On Wednesday, 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the Coronavirus known as COVID-19 as a pandemic. The first reported case in South Africa was on 4 March 2020. Our president, Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster on 15 March and shortly afterwards on 23 March, a 21-day countrywide lockdown. 

In just over 3 months, the world as we knew it, our country and our daily lives had abruptly changed. As we write this article, the confirmed cases now stand at 930 819 worldwide and every time we refresh, the numbers keep increasing. COVID-19 is here and its effect on the world is like watching a horror movie with a very bad ending. 

With self-reflection and coming to terms with the status quo of our current situation, we have come to realize as a business, we need to do more, both for ourselves, our clients, suppliers and our network of artists. By taking a more global view of all our points of contacts, theirs and our collective challenges, we can try to see how we all fit together both now and transcending into the future. For every crisis, there is an opportunity and if one is open and assesses wisely, one can overcome, evolve and dare we say, succeed in ways one possibly wouldn’t have before.

Red Rabbit was built as a virtual studio over 3 years ago with the ability to operate remotely with its clients, suppliers and artists from across the globe. We are fortunate in that our workflow is well established and we are able to continue servicing our clients, as we always have during these uncertain times. 

Given the current shift that South Africa and the world is experiencing, moving over to remote working is not new to us. We believe this will become the new norm for many others as they realize the increased opportunity they will gain and the decrease in brick and mortar overheads that can often jeopardize a business during difficult times. We have over the years, paid our dues, learnt the hard lessons that come with this change in perception and are wiser, more secure and more efficient for it. Our USP has now become the norm and as such we as a business will build on it, evolve and pivot to our next phase.

We operate within an ecosystem, both globally, and more specifically in South Africa. Our clients, suppliers, fellow competitors and ourselves are all facing similar challenges and are directly affected by this pandemic. The ecosystem is reliant on each other and when there is a disruption of this magnitude and it’s lasting effect still unknown, we as a business need to change. We need to change our own perception of the “normal” way we do things and evolve and adapt to the new normal to be able to stay relevant and push forward. 

We believe the coming months will be tough, both financially and mentally and we surmise the media and entertainment industry that we operate in, will change and the supply and demand for content, marketing, and advertising material will all shift to different platforms. As we all face this pandemic head-on, we strongly believe in the collaboration between businesses and individuals and supporting each other where we can. Over the next few weeks and into the foreseeable future we as a business want to do more to help. We believe sharing is caring and we will be openly sharing our knowledge, expertise, experience or any tips we think might be helpful via our blogs and social media. We will also be reaching out and offering any help or assistance that can aid any business or individual to weather the storm and by helping each other we hope we can all build a better future together. 

The world is connected even though most of us are self-isolating but by assisting each other we are never truly alone. We are all in this together and the positive thing that this pandemic has shown us is that we are in fact more connected to one another more than we realized and need one another more than we perceived. 

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin

The World is changing, change your perception with us.