The ‘Hows’ and ‘Whys’ of Communication in 2021

Communication is more important now than ever. This year has taught us a lot about our priorities and the true meaning of business critical, forcing organisations to quickly sift the ‘nice to have’ from the ‘must have’ in order to stay alive during these turbulent times. One of the biggest learnings we have seen played out in the corporate world is: communicate or die. Dramatic, but true. In times of crisis the companies, whether a corner shop or a FTSE 100, that bury their heads in the sand and reduce their internal and external comms, have a considerably lower chance of survival.

However, companies that engage with their teams and customers in an open and positive way have a much higher chance of not just surviving but coming out of the crisis stronger and in a better position to grow.

So, what are the new methods of communication in a new virtual world?

Covid-19 has severely stymied our traditional forms of communication and restricted our ability to bring people together on a large scale to deliver messaging. In this new age of remote communication what are the new ways of getting your message across?

From an internal comms perspective, it has forced huge swathes of the UK to work remotely, further disrupting workplace communications and bringing topics like employee engagement to the fore. Communicating and engaging with a remote internal workforce over such a long period of time has brought plenty of challenges such as Teams fatigue, call hopping and the need to be constantly responsive. Nonetheless, these challenges have helped us to keep our businesses going.

Internal comms methods are changing; instant messaging and video meetings now trumping emails and telephone calls. There is little evidence to suggest that this trend won’t continue even when teams begin to filter back into office spaces.

While programmes such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom have gone a long way to bridging the gap between team members in the workplace, they are not suitable replacements for large live events. Virtual events have taken 2020 by storm, with many organisations opting to turn their live events virtual due to the unforeseen circumstances.

In 2020 the number of organisations hosting virtual events has doubled. This has also allowed us to have more virtual events than we would have live! In the current climate is more important than ever to stay connected with our audiences. Virtual events are a great way of achieving this, with 91% of organisations choosing “Keeping members connected” as a primary goal of virtual events.

There are many types of virtual event, from broadcasts to fully immersive virtual worlds. 2020 has demonstrated that virtual is an engaging and powerful communications tool. Gone are the days of the humble and, dare we say it, boring ‘webinar’ with death by PowerPoint. Without the limitations of a live environment, the geographical restrictions of a live audience or the physical limitations put in place post Covid-19, the imagination is given free rein and the creative communications industry is able to push the boundaries of technology to create engaging virtual experiences that can be shared globally.

DRPG‘s Head of Insight and Innovation wrote a whitepaper on the topic of the Value of Broadcast Communications and the misconceptions surrounding their implementation in everyday communications strategies. Covid-19 has forced our hand in terms of virtual, but Callum Gill maintains that this is only the case of stakeholders playing catch up with the robust technology that is already in place and in daily use. Now that fears and myths around the use of virtual as a day to day communications tool, and even a replacement or at least partner to live experience, have been allayed, we can start to see what the future looks like. It will not be a case of returning to normal. We have adapted and now we will evolve.

What does 2021 look like?

While it is still uncertain when live experiences will return, it is safe to say that despite the robust and popular virtual solutions out there, live interaction is not a thing of the past. What 2020 has taught us, is that virtual is, and must remain, a part of our daily communications. The future is hybrid, combining the powerful pros of both virtual and live to create hugely impactful, wide-reaching solutions.

The communications methods at our disposal are changing as external factors force hands, technology advances and implementation is accelerated. Virtual has proven itself over the past six months and is here to stay. But this does not change the fact that communication sits at the heart of business success. Communication is not a cost; communication is an investment; cut it and you cut the lifeblood that is keeping your organisation going. If this means investing in new tech, virtual solutions, or digital transformations than the companies that are unwilling to do so will find themselves sorely outdated, extremely quickly.