A video I worked on with my colleagues at SAP scooped a Bronze Stevie Award at this year’s American Business Awards in the Internal/Employee Communications category! The award was for our FlexBelt video, which was produced in 2022 for SAP Enterprise Adoption as part of the rollout for a new flexible workspace in Germany. The 2023 competition received more than 3,700 nominations, so winning a Stevie in the Video: Internal/Employee Communications category is quite an achievement both for the team and for SAP.
About the video
After the pandemic, people were understandably hesitant about returning to the office. Even the lure of a new building with state-of-the-art workspaces and strict health safeguards wasn’t enough to allay fears about the new world of flex-desking and how it would impact productivity. The brief for this project was to produce a video that says “Yes, it’s been a long time since we’ve been to the office, and yes the thought of coming back is a little scary, but don’t worry…we have everything covered!”
We wanted to create a positive and optimistic vibe to make people curious about the new office and make it seem less scary. Instead of simply listing all the reasons why people should come back to the office, we decided to use humor to broach the concerns, worries, and criticisms people might have had about coming back to the office and turn them into a fictional and completely unnecessary product. We wanted to show that there was no need to worry and that the experience would be safe and enjoyable. Above all, we wanted to make people smile and feel better about coming back.
The feedback from the panel of judges was incredibly positive:
- Great use of humor as a way to address the “dreaded” return to the office challenge.
- Fun #Stuffyoudontneed is a creative way to highlight the good while laughing at our own overwrought behavior coming out of the pandemic. Its parody approach is refreshing and neutralizes all of the negativity associated with returning to the office. This was a fun video with good messaging for SAP and its partners.
- This is a great video helping employees easily transition back into the office.
- The FlexBelt™ video effectively used humor and optimism to address the concerns and hesitations about returning to the office after the pandemic.
The video was a real team effort, and everyone played their part in making it a success:
- Writer, Director & Post Production: Jody Byrne
- Voiceover: Patrick McGraw
- Cast: Dominik Strauss, Linda Fenlon, Dominic Mulreany
- Camera & Sound: Axel Luther
You can watch the video here
About the awards
The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The awards are nicknamed the Stevies from the Greek word meaning “crowned”.
More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration this year in a wide range of categories. You can see the full list of winners here.
