DYT 2020 ⏪

Our founder, Ankit Agarwal pens down his thoughts on how 2020 has been. The good, the bad and the ugly, straight from the horse’s mouth…

This was a tempestuous year. One of the things that helped me get through it was the community at DYT. And when I say community, it includes team members but especially creators.

Without you, 2020 would have been a black hole. Your content gave us information when we panicked the most. It gave us belly-laughs when smiles began to dwindle. But most of all, it gave us hope, when none was to be found.

With that indispensable hat tip, I take a look back at 2020 — the year we got real with our goals.

We shifted to WFH. Permanently.

A substantial chunk of DYT worked from home from day one — counting me, at least for some time. In 2019, a small team started working from a co-working space. Then the pandemic made it obligatory for all of us to be shooed away from it.

So, we made work from home permanent. While our productivity hasn’t lessened an iota, what I do miss is the energy. Somehow screens fail to create that electric, dynamic and collaborative vibe, even with dedicated social time.

The team expanded and contracted. A lot

DYT bid bitter-sweet adieu to Shyla, the very first full-time team member I hired. We also saw a transition in our tech, product and social teams. All of them grew dramatically.

But the biggest change was welcoming a co-founder. In November, Hemant Dua came on board as our Chief Growth Officer.

Our campaigns got bigger. And better.

2020 was a year of unbridled collaborations for us.

Klairs was one of our firsts and a long one in the making. The Korean skin brand proved that when you give creators the time to experience the products, the campaign is more effective.

Havells brought a smile to many faces. The #ThodaStyleThodaSmile campaign was all about bringing happiness to your other half’s face and it succeeded completely.

But the year wasn’t all bed of roses. As creators will agree, there was a period when all campaigns were paused or scrapped altogether.

During that phase, we worked on #DonateAPost campaign to spread awareness on how to flatten the curve and stop the spread of coronavirus. We also partnered with Let’s Talk, a volunteer-run initiative.

The #BaatKarengeTohBaatBanegi campaign offered mental health support to battle the anxiety of lockdown. Another collaboration geared towards COVID-19 was with MFine, the app for doctor consultations.

We worked with more brands and more notable brands in 2020, from Nestle to DaMENSCH. But it was the content that I will remember most. High-production-value videos; fresh, unfiltered content; jingles, everything was on the table.

Looking back, but moving forward.

Compared to 2019, we didn’t just see an increase in brand campaigns, but also in the content created for them. It suggests that marketers are finally exploring more formats to engage consumers.

Overall, we’re closing almost 4 times to what we were last year, proving the inherent value in advocacy marketing.

Borrowing the cliched term, tackling the challenges of this unprecedented year was daunting. But with a creator-centred approach, we accomplished much. We now focus on the coming year, moving upwards and onwards!