We recently held a series of online breakfast briefings, looking at the impact of COVID-19 on business and society and some of the ways in which that might impact – and create opportunities – for communications professionals in 2021.

We’ve now collected the videos of each session, which are embedded below – if you’d like to speak to anyone at Grayling about how we can help you take advantage of any of the trends discussed, please get in touch.

Session One: Feeling Emotional

Ben Cooper, Global Social Media Lead at the world’s biggest dating app, Badoo, will be in conversation with Grayling’s Jonny Curtis and Kat McGettigan to delve into Trend 1: Feeling Emotional.

For brands and businesses, knowing how to adapt to, and accommodate, the shifting emotions of staff, stakeholders and customers, is likely to be increasingly critical and we will discuss how businesses can and should address the emotional toll that COVID-19 is taking on all of us. How can we successfully continue to forge conversation and connections as we continue to live in uncertain times?

Grayling’s Bitesize Breakfast Briefing: Trend #1 – Feeling Emotional (Q4 2020) from GraylingUK on Vimeo.

Session Two: Please Entertain Us

Talal Musa, Head of Digital Media, from leading global esports business, Gfinity, will be in conversation with Grayling’s Nathan Kemp and Estelle Boon to delve into Trend 2: Please Entertain Us

With TV schedules looking threadbare; live entertainment off-limits for the foreseeable and people staring down the barrel of another lockdown, we are more in need of entertainment and distraction than ever before.

How can brands and businesses step up and help fill this need and demand for escapism and entertainment? The conversation will explore how, through the right partnerships and creators, brands can make effective in-roads into becoming content creators.

Grayling’s Bitesize Breakfast Briefing: Trend #2 – Please Entertain Us from GraylingUK on Vimeo.

Session Three: Know Your Audience

Josh Glendinning, Partner at global research firm, Opinium Research, will be in conversation with Grayling’s Bethany Pearson and Craig Ling to delve into Trend 3: Know Your Audiences.

We saw in wave one that Covid-19 affects different communities, and different people, in drastically different ways. A one-size-fits-all approach to your communications in wave two simply won’t work; particularly as we see increasingly regional and localised approaches to lockdown measures, as well as vast differences in how different generations are responding.

Our conversation will explore how brands can most effectively create strategies to target diverse communities with an audience-led approach, taking into account the divergent experiences of the ‘new normal’.

Grayling’s Bitesize Breakfast Briefing: Trend #3 – Know Your Audience from GraylingUK on Vimeo.

Session Four: Spotting The Opportunities

The Rt. Hon the Baroness Morgan of Cotes will be in conversation with Grayling’s Alan Boyd-Hall and Joey Jones to delve into Trend 4: Spotting the Opportunities

A lot of focus (rightly) has been about the negative impact that Covid-19 continues to have on business and the real difficulties that are being faced by many sectors. However, there are also developing opportunities. How can businesses spot these opportunities through sensitively navigating consumer & economic trends, as well as policymaker priorities?

Our discussion will look at how to successfully navigate these environments and to continue to find ways to grow business even against the most challenging of backdrops.

Grayling’s Bitesize Breakfast Briefing: Trend #4 – Spotting the Opportunities from GraylingUK on Vimeo.

Session Five: Uncertain Futures

Tiffany Arntson, Founder of trends agency, Rogue Matters, will be in conversation with Grayling’s Tom Nutt and Julian Cirrone to delve into Trend 5: Uncertain Futures

If the past six months have taught us anything, it’s that making predictions and plans is harder than ever before. With the next six months likely to be as changeable as the last, consumers are more than ever needing brands and businesses to be as flexible as our everyday lives have become. How can we successfully create campaigns and strategies that will help navigate uncertainty? Our conversation will explore how brands and businesses can embrace uncertain futures to remain relevant and sensitive to the ever-changing world around us.

Grayling’s Bitesize Breakfast Briefing: Trend #5 – Uncertain Futures from GraylingUK on Vimeo.

For more information on any of the above, or to discuss how Grayling can create advantage for your business, email us here