Running a Business a During War

Barzel’s Head of Influencer Management, Melissa Sussman on her way to her (Mamad) protected room

How Barzel Media team managed 2 deploy to important campaigns during a holiday and in the midst of war. 

What It’s Like Running a Campaign During War

Most marketing campaigns are built around calendars, strategy meetings, and carefully planned timelines.

Running one during a war is something entirely different. Running two, during a war is just wack! 

During the recent escalation with Iran, I found myself managing influencer campaigns for two organizations whose missions suddenly felt even more urgent: Leket Israel and Meir Panim. Both organizations work on the front lines of food insecurity in Israel. Leket rescues surplus food from farms, hotels, and food producers and redistributes it to people who need it most. Meir Panim operates restaurant style soup kitchens, Meals on Wheels programs, and support services for families, Holocaust survivors, and elderly Israelis living in poverty.

Under normal circumstances, campaigns revolve around messaging, deliverables, and engagement metrics. But when a war is unfolding in real time, the entire process changes.

The news cycle was shifting by the hour. Sirens were sounding. My own family and I were running to shelters while I was still trying to keep the campaign moving forward. The creators we were working with were also navigating their own fears and emotions, worrying about loved ones, checking the news constantly, and trying to decide whether they could even show up online that day.

At the same time, the mission of the campaign mattered more than ever.

Organizations like Leket and Meir Panim were not just charities in that moment. They were lifelines. As uncertainty spread across the country, the need for food support only grew. Families were struggling, elderly people were isolated, and many communities were under enormous stress.

The voices of our creators became something more than content. In that moment they were storytellers, advocates, and bridges connecting audiences around the world to what was actually happening on the ground in Israel.

Managing that balance was one of the hardest parts of the job.

On one hand there were the practical responsibilities. Coordinating posts, answering questions, managing edits, updating messaging, and constantly adjusting plans as the news changed. Campaign timelines that were carefully designed weeks earlier suddenly had to shift overnight.

On the other hand there was the human side of the work.

Creators would check in asking what felt appropriate to post. The organizations themselves were dealing with the realities of the moment, feeding more people, responding to growing needs, and processing the emotional toll of everything happening around them. And like everyone else in Israel, I was also experiencing it personally.

It is a strange thing to reconcile your own fear and emotions while also trying to think strategically.

You are watching the news, hearing sirens, checking on family, and at the same time trying to make thoughtful decisions about messaging, timing, and impact. You are listening to creators, listening to the organizations, and trying to hold space for everyone’s very real feelings while still moving the campaign forward.

Some days the work felt less like marketing and more like community support.

What I learned through this experience is that campaigns during difficult moments cannot be run the same way as campaigns during normal times.

They require empathy.

They require flexibility.

They require an understanding that behind every post, every video, and every message is a real person navigating their own reality.

At the same time, they highlight something worth paying attention to. When people come together around a shared purpose, and when creators, organizations, and communities align around something meaningful, their voices begin to carry real weight.

That kind of impact does not disappear in uncertain moments. If anything, it becomes more noticeable when the environment is less predictable and the stakes feel higher.