Crafting for the new normal

Agility. It’s one of adland’s favourite buzzwords, yet how much it was practiced across the industry prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is probably not as much as it was preached.

If anything, 2020 has been the year that put agile working to the test as the pandemic’s unprecedented and ever-evolving nature left many campaign messages quickly irrelevant and plans for big, lavish shoots overseas thrown out the window with travel bans imposed.

That was the experience for independent Sydney-based creative agency Emotive and a number of its clients. With the cancellation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the agency lost a number of campaigns.

Despite the losses, Emotive group creative director Ben Clare says the agency was able to use its size and independence to its advantage.

“Being small and nimble is actually a huge benefit in times of disruption,” he says. “It means that we can react pretty quickly.”

And quickly they did. At the time the lockdowns started to take place, the agency had a campaign for audiobook platform Audible out in market that touted the benefits of being