Team Building Videos: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Team Building Videos: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly May 1, 2007

When I was in traditional PR one of the activities I always thought was a waste of time and money was the creation of internal, morale boosting videos. Basically, the idea is to make this “cool” video to get everyone fired up at some big event, nevermind the other 364 days in the year. It almost impossible to make one of these that doesn’t make people cringe.

Thanks to YouTube, these types of videos are showing up on the Internet. Below are three that represent the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the team building video genre.

The Good

This internal Kodak video is brilliant. It beautifully describes the company’s transition to digital. I got a little fired up watching it.

The Bad

A Bank of America employee changes the lyrics to U2’s “One” to be about Bank of America’s merger with MBNA. It is like an episode of The Office come to life.

The Ugly

The lyrics of “Oh Happy Day” changed to promote Ernst & Young. This is either the best SNL sketch or worst corporate video ever made.

7 comment(s)

About this blog

The Bivings Report (TBR) is a source of news, insight, research, analysis and conversation on web-based communications and its increasingly powerful role in the economy, politics and society. TBR content is created, posted and managed by internet strategists, media/communications analysts, web developers, designers and programmers, all of whom are employees of The Bivings Group.

Email Subscription

Search Site

Trackbacks/Pings

Comments

Thomas R. Clifford - May 1st, 2007 at 6:04 pm

Great post.

Boosting morale through video is often the last desperate attempt by many organizations to make-up for the lack of a “real” vision with values.

As a filmmaker specializing in corporate documentaries for over 20 years, I have learned that the best morale boosters come from an employee’s own authentic story.

Peers will listen as the stories and experiences come from the heart of the employee and not from the ivory towers.

Embracing employees as storytellers and “heroes” in corporate films can actually make a difference to others. I’ve seen it happen.
Todd Zeigler - May 1st, 2007 at 6:54 pm

Thomas,

That sounds like a good approach and I’m sure it can be pulled off if the right people hire the right filmakers. But I think too often these things end up as vanity projects made for executives and not regular employees.

Thanks for your comment.
Bill Helm - May 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 am

The Kodak video is perfect.
Alex Hammer - May 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 pm

Todd, you took out prior comment but that’s ok. Our traffic is double already what it’s ever been today.
Alex Hammer - May 2nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm

My mistake (I apologize, too much going on today). Alex
Ed Walker - May 2nd, 2007 at 5:11 pm

That rendition of ‘One’ is something special, whatever happened to the traditional fist pumping speech?
Kevin McBarron - May 17th, 2007 at 7:37 am

All,

I am writing an article on these corporate morale videos. Very interested in any other comments. Is it vanity, self-indulgence or is there a sense that they can in fact motivate people in large organisations?
Any input appreciated.

Regards

Kevin
Hong Kong

The Bivings Report - powered by the Bivings Group