Tia Giannone 
Unprecedented calamities, especially protracted ones, have a way of affecting change. A few years ago, we started bantering about the term “Hyper Communications” — a simple notion that was used to convey to staff our resolute focus to communicate more often with stakeholders – be it media, consumers or employees, both for our agency and most especially for our clients. It quickly turned into a ‘standard operating procedure’ (SOP) at Torchia and goodness did it arrive an auspicious time! Fast forward to 2020, and the entire world seems to be adjusting to this new reality: in an environment of change, uncertainty and misinformation stakeholders and customers-alike are thirstier than ever for information, YOUR information, on demand and through as many channels as possible.
The uncertainty of COVID-19 itself was and remains a bona fide crisis — leading to closures, new safety measures, altered product offerings and much more. Pretty much everything is in flux. You could say we’ve come to a whole new age of crisis communications where rules from the past don’t hold much water. Hyper communication is the new norm and, because of it, we have to adjust our priorities. A case in point: who doesn’t need, nowadays, an on-point and dynamic newsroom that also acts as a repository of simple and easy to find facts? Similarly, what company doesn’t benefit from a robust direct-to-stakeholder email program – teased-out and made-to-measure for various stakeholders? This hyper-communication culture is, after all, 100 per cent in-line with our world of social media, 24/7 news cycle, but also the slippery slope leading to misinformation and ‘fake news’. As Dylan said, the times they are-a-changin’. Don’t let them change without you and your communication program.
