As part of our new series, ‘Marketers Playbook for 2020 Post Covid-19?, Piali Dasgupta, VP- Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities lists the factors that will dictate marketing strategies going forward  There are four factors that will dictate the marketing strategy for brands going forward. 1)      Medium Shift: Most brands will shift their offline, specifically OOH budget to digital, because for some time at least, people will continue to limit their exposure to the outside world. Spends will be reduced on print because a large section of the population believe that newspapers carry the virus and hence have stopped taking newspapers at home. The budgets for print will be shifted to television as people are watching more television than ever as they are self-quarantined/socially distanced and the TV consumption went up by 38% during the lockdown. There is no longer a concept of prime time in television as every hour is now a prime time. Television channels are also offering spots at discounted prices, trying to lure advertisers to loosen their purse strings. Major advertisers such as HUL have already increased their TV inventory by almost 40% 2)      Consumer Confidence: Most brands would do well to focus on communicating safety and precautionary measures implemented in the customer journey in the post lockdown days. Let’s face it: consumer confidence has never been lower and brands across verticals – from retail to F&B, hospitality to real estate, need to win the customer’s confidence back using communication effectively. Brands that are able to do this well will bounce back faster than those that don’t treat this as priority. 3)      Bottom Line Focus: Once the lockdown is lifted, businesses will be under pressure to make up for the lost time and chase revenue goals for the quarter. Most companies will be very bottom line focused at least for some time to sustain themselves. And marketing and communication would have to deliver to that end. 4)      KPI Focused Marketing: With marketing budgets slashed significantly across verticals, there will be a need to deliver more with less. Limited resources would mean being more inventive and creative. But it would also mean cutting down on frills. For example, brands, particularly lifestyle brands, that earlier spent lavishly on engaging influencers to promote their products and services, would now perhaps focus more on PR, to drive and own a compelling narrative and build a voice of authority to help their business sustain. Marketing would be more KPI focused for the next three quarters at least, and it would all marketing efforts would have to deliver specific business goals. How Columbia Pacific Communities Is Looking To Engage With The Consumer In The ‘New Normal’? Columbia Pacific Communities caters to the senior population of the country – a demography that is worst hit by the pandemic. Seniors not only feel the most vulnerable during this time, but also feel the need to be meaningfully engaged to ensure that they are not consumed by the negative news swirling around them. Our focus would be to leverage digital channels optimally to ensure our seniors are actively and meaningfully engaged while they continue to spend their time indoors. That’s how the idea of The Living Room was born. It’s a series of virtual talk shows and sessions with luminaries and experts, in order to engage senior citizens in a dialogue. These talk shows are being hosted through the live video streaming feature of Facebook, FB Live. We are using technology and the power of social media to bring people closer at a time when social distancing is the order of the day. Doctors, psychologists, motivational speakers along with luminaries such as actor-director Nandita Das, cricket commentator Charu Sharma, actor Kabir Bedi are among the people that have appeared on the chat show to inspire and motivate seniors. The idea of community living, and a whole community standing behind you during crisis, is what we want to build our narrative around through engaging communication. A community not only takes care of the immediate needs of seniors but also provides them a highly controlled and sanitised environment, thereby keeping risks of a pandemic low. And this is a narrative we would like to drive across our communication touch points including digital and PR.