Basic Event Information
Date: 23 November – 24 December 2020
Location: Slovenia/Croatia/online
Organiser: New Moment
Client: Philip Morris Ljubljana & Philip Morris Zagreb
EVENT CATEGORY: CATEGORY B2I
EVENT SUBCATEGORY: Best Teambuilding Event / B2I
EVENT FORMAT: HYBRID
Event description and key objectives
Every good team deserves a teambuilding. And every year deserves a celebration, even the year 2020. Philip Morris Zagreb & Ljubljana wished to celebrate the end of the year with their employees, only this time their traditional event had to be done differently.
Challenge and key objectives were to create an event of being together when the team is physically apart. Create an atmosphere of being apart but still together for a celebration and create content for the conference, relevant for business purposes – align the team, update on business results, inspire to be innovative.
From being A P A R T TOGETHER, we created A PART TOGETHER. A tailor-made End of the year teambuilding journey on a digital platform with analog elements. A fusion of both worlds resulted in an unforgettable experience, full of entertainment, interaction, and activations. The event lasted a whole month, peaking with a 3-day live conference on MS Teams, engaging participants and making them feel together. 165 employees participated in one event, apart but also together!
Online program was carefully linked with a box participants received to their home with instructions how and when to use the props during the program, building a combination of anticipation and excitement. A famous standup comedian was live-streamed and guided the participants all the way through the program, including real-time interactions via chat.
An unforgettable New Year’s event. An unforgettable team celebration on Teams.
Key challenges
The key challenge was how to make people, who are physically apart, feel like they are together. How to follow all the restrictions and rules by being apart during the pandemic and still create an entertaining journey, during which participants will feel they are a part of the team while celebrating on MS Teams platform.
How to create an environment where they would feel cozy, free to interact. It had to be something they are used to, even though MS Teams was not perfect for our type of the event – teambuilding and celebration with some business and educational parts.
The answer was a creative and innovative fusion of the platform and other apps, digital and analogue elements, working together to be one unforgettable celebration. We managed to bring lots of emotions, interaction and entertainment to the digital environment and ended with happy and fulfilled participants who, no matter the different form, enjoyed themselves and did not feel like they missed on their traditional live event celebration.
Creativity
From being A P A R T TOGETHER, we created A PART TOGETHER. A tailor-made End of the year journey on a digital platform with analogue elements. A fusion of both worlds resulted in an unforgettable experience, full of entertainment, interaction, and activations.
Content was created especially for the occasion and streamed via MS Teams, a platform Philip Morris uses as their remote working environment on a daily basis. Participants generated their own content in the form of videos that were later broadcasted back on the MS Teams, creating the feeling of togetherness and team spirit.
- Partners sent video holidays wishes instead of meeting in person.
- Participants received boxes to their home addresses, with content that added value to the program and played an important role in online and offline activations.
- Participants were a part of the program, a part of dance activations, a part of pop quiz, a part of speaker talk, a part of standup show, a part of celebration and a part of together, going forward towards 2021.
Innovation
A PART TOGETHER concept was based on adapting to the current situation, taking advantage of the existing business communication platform, and combining everything with analog elements in a new type of event.
It was not an ordinary online event because of its innovative combination of digital and analog elements. It managed to function as a wholesome, teambuilding event, emphasizing togetherness and team spirit while happening mainly on MS Teams.
In a way it created its own platform making participants feel a part of happening. With the box of gifts and props, carefully synchronized with the program for each day. With activations, group activities, live chat room and many elements that made participants feel like they are a part of celebration, no matter being physically apart.
Execution
The event lasted for a whole month, celebration and teambuilding activities ending with 3 days of live conference.
The host was broadcasted live from studio, streamed via MS Teams. 165 participants communicated live via video call and chat, posting comments, videos, and photos.
Boxes were sent to participants with gifts for 3 days of the conference adding value to the program and playing an important role – participants opened them according to the activities. From morning coffee to dance props and a champagne for a toast.
All participants were also part of Secret Santa activation. They were delegated a co-worker to write a card to and choose a gift for. Gifts could be chosen from 3 categories (festive, innovative, or sustainable), delivered after the event. Pop Quiz was held on Kahoot, streamed live. Participants were divided into groups; in the end the winning group was announced.
Virtual backgrounds were created for a personalized MS Teams appearance.
For the dance challenge a dance instructor presented a trending song and special dance moves. Groups recreated their own videos with mobile phones, the recordings were later presented as group dance and rewarded in different dance categories.
Guest speaker futurist Ben Hammersley gave the talk on how to apply new ways of thinking and think about the future in the new reality we are experiencing – a topic relevant for Philip Morris and the transformation of the company. Speaker was later available for live chat.
Measurable results
- Response rate over 95 %
- 165 participants, live on MS Teams
- 23 groups
- 2 countries (Croatia and Slovenia)
- 360 minutes of live program in 3 days
- 165 Boxes sent to all invitees
- 122 dance videos made by participants with their mobile phones
- 165 Secret Santa greeting cards created by participants and sent with gifts
Communication
Communication has changed to some extent during pandemic, being a challenge to begin with. Like the rest of the business world, Philip Morris communicated mainly online, in their case via MS Teams. To maximally merge with their work flow we decided to use MS Teams also for our event, following the platforms technical options and turning them into our favor. Most of all, we wished to awake festive emotions and feeling of togetherness. Online communication has its challenges, being known for its limitations concerning emotions. That is why we found the solution by including analog and offline elements that helped us boost team spirit, anticipation, and surprise factors.
Since the event was held on MS Teams platform, we used its communication options to the maximum, adding only what was missing – an offline component. The main element here being the gift box of props that were essential for activation and were synchronized with the program. Communication was enabled in any direction possible: all 165 participants communicated between each other and within groups. The host was broadcasted live and had instant feedback in the chat. Direct correspondence was also enabled with the guest speaker who was answering questions live, 8 hours away in New York.
Production and organization team was constantly in line with client organizers, making sure the event communication was excellent, and all information ran smoothly in all directions no matter where each team member was situated.
The use of sustainable practices
For Philip Morris International sustainability is about creating long-term value while minimizing the negative externalities associated with the products, operations, and responsible steps we take in daily life. Sustainability and dedication had to be implemented in this event. While being focused on online communication, combined with offline elements, event still had to follow the sustainability values and practices. By using the existing online work platform, which participants know and use daily while working from home, participants were already familiar with the communication environment.
Since most of the event happened online, there was not any need for many elements we would usually require for an event. Only minimal scenography was used and since it was Christmas season, we reused the majority of existing decorations client already had for scenography elements.
Gifts for participants were carefully selected by local manufacturers and local business productions to support local economy during these challenging times. Delivery was optimized to minimize transport and environment effects. All the technical gear, screens, cameras, sound equipment and lights were rented; therefore re-used.
