How Deloitte's video competition engages internal and external audiences
In this extract from Melcrum's Viral communication in the workplace report, find out how Deloitte inspired its employees using a video competition to create a brand-awareness campaign that resonated with internal and external audiences.
"It all began when I was on vacation with
my kids and they were spending all
their time sitting at the computer,
laughing uncontrollably at the videos on
YouTube," says Brian Fugere (pictured, right), partner at
Deloitte Consulting responsible for
special projects relating to brand, strategy
and communication. “And one of my
sons spent the rest of the vacation
making videos.”
Fugere witnessed this transaction –
generations Y and Z being completely
comfortable with being amateur filmmakers,
having all the technology to support it, and
eagerly sharing their work on video-sharing
sites – and recognized that here was an
unrealized opportunity in the formal world
of internal communication. “I thought:
There’s something in this. There’s
something here we need to be tapping
into. And that’s how the Deloitte Film
Festival was born.”
There’s something about video that’s so engaging to gen Y – and I felt that was something we could take advantage of.
Employee-generated ideas
Film, in particular, was beginning to
intrigue Fugere for a number of reasons:
- Ease of use
“Filmmaking has become democratized by technology now – anyone can make a little movie and show it to the world. The content tools that were once the preserve of big departments are now available to everyone.” - Natural impact
“There’s something about video that’s so engaging to generation Y – and I felt that was something we could take advantage of to gain impact with that audience.” - User-generated content revolution
Fugere remarks on 2007’s Superbowl as a telling moment. The TV advertising during the Superbowl broadcast is as famous in the US as the game itself – with the guaranteed biggest TV audience of the year, a tradition has developed for advertisers to showcase their very best new work, and it’s always eagerly awaited. Since companies know that the audience is watching and waiting for something special, spots go for astronomical amounts.
For the 2007 Superbowl, a 30-second spot cost an average sales price of $2.6 million and that year, Frito-Lay famously bought one – and then turned it over to a user-generated video competition. The best home-made Doritos commercial, as rated on a specially set-up video-sharing website, would get the Frito-Lay slot during the Superbowl.
Over 1,000 amateurs submitted entries. “So you’re watching companies turning over that number one advertising spot to consumers,” remarks Fugere. “And that’s just the kind of end-point of a whole revolution in which you’re finding, increasingly, organizations are turning to customers to provide their content. So, I figured, we really should be watching and learning from this, and turning that logic internally. If they’re deciding it’s the best way to engage audiences out in the external world, we can’t ignore it internally.”When you put this stuff up on the internet, as long as real people made it, you have an impact.
- The marketing power of user-generated content
As well as the widespread publicity in the media, the “Doritos Crash the Superbowl” site got some four million views in the voting run-up, showing the viral marketing power of user-generated content. “So that was something else to take on board – when you put this stuff up on the internet, even when it’s clearly marketing a company or its products, as long as real people made it, you have an impact. That was something else we wanted to use.”
Matching the medium to the message: Recruitment
The question was how to use it – it
couldn’t be just video for video’s sake. It
had to be something that encouraged
employee-generated videos, was able to be
fun while also being in line with a
strategic business need, and could then
have a viral impact in the external world.
The answer came from a Deloitte hot
button: recruitment.
Members can read the full article here.
Have your say
Do you have the freedom at your organization to instigate such energizing employee projects? If you've worked on a similar engagement and branding strategy at your organization, tell us all about it below.
First published by Melcrum in 2008.
Recommended resources:
TOP TIPS: Five steps for making an internal communications film
Melcrum report: Viral communication in the workplace
A communicator's guide to Generation Y
ONLINE LIBRARY All channels and new media articles