Rhea + Kaiser

Today, one year after the reality of COVID-19 set in and Rhea + Kaiser went fully remote, we look back on what has in some ways been a blur, and in other ways a defining moment in our lives. What we lost in the inability to drop by a coworker’s office with a reminder or pass out a status sheet for a team, we gained in organization and project management skills that will continue to foster collaboration and efficiency when we’re back in the office. Whether it’s the needs of young children or day-to-day errands, we all realize and respect that the things that need attending to don’t have to come at the expense of our productivity or dedication to our jobs. We realized that effective communication is more about the channels and skills than the physical setting, and work from the lake house or a relative’s home can be just as efficient as work from a home office.

Of all the things that went viral in the year 2020 (pun intended, of course), “Work from Home” seemed to prompt innumerable notions and opinions, and many hashtags of course. At R+K, like many agencies, working from home was fairly uncommon prior to COVID, but was immediately adopted in March 2020. I took time planning my trip and schedule and always kept my supervisor informed on my travel dates and time zones. Working between time zones, I even decided there is no right or wrong time for a coffee (not even 8 pm)!

We recently wrote about the impending Apple iOS 14 privacy updates which, with the goal of providing more transparency and privacy control for iPhone users, will severely limit advertiser targeting. As we prepped the blog post to publish, a colleague questioned why Apple would do this in a way that caused so much uproar, creating conflict with advertisers, developers, and other influential companies like Facebook. * Companies like Facebook and Google make money by selling ads; their products are free. For Apple, a company deeply invested in the privacy controversy as a marketing strategy, the conflict is a “win” as it furthers their desired position in the minds of consumers and the marketplace.

At last June’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC20), the company announced the iOS 14 update effective in 2021 would feature Enhanced Privacy, providing more transparency and privacy control for iPhone users. All apps will now be required to obtain user permission before tracking via the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) tracking tag, which allows apps to aggregate data without personally identifiable user information (similar to how a cookie works on browsers). Advertisers and publishers – most notably, Facebook – are concerned the new privacy features will affect ad monetization and user acquisition, forcing app developers to quickly rethink their ad-supported business models. a user’s movement across apps and on the web * serve targeted ads which generate more revenue for apps While this new privacy update will improve transparency in the “developer-customer” relationship, Facebook has warned businesses that they could see up to a 50 percent drop in Audience Network ad revenue.