Mayo’s internal video contest racks up more than 125,000 views

The Mayo Clinic started its video-building adventure the right way: it asked employees to be involved in the planning stages.

Mayo launched an internal video contest called the “My Mayo Movie Challenge” on June 24, 2011, winning top honors in the Ragan Employee Communications Awards for Best Community Building Video category.

Employees were asked to create a 90-second video showcasing the “Mayo Effect.” Mayo hoped these videos would be a testament to how employees and their teams keep the needs of patients first. The contest proved successful and Mayo received 59 videos.

Employees who didn’t create a video could still be involved in the judging process. Mayo used a star system to rate the videos. By the end of the contest, the videos racked up more than 125,000 views. The winning video was chosen, but the fun didn’t stop there. Mayo created seven short newsletters using employee images from submissions accompanied by fun teasers like “You had me at Mayo.” The engagement didn’t die with the commencement of the competition.

Part of the reason many companies may fail to engage employees using technology is because they’re either fearful of submitting a piece of work or are unfamiliar with the technology. Mayo understands this and created a promotional video to explain how easy it is to create videos. It clearly indicated what it was looking for in a video.

Contrary to what one might think, incentives to enter were minor. Mayo offered the winners a catered lunch, recognition from leaders (a personal “thank you”), and a “Mayo Effect” mug. All employees who entered the competition received a certificate of participation. This kind of engagement works as people aren’t competing for prizes, but, instead, are involved because they believe in the message they are creating. Mayo has a clear understanding of the culture it fosters and uses that to encourage employees to share their stories.

To view the winning work please click here and here.