"Humor is a tool you can use to surprise and delight your customers," said Scott Greggory, our Chief Creative Officer. "It can be especially effective when it's unexpected, like it is in the on hold environment and many other customer touchpoints, from website copy and direct mail to packaging and corporate video."

And when mixed with information that serves a real need, humor can attract and maintain an audience's attention longer and create memorable brand impressions.

The judging panel at The Communicator Awards agrees. During their 2020 competition, they honored two Humor On Hold productions from BusinessVoice, our Caller Experience Marketing agency.

Our unique work for Lakeland Auto and Marine called “Previously” was acknowledged with a Gold Award. "All Roads," an On Hold Marketing production we created for Binkelman, won a Silver Award. You can hear both winners in the videos below.

The Communicator Awards is a leading international awards program that recognizes big ideas in marketing and communications. The show is judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an invitation-only organization of leading professionals from various forms of traditional and interactive media. The current membership is a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising and marketing firms, including GE Digital, Republica, Tinder, PureMatter, Tool of North America, Fast Company, Territory Studios and others.

Written by Jerry Brown, Chief Executive Officer

I recently heard a story about Albert Einstein.

He had just given an exam to the seniors in the physics class he taught. While collecting the completed tests, his aide noticed a similarity between the exam the students just took and the one Einstein had given the class when they were juniors the year before.

When she questioned him, he admitted they were indeed the same exams. She asked him why he wasn’t concerned that the questions this year were exactly the same as last year's. Einstein replied, “Because the answers have changed.”

That got me thinking…

Why is it that once we find an answer to a problem, we don’t revisit that situation in the future to see if we can come up with a better alternative?

How often do we present ourselves with only one solution to a problem and call it a day?

Why do we tend to look at a problem from only one perspective or with only one focus?

How often do we confine our solutions to fit within a prescribed set of restrictions or parameters?

Is it because we assume nothing’s changed?

Do we tell ourselves “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

Are we not inspired or do we have other priorities?

Do we lack the bandwidth or time we’d need to invest in new solutions?

Or, is it because we don’t have the “know how” or the confidence to determine the problem, let alone come up with multiple solutions?

And if that’s the case, do we know who can identify the problem and then solve it for us? Is it an employee? Is it an internal department? If so, do they have the expertise, time and resources?

Or do we need to go out of house to get it done? If so, where do we go?

Those are the types of questions we often put off if we spend most of our time working “IN” our business - performing daily tasks and putting out fires - and not enough time working “ON” on our business, positioning it for the future.

This pandemic is providing us all with opportunities to become much better companies.

It’s easy to be successful when the economy is rockin’, but it’s during times like these that business leaders earn their stripes.

So, how do you better position your company?

First, start by performing audits - deep audits. I’d suggest auditing your marketing (with a special emphasis on your digital strengths and weaknesses); your competitive landscape, and how you’re positioned in it; and your customer experience (across all touchpoints). I also recommend analyzing your product and service offerings, distribution channels, and your CRM and workflow systems.

Second, look at which functions you want to bring or keep in-house, and which you should outsource.

Finally, prioritize your initiatives into three stages: 1) getting through this immediate situation, 2) positioning yourself to quickly take off once the economy re-opens, and 3) driving the new company you want to be.

On Sunday, March 22nd, Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton issued a “Stay at Home” directive for all Ohio residents, ordering that non-essential businesses cease all but minimum basic operations.

With help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Director Acton identified those essential businesses, as well as supporting companies.

Since MadAveGroup provides essential communication and media services, we are considered an Essential Business and will continue to operate at full capacity.

We also support essential businesses, such as community-based government operations and those in the healthcare, finance, food, production industries, and other essential fields.

While most of our agency’s employees will be working from home, our offices will remain open to conduct services that cannot be fulfilled remotely. Feel free to contact us as you always have.

(Need help now? Or maybe you'd like a call later once your team is back together. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get started or call him directly at 419/724-7311.)

Of course, health and safety is paramount. So, we will continue to take every precaution to keep our team members and their families safe while we work to fulfill your marketing and communication needs.

We’ve been creating video, audio and digital content for many of our clients so they can share their response to the COVID-19 crisis. We’ve also prepared several blog posts with tips on how you can adjust your marketing strategies and content for this unique environment. Here are the links:

     • Prepare Now for the Post-Pandemic World
     • Think Strategically About Your Response to Coronavirus
     • How to Update Your Digital Marketing in Response to COVID-19
     • Can You See an Opportunity?

We can provide the strategic guidance and tactical execution to help you through this crisis and then emerge even stronger when the outbreak subsides.

For 30 years, we’ve been working to help our clients grow. We have no plans to stop now.

Stay well.

Jerry Brown, Founder & CEO
MadAveGroup