An excerpt from the speech delivered by Aneta Bogdan in the opening of the fourth day of Zilele Biz, the day dedicated to marketing — Bucharest, 12 November 2020
Bucharest, November 2020 — Aneta Bogdan MBA FCIM, Managing Partner Brandient, opened the marketing day of Zilele Biz on 12 November 2020 with a speech on the state of marketing in 2020.
The state of marketing in 2020
At the end of every year, the “word of the year” is chosen — the one that significantly marked the planet’s interest in that year. There are good years, when the voted word conveys optimism, aspiration and hope, and there are less good years — such as 2016, when the word put us (the sane among us) in an uncomfortable and even worrying context (the word was “fake news”, inseparably tied to the toxic Trump brand).
Well, never say never — in the year of grace 2020 it will be hard for us to choose anything from the following (and, we hope, unrepeatable) shortlist (I understand that the people at Collins Dictionary have already voted for the word “lockdown”):
COVID, virus, lockdown, quarantine, mask, symptom, doctor, remote, social distancing, zoom, and… again… fake news & trump!
Like a Freudian slip, we would like to DELETE this year from collective — and personal! — memory. But we cannot do it, because the shortlist above gives birth to traumas, and traumas live exactly where they were invented, that is, exactly in our minds — and we cannot get rid of them with a simple DLT! Nor is it wise, though, to wish to erase this year from collective and personal memory, because we have serious lessons to learn from it: about what it is like to believe ourselves big and strong, agile and lean and obsessed with the brilliance of our minds in innovation, and to be knocked off our feet by a microscopic organism called a virus — and so come to understand that it is not about how “strong” we are, but about gratitude, humility, making peace with ourselves, helping one another, about the profoundly, profoundly human values we had somehow believed forgotten, at least when it comes to the mechanisms of capitalism we had grown used to — those of creating business value through persuasion and consumerist seduction.
If we ask ourselves now, on the Biz day dedicated to marketing, what the shortlist of the words and concepts that most interested the global marketing community in 2020 would look like, I believe it would be something like this:
(post) pandemic consumer behaviour, “the great digital migration”, engagement, purpose driven, community involved, permanent shifts, pivotare
iar câștigătorul ar fi, în opinia mea, cuvântul „pivotare” (adică acea schimbare adaptivă, capabilă să (re)pună lucrurile în mișcare, dar cu păstrarea reperului strategic).
—Aneta Bogdan MBA FCIM, Managing Partner Brandient
…and the winner would be, in my opinion, the word “pivotare” — pivoting (that is, the adaptive change, capable of (re)setting things in motion, while keeping the strategic bearing).
Thus, the 2020 marketing narrative would sound something like this:
The planet’s consumers pivot — adapt “on the move” — to the new reality, embracing the new opportunities of consumption, but also becoming aware of the new limitations of consumption. The migration of buying behaviour towards online and towards e-services (above all the medical, banking and education ones) is irreversible and exponential. The need for trust and safety is growing, and consumers will prefer the brands that convey such feelings. Working from home and personal introspection will rearrange the interest for certain categories of consumption, and… for other needs, let us say — more profoundly human than those of “I shop, therefore I am!”. The need to connect brands with customers will move beyond the purely commercial stage and will truly embrace purpose-driven and community-involved intentions. Strategically, for the marketing professional, it will be “joc de glezne” — quick footwork on the spot — and farewell to long-haul plans! We need attention, versatility, flexibility, so that we can PIVOT when we have the opportunity or… when it is imposed on us.
About Brandient
Brandient is an independent brand strategy and design consultancy founded in Bucharest in 2002 by Aneta Bogdan, Cristian Kit Paul and Mihai Bogdan — never part of a global network, working directly for the owners, CEOs and boards of its clients, with an all-senior team and category exclusivity. In over two decades the firm has created or rebuilt more than 300 brands, 279 of them published as case studies at brandient.com/work — from Romania’s national leaders to brands carried worldwide. The firm has been active in Southeast Asia for more than a decade. The work has earned 84 international awards and distinctions — most recently a Red Dot (2025) and two Graphis Golds (2026) — 64 documented mentions in international design books and publications, and, in 2015, a place among the inaugural inductees of the REBRAND Hall of Fame, alongside Interbrand and MetaDesign.