Super Bowl Marketing for Employee Communications
When it comes to communicating with your employees, does it feel like no one is listening? Perhaps you’ve put in an extreme amount of effort to communicate different programs or perks going on at your organization, but no one seems to know about them. If you are struggling to communicate with your team, you are not alone. Let me repeat…YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Communicating effectively with your employees is one of the hardest things to master. And these days it’s harder than ever because for the first time ever we are having to communicate with four very different generations in the workplace. FOUR! Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z…oh my!
In order to communicate with all of these different generations effectively, we need to practice what I like to call Super Bowl Marketing. Think of the Super Bowl ads. They somehow need to communicate to an audience of millions that’s made up of different races, ages, they have different political views…your workforce is no different!
Super Bowl Marketing is a way of communicating effectively with all different types of people at the same time.
Before we dig in, I want to share with you quickly a chart of the top 20 Super Bowl commercials broken out by type. The categories that the Super Bowl ads fell into this year were as follows:
Funny
Feel Good
Story
Informative
Political
As the chart depicts, the category that resonated most with the audience was “Funny”. Followed by “Feel Good” and “Story”. Commercials that were “Informative” and “Political” were not so popular.
So, allow this information to guide your internal communications strategy. Obviously, take out any political talk in the office unless politics is directly related to your line of work. If your communications are only informative, they will not get the attention it deserves. Can you tell a story with what you want to communicate? You will be a little bit more effective? Can you make your employees feel good? Share heart warming stories? Yes? Then you’re going to get a lot more attention! And finally, can you find the humor with your internal communications? Can you tell jokes? Make light of the situation? If yes, then you will hit employee communication gold!
Let’s dig in!
Here are my tips on how you can incorporate Super Bowl Marketing tactics into your internal employee communications strategy:
1. GET IN ON THE ACTION
Figure out what has your employees already connecting with one another outside of the office. What restaurants do they go to? What do they like to do for fun? Go to the “water cooler”. Talk. Get to know your people. Immerse yourself in the company’s culture. The more you know about your people, the easier it will be to cater your communications around their likes. Therefore, allowing your communications to earn the attention it deserves!
Super Bowl Commercial 2020 Example
Planters – Baby Nut
Now, this commercial got a lot of people talking. And rumor has it, Planters actually pivoted the storyline due to recent events. However, Planters truly understood the love and sensation of Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda was the most searched baby in 2019. The messaging wasn’t about peanuts at all, but rather the rebirth of Mr. Peanut. The point is, this commercial got attention and got people talking. There was a very common interest they hit on, so think about how you can use this strategy to get your employees talking about company values, mission, perks, training programs, etc.
2. USE THE COCKTAIL PHENOMENON
The Cocktail Phenomenon will help your communications become more of a conversation, more personalized and more relevant. Before you sit down to write out a long email to your employees, close your eyes…think about being out at happy hour with your best friends. Great music is playing. The bartender is crafting his specialty drinks just for you. Everyone is laughing and having a good ol’ time…and then, out of nowhere your friend asks you, “I got something in the mail…what in the world is an Explanation of Benefits?”. How would you explain this concept to your friend? You would:
Make it relevant to her needs.
Remove any insurance jargon…(Susie doesn’t know this stuff).
Perhaps give an example of how this so called “EOB” can be helpful.
And that’s what you need to do when you’re writing an email, making a video, sending out a memo, etc. Use the Cocktail Phenomenon and pretend that you’re talking to your friends. Why should your employees care? Answer that question for them! Remove the insurance jargon – you know this stuff is hard to understand! And tell stories instead of facts. That will resonate more with your team than anything else.
Super Bowl Commercial 2020 Example
Hyundai – Smaht Pahk
Hyundai truly hit the jackpot with their Smaht Pahk commercial! This one topped the list of pretty much all the “best Super Bowl commercials” lists. Now, this commercial doesn’t use any fancy car terminology, nor does it try to explain how to use the smart park feature. Instead, it’s a bunch of friends together talking about the car’s features. The conversation is down to earth, easy to understand (well, so long as you don’t let that strong Boston accent get in the way😊), and effortless. It’s a simple conversation amongst friends. Can you use this concept when explaining benefits? Or, how to use the new CRM system? You sure can! Simplify your communications and don’t make it complicated.
3. INCORPORATE HUMOR
Let’s be honest, not every day at work is going to be glorious. That’s why they have to pay us to be there. But we’re all people, and people like to laugh! Incorporate humor into your employee communications. In fact, the most popular Super Bowl ads all have one thing in common…humor. Humor is a magical thing that binds us all together.
