*SNL’s Drive-in premiere / NBC Entertainment*

It was the long-awaited premiere of Saturday Night Live’s new season. The cast would finally be performing in person, after a pandemic season of virtual skits.

NBC is a client of my celebrity and influencer marketing agency, The Loft Entertainment. Normally, I’d be working closely with the network’s PR team to support their premiere by providing influencers for their red carpet events. We’d tee it all up, the exposure would be smashing, then we’d give each other high-fives and get ready for the next one.

But…life quarantino. Yeah.

So instead, NBC cooked up a different approach:

A drive-in premiere.

Influencers and celebs drove in to the Universal backlot, had temperatures checked from their cars, cruised along a red CARpet (ha!), enjoyed packaged snacks delivered by gloved and masked greeters, posed for photos from their Escalades (the only time masks were removed), watched the show drive-in style via a live feed, and left with an amazing gift bag.

Everyone went wild over the novelty of it all, and that got them even more exposure. The premiere was a huge hit and earned tons of social love and PR.

Lemons, meet lemonade!

If necessity is the mother of invention, we’re all mamas right now

Listen, I’m not trying to be a Pollyanna. It’s frustrating when you can’t just do your job the same way that has always clicked in the past. Creating workarounds takes a lot of work.

We’re eight months into a pandemic that exploded the rules for brands and entertainment entities. Back in March, every brand was forced to slam on the brakes and make a hard turn. You could see the marketing skid marks stretching from Madison Avenue to Wilshire.

After the dust settled, brand marketers tried some short-term band-aids, checking their watches to see when they could get back to business as usual.

But then it hit us: normal isn’t on the agenda for a long time.

From the frontlines of this exhausting marketing experiment, I’ve had to roll up my sleeves with brand clients and face the big unknown of an insane landscape.

All of the usual tools in our marketing toolbox – from events and concerts to lavish studio shoots with all the bells and whistles…poof. Vaporized.

There has been many a day when my clients and I have looked at each other after running into yet another marketing roadblock, and thought, “Okaaaaaaaaay. Now what?”

The silver lining to all of this:

Brands are adapting. Marketers are getting innovative. And it’s turning out….ok!

After some sobbing fits and therapy sessions.

But seriously: we’re all being forced to come up with radically creative workarounds for La Vida Lockdown. And, while painful, this mental game of Rubik’s Cube is surely a character-building exercise that’s generating tons of new brain cells.

I tell my clients this:

Accept this hard truth: events and concerts are gone for now.

But let’s NOT stop. The show must go on.

Don’t tell me you’re not ready to make a plan– this is the new normal.

All of the media is on Zoom, and you can still do red carpets where people come in and take photos and do Zoom interviews with a Zoom media wall. You can still get the press you want and reap mega marketing bang for your buck.

Some of my clients wonder if it’s disrespectful to keep the marketing wheels going amidst a pandemic.

I tell them: with all due respect, you’re dead wrong.

The world is depressed, and you are creating content that offers uplift and smiles. Don’t feel badly about creating funny content in a sad world. You are helping people – you are creating relief. Anything that eases people’s anxieties right now is a gift.

Work the workarounds

*The GoGo’s on The Today Show singing “We Got the Beat” via Zoom, celebrating the debut of American Girl’s 1980’s Doll, Courtney*

Sure, Coachella has been canceled and the music industry has been flattened. But talent is still putting out awesome music and finding interesting ways to connect with fans.

TikTok is on fire, and Looped is my favorite new app that enables ticketed virtual concerts and fan meet and greets. Virtual events can be branded, and in some ways they allow for an even better experience than the real thing. Fans can pay to see their favorite rapper leading a painting class, or sign up for a dance tutorial with a TikTokker. Fans can pay extra for a one-minute Facetime call with their favorite artists and take a photo together that is then texted to their phone. (*Call me if you want to do a Looped event - wink wink.)

Pretty FAN-tastic, huh?

Every production has a skeleton crew. Lots of talent will not travel or step onto a soundstage. You can’t get your shoots and stars and products looking the impeccable way that you’re used to. Sorry, brands, but there won’t be any food stylists or extra art directors on set or at a celeb’s at-home shoot these days.

Letting go takes some practice. Brands are so used to perfection – it’s tough to shrug away glitches and blemishes.

But guess what? Authenticity is better than over-produced anyway. People want that now – they wanted it before covid, but now it’s mandatory. We feel more connected to celebrities and influencers who are keeping it real. We see stars in their homes, we see them looking less flawless (flawful?), and we like them all the more for that.

What that means, my brand brethren, (and sistren), is that you have to roll with the punches.

I signed a deal for the GoGos to partner with our client American Girl for their new 1980’s doll. We were thrilled when we booked the GoGos on The Today Show to promote the Courtney doll from 1986.

Small problem: we couldn’t deliver the doll to the 40 Rock set in a covid-safe way. There would be no shots of Hoda holding the 80’s girl doll.

But instead, the GoGos Zoomed in from their homes, talking about the American Girl partnership and introducing the doll. Then they performed “We Got the Beat” while the Today show audience danced from their Zoomed-in living rooms. And for a moment there…we all really did have the beat. We’re all in this together…dancing in our athleisure like we just don’t care...while hearing about a brand in a more personal, authentic way.

Big brands and shows have had to climb a learning curve with “made at home” content. But influencers have been at this game for a long time.

Long before Purell became a status symbol, influencers already had the ideal equipment, tools, and skills for the kind of ad hoc storytelling that suddenly became necessary. Influencers are uniquely able to get it all done because this is how they always operate anyway, pandemic or not.

Influencers were made for this moment. Churning out quality content on the fly is their whole M.O. They don’t need professional photographers, fancy video shoots, or cool events to create a story, elevate a brand, and engage their huge followings.

And now, brands are embracing this opportunity to explore new ideas for influencer and celebrity marketing. Because they have to. Creativity and resourcefulness is the key to survival and sanity right now, and that’s what influencers are made of.

So, brands: take a big exhale, open your mind to new approaches, look at this damn 2020 glass as half full, and be fearless.

We got this!

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Kristi Kaylor is the CEO of The Loft Entertainment, L.A.’s leading (according to us, and granted, we’re biased) marketing and content development agency that helps brands leverage the power of celebrities and influencers.