Humanise Viacom18’s internal communications through a creative approach. We wanted to launch an all encompassing campaign that would instill a feeling of oneness in employees. We called it Evolve. Under Evolve, we:

a) Listened

b) Mobilised

c) Innovated

And through the campaigns, 'we' were the employees initially content with working in their silos.

EVOLVE: To accelerate the momentum of transformation from ‘Me to We’, the big umbrella campaign of Evolve was rolled out. Using strategically placed creatives in frequented spaces within the building, we showcased the collective strengths of Viacom18 on social media, broadcast reach, and international footprint of the 800+ people who made Viacom18 possible.

Echoes 6.0: Under Evolve we set up an annual employee survey property by the name of “Echoes”. Instead of compelling our people to spare time for a chore, we invited them to take a break with us!

Big Belly: A digital platform housed on the intranet, it was based on crowd-sourcing innovation. Based on Share I Collaborate I Vote I Comment I Win, it was introduced to bring together the dysfunctional family as ONE Viacom18.

We ignited loyalty for the mother brand in a creative and interactive way that demonstrated deep understanding of Viacom18’s ethos of innovation and entertainment, values and vision.

ECHOES: From 25% attendance on day 1, year 1 we moved to 95 % attendance on day 1, year 2.

ICO: Within 6 months, there were 10 happy inter-brand transfers and 100% satisfaction amidst employees for the opportunity. An employee got an international transfer as well!

BIG BELLY: The once dysfunctional family actually came together to campaign, collaborate and win! A show was born as a result of the winning collaboration between a lady from the legal team and a lady from the MTV team during Big Belly. The show is now being produced for MTV and our digital OTT platform VOOT. 800 employees and There were 254 ideas, 2479 votes and 50+ collaborations.

EVOLVE - From Me to We is relevant for PR Lions because through this campaign we broke seemingly unbreakable silos in the organization and instilled a feeling of oneness in Viacom18 employees. The very core of the campaign was designed around storytelling, insights and analytics. Our challenge before we kick-started the campaign was transforming an organizational attitude and bringing about behavioral change. The umbrella campaign and each campaign under it successfully did so because they were based on insights that came from employees themselves.

Target Audience:

From the uber cool MTV guy to the traditional GEC guy to the esoteric English Entertainment lady to the cynical legal bloke to the rad Live-Entertainment chick. Viacom18 was a house of cult brands, with every employee as unique and diverse as the individual brands they worked for.

Approach:

Our approach was inside out.

To make Viacom18 a brand for the outside world, we started by building it for its own people. For employees to believe in the parent, it is vital to listen, bring about changes based on feedback and communicate constantly. Thus was born ONEViacom18 and its internal communications campaign EVOLVE became its tool to spread the ethos of moving to a united we, from a standalone me.

Situation

Employees of Viacom18 worked in silos. They only had a sense of ownership for their respective brands. Viacom18 was like a dysfunctional family that performed great individually, but when put together, were socially awkward.

Brief

Generate a ‘one team’ ethos by implementing an innovative communications strategy to break open these silos and instill the feeling of pride for working for a single whole Viacom18.

Objectives

Create a multifaceted internal communications strategy to:

• Break open silos and create a one team ethos

• Enhance company culture

• Communicate with employees in an innovative, refreshing way

• Encourage two-way communication