I cannot believe it’s been a year. March 2020 was the starting point for it. Since the pandemic started, my perspective of work as VP Sales has changed dramatically. As the whole world created a new routine due to the global pandemic, I also believed the whole digital industry changed and adapted to a new way of working.
Here are a few takeaways from that year that are here to stay, improving the work-life balance in the evolving remote working era.
I remember coming back from my family ski vacation and thinking about the self-isolation at home with my kids. I got so stressed; how can I work with the kids around? How can I make phone calls? How can I be productive at work without letting my kids watching TV all day?
Luckily, we found our internal routine managing the best way we could. With the rest of the world locked at home it became easier and less stressful, knowing we are all in the same boat.
A new way to stir up the conversation.
I decided to change a bit my way of contacting people, trying to be more personal and funny. Guess what? People are at home; they are trying to do in 5 hours what they usually do in 8 and they are anxious about the future: Make them smile.
Most of the people I contacted in March and April shut down their budgets for mobile digital acquisition. Gaming, Education, Entertainment and Shopping got so many organic installs, they did not even need to pay for installs. According to a report from AppAnnie, download numbers jumped to 30% in the months of January through March in China with 284.3 million new downloads in February 2020. That peak had a later onset in Western countries.
Zoom became the third app to surpass 300 million downloads in Q2 2020. The presence of Google Meet, with over 100 million downloads, Telegram with over 75 million, and Microsoft Teams with over 50 million, indicates a definite skewing towards those apps that allow us to stay in touch. Google Classroom’s 50 million-plus downloads point to the need to find solutions to ensure education was undisrupted.
Yes, Q2 of 2020 was by far one of the most challenging quarters I experienced in my digital career but surprisingly, we brought promising clients to our company, such as Hepsiburada and Fugo Games. User Acquisition managers were more open to try some new ways of growth to test. Things happened slowly and results were achieved non the less.
Zoom conference calls became our new routine and I really enjoyed seeing faces of people, making us feel more connected and personal (with the costume background unique to each).
I also know that I am better at selling to people face to face, conversations are usually more dynamic and more open. You can understand people without talking to them through a video call, understanding if they are in or not.
Yes, Covid-19 brought me a lot of positive aspects in my career; I learned how to work with a lot of background noise, I learned how to be more comfortable on video calls, I learned how to be more caring about people in front of me and I learned how to manage a whole team without sitting next to them.
Our Zoomd’s HR took care of us, calling, asking, checking that we are well and yes, sending goodies :). She created a WhatsApp group where she added the 100 employees of Zoomd in Israel. This was genius! We had to wait for this pandemic to be all so connected and so close to each other.
Connected ha? The world has never been so connected and especially on mobile. In 2020, we spent 1.6 Trillion hours on mobile and we expect to get 7 billion mobile users worldwide.
For good or bad? Let’s see in 10 years. In the meantime, Mobile is booming and Zoomd understood the stakes of this new economy. We offer tailor-made media plans for our clients, Social, CGC, SDK, Programmatic, SaaS and more. The world is moving to a new era and we follow it.
Covid had a good and bad impact on our lives this year and I prefer to remember only the good things; being challenged in my professional life and spending more time with my family.
About Deborah Cohen- VP Sales:
Over the years of experience, Deborah had the opportunity to develop and apply her skills through different job positions in NY and Israel. Results-driven, highly professional, team leader, Deborah proved many times that she gets the job done! Blessed with an international culture, she understands the stakes of communication in business proposals.