Insights from Nebo

 Right now, it’s more important than ever to lift each other up. These are hard times we’re living in. It’s been exactly 140 days since we started working from home here at Nebo, and things haven’t exactly gotten any easier since then. Some days are good, but some days are a struggle — and even for those of us who are privileged to have things relatively easy, the struggle can still be very, very real. 

Coronavirus has drastically changed the landscape of everyday life — and it has reshaped the landscape of first-party data, too. 

During quarantine, people have turned to apps and services to purchase their necessities for pick-up and delivery. With a majority of Americans homebound, people have found themselves relying more heavily on online ordering, opting to have products, goods and groceries delivered. After all, why wander down grocery store aisles when you can easily peruse an app, and in some cases receive free delivery? Of those who bought groceries online during the first few months of the pandemic, one survey found that 41.8% had never ordered online groceries before.

This influx of new customers and users has only aided the ever-growing first-party advertising space, allowing companies to garner more audience data than ever before.

To say 2020 has been different is an epic understatement. It started with COVID-19, but that's only the beginning. 

The Black Lives Matter movement, the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, our current political environment and more have all forced organizations and brands to reevaluate their place and role in society.

It’s not enough just to have a good service or product at a fair price. It’s not enough to just not offend. Staying silent isn’t an option anymore. Even if organizations and brands wanted to stay silent and bury their heads in the sand, society simply won’t let them.

People are demanding to know where brands stand. What they’re doing to make the world a better place. How they’re fighting systemic racism internally and externally.

As we enter month five of working from home, we at Nebo find ourselves asking, will this ever end HOW ARE THE OFFICE DOGS DOING??? 

Have we mentioned how much we love dogs at Nebo? They bring light, love and the occasional accident to our workdays, and over the last few months we have missed them dearly. But there is one silver lining to this apocalyptic WFH marathon. Now that home is the new office, we have tons of adorable new coworkers. We’ve widened our creature collection to include office dogs, office cats and even office babies.

This Independence Day, we decided to check in on our cutest coworkers to see how they’re celebrating at home. Happy 4th of Jul-awww!

Five years ago I was sitting at my desk at Nebo when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of marriage equality in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges. I say sitting at my desk, not working, because I had been glued to the SCOTUS live blog that whole morning, impatiently waiting for the ruling. When it was announced, I was flooded with relief and excitement­. I feverishly texted my then-girlfriend plans to meet and get a celebratory lunch. We got lobster rolls at The Optimist, a place around the corner from the old Nebo office. 

We toasted to love winning. 

Juneteenth marks the end of slavery for African Americans on June 19, 1865. This holiday is a time for both celebration and reflection, an opportunity to look back at our past as a country, to assess where we are in the present and to imagine a new future. 

To commemorate the end of slavery during this historic time, we put together a brief history of Juneteenth, as well as a wealth of resources about systemic racism and how it continues to operate in America today.