A Health Festival, charity and team fun

Preparations

It was an active summer at Mediabrands! As part of the “Health Festival” program, employees could join weekly yoga classes, get advice from a psychodietitian and a physiotherapist (the specialists' schedules were packed!), and try the Activy sports challenge #stepstogether.

The campaign attracted a lot of interest, and with so many healthy options, everyone could find something for themselves: group classes, consultations or team competition in the app. Some people took part in everything on offer :)

The challenge

In 2022 Activy came to Mediabrands for the first time, initially for 2 months, but seeing how much healthy effort employees were putting in, we decided to extend the fun by another 30 days. Over the summer, participants covered a distance almost equal to a lap around the Earth along the equator, saving more than 8 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Even members of the Management Board joined in! 

The challenge in the app was above all about charity, combined with team fun. Besides representing their companies, participants formed 5-person teams and climbed the podium together.

As a reward, the most engaged group received an extra budget for a team outing. This worked really well :)

Even on a bad day I motivated myself to go for a walk. I told myself I would walk at least 1.5 km! - challenge participant

Still, winning and prizes were not the biggest motivation to move. The friendly competition was driven by the chance to support remarkable charitable initiatives. Every month participants could choose one of two foundations to receive the funds raised in the challenge.

Every kilometer turned into zlotys of support for organizations such as Fundacja Judyta, Serce dla zwierząt, Miłość nie wyklucza and Rak’n’Roll. Employees switched between the causes themselves so that every one of them reached 100%. Together we raised over PLN 8,000!

All participants were kept up to date with the company stats  - the weekly newsletter showed the current rankings and “who was hot on whose heels”. We also emailed a summary of each round of the game to all the companies.

The challenge even became a topic for coffee chats  - we talked about keeping up the routine (streak points are real motivation!) and about who had walked or cycled how far: “We didn't move until we had turned Activy on!”.

The app itself caused no technical problems, and employees found their way around it easily. Having several charitable causes proved a good choice: thanks to this feature, participants had a real say in whom they supported with their activity.

A nice addition for the next season would be the option to post photos or maps of completed routes, so employees could share their sports achievements on the social board.

Results

The sports challenge was a valuable and engaging part of the company Health Festival. Thanks to the chance to support charitable initiatives and the team fun, we got even the less sporty people moving.

We are thinking about restarting the campaign in spring and are looking forward to new features in the app that will encourage an even wider group of Mediabrands employees to take part.