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The Neustar Idol Contest: Getting employees to tell the story

One way to get employees excited about and engaged in the company strategy is to enable them to tell it in their own way, and be creative when doing so. Neustar adopted this thinking when it launched the Neustar Idol Contest, which ended with impressive results.

By David Carson, manager, corporate communications, Neustar

With the objective of educating employees of how to tell the Neustar story to various audiences – potential customers, friends, family, etc. - in an engaging and comprehensible manner, the corporate communications department looked at how to best engage the employee base in an exciting and effective manner. There were two criterea that had to be met simultaneously:

1. Autonomy for each employee to really own the message.
2. The structure of the core message had to be kept intact.

Key challenges
We knew from previous messaging introduction that employees wanted a more detailed version of how to pitch our company. One important challenge in this initiative was how to engage employees in a manner that would generate motivation to learn the messaging as well as actively participate in doing so. Another key challenge was how to reach employees in locations globally and ensure that we avoided being headquarters-centric. Time and workload balance is always an issue, thus we wanted to provide flexibility for participation in any initiative we developed.

The solution
We decided to hold a “We Connect Everyone” Neustar Idol Contest. In true American Idol/X-Factor fashion, the contest was designed so that employees anywhere throughout our global locations could participate by submitting a video recording of their 60-second Neustar pitch. They were given the base messaging to create their pitch and then encouraged to make it their own being as creative as possible. We provided messaging documents as well as recorded a somewhat tongue-and-cheek training program in our Learning Management System.

Employees had approximately a month to develop their video. Once the initial submissions were accepted, we opened the videos up to voting by the entire 1,000+ employee base on our Intranet. Employees had a span of approximately 2 weeks to vote for their favorite video(s). The top 5 selections were be shown in the finale at our December 2010 All Hands Meeting with the winner receiving a trip to the Caribbean and being crowned the 2010 Neustar Idol.

Upon selection by Neustar employees, the top 5 video entries were shown at the Neuview All Hands Meeting in front of a panel of judges, including a correspondent from a major news organization, a Neustar employee who was considered the messaging expert and a teacher/performer from the Washington Improv Theater. The panel was given messaging effectiveness, delivery and creativity as their criteria for judging.

We ensured that the tone of the event was both entertaining and educational as we had each Neustar Idol finalist present their videos along with a Ryan Seacrest-like host to moderate. After each video, the judges provided humorous and critical feedback to continue the Idol-like feel. Once completed, employees were able to text their vote in real time for their favorite video(s) by using one of Neustar’s solutions, Common Short Codes. When all votes were submitted, we tallied results and announced the winner at the end of the meeting.

Communication channels
The contest spanned 3 months from October to December 2010, and included a variety of communication channels including email announcements, video, training sessions via our online learning portal, Intranet, in-person announcements at employee roundtables and our All Hands Meeting, in which employees could attend in-person, via teleconference, WebEx or audio dial-in.
We received a total of 10 video submissions with entries from Virginia, Kentucky, California and the United Kingdom. The entries were creative and varied in terms of style and tone including compelling lecture-style pitches, cartoon/animations and fully-integrated departmental collaborations.

The results
The results showed significant increases in engagement, positive energy and an overall sense of community within the employee base as evidenced by the following statistics including our post-All Hands Meeting survey.

• 440 total text votes were submitted by employees, which provided an excellent opportunity to get hands-on experience of our Common Short Code solution.
• Over 400 employees across the globe in attendance (virtual & in-person). This marked the highest attendance ever.
• We hit capacity on our phone lines (200+ on the dial-in) and had to increase the number of open lines.
• 94% of Post-event Survey Respondents rated the overall event as Excellent or Good.
• 87% of Post-event Survey Respondents Strongly Agreed or Agreed that it increased their awareness of what Neustar does, which corresponds to one of our key goals.
• 84% of Post-event Survey Respondents Strongly Agreed or Agreed that the event was engaging.
• 96% of Post-event Survey Respondents stated they are Very Likely or Likely to attend the next All Hands Meeting.
• The Neustar Idol webpage was the 8th most visited page on our Intranet for the 4th Quarter 2010.
  In addition to the quantitative data, we also received qualitative responses as well. The comments submitted regarding the All Hands Meeting included:
• “This was so much FUN and a great team building activity!!” - Neustar Idol Participant
• “The Neustar Idol contest was very informative in letting us know how we CONNECT.” – Survey Response
• “This was an exceptional Neuview. The creativity was awesome and having the video presentation as a contest was not only fun but educational. Well done too!” - Survey Response
• “Mixing up some serious business with a more light hearted segment really makes the Neuview a more interesting and engaging experience for the audience. It also builds a stronger sense of community.” – Survey Response
• “The perfect balance between providing structured information and open forum. This is the best way to provide employees a sense of common goals and objectives.” – Survey Response

Overall, the corporate communications team felt that the results were better than expected. With the original goal to educate employees about what Neustar does as well as provide examples of how to tell the story, we were more interested in providing varied examples of our “elevator pitch” to a wide audience of employees and less concerned about the actual number of employees who submitted entries.

This contest confirmed that:

1. Our employees are a highly-creative group
2. Employees are engaged given the right medium and
3. Engaging programs that aim to entertain while educate work very well within our organization.

Going forward, corporate communications continues to examine ways to engage our employee base through programs and initiatives that drive collaboration, encourage autonomy and promote an innovative spirit. The Neustar Idol contest was a perfect blend of all three.

Have your say
What has been your experience of using video and contest-like campaigns for engagement?

Recommended resources:
Online video - A guide for internal communicators – Part one: Is it right for you?

Promoting team engagement at Lloyds TSB

How to ensure you're taking the right approach to engagement

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