How has your company been impacted by concerns over the coronavirus–or the virus itself if a worker or client has been stricken–in terms of business, your staff, client relationships?
The immediate impact for us was, of course, having to vacate our studio and quickly devising methods to maintain our workflow from twenty-two separate locations (people’s homes).
The well-being, health and safety of people is clearly top priority. What measures have you taken to protect your staff and collaborators during this challenging time?
Our primary concern was, and continues to be, the health & well being of our employees so, out of an abundance of caution, we implemented a work-from-home mandate very early in the crisis. More than half of our artists commute to work via public transportation so we wanted to do everything we could, as early as we could, to help mitigate their risk for exposure. We’re very grateful that, so far, none of our people have contracted the virus and that, with luck and common sense, none of them will.
How have you adapted your behavior, practices, policies, approaches, ways of thinking and doing business in response to the pandemic?
Our amazing and creative staff, coupled with all the technology that post production has access to, meant we did not have to make too many adjustments to our behavior or practices. These two elements have been paramount in easing our artist’s transition to working from home.
Of course, it takes more time to upload and download assets than it would with shared storage so we’ve had to make adjustments to schedules and expectations more than any other aspect of our operations.
On the policy side of things, we are having to make additions to our bid forms to include language regarding transmission failures resulting from internet outages or slow-downs (due to traffic) as well as security caveats related to shipping things like drives given that people, including clients themselves, are receiving these items at their homes if not, in fact, having them left on their doorsteps.
Our new reality is that there are now more things that we just can’t control that are suddenly critical to our ability to both work fluidly and deliver completed work on-time.
Were you in the midst of a particular project when the coronavirus outbreak hit and how did you manage to deal with that situation?
Utopic was in the middle of working on several projects when the pandemic forced us to leave our studio but none of those projects experienced more than an six to eight hour delay as assets were copied to drives and necessary hardware was moved into people’s homes and apartments which made for a very low-impact on project schedules. All of our clients at the time were not only completely understanding but supportive, and even appreciative, of our efforts to not unduly affect their timelines.
Looking back now, and saying this only from the perspective of project-management, the transition was easier than I could’ve imagined.
What’s your biggest takeaway or lessons learned from your experience dealing with coronavirus concerns thus far?
My biggest takeaway from this pandemic so far has been an even deeper sense of awe and appreciation for the agility and adaptability of our staff – they’ve been amazing throughout this whole ordeal.
What advice, if any, would you offer to your counterparts at other companies/agencies, your clients and collaborators?
For production and post production, the only advice I feel safe offering is to get involved (if you aren’t already) with organizations like the AICP who have been absolutely invaluable during this crisis.
Everyone in our industry is being negatively impacted by this new reality and learning from the experiences of others during this pandemic has been not only enormously helpful but comforting as well. We are incredibly lucky to have a group like the AICP as they serve as a reminder that we’re not alone in this and that our businesses have a better chance of making it through the tumult if we stand together.
Contingency plans have been prepared by many in light of the situation. Please share any aspects of those plans or tell us how your short and long-term business plans have been affected.
Our initial contingency plans revolve around strengthening our relationship with our bank, communicating with our landlord as well as keeping a close eye on Federal programs like the CARES Act and the SBA’s EIDL program – should the need for assistance arise.
As for business planning, it’s nearly impossible for us to adhere to any long-term business plans at this point as the current situation is too fluid for that to be sound.
Additionally, there are too many factors beyond our control that make the thought of long-term planning daunting at best. One example being that our business is entirely dependent upon brands and their need/ability to market – when brands market, agencies get busy and when agencies get busy, we get to work. Unfortunately, we (as a post production business) can’t influence that chain much.
It’s said that strength emerges from adversity. Do you see any silver lining or positive dynamic emerging for our industry/marketplace from this global health crisis?
It’s been inspiring to witness the resiliency of our industry, both locally and nationally. From production to post, from agencies to brands, everyone is striving to develop business-solutions to the challenges we now face as a result of this virus–and they’re doing it together.
Have you deployed your company’s creative and communication skills to address the pandemic (PSAs, educational videos, other initiatives)? Please tell us about these efforts.
Very little that’s been pandemic-centric, instead we’re focusing our efforts on normative communications because the only thing that’s different for our business is that we’re not in our physical offices, so we want to project a sense of “it’s business as usual, we’re here for you”
