The Corona crisis has hit our entire society and the working industry very hard. The effects are particularly far-reaching, especially for the event industry. As an agency for brand communication with major projects in the event sector, we at CUBE brand communications are directly affected by this. However, we also see this crisis as an opportunity to develop our agency.
In the sector of experiential marketing, our scope of services was very limited when we were commissioned as lead agency of the Audi driving experience center due to the temporary closure of the customer center. After the restart, our team will gradually increase the activities again. Also the project planning of our second major project in this business area as exclusive event partner of Safety Park South Tyrol was influenced sustainably. After we made the foundation for the independent marketing of brand-neutral Driving & Riding programs last year, the market approach is now delayed due to the prolonged crisis in Italy. Only in our division of brand building we have implemented the planned marketing & communication services for our clients e.telligent, digitalwerk and the INSTART group almost without restriction. In the high-tech working environments, our customers were less affected by the Corona pandemic. So we were able to continue working almost without capacity restrictions.
"First of all the most important thing for us in this difficult situation was that all our employees are in the best of health," explains Managing Director and co-owner Dr. Michael Schilhaneck. In order to best protect the health of the team during this time, the management developed a comprehensive hygiene concept right at the beginning of the crisis. The concept included the protective measures to be observed in the office premises and also regulated the presence and absence of individual employees. Thanks to the laptops and smartphones and our digital working structures, the transition to the home office wasn’t a challenge.
"At the same time as ensuring the health of our employees, the management's focus was on safeguarding our business activities," says founder and Managing Director Frank Fichtner, looking back on the initial phase of the Corona pandemic. The signs of the crisis were recognized early and the company reacted immediately to the negative development of the situation by applying for short-time work for a large part of the team, Fichtner continued. The rapid decision to use the short-time working model was a central factor in the continuation of business operations.
From the beginning on the management also attached great importance to regular communication within the team in order to create transparency as well as understanding for this exceptional situation. "Given the fact of the continuously changing framework conditions, our task was to take away the team's worries and fears regarding the unprecedented short-time work situation", Dr. Michael Schilhaneck explains the communication rounds. Fichtner finds also words of praise for the staff: "At this point, I would like to express great praise for the team's patience and discipline during this extreme situation. Every member of staff recognized the seriousness of the situation and behaved in an exemplary manner. This shows how well we function in this hard time." Fichtner was very pleased with the positive entries on the employer assessment platform kununu: "This is the confirmation that we did the right thing during this difficult crisis."
One aspect of crisis management that should not be underestimated was that during this time, the Managing Directors consciously turned their attention to the future, in order to work intensively on the development of CUBE brand communications. In addition to further trainings of selected employees, a new strategic agency business field was identified. This is the future-oriented field of (driving) programs for the new leading technologies of the automotive industry. The aim of the programs is to contribute the acceptance of new products and features in the target groups.
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