PRESS RELEASE: Our Covid-19 Survival Story

Our Covid-19 Survival Story
By Gary Nissim, Managing Director Indago Digital
In March 2020, our revenue was down 67%. A large proportion of our clients were travel operators and hospitality groups and a vast swathe of those businesses suffered catastrophic losses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. They had to drastically (and swiftly) cut their costs to survive and the impact on the agency was crushing. To cope with the sudden downturn, we took the tough decision to reduce staff to a four-day week and took advantage of Jobkeeper to secure their roles. It was tough and, frankly, very stressful but there was a little glimmer of hope coming out of the chaos.

While advertising budgets on the whole were nosediving due to Covid-19 and despite forces like drought, bushfires and the pandemic contracting consumer spending, industry insight were indicating that digital advertising was delivering growth. Marketers were shifting their limited budgets online and using digital marketing to stay visible and achieve business goals amid the uncertainty.
With this in mind, instead of riding out the storm, we chose to chase the tornado. We transformed our lead generation approach to attract industries outside of our niche and identified industries that were continuing to spend such as FMCG, government, recruitment and financial services. We threw our resources into content, partnerships and a comprehensive suite of collateral that demonstrated how clients could use digital to reach their sales and marketing goals when their more traditional marketing channels became less effective or inaccessible.

The results have been a rare Covid-19 success story, with 11 new client wins secured in the past six months: the best known among them being City of Parramatta, Eclipx Group and Nestlé Professional Food Services.

Harry Nakichbandi, Chief Information Officer, Eclipx Group said “Digital transformation has never been more important than it is now, as we emerge from the uncertainty of 2020. Eclipx, like so many other financial services and automotive businesses are evolving and increasingly embracing new technologies to deliver our products and services to our client base.”

Scott Stuckman, Business Executive Officer, Nestlé Professional Oceania said ““Digital has increasingly been a key avenue to market for us but even more so during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a huge impact on the food service industry. It was important to us that we could support our clients and the broader industry with information and guidance on how to adapt and continue to grow the Nestlé Professional brand. To support these efforts and drive growth and visibility, we dialled up both our paid and search marketing activity”.

One year on from the first debilitating lockdown and Indago Digital is back to pre-Covid earnings and growing as clients continue to seek out strategic digital marketing partnerships.

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About the Author
Gary is Indago Digital’s co-founder and Managing Director, and a respected digital marketing commentator. His expertise stems from decades spent growing digital marketing ventures across any-to-all digital channels for a range of agency groups and brands in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

He is also known as a commentator for search marketing and trainer for Google Squared Online, Australian Institute of Management, ADMA and the IAB.
About Indago Digital
Indago Digital is a digital performance marketing agency, specialising in search. They’re experts in the techniques and technologies that increase the effectiveness of their clients’ digital assets.

Media Contact
Sarah Greenaway
+61 414 517 869
[email protected]
www.indagodigital.com.au