Initiating great ideas and meeting challenges head on
During the lockdown when the world stood still, companies reached out to their target markets through cyberspace. This was essentially facilitated by digital marketing which took the task up to narrate stories by smooth transitioning and vivid dynamics to convey messages to clients. Chandula Kumarage, Co-Founder of Sense Imagery speaks to the Mirror Magazine to describe how digital advertising helps to narrow the gap in the social distancing era.
Chandula
On the impact of the pandemic
As content creators we create digital marketing content, which includes animation, photography, graphical content, live-action content for corporate companies etc. As a startup the first two years we had to work hard and it was critical for us as well, it was about learning how to manage a business and how to manage a client trail, I am not someone who has a huge business background so I had to learn a lot about business. However, at the beginning of the third year, that was right before the pandemic we moved into a new office space with a lot of plans, because in two years we achieved a lot, for example, we managed to attract a strong client alliance namely, MAS, Dialog, ICC, DIMO, and work was going smooth and we had a very busy schedule. But with the pandemic, most of our projects got postponed without a specific date and still some of them are not rescheduled. Our workflow was badly affected and it impacted our financial stability as we had to use our capital to survive, it was challenging as a startup, we didn’t have a huge capital, we just raised it within two years then we had to start spending from our capital to survive.
How did you manage to adjust your business
according to the emergency situation?
No one expected a lockdown or that a pandemic would last so long. What we clearly felt was that the amount of work we had was getting reduced. So as digital content makers we changed our priority, we used to make a lot of live-action video content with filming and photography but we had to switch gears to animation content in that particular period. Our company’s tagline is ‘we create your story’ so no matter the content we are making, we need to make sure we are capable of creating stories, irrespective of whether it is animation or live-action. So we started using a lot of animation techniques, we started pitching our clients, we educated them on how we can use animation as a replacement to live-action content as we could not go out shooting, filming, or photography. We managed to convince our clients it is the best option in this emergency, as it gives a different flavour and makes an impact.
What were the biggest
challenges?
I’ll share three challenges we had to face. The main challenge was we had to completely change our workstyle. From meetings to the practical session we conduct as we use a lot of equipment, cameras, drones, new software but we had to start doing all those online. Our team is very young and dynamic. We always work with technology. We used to have brainstorming sessions to stay updated with new technologies so all those things shifted online, which was not that effective in the beginning but all of us had to evolve and live with the new normal.
Another challenge was we use to travel often to make live-action content but with the travel restrictions, they had to stop. It affected our portfolio because we were a startup and we were in the process of designing our portfolio. But with the pandemic we started doing more animation videos, as I mentioned before that helped us to build our animation work portfolio to grow even though our live-action portfolio wasn’t getting updated, that was somewhat a plus point.
The other biggest challenge was our expenses were getting bigger than our income, so we had to start spending from our capital. I learnt a huge lesson from that, to maintain cash reserves to handle a crisis, I realized the importance of them to get through the challenging times. So even though we had to face the challenges we also learnt very important lessons from them as well.
How do you think covid-19 has molded the future of the business field you are
functioning in?
Covid-19 has changed our workstyle. People are using digital media more often now and the usage of social media has increased. As most of the time people are at home and they started using their smart devices more often, because of this the demand for digital content creators increased too. So when there are more creators like us the competition is also high.
What advice would you give as an entrepreneur to those who are skeptical about
initiating a startup due to the current situation?
Being an entrepreneur it’s all about facing challenges, from the moment you decide to be an entrepreneur the risks start, so think about the current situation as just another challenge. Starting up something or being an entrepreneur is all about initiating great ideas, so many people can come up with different ideas, but the focus should be on initiating the idea. If you only see the negative side of the pandemic you won’t be able to achieve what you are passionate about. You are an entrepreneur because you are passionate about something, from what I have learned passion is a combination of love and anger, sometimes you might get angry for not getting enough money for what you do but at the same side, you love what you do. So if we keep focusing on doing what you love without giving up it will lead you to your purpose.
(BK)