In January of 2020, our marketing plan called for the creation of a quarterly newsletter. The idea was to share content that informs, educates and inspires. So we created an editorial committee and got to work. The first issue went out in April. The second issue is this one you are currently reading.
As you are well aware, the local, regional, national and international events that unfolded in the three months between the first and second issues (April – July) were monumental.
Every day, we as a global community were faced with developing stories that stacked one on top of another. All the while we, as individuals, had personal stacks to manage. We, as professionals, had duties to perform. We, as community members, sought to help in any way possible. It was a relentless and unforgiving weight that we all had to bear in one way or another. It demanded our attention and action. It shifted the priorities of the things we should be focusing on, on the things that were important and relevant in the current moment.
So when it came time to outline articles for this newsletter, it seemed impossible to share content with you that was relevant because “relevance” was changing every minute of every day. No matter how we in the marketing world try to own relevance – package it into a contextual narrative for others to consume – there are forces beyond our control that tell the story. If we have the patience and courage to do more listening, there is a lot we can learn if we are willing to open ourselves up to it.
So, in a nutshell, it only seemed fair to allow ourselves here at Swim Creative to have a little flexibility with this issue. To procrastinate. Because important things are happening in the world we live in and we need to pay attention to that. In the end, we found time to put some stuff in this newsletter that we hope you will enjoy. But full disclosure: we waited until the last minute. Because we had to.
We, as marketers, have a service to provide. But we also have a role to play in building a better, stronger community for all. We have been taking action and we will continue to take action to help businesses survive and flourish. But between those moments of action it seems that, for now, listening is the most important thing we can be doing.