COVID Got Real Real For Me This Week

Author’s Note: These essays are from the “unprecedented” year that was indeed like no other – 2020. The audience was marketers, but I think many of the lessons learned apply to many of us and will last far beyond the time that the word “unprecedented” (thankfully) no longer describes the times we live in. This one is about how my dealing with COVID was a reminder that everyone was in their own way, in their own time.

Volume 3: April

I am writing this, as I have been doing for seemingly a very long time now, while “working from home.” Only today, because it is one of those rare and must-be-celebrated beautiful spring days, I am writing from our patio. I can’t help but shake an eerie feeling of déjà vu — the skies look identical to what they looked like on the afternoon of 9/11. Beautiful and bright — and no planes overhead. It is an eerie and painful reminder of another dark time for all of us.

Frankly, I’ve been dreading this week … and if I am honest, the next week or so too. Like many of us, I watch a lot of news and read every update that comes across my phone, so I have been trying to prepare myself for the reality of the likelihood that the numbers of people who have lost their lives to COVID-19 will rise to frightening new levels.

As a marketer, I would be disingenuous if I didn’t acknowledge that in addition to the pit in my stomach that comes with that prediction, I also know that on the other side of those horrendous numbers is likely to be that flattening curve that we all have been waiting/praying for to get on with our “normal lives.” With that in mind, on Monday I felt sure that I should write about how we as marketers should be preparing for recovery — for that other side I keep thinking about.

But I can’t seem to get that story started. And here’s why — Tuesday was a very different day than Monday this week.

COVID-19 hit home for me in three very different ways in the last 24 hours.

I learned yesterday that someone I know lost his life to this dreadful virus on Sunday. I’ve known him since grade school. He introduced me to “Angie” by Rod Stewart when we were in middle school — which was likely the exact moment I developed a fairly significant crush on him. We’ve not stayed close beyond the class reunions, Facebook posts and waves while out and about in our shared hometown, but I’ve enjoyed keeping up with his life. He was married with three children and two grandchildren. He deserves to be remembered — his name was Pete Davis and he will be missed. He was real to me and the first person I’ve personally known who lost their life to COVID-19.

There are so many different ways this becomes real to us, but here is another one for me. My husband is definitely not one to show emotion — I can probably count on one hand the times I have seen him cry in our 28 years together. John Prine’s death made him cry, and so Bob’s tears became mine as he played John Prine songs on his guitar. Even losing people we’ve only admired from afar can impact us in such deep ways.

And the last way I experienced this in the last 24 hours is through the death of someone I never saw, whose name was not even known to me. Since I was a little girl, I grew up watching Good Morning America with my mother. It has remained as my morning show habit. This morning, I was frozen in place, watching Robin Roberts tearfully share the news that a long-time GMA cameraman had died from COVID-19. As I teared up myself, I wondered how I could feel such a loss because of someone I never knew? But I did and I suspect we all have or will at some point.

So today — for me anyway — the fear, and even some of the optimism I work so hard to hang on to, has been replaced by another emotion.

I am simply very sad. And I know for certain I am not alone.

As marketers we need to remember than even when we target a group or a demographic, because of these unprecedented (yes, there is that word again) times and circumstances, every member of that group is also an individual human first — and the day they receive our marketing message they, too, just may happen to be very sad.

That doesn’t mean we go dark and wait until we are all collectively happy again. Of course not. Nor does it mean if “light and humorous” is the brand’s persona we should change our tone. But what it does mean, now more than ever, is that it is important to remember that every single member of your target audience is a human first. And as we’ve been warned, the next week or two (and possibly more) are expected to be very difficult for all of us humans.

So, what should we do as marketers?

Lead our communications with empathy. Every single time.

You will be remembered and trusted for that on the other side.