I know, I know…you’re thinking how can I make employee communications fun?? There’s onboarding, benefits, training, goals…The answer is memes, GIFs and cute dogs! I mean, who can resist a cute dog?
IDEAS ON HOW TO INCORPORATE A LITTLE HUMOR INTO THE WORKPLACE…
Use memes to help communicate your message.
EXAMPLE 1: Meeting announcement
“Yup, it’s that time of the month! Another mandatory meeting😊
Meet us in the conference room at 9 a.m. sharp.”
EXAMPLE 2: Perk announcement
“We know…it’s Monday…and we work on Mondays. But, to add a little pep in your step, DONUTS are in the conference room. Grab ‘em while they’re hot!
–Compliments of your leadership team (who also works on Mondays)”
Use GIFs to help you promote employee benefits.
EXAMPLE 3: Wellness program promotion
“Weekend brunch weighing you down?
The walking challenge is on! Kick off the new year by participating in our wellness challenge for a chance to win gift cards, a FitBit, a day off…even a feel-good bod!
-Your HR team”
Use cute dogs to hone in on important company initiatives.
Click here to add a caption to cute dog photos.
EXAMPLE 4: Goal reminder email
“This dog had one goal – don’t fall asleep while eating.
He failed.
Miserably.
Don’t let your 2020 goals get the best of you! It’s time to schedule your meeting with your manager to go over your 2020 goals. More importantly, it’s time to let us know how we can help YOU be successful! Let’s do this!”
Super Bowl Commercial 2020 Example
Jeep - Groundhog Day
Jeep certainly had a lot of fun with this one! Using a classic movie, plus humor, plus an adorable groundhog, who could help not to giggle a little bit? Humor can go a long way in your internal communication goals.
4. USE MULTIPLE FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
In order to ensure we are targeting and reaching every generation in the workplace, we need to use multiple forms of communication to relay the same message. And yes, even the Super Bowl ads are doing this! Super Bowl ads are now popping up on social media before the Super Bowl airs. And afterwards? These companies are sending out emails to further the messages that appeared in the Super Bowl ads. Why go to this extreme? Well, there are so many more mediums out there now than there used to be! We need to meet our audience, aka our employees, where they are. If they like to use chat platforms, we need to ensure we’re communicating on chat platforms. If they like to read emails, we need to ensure we’re sending out emails. If our employees are on their phones for work, why not send text messages? There is a plethora of ways to reach your team – social media, meetings, web meetings, video and podcasts. Take advantage of the resources you have at your disposal and use as many as you can to communicate the same message to all employees.
Super Bowl Commercial 2020 Example
Welcome to Winona Campaign by Squarespace
Commercial + Blog + Email
This campaign is everywhere! Multiple commercials, blogs, email…you can’t escape it. Squarespace is making sure that every single person sees and hears about Winona. They are hitting every medium to make sure that objective is met!
5. FIRE THE CEO!
Okay, I don’t mean this literally…but in a sense, yes. I want you to fire your CEO…from internal communications that is. Hear me out here. When you think of the Super Bowl ads, you don’t have Jeff Bezos in the Amazon commercial, or Randy Freer in the Hulu commercial. Absolutely not! You have Ellen Degeneres in the Amazon commercial. You have Tom Brady in the Hulu commercial. These are celebrities, influencers!
Think about your workplace. Who are the influencers in your office? Who do people like? Who do people listen to? Who inspires others? I bet you that it’s not always the top dog CEO. Maybe it’s Jenny in accounting. Perhaps Steve in sales. Or, Monica in marketing. Use these internal influencers to communicate company initiatives. Have they participated in a company benefit and have a story to tell? Was Steve able to drop his medication by participating in the wellness program? Did Jenny successfully graduate with the help of the company’s tuition reimbursement program? Use these stories! Use these influencers! Find inspiration within your team to promote, tell, share and communicate.
Super Bowl Commercial 2020 Example
Amazon - #BeforeAlexa
Amazon knows that you’d be hard-pressed trying to find someone who does not like Ellen Degeneres. And while I’m sure those people are out there, Ellen has a huge following and is known for simply spreading happiness. So, if Ellen thinks Alexa is great, well then maybe I will too!
What do you think? Do you think you can incorporate some of these ideas into your internal employee communications strategy? Do you need a little help or want a sounding board to fire off some ideas? We’re here for you! We’re tired of boring, non-effective employee communications, and we want to help YOU!
Contact us if we can help turn your important messages into engaging conversations.