Effie Pakistan jury sessions 2021 kickstarted in Karachi’s Marriott Hotel on the 22nd and 23rd of January. At the event, jurors from the media, marketing, and advertising industry meet to grade the most influential and effective Pakistani campaigns. We asked industry leaders from Pakistan’s media, marketing and advertising industry about how brands and their marketing communication adapted to the change the pandemic has brought upon everyone.

Sara Koraishy, CEO  JWT Grey

A lot of purposeful communication came out. It was mainly building consumer awareness around hygiene. We learned a lot in the last 11 months as consumers, marketers, and communication experts. We had to find different ways to touch consumers digitally, which became extremely important but obviously, very purposeful messaging and very in messaging that was relevant when it needed to be out there.

Syed Sohaib Hassan,  Manager Brands & Digital Marketing, Amreli Steels Ltd

It was the first time that Amreli Steals had broken its campaign on digital rather than TV. So the good part was that it worked very well for us because the communication in itself was content worthy

Urooj Ahmed, Director Digital and User Experience,  Adcom Leo Burnett

It was a turning point because, you know, every other brand then wanted to hop onto digital- specifically the brands that never thought that digital was an important part of their touchpoint strategy. But specifically, in digital, if I see e-commerce has seen a good upsurge because every brand wanted to be on e-commerce and sell their products online.

And then what we  saw was the gap bridging between the content produced for the brand. The brands increasingly wanted each content piece that was being produced linked back to an e-commerce channel.  So it should endorse purchase, it should result in an action where the purchase is being made, or even a trial generation is being done.

Syed Salman Ali, Director Planning, Mullen Lowe Group

The fact that brands were forced to find a purpose in these unprecedented times is beautiful. And all the cases we’re looking at, there is a reflection of that in all of them. What’s interesting is that brands were also forced to identify new mediums of advertising. Digital picked up. These were tough times, but we should not leave these good habits behind as we are getting back to our feet. The only recommendation that I would have for brands and agencies and communication partners is to be purposeful as they were in the times of the pandemic.

Raheel Yousuf, Head of Marketing and Brand Management, Bank Alfalah

It is a challenging year for banking, especially marketing because there are new products coming in and a lot of thought process going into the digital banking side. People are not coming to the branches and a greater responsibility has therefore come on us as marketers. We were marketing on digital platforms, but we have engaged more on digital platforms and on TV too ( not leaving that out). The year 2021 will also not be easy. It will be a challenging year again because the spillover of 2020 will remain.

Seema Jaffer, CEO of Bond Advertising

Health has become a priority. Work from home has become a new normal. The way we interact with each other has changed. There is a lot of empathy, I think, with our colleagues and our peers in the workplace. We have learnt and realized now that we are not stuck to a desk or chained to a geographical location.”

 

I think agencies and even clients have realized that they can work and can be adaptive, and I think a priority is keeping oneself safe and healthy. I think we’ve all adapted well to that!

From what we have gathered, brands have finally recognized digital as an essential touchpoint. The introduction of e-commerce has been initiated in the Pakistani market and both clients and agencies have realized they can work efficiently and remotely.

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