The results of the Oscars 2015 have finally been revealed http://oscar.go.com For weeks, both Hollywood stars and audiences around the world have waited in anticipation of the exclusive glitzy red carpet event at the 87th Academy awards.

At CommsQuest, we call this the ‘warm-up’ in the corporate world. It’s the first in a three-step approach (Warm-up, Stand-up, Follow-up) that enables leaders to squeeze more value from every communications opportunity for employees before, during and after an event.

We’ve loved watching the Oscars unfold. It’s a great example of how to involve audiences to drive maximum awareness and engagement. Everyone, everywhere can feel like they’ve been part of the journey from the start.

Whether it’s a recognition event for top performers who have gone the extra mile for customers, or a conference to unveil a new strategy – here are some examples of how to engage internal audiences ahead of time, taking inspiration from the Oscars:

• Go behind the scenes – Create a dedicated intranet site as a ‘backstage pass’ to the event, and carefully planted ‘gossip’ to create talking points. It gives people a sense of having some insider information and up to speed with everything there is to know. Check out this running commentary in the lead up to the Oscars.
• Put the event in the palm of people’s hands – Give audiences a reason to get interactive to shape the content of your event. A mobile optimized website that works on the standard desktop or employee’s mobile devices could be perfect for this. Why not encourage voting around key topics and reveal the results on the day. Check out how audiences could predict the Oscars winners online 
• Get social – Social media went crazy with #Oscars2015 and #Oscars in heavy use. If you have a social intranet, why not create a hashtag to make it easy to find, join or continue a conversation. It’s a useful way to measure the sentiment of your audience and what’s on their mind. Give specific topics to talk about to ensure they add value to the content, or encourage questions to be submitted in advance to the leadership team online.
• Use video to provide a different perspective – Used well, video can help create a sense of occasion and provide a different perspective. Introduce humour where appropriate or share some hints and tips that could be used in the workplace. This fun video explains the art behind the perfect Oscars speech

These are just a few ideas and the range of channels that could be used creatively are huge. With a bit of planning, the warm-up enables communicators to prepare audiences for key messages and set the tone for the day.

And, once the event (or the ‘Stand-up) is over, there are plenty of ways to keep momentum to reinforce messages in the ‘Follow-up’ in order to drive action or behaviour change. The Oscars are no different – the outcome of the big night has been splashed everywhere, with plenty of higlights which will act as interesting conversation starters for weeks and months to come!

If you would like to learn more about engaging audiences the CommsQuest way, we would love to hear from you.