High-stakes campaigns like a Super Bowl ad are significant team-building moments. Mondelez's Stephen Sainan highlights that celebrating the culmination of this work together creates strong bonds and pride, which directly impacts employee retention and provides a powerful, often overlooked, economic return.
The Super Bowl captures mass attention, making it a powerful marketing opportunity for all brands, not just consumer ones. By incorporating relevant themes, even "boring" B2B companies can significantly boost engagement because the topic is top-of-mind for their audience.
Companies, especially large ones where CEOs lack face time with everyone, should run an internal podcast. It fosters a sense of connection and affection for leadership and coworkers, which can make employees less likely to leave.
There is a direct correlation between a marketer's genuine excitement for a campaign and its eventual performance. Passion leads to higher quality execution, more interesting ideas, and authenticity that resonates with the market. Teams that are just “punching a clock” will produce mediocre work that fails to break through the noise.
To prevent the grind of pursuing massive goals from becoming arduous, Canva creates fun, memorable celebrations for milestones. These events, from smashing Greek plates to releasing doves, serve as important moments for the team to pause, reflect, and feel proud of their hard work.
To motivate employees in non-visible roles, McLaren rotates which department is represented on the victory podium with the drivers. Putting their CFO or CMO up there symbolically recognizes the entire department's contribution to the win, fostering a sense of shared purpose.
Not all brand campaigns have direct, measurable ROI. Justify their cost by tracking "soft ROI," such as increased employee pride and retention (e.g., employees on billboards), positive candidate feedback during interviews, and using tools like Gong to track how often the campaign is mentioned in sales calls.
A new brand identity gives employees something tangible to rally behind, increasing their pride and sense of belonging. This renewed energy can manifest in unexpected ways, such as employees willingly volunteering their personal time for company events, strengthening internal culture.
TBPN, a media company, ran a Super Bowl ad not to sell a product, but as a gesture to its community, featuring guests and partners. This counterintuitive marketing spend builds brand affinity and can be justified as being done "purely for fun."
A powerful brand story serves as an internal rallying cry. By sharing marketing assets like brand videos internally, teams like product, engineering, and finance become inspired by the mission. This raises the internal bar and motivates them to build a product that lives up to the brand's promise.
Instead of typical corporate offsites, the Tim Hortons marketing team spends a day at one of its children's camps. They participate in team-building activities designed for campers, directly connecting their daily work to the brand's larger purpose and strengthening internal bonds through a shared mission.