#MarketingEventsAwards 2020 highlight: Now Comms Asia's tenacity in the face of rapid change

Now Comms Asia is a full-fledged marketing agency with abilities in managing all aspects of the advertising process from strategic planning, creative content production to interactive services, highly sought after in today’s digital world. Incorporated in Singapore for over eight years, the agency has an eighteen-year history in Asia, allowing seamless delivery across the world’s most diverse market.

Just like any other agencies, Now Comms Asia’s plans for the year were greatly disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being agile and resilient, the agency focused on honing its capability of creating virtual and hybrid events- ones suited for the new normal in the economy.

The agency’s quick pivot in business and operations got it recognised at this year's Marketing Events Awards. It won the bronze award for Best use of Hosting Platforms, as well as silver for Best Team (Agency). Additionally it came in as a finalist for Best Virtual Event (B2B).

Challenge

Over a weekend in mid-March, the world changed. Worries from the COVID-19 virus became a complete halt to international travel and group meetings. Lockdown and thoughts of expansion became thoughts of survival. In the next few days, 60% of the upcoming pipeline at Now Comms Asia disappeared.

As the week commenced, the CEO directed the company to pivot fast. The 5% of work which made up online events needed to become significantly more and the agency’s commitment to help customers communicate with their key audiences had to be resolved in this very different environment.

Strategy

In quick response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all management in the company took an immediate pay cut to try to ensure the continued employment of all staff. Within two weeks, talks with clients moved from “how do you close off your event” to “how do you continue to communicate with your audience effectively?”

Creative approaches ensued – from getting information to audiences and finding engaging formats in a remote working scenario. New skills were learnt by all. A “virtual event broadcast studio” was built in under a month, the team found themselves not with less events, but with more. Existing clients starting engaging on new projects and asking for ways to do it. Then lockdown hit and the entire team moved to doing this from their homes, and still continued to invent solutions to previously non-existent communication issues. Existing clients recommended them to other clients and the agency’s client base grew.

The dedication of the team continued on seeing more than 100 online events and hybrid events completed in the last six months. In a time when event agencies have had to close, the team at Now Comms Asia continued to answer the need of clients and the inspired dedicated group of 25 is now 50, in five short months. No redundancies needed to happen as the team reskilled to continuously deliver.

Results

The agency’s recognition grew globally. Now Comms Asia’s client base grew from 40 to 60, and audiences engaged increased by 10 times. Its client base extended from ANZ to Japan, Korea and China, as well as throughout South Asia and across to India.

Now Comms Asia also managed to create 16,422 experiential memories, over 6000 customer leads, and 287 live viewers over three days. It also generated more than SG$30 million worth of sales.

Now hybrid-event ready, the agency is ever-ready for the next stage of this new normal.