We're offering free, rapid-fire idea generation for businesses to help them ‘surthrive’  the COVID-19 crisis. Whether you're not sure what to say to your customers, have a problem to solve, or a campaign in mind, email us at [email protected] to request a 30-minute session.

New unknowns

If life is like a box of chocolates, right now we’re down to those rock-hard toffee pennies and dodgy coffee creams that nobody likes. So, what do we do? Tuck in and learn to love them, or chuck the lot into the nearest bin?

Although we’re only a week in, so much has already been blogged, vlogged, webinared and posted about how businesses can make it through the Coronavirus crisis by either:

a) battening down the hatches and taking decisive action – after all, it’s business, not personal. Hoping things get better is not a strategy.

or,

b) charging headlong into the chaos because whilst it looks scary, the crisis is really a heavily disguised business challenge/opportunity to be overcome/exploited. But only if businesses are canny enough.

At ifour, we don’t subscribe to either one of these worldviews entirely. Sure, it makes sense to take defensive action, limiting expenditure where possible. But business IS personal. We should be mindful to hold true to our values internally, treating our teams in the way we want to be perceived by our customers. One day, when the pandemic is over, the loyalty and bravery shown by brands in hard times will be remembered.

And yes, there are new commercial opportunities to be had but they will fall to brands that work out how to add real and meaningful value in the new, locked-down economy. Nobody needs a hard-selling, ambulance-chasing pitch right now; don’t be that guy.

Here’s what we do know

If the past week has shown us anything, it’s how creative people can be when they’re up against it. Friends, families and brands have found ingenious, touching and downright silly ways to give and receive the help, love and services that we all need. Social distancing has brought us closer together.

As a business, we’ve been looking at how to weather the storm financially in the short-term and prepare to make the most of opportunities now and in a post-virus economy.

And as a group of creatives, we’ve been asking ourselves how we can be of use to businesses that could benefit from our skills in developing and presenting new and engaging narratives that connect with target audiences.

With this in mind, we’re offering free, rapid-fire sessions that will quickly get under the skin of what you need to say to your audience and how best to say it. You will walk away with an approach to creativity that you maybe did not have before and a fantastic, executable idea. We will have had a creative workout and hopefully made a new friend.

Here is some of the stuff we’ll get you thinking about:

More than ever, you must be creating value

We’re in uncharted territory now and if the value of your offer is not immediately clear, you’re not helping. You may be feeling that the value your brand holds when things are ‘normal’ just doesn’t apply to a locked-down world. You may be right. But what underlying needs were you meeting? Have they really disappeared, or are they just being expressed differently? Can you find a new way of meeting them?

Look up

Tempting though it is to only focus on what is directly in front of you, if you lead an organisation or a team you must take the time to, as best you can, imagine what the future might be like. The future belongs to those capable of imagining it. What newly-found dynamics and behaviours in your sector are likely to continue after all of this is over? How can you start to plan to take advantage of them?

The sun will come out tomorrow

Someone clever once said that you don’t always have to solve problems, sometimes you just have to outlive them. No one knows exactly where they will land at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic but with a lot of hard work, some new ideas and a bit of luck we hope businesses will emerge intact – stronger even – on the other side.

We know hope is not a strategy but it does drive positivity and action. So, let’s plan for the worst and hope for the best. Let’s positively, energetically do everything we can to make our own luck.

Give us a call if you’d like a hand.