In PME Magazine’s latest interview, Bloomcast Managing Partner, Rodrigues Oliveira, discusses the challenges companies have had to face due to COVID-19 and the importance of a relevant digital presence

The communication consultancy agency, BloomCast Consulting, was founded in 2012, born to be a “bridge” between businesses and communication strategies for the companies’ target audiences. It develops several strategies depending on the channels in question, guaranteeing five key values: customer focus, transparency, integrity, excellence, and citizenship.

PME Magazine (SME Mag.) – Take this past year into account. What do you think was the biggest challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic that Bloomcast had to overcome?

Rodolfo Oliveira (R. O.) – The pandemic was a unique moment, because crises typically have an impact at a specific level, and this change had an impact on all aspects of the lives of organizations and societies, creating a unique moment of disruption. The priority was, firstly, to create a communication that reinforced the evidence that BloomCast was available, operational, and adapting its working and operational models to respond to the challenges of its clients, also helping them to go through a challenging time. In this sense, the biggest challenge was to solidify the company’s omnichannel communication, taking advantage of a challenge, the lack of physical proximity to each other, and customers to create digital proximity as had never been forged before (through social networks, newsletters, and new communication initiatives).

PME Magazine – Consequently, how did the pandemic interfere with the development/operation and work of the company?

Concerning the functioning of BloomCast, we tried to apply the same logic with our clients. Thus, keeping the proximity with them, we sought to strengthen the communication of each one, showing partners that they were aware of the new challenges. This often involved paying attention to the moment-by-moment communication made by each sector, and a strategic assessment of what it would make sense for each client to communicate in that space. We have also become aware of the ongoing problem in our ecosystem, and have pioneered subscriptions to a wide range of media, giving a signal to the market, but also providing our customers with more information to help them stay informed. In a moment of accelerated transformation where the assumptions of your business can change from one day to the next, we always have the perspective that our customers are also our partners and we are constantly seeking to improve our service to ensure their satisfaction.

PME Magazine – Do you consider that the pandemic forced the acceleration towards the digital transition of SMEs and startups?

Clearly, given the impossibility of maintaining a personalized and close connection, the digital transition is the way to maintain and strengthen the connection between all interlocutors of SMEs, as of any company, regardless of their size. In the case of startups, many are born from the perception of this unique space and moment, in which dematerialization allows for incomparably superior flexibility, and in which a company can easily compete in any market, especially in the services sector. The market is global, and organizations, whether large, SMEs, or startups, can benefit from this opportunity to accelerate their growth.

PME Magazine – How did SMEs and startups have to reinvent themselves? How important is it to follow the digital transformation process and the pandemic?

First of all, the business processes all had to move to a virtual model and not face-to-face. This has profound implications, whether in terms of internal functioning or of processes with customers and suppliers. The digital presence gained greater relevance than in the past and, across the board, there was strong growth in e-commerce. The pandemic meant that everything previously done in person was transferred to a dematerialized format. On the communication side, this change resulted, for those who were not yet with more sophisticated digitization processes in progress, the rapid establishment of a relevant digital presence, creating adequate communication channels and processes to monitor customers throughout their journey. Customer entry/access channels to companies multiplied, and communication became omnichannel by definition, it is essential to ensure, on the one hand, the integrity and coherence of communication carried out in the different channels and, on the other, its continuity.

PME Magazine – How did the use of digital tools leverage the investment?

Digital tools and technologies are the basis for the growth of organizations, from the simple renewal of the concept of the functionalities expected from websites to the use of social networks to establish communication channels with all interlocutors. Social networks also saw their role reinforced as a space for interaction and communication, as well as more recent technologies, such as podcasts and webinars. On the side of the technologies that make this digital transformation possible, we have from cloud computing to business intelligence and artificial intelligence, or augmented reality, which allow us to create competitive advantages, generate new business models, and make the world even closer.

Originally published in the magazine PME Magazine.