Tribe Global's MD Ian joined several other Independent Agency Networks at Virtual Mirren in May to talk about some of the key topics facing our industry. Here's a summary of his discussion points.

Let me start with a question. Are there any positives to Covid-19? Thinking about business, there are lot of negatives – our industry has been hit hard, agencies and clients are in trouble and people are losing their jobs and tragically in some cases their lives. But perhaps one small positive is increased collaboration.

What we see happening is stronger bonds being forged – within agencies due to increased communications and involvement, between agencies in the TG network and in many cases more meaningful collaborations with clients.

The crisis is forcing people together to collaborate, which is strangely ironic as we are being told to stay apart.

Today, the fear of the unknown is leading to a preference for the familiar, which in my view is a great opportunity to strengthen relationships and therefore collaborations for the future.

But in order to achieve successful collaborations in the future, there’s a few things we should consider,

What are your clients looking for? How will their behaviour and needs have changed and how are you going to service them? Many Tribe agencies are asking their clients these questions right now.

Within your agency do you have the leadership, do you have the talent and the skill-sets for our new futures? It’s a tough question that we all need to ask ourselves.

Are you embracing the future? – technology, automation, AI, VR – is your mind truly open?

And of course, there is the small matter of budgets – will we all be able to collaborate with smaller budgets, or is this the time for a new type of collaboration based on a new future, commercial realities and abandoning the over-servicing of the past. 

Covid-19 might just have brought us together.