Social Lama — the year 2020 in review

2020 was a genuine rollercoaster, and it caught pretty much everyone off guard. The real ones are built to entertain us; this ride we were strapped into against our will, and the whole structure was nowhere near as much fun as it should have been. We've always thought positive thinking can work wonders, though, so those are the things we want to remember from the past 12 months. And what did they look like at Social Lama?

(Every event here is a live link — click the text and go back to those moments with us.)

The first quarter was a gentle climb. We were making plans for the whole year, enjoying trips abroad with nothing standing in the way, and we even adopted a koala from afar! In February we celebrated a huge pile of team birthdays, and we supported our client — OryginalnySok — at a special Press Day, where its new brand made its debut: OryginalnaSpiżarnia.

We celebrated birthdays — and a birth, too!

Through the start of the year, though, reports kept coming in, more and more unsettling, about a mysterious virus spreading around the world, and in mid-March the wild ride began. Problems that had felt far away became a real threat, but we held on tight to our seats. We reacted fast and moved our work fully remote, as did the rest of the Good One Group. Everyone settled comfortably onto the sofa in sweatpants and started sharing the working day with Netflix… Contrary to what some people picture, of course, that is not at all how it looked. The new reality pushed us to work even harder, so we could act quickly and effectively for our clients' good and for our own.

We turned the circumstances into opportunities, using them for things like a one-of-a-kind seaside photo shoot, when one of the Lamas went back to her home region to work remotely.

The months that followed were the same ride rolling on, though under slightly more predictable conditions. Putting the right precautions and hygiene measures in place allowed a partial return to the office, and the way we work was adjusted to the situation once again — we began combining office and remote work, looking after everyone's wellbeing.

In time we even managed to earn the title of chocolatier and to visit the attractions at Rabkoland, another of our clients, which is — nomen omen — an amusement park. Meeting up at the workplace also led to starting a TikTok account, where we take a humorous look behind the agency curtain at “sitting on Facebook”. To inspire other people, we also decided to launch our Pinterest channel, where you'll find some of the more interesting work Social Lama has done. And all year we were taking our own dose of knowledge, joining all sorts of training sessions, held mostly online, of course.

September turned out to be exceptionally busy. We ran our first training sessions, and we traveled all the way to Rzeszów to work with PRESS SERVICE Monitoring Mediów covering the Kongres Profesjonalistów PR, Poland's congress for PR professionals. Around the turn of the month, our herd settled into the lineup we're finishing the year with. The changes in personnel didn't get in the way of the work, though, and while goodbyes can be hard, new faces are their own kind of fuel!

None of it would be possible without our commander-in-chief, for whom we put together a Boss's Day surprise in the form of his own best lines, printed on… mugs. In the spirit of sharing what we know, we also ran internal training sessions, on the aforementioned TikTok and on Facebook ads among others, where we sharpened each other up.

As one of the ads here likes to say, “millions turn everyone on”, so we're no exception — although the millions we mean are the ones raised by Mazurska Manufaktura SA, which we had the chance to help during both its first share issue and this year's share issue.

We had our successes in gardening, too.

Not long ago, in December in fact, part of the herd took on a new role: two of us appeared as speakers at PR Camp, talking about TikTok's potential for shaping a brand's image. It was a lot of fun and — immodestly speaking — it generated plenty of positive feedback, so it was the first time but almost certainly not the last!

Along with the other agencies in the Good One Group, we joined in with Szlachetna Paczka, Poland's big Christmas charity drive, and we swapped holiday gifts as well. This year there was also a genuinely unexpected Santa, who gave every member of staff personalized hoodies! Now we can represent our brand proudly while basking in the warmth of very comfortable outerwear.

On our rollercoaster we've picked up a dizzying speed, and we're getting as much fun out of it as we can. This stretch of track is calmer now, the cars easing off for the magic of the holidays, ready to climb back to the turning point in January. On this unusual structure the route gets rebuilt in a hurry before every run. What will 2021 look like? Follow us and keep up, or better still, use one of the ways to reach us and put yourself forward to work with us. A thrilling and safe ride guaranteed!