EDITOR's NOTE

You'll notice The Five/Seven is sporting a fresh look this week. A big thank you to our product team for the elegant new design. Let us know what you think.

IF YOU READ ONE THING

Making sense of our new reality

As we begin to adjust to our new normal, our team has been thinking about not just what this crisis means today, but what it will mean in weeks, months, and years to come—for both brands and audiences alike. In an effort to examine that new reality, we’ve launched Altered: a platform exploring what COVID-19 means for brands and what they can do to foster resilience. In the series, you’ll find perspectives on issues facing brands from members of our team and network.

In Uzra Khan’s “The News Industry’s Way Forward Won’t be a Straight Line,” she grapples with the pandemic’s implications for an already-fragile news ecosystem and shows us what brands can learn from an industry that’s used to being on the frontlines of rapid change. Other pieces include “A New Paradigm for Brand Trust,” in which Rob Peckerman puts forth a new framework for how brands should build trust with consumers, and “Brands Need to Redefine What it Means to “Connect,” where Julie Dixon offers lessons about how cultural institutions are responding to the crisis.

To help navigate the day-to-day, we’ve also launched a weekly Altered newsletter. Sign up here to receive curated data and insights on how COVID-19 is redefining the brand and consumer landscape. We’ve featured one of those insights below.

POWERSTAT (FROM THE ALTERED NEWSLETTER)

​Under Armour’s contribution of crucial supplies is just one example of how sports apparel brands and sports teams are stepping up to close the gap between the 35 million face masks on hand at the beginning of March and the 3.5 billion face masks that the World Health Organization anticipates the U.S. will need this year. 

At a time when professional sports have been largely suspended, sports franchises are using their money and resources to give back to their communities with much-needed equipment. Their contributions are often local, with Under Armour focusing on its home state of Maryland and the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets partnering with the NBA to donate 1 million face masks to healthcare workers in their city. The exception to the local rule: the New England Patriots donated 300,000 face masks to longstanding sports rival New York.

TRENDWATCH

A different way to feature audience voices

While opinions and viewpoints are rarely in short supply, getting audiences to engage in discussion on news platforms has always been difficult. News sites have been removing their comment systems, citing lack of meaningful conversations, while others have turned to asking for and featuring tweets in their stories, which can also be problematic. As technology progresses, however, there may be ways to literally put a face to a name in a story—or at least that’s what The Wall Street Journal hopes to do. In a new experimental landing page for its “Noted” series, the publication is asking for and is featuring reader-submitted videos of those affected by the current crisis. Newsroom innovation chief Robin Kwong shared that the Journal is also using this project to explore bigger questions, such as:

• “What can we do differently to showcase the lives and personal stories of people going through this tumultuous time in more direct, raw and authentic ways?”
• “As we do more engaged journalism & reader callouts, how do we move beyond the basic text-based questionnaire?”
• “If we're encouraging journalists to report with multiple media and platforms in mind, how do we better showcase the fruits of that multimedia reporting?”

NEWS YOU CAN USE

How to create boundaries while working remotely

The coronavirus outbreak has led a number of organizations to implement indefinite work from home policies. Early signs have shown this may be contributing to a longer work day for some employees. To help combat WFH burnout, Harvard Business Review shared three tips for creating better boundaries between your personal and professional life:

1. Try to maintain social and physical boundaries when working remotely. To get into the mindset that your work day has started, continue to put on your “work clothes” each morning and go through your normal routine of getting ready for the work day. Consider replacing your daily commute with a walk around your block.
2. Maintaining temporal boundaries is critical. Right now, it can be unrealistic to stick with a 9-to-5 work schedule, especially for those who face the added challenge of family-related responsibilities during a work day. This makes it even more important to communicate your schedule with your team. This also calls for leaders to help employees with structuring, coordinating, and managing the pace of their work.
3. Devote your energy to top-priority work. While working remotely, employees tend to find themselves needing to appear productive, which can lead to busy work. Prioritize completing your most important work, rather than working on tasks that may be more immediate.  

PERSPECTIVES

A voice of reason or another brand play?

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of new voices and figures have emerged on the national scene as sources of credible information, guidance, and hope. This week, however, a new voice emerged with commentary that seemed to strike a chord among audiences: the Steak-umm Twitter account, managed by Nathan Allebach. The frozen meat brand took to the platform to publish a lengthy stream of thoughts on media literacy, misinformation, and staying informed during the pandemic. While the reaction has been largely positive, Adweek took to its own Twitter account to pose a larger question: “Do brands have a responsibility to use that visibility for good and/or critical thinking in the current climate?”

• “People think it's bizarre, ironic, and funny when a frozen meat company points out the importance of critical thinking, but chances are the same message would never ‘go viral’ if it was from a person. Our society values entertainment over truth and that's a huge problem.” – Steak-umm Twitter account (Twitter)
• “It’s a weird situation for brands to be in right now, to not be overtly advertising their products, while also trying to add PSAs, but not wanting to be bland about it. It’s just been a process of seeing where the country and the world is at and trying to see if we can interject some thoughtful commentary into the mix.” – Nathan Allebach, social media manager at Allebach Communications (Fast Company)
• “Of course it’s absurd, but one of the reasons it has not been immediately dismissed is the consistency in voice that Allebach has established for the brand over the years.” – Jeff Beer, editor at Fast Company (Fast Company)
• “Steak-umm emerging as a woke beacon of light in an online sea of try-hard brands wouldn’t have made sense at any other point in time, but during this historical moment of chaos, outrage and unrelenting disappointment, it’s just about the only thing that checks out.” – Mónica Marie Zorrilla, reporter at Adweek (Adweek)