COVID lockdown 5th anniversary: Ad industry leaders share lessons and learnings

This Sunday (23 March) it will be five years since Britain was plunged into its first lockdown as a result of the global COVID pandemic.

It seems so long ago, but much has changed since those days when we were all forced ‘work from home’ and find new ways to stay sane amid a – hopefully once in a lifetime – change to the way we all lived and worked.

Ahead of Sunday’s anniversary, we asked industry leaders from the advertising, media and marketing world’s to share how the lockdown affected them, their business and their workplace culture, but more importantly the lessons they learned and how it’s changed the way they work today…

Nick Fettiplace, Managing Director UK, Jellyfish

“The pandemic has had a profound impact on the world of advertising and marketing.

“The debt many brands took on to survive COVID was significant, and in the years that followed – as interest rates soared – the cost of that debt increased, putting immense strain on businesses of all sizes.

“One major consequence was a reduction in advertising and marketing budgets, forcing brands and their agencies to be more strategic and accountable with their investments.

“With every penny mattering more than ever, the pandemic ushered in a new era of accountability and efficiency in marketing. Simply put, less needed to achieve more – and with greater transparency.

“Although the effects of the pandemic are still being felt, not all of the changes have been negative. Reflecting on how we operated at Jellyfish pre-pandemic versus today, the difference is like night and day.

“One of the most exciting shifts has been our evolution of proprietary technology, particularly in AI.

“We’ve embraced a more autonomous marketing approach, leveraging AI and agents to deliver end-to-end solutions across insights, creative, media, and measurement— achieving results faster, more cost-effectively, and at a scale previously unattainable.

“It’s unlikely we would have seen such rapid, widespread adoption of these innovations had the economic conditions driven by the pandemic not emerged.