or focusing on one category or rather building expertise focused on a specific domain, could be a boon. But what I realised with my son was that exposure is what matters. Ensuring he listens to music across era’s or styles – coke studio artists to red red wine to rang de basanti to Justin Bieber – so that he not restricted to a specific era or time period. This has helped him enjoy music in all forms, anywhere, anytime. Similarly, we need to reboot ourselves, get out of our comfort zones and consume information across businesses (beyond what we work for or enjoy). You never know which case study or best practice could make it the next big campaign. Just as we love our networking piece, never forget to expose ourselves to as many new things as possible. No wonder, we have been seamlessly moving from Facebook to Instagram to Tiktok!
Build experiences
Who doesn’t love experiences or a visual form to learn new skills? Kids learn the toughest of concepts when engaged visually. Media rounds, known in the erstwhile era, was just another form of putting a face to the name, which slowly gave opportunities to build a strong relationship within our network. Similarly, maybe we could plan our communication campaigns from the funnel of building experiences. ‘Word of mouth’ will always be essential for us, especially in the social media age, when going viral could be a happy moment for us as communicators. So, think experiential, next time you rollout the campaign, even with social distancing is the new norm.
Read, Read, Read!
This is something I am often caught repeating, because there is no substitute to reading. The more content you consume, the easier it gets to build better narratives, write unique stories and curate innovative ways to share the brand’s content. Remember this could be your strength when exploring the “PESO” model for your content.
Inclusive learning
COVID taught me that the best way to beat boredom for kids is to get them involved in everything we do at home. This is a great way to make them independent, help them manage their belongings, teach basics in cooking – instead of asking them to simply sit, while you finish the household chores (especially when you are attempting to make it a non-screen upbringing). Apply the same approach to help budding professionals in the fraternity upskill themselves, by inviting them to join for meetings with teams other than theirs, take them along for media engagements, introduce community forums they could join and help them design a path to build themselves as brands as well.
The idea or intent to pen this article, came from my little one and it’s a dedication to him for shaping me into a better human being (or atleast bestowing me with resilience to keep trying!).
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Building brands through story-telling is what keeps me going! Having spent 18years in this industry, I am far more excited to experiment on what's next to unlearn. Worked with industries across FMCG, Oil & Gas, Technology, Fashion, Telecom, Media House, F&B and now Sports, my curiosity to craft a narrative only gets deeper. Marathons, Black Coffee, learning about Scotch and Malts, reading everything i can, travelling, are few of other personal passions that I happily pursue.
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