Agency work in times of Corona

The biggest challenge since I have been running the agency, Corona Covid-19

I have been running the agency dietz.digital since 1995, formerly known as Dietz Kommunikation or dietzk. The year 2020 and the Corona pandemic situation is certainly the biggest test since I became self-employed and active in this industry. Home office for all employees is still the easiest part. What it does to our consciousness, how we will move forward in the future, and what impact it will have on the entire industry is already another question.

To start with the good: All employees have actively accepted the situation and immediately switched to home office work. Thus, also into a new situation not learned by all employees. A great experience for me as the agency head. Everyone is embracing the challenge well. Everyone is participating and we are all maintaining our positive attitude. Agency work can continue. For those who have children at home and do not always receive full support from family or partners, it is certainly not all that easy. My boys are old enough; the eldest already works at the agency. The second one hopefully takes his high school diploma this year, if it doesn’t turn out differently due to the pandemic.

We are optimally networked, as we have switched our systems for years and do not need any server structures in the agency. Through the daily work in our dietz.digital Private Cloud, we were already able to work from anywhere in the world three years ago. This helps immensely now. VPN networks or other systems from "yesterday" are not necessary for us. Anyone entering our agency’s "server room" will be very surprised. So the "switch" worked out great. One wonders these days why we still actually need the agency spaces. But it all has its justification, only home office is not quite the ideal.

I am basically an optimist :-), but there is a challenge to master

I am convinced that the mindset of seeing the glass as always half full and not half empty is the foundation for success. Getting back up again and again, even when things do not work out, is a fundamental belief that can actually help in one’s private life as well.

Agency work in times of Corona teaches much more, though. At least for me, I am finding that I am engaging much more with my daily private life in the family and not solely focused on the pursuit of the next business success. One learns to appreciate things and situations more, which makes one more satisfied. If that isn’t a positive effect amidst all the suffering this virus causes.

Agencies depend on a strong economy; agency work needs an active economic life

Despite all the positive fundamental beliefs, the laws of the market are not suspended. When clients go into short-time work, stores close, and thus sales not only stagnate but come to a complete standstill, this also affects the agencies. We, as dietz.digital, are certainly a special case here. A bit more crisis-resistant due to our software tools, immediately operational due to our digital setup, and rather engaged in topics that have little to do with classical advertising anymore. But still, this only works for a certain time and ultimately affects the main cost factors, which are the personnel costs. We do everything to avoid that. Short-time work is currently not an issue for us. And the controlling is so tightly controlled that avoidable costs are indeed avoided at all levels.

Many companies are certainly hit much harder and robbed of their entire business foundation. In these times, it particularly shows who has the perseverance and how we can help each other. I experience very beautiful moments here daily that give me the feeling that there is indeed something like community in our solidarity system.

Employees: The gold of the agencies

And we must preserve this. Because the strength of agencies lies in the strength of their DNA, the employees. Only if this strength remains can we continue to be successful and actively and significantly advance our clients, essentially deliver good agency work. Therefore, it is also important for the clients of the agencies, often large billion-dollar corporations, not to abandon their service providers, and to ensure they survive economically.

Agencies must be enabled to at least achieve a capital cushion that allows them to survive a few weeks when times are tough. Pitches without money, pitches that have already been decided in advance. Calculations that are torpedoed by counteroffers that lack any economic basis. By now, enormous payment terms that are often exceeded do not help matters either.

But agencies often deal with the daily challenges much too carelessly. Actively saving for hard times is certainly a foreign concept. In an industry where everything always "must" go up, no one sets aside anything for the tough times that are always coming. Perhaps this is a realization that will remain with us after this crisis. However, I unfortunately do not have much hope that it will become deeply rooted.