– How TMW is thriving through the clichés.

As every single brand is telling you right now, whether you’ve subscribed to their mailing list or not: we’re living in uncertain times whilst navigating unchartered waters and, most importantly, we’re all in this together. But, for all the clichés around togetherness, unity and the unprecedented, there is something to be said for the small silver linings we’re collectively experiencing under a global pandemic. Far be it from taking away from the incredibly serious and devastating news we are subjected to every day, but the changes that have taken place over the last few weeks have only highlighted the true spirit of TMW Unlimited and the people who (until recently) walked through its doors every day.

The story probably is much the same of agencies across the land. One moment you’re prepping for the end of the financial year and looking into all the exciting prospects that come with the golden goat of Q1, the next you’re unpacking your desk on the kitchen table at home. Projects, campaigns, awards and festivals of creativity that were all firmly locked in the calendar begin to slip away, cancelled one by one until Cannes itself closed its rosé tinted doors. Your daily commute has changed to conference calls on mute, your coffee break is more instant granules than instant gratification. We can’t really speak about the more minute detail of other agencies' crisis adjustment, but we can speak for us. And that’s a good thing, because we’re pretty proud of how we’ve adapted to the situation.

TMW’s culture is incredibly important to us, and it was really key for us to make sure we didn’t lose sight of this. Which is why within the first week of lockdown, we’d adjusted in the best way we could – through digitising all our existing social activities and adding a few extra ones for good measure.

Whether it’s a Friday Wine-Down with our teams, a virtual book club, or the eagerly anticipated Bowers Room DJ set with our very own CSO Dan Bowers, we’ve been keeping our brains sharp and our social skills sharper. In a combination of the two, we’ve also had a dose of quiz fever in the form of our weekly brainy effort The Big Social Quiz-tancing, which mashes your classic trivia questions with less conventional rounds such as the Loo Rollover and 2 Metres or Not 2 Metres. Of all the headaches afforded to us throughout this weird time, none have been quite as acute as the red wine induced ones the morning after a TMW quiz night – some things never change. From kids making the rules in team bonding exercises, to weird things hanging on our colleagues’ walls, to the dogs barking in the back of conference calls, we’ve all got to know each other a bit better through the last few weeks, in a way that a drink after work can’t quite unearth. 

And whilst all that makes us sound like bastions of pure positivity, we couldn’t be more conscious of the unpleasant parameters that we are all experiencing and the health implications that come with this. We’ve aimed to help combat this through a series of initiatives, including wellbeing tips and tricks, counselling referrals and flexible working, as well as keeping the agency moving with our Strava activity team, yoga sessions, and HIIT classes. We are looking at more concrete ways we can measure and improve the health of our team as we move through the remainder of quarantine (and out the other side) such as enrolling with 87 Percent, a mental wellbeing platform. Whilst what the future holds isn’t all that clear right now, we do know we will be affected by this period in history for a long while yet, and protecting our people’s health is more important than ever.

We feel inspired and motivated by our TMW family every day, and are loving how they’re sharing what’s getting them through and bringing a smile to their faces. So, we thought we’d extend the positivity circulating Teams meetings and WhatsApp chats by sharing with you some of our favourite inspirational and motivational content. We hope it can bring you a little bit of joy to your day as well.  

How to Fail: Mo Gawdat on how to cope with anxiety in a time of Coronavirus

Elizabeth Day brings back podcast favourite Mo Gawdat to talk about how to handle negative thoughts, how to practice gratitude and the concept of ‘committed acceptance’ – which focuses on a) accepting the situation and b) within that acceptance, working out what you can actively do to make life better.

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Captain Tom and his 100 laps

To celebrate his 100th birthday, World War II veteran Captain Tom decided to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise some money for the NHS. We doubt he had any idea he’d end up raising 29.2 million and counting.

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The Social Distancing Bucket List

A mum and daughter team write down all the things they want to do after we get out of lock down and keep it in a jar. Someone pass a tissue.

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Run for Heroes 5k

Look, no one wants to be nominated to run, but we’ve loved seeing all our teams’ sweaty selfies after running the 5k and donating to support our NHS.

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Carbon emissions from fossil fuels are set to fall by 2.5bn tonnes in 2020

Studies are indicating that due to the drop in demand for fossil fuels we could see our emissions drop by 5%.

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