Living In A Post-Pandemic World: What Is The New Normal For Marketing and Communication Departments?
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Panelists from Michigan Medicine, representing marketing, public relations, digital strategy and internal communications, will describe how they tapped people’s talents, agility and desire to help to operate differently during the pandemic—and they’re not going back.
When COVID-19 hit Michigan on March 11, 2020, life was, well, pretty normal for the four teams that comprise the Department of Communication at Michigan Medicine. The team leaders met weekly with the CMO/CCO and divided responsibilities as one would expect, with pretty clear definitions of roles so people wouldn’t step on each other’s toes.
Then, the crisis started. The Incident Command Center was activated and the team began its 12 hours/day, 7 days/week communication strategy. PR people were creating twice daily internal updates; marketing staff were developing new policy content; web staff were figuring out ways to express gratitude; internal staff were developing web content.
Media interest was insatiable. Working remotely, the PR team became experts at what PPE should be used when, setting up Zoom interviews, shooting video in their iPhones, and (nicely) refusing journalists who wanted to embed themselves in COVID units.
People yearn to go back to “normal”— except …
- What will the new normal look like?
- Should we continue to save on rent, commuting and parking and have people work remotely?
- Do talented writers go back to rigid assignments or do they all become content strategists and creators—no matter what channel is used?
- Do we remain this agile and develop and execute strategies in real time?
- Do all team members learn to create smart phone videos so news can be produced on the fly?
- Do we continue to host and stream weekly (or at least monthly) Town Halls with executive leadership because it attracted about 6,000+ viewers each time?
Join the Michigan Medicine leaders as they talk about what they’ve learned, how they’re thinking differently, and what the new “normal” might look like.
For information about AHA Data and updates on COVID-19 data resources, head to https://www.ahadata.com/ or contact us at 312-422-3000, ahadatainfo@aha.org. For assistance from a SHSMD representative, e-mail us at SHSMD@aha.org.