Employee film festival boosts morale, recruitment

2,000 employees participated, helping to name Deloitte the best place to launch a career

As Brian Fugere watched his kids’ fascination with YouTube grow—morphing, eventually, into them making their own videos to share online—the Deloitte Consulting partner realized the medium presented a great opportunity in the world of internal communications.

“Viral marketing of user-generated content—such as the 2007 Super Bowl Doritos commercial—definitely further intrigued him,” says Janet C. DeNunzio, a member of Deloitte Services U.S. Communications team.

But would online video intrigue employees?

To find out, her group posted a survey on Deloitte’s intranet just after the 2007 Oscar awards. Among the findings: 75 percent of respondents said they had home video experience.

But would that translate into employees using discretionary time to make work-related films?

Communicators asked that question of focus groups. They overwhelmingly endorsed a proposed Deloitte Film Festival but identified potential stumbling blocks to participation.

“Feedback here was key; it helped us flesh out the project voice/tone, structure the project for maximum two-way communication and decide to invest in filmmaker support tools,” DeNunzio says.