What seemed like YEARS in review

This was a year like no other, right? So the common digitally-pushed year-end review should be like no other, too…? 

Kinda.

Yes, companies continue to do the usual ‘pull’ of YOUR activity and encourage sharing. Lookin’ at you Spotify, quick out of the gate. 

Others like Lyft and Uber have a more challenging time, showing a massive downturn in usage.

But what’s a company to do THIS year? Especially when ‘sponsored gratitude’ has a wonky way of coming off.

A few thoughts we had at our HQ:

• Find the futurescape
  • Look for ways to push our users ahead in advance of year-end
  • Optimistically ‘show’ users in a happy place in 2021; double down on ‘you might dig this’ perhaps
• Focus less on activity or usage data, and share all that feels as custom and humanistic as possible
  • Collages of friends and family, individualized, is already a thing, but go deep on more clever, unique ways to literally and figuratively bring people together
  • Consider a way to link or suggest connectivity that’s NOT as a result of a ‘buy this’ or ‘use more.’ 
• GIVE – and in a breakthrough way
  • Imagine companies brainstorming the one clever thing that they will do to help uplift 2021, and make it a priority
  • Be brand-appropriate, but be TRULY creative and customer-centric in that one action, keeping in mind that not everyone needs to make PPE or create disinfectant

More than anything, we hope this bizarre year will cause companies to NOT look at their businesses, consumers, and even shareholders in the ‘usual’ way. 

Perhaps we can shift the year-end usuals to be less a review and more a revelation. 

Here’s to 2021 – and beyond.