A key lesson that is being offered by the COVID-19 health emergency is on the ‘how we communicate’ – not only with each other, but overall, as citizens, employees of organizations and cohabitating humans.

Communication in times of lockdown has become an essential feature which will enable both empathetic and understandable response. Yet, at the same instance, hasty and irresponsible behaviour pertaining to communication in the day and age of social media – has put forward interesting issues related to public administration, rumour milling and fake news.

While these aspects are for us as a society to ponder upon and resolve as human beings. Industry and organizational integrity are heavily reliant on clear communication which has firm message built within.

A commendable insight shared by Ogilvy during this time of crises has been how organizations need to leverage communication, ascertain stakeholders, and then build a plan to move the touch points – consistent and considerate.

Essential service sector – banks, grocery and food distribution, delivery, and supply chains along with industries are facing a task to not only meet the ever-evolving scenario of public health emergency. It must convince its workforce to step out in some of the most testing and trying time – especially when we take into consideration the mortality COVID-19 has piled up.

• Banking institutions have developed their own SOPs for cash handling, restocking ATM machines and customer hygiene etiquette.
• Grocery, food and essential item delivery and supply chain have started issuing hygiene guidelines and handover protocols when they deliver at your doorstep.
• Similar, guidelines have been issued for healthcare professionals, hospitals, and clinics to mount a preventive response.

Animation for better communication

The crucial factors under the current context are:

• Effective message communication, clarity of instructions and message deliver.
• Timely distribution, linguistic coverage, and mechanism of allowing plug and play delivery.
• Reproducibility in-line with the evolving nature of the biological threat.

All these factors with outstanding message delivery are the hallmarks of safety animation. They can not only be used to create stepwise SOPs, but also provide detailed pointers within the animation movies to deliver nested messages and learnings.

Protocols require the user to follow the messages to hilt – animation can provide specific scenarios and its Do’s and Don’ts to embed microlearning which can reinforce user behaviour towards observing safety and hygiene.

The FMCG retail supply chain, banking and other essential institutions can leverage the mode of message delivery effectively captured by Animation as a precision tool to ensure time bound compliance.

Animation as the equalizer

Animation has the unique ability to envisage creative messaging and thus make the gravity and seriousness of the situation sound firm, and yet, placed gently within the minds of the target audience.

Specialised and even bespoke characters can be used in this time of emergency to alleviate hardship and provide a change of pace from the usual routine.

Engagement within the positive mindset is how we would overcome this emergency and organizations need to travel a little further and utilize the communication superiority offered by Animation to help them put forward an empathetic and helpful persona – instead of relying on emails and faceless communiques.