As part of our new series, ‘Marketers Playbook for 2020 Post Covid-19?, Anuj Barasia, Vice President- Marketing of Spartan Poker says in the post-covid world, it’s crucial to look at users as individuals and not as a group user slotted into segments These unprecedented and fundamentally challenging times have brought about the emergence of a new world wherein “Stay Home, Stay Safe” is the new way of life. It has come out as a time to restore balance for most of us. Likewise, the consumer approach has also shifted from seeking experiences in the pre-covid period to seeking safety, security, and reliability in the current, post-covid situation. We, as an individual tend to adapt to different circumstances. If noticed, at the start of the lockdown, we faced much more resistance as compared to today where certain previous habits seem to be dying off. Looking ahead, we are preparing now for how to meet the needs of consumers when the recovering period begins. The changing times will make it very crucial for us to look at the users as individuals and not as a group user slotted into segments and understand their patterns, behavior with real insights. It is an essential time where we approach the 5P’s - Position, Plan, Perspective, Products (projects), and Preparedness - to look at ways to persist during the pandemic and in the post-world. It is a check for our resilience and adaptability. Position: As a brand, we need to be considerate towards our customers, reassure and encourage them with the support they need (online tournaments/series in our case) to fight this pandemic and keep themselves entertained and engaged. Our campaigns have also been around #myquarantinestory to ensure that customers play real-money gaming online and share their success stories amidst these challenging periods of time. Plan: A feeling of connection is what we want the customers to have towards our brand, to make sure that we as a brand create meaningful, supportive, engagement with the users. This is possible only through real-time insights and techniques that can help us anticipate the user interests. We are lucky to live in the world of technology, where communication to any part of the world is just a click away; we as a brand spend a lot of time analyzing our users and then use technology to act as a bridge to the users’ mind. In addition, with the increment of digital usage and time spent on digital platforms, we are continuously strategizing our plans for the next quarter. We have refocused our marketing efforts towards providing ultimate gaming experience – be it back-to-back tournaments, introduction of The VIP Club, or online championship with the highest GDP in order to keep our customers connected. Perspective: We strive to focus on instilling confidence in our users, by providing them with means to cope with the situation, furnishing information and going beyond with helping users cultivate a feeling of fighting together to get to the other side of this. We urge the community to join forces with us and help us drive help to those in need, this adds to the feeling of trust, empathy and loyalty towards the brand. Product / Project:  Media consumption has adversely changed since the lockdown. It has become more and more important for us to understand these emerging patterns as well as to anticipate user needs. Hence, as in the game of poker, the user time spent has changed and behaviors have varied as for the regular days. Users may not be able to travel for great tournaments now, we have reached that time of the year where the players await their domestic and international tournaments, so we are trying to create virtual communities to give them real alternatives with online tournaments of that scale. Preparedness: The preparedness for the ongoing changes can only be managed with an agile mechanism with an agile war team. With people representing each of the key departments and creating sprint plans for their team in line with the overall strategy from the leaders of the company. The world is going to look different on the other side of Covid-19 as teams strengthen their muscles for creating engaging, targeted digital experiences for their customers. Additionally, now more than ever, we are witnessing marketing teams adapt rapidly to customer retention and expansion strategies. While customer acquisition programs might be thrown for a loop, marketers are recognizing that and focusing on keeping their current customers happy and successful will help them weather this period. We have a responsibility to ensure that we are handholding them throughout these unprecedented times. Over the next few years, we will be investing in our systems to build risk mitigation plans and other plans to adapt to the change in consumers.