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How Bloom Collective designed a crisis content workflow during Covid-19

First and foremost, it should be said that while working through a pandemic is not something we would want to experience again – we are grateful to Majid Al Futtaim for the opportunity to help them communicate during this difficult time. They provided us with the resources we needed, the patience required, and the crucial timely feedback necessary to do this work. Without their cooperation, we couldn't have done it. So, hats off to amazing clients everywhere!

In January 2020, the world was a different place as we had yet to hear about Covid-19. Coincidentally, during this time Bloom Collective was humbled to begin working alongside Majid Al Futtaim as their internal comms content agency. We were already knee-deep in planning and strategy for the upcoming year when news of Covid-19 broke. As the world began to grind to a halt, we knew we had to pivot quickly to help MAF communicate with their nearly 45,000 employees spread across 16 countries.

Around the middle of February and as the pandemic steadily progressed, governments across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) began imposing shutdowns across public spaces including malls, cinemas, hotels and more. This resulted in the majority of Majid Al Futtaim's staff being forced to work from home – a practice that was uncommon in the Middle East at the time. While Covid made most everything uncertain, one thing was clear: communication would be crucial in maintaining any sense of normalcy across the organization.

Client services:
  • Custom content workflow design
  • Content planning and strategy
  • Always-on content newsroom
  • Daily content updates
  • Content calendar management
  • Channel management
  • 200+ pieces of content

New world means new ways of working

As Majid Al Futtaim's internal comms partner, Bloom Collective was in a unique position to co-create, coordinate and put in motion their groupwide internal response; We worked closely with their internal leadership through the chaos of the pandemic to do just that.

Since there was no blueprint for how to run a multinational crisis response to a rapidly evolving global pandemic, we had to create one scratch. It was critical that MAF's internal comms were aligned in messaging while also being effective and agile in getting information to employees in real time. With a clear mandate from the beginning that employee safety and wellness was the top priority, our first step was to devise Covid-specific content categories to drive effective engagement around relevant messaging.

To adapt to the rapidly evolving Covid news cycle, Bloom Collective adjusted our working schedule to align with that of our client and introduced a 24/7 around-the-clock response. This allowed us to rapidly address concerns being raised through the feedback mechanisms introduced as part of MAF's wider internal communications crisis strategy. This also gave us the flexibility to provide an always-on drumbeat of relevant and timely content for an increasingly anxious audience. We were able to produce content on demand as the situation progressed.

Crisis Content pipeline

Once our workflow was fully up and running, we effectively doubled the amount of content flowing through MAF's online channels. In a period of just over four months we created over 200 custom animations, GIFs, Newsers and social poster content for MAF's digital internal social networks. Much of this content was also replicated and cascaded through local offline and other external channels owned by MAF – such as inside of Carrefour grocery stores and other MAF properties across the Middle East.

Thrice weekly check-in surveys measured overall sentiment throughout the pandemic. MAF scored +11 on global benchmarks set out to measure how staff perceived their clarity of communication and overall handling during Covid. This is, no doubt, due to the comms plan put together in cooperation between Majid Al Futtaim and Bloom Collective.

Contact Bloom Collective to see how we can help your content aspirations.