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Actual footage of me checking the snow totals in Selkirk yesterday.

Hey there. How are you?

We are firmly in that end of the year crunch. Racing to get all the things done before customers and clients and offices and, well, our brains shut down and bid 2020 farewell.

It’s been a difficult year. An understatement of understatements. But there have been bright spots.

• Fun, effective campaigns that I’m so proud of
• New clients turned friends
• Overit pro-bono initiatives worth celebrating
• A vaccine(!)
• This newsletter
• Two feet of fresh snow outside
• Getting to torch 2020

With the year's end in sight, I’ve been nipping and tucking and putting the finishing touches on next year’s plans. You probably are too. As part of that, I find that I’m making a lot of lists.

Lists of things I learned this year. Lists of things I need to prepare for next year. Lists of data I need access to. Lists of people to thank. Lists of things I’m leaving at the door in 2021.

I thought maybe I’d share some of those lists. Maybe they’re useful to you. Maybe you can add on to them and make them yours.

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Things I Learned in 2020

     1. We can thrive in a culture of flexibility 

I’m a Type A planner. The To-Do List valedictorian. But this year changed that. I’ve had to make strides focusing on what I can control (like how to adapt to an insane year) vs. what I can’t control (the insane year). Adopting a flexibility mindset helped me stay sane and find peace when things felt impossible.

It was equally great to see our clients respond to 2020 with new products and flexible offers and added creativity. We’re all ending the year so much better at shifting gears. We are resilient.

    2. Difficult times inspire innovative solutions

We learned the importance of having the right tech solutions at our fingertips. As well as how to hack old ones to morph into what we need. New processes, new collab tools, and new digital workarounds led to progress we would have dragged our feet on otherwise. We found new ways to conduct business, even if it was from the couch or in a closet we told our coworkers was an office. Thanks, pandemic.

     3. There are opportunities to be found… even when everything sucks

Everyone panic-cancelling advertising spends? We increased ours to ⬆️ market share, getting placements for ⬇️ to ⏫⏫ visibility.

Search behavior changing daily? Here’s a series of digital campaigns set around a combo of keywords we've never used before because users had never previously searched for them. 

You were a physical destination? Now you offer virtual tours and workshops and are rebranding as a media powerhouse. Congrats! 

Finding gems in the storm wasn’t just effective this year… it was kinda fun.

     4. Parenthood and a pandemic don’t mix.

COVID and the shutdown that resulted exposed just how far we still have left to go in accommodating families in the workplace, especially those with young children. Mothers were disproportionally forced out of careers. Parents worked around the clock to balance homeschool and work life. It was hard. It still is. But I’m confident that we’ll come out COVID inspired to create the workplaces we WANT because COVID showed how much we actually NEED them.   

    5. Seize joy.

We learned the importance of human connection when we saw how snippy and depressed we became when removed from one another. We also learned the importance of joy. That when things are hard, highlighting what it is good and finding ways to laugh become more important. Creating joy for customers and for ourselves got us through dark moments and reaffirmed the importance of the connections we, as marketers, work tirelessly to create. The work we do matters.

Things I'm Asking to Prep for 2021

Those new year marketing plans aren't going to write themselves, but getting your team to agree on the answers to the questions below may just help.

     1. What business objectives does marketing need to support this year?

It’s time to take stock. What are your business goals for 2021 and how will your marketing budget support it?

     2. How will I know if we’re successful?

What are you tracking? How? Where?

     3. What did we learn last year?

What assumptions came true? In what ways did your audience surprise you—good and bad? What channels worked? What patterns did you observe?

     4. What does my ideal customer look like? How did that change from last year?

If there’s a universal truth it's that the person we’re speaking to in Jan 2021 has changed, sometimes DRASTICALLY, from the person we knew in early 2020. Wants and needs and lifestyle and behaviors are hugely different. Account for that.

     5. What core problems do I solve for them?

What do you offer and why is it better? What words do customers use when talking about you?

     6. What else do they get from me?

Not the thing you sell but those higher-level, keeps-them-warm-at-night benefits. Do you make people: less stressed, more productive, happier, more confident, more educated, better entertained, or to go to bed at night soothed in peace of mind?

    7. What’s remarkably different about me?

What’s your competitive advantage and how well did you capitalize on it last year? Does your positioning need a tune up? A brand audit perhaps? (I love a good brand audit.)

     8. What’s worked before? Will it still work?

What tactics have you previously used and found successful? With today’s customer different in mindset, wants, and behaviors…can you still count on those same tactics? Where must you shift and adapt?

    9. What resources do I have access to—internal and external?

What resources could you have access to and what resources gaps will you need to overcome?

     10. How will I build momentum throughout the year?

I don’t like one-and-done campaigns. I want to tell a much longer story, tying together campaigns so they build upon one another. What are the threads we can use?

     11. How will I insert joy?

Connection matters. We saw it loud and clear this year. How can we build in moments of joy? WOW experiences modeled off Tony’s legacy. It’s as much for you as it is for them.

Don't get me wrong. I see it. The irony of building a list of questions to plan after a year that was anything but plannable.

But something else we learned this year was that as long as know where we’re headed--our end goal and the things that truly matter--we can get there. Even if the path we take changes, gets cancelled, or is buried under two feet of snow.

Because it's never been about the tactics.

It's about responding to our customers, staying alert, and using creativity to light our way. 

Happy holidays to you and your family.

See you in 2021, yeah?

• We set 2020 on fire. If you haven't checked out Overit's 2020 yule log, well, you're welcome. 
• This is also fun: Blob Opera.
• The Golden M hairdo is back. McDonald's Sweden ran a promotion this month to bring back an iconic hairdo that resembles every boy I knew in middle school.
• Love books and good design? Then you'll want to check out this list of the 89 best book covers of 2020. (Also: Are you reading anything good right now? I need some recs.)

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