As the holiday season approached and the end of Q4 drew near, we faced a challenge familiar to all employee advocacy program leaders—how do you keep engagement strong when employees are winding down, wrapping up their work, and preparing to log off for the holidays?
Our answer: lean into the season’s festive spirit with a little friendly competition.
Here’s how our Holiday Advocate Challenge came to life, how it delivered results, and how you can replicate its success for your own employee advocacy program.
Step 1: Effective planning
Every great initiative starts with a solid plan, and our competition was no different. Here’s how we laid the groundwork:
1. Setting goals and objectives
Our primary goal was to increase both reach and engagement across our advocacy program.
To achieve this, we decided on a month-long competition, giving our advocates plenty of time to participate while staying aligned with our end-of-quarter targets.
2. Choosing a theme
A timely theme can work wonders in engaging advocates. At Oktopost, we love seasonal themes, so we tied the competition to the festive holiday spirit, making it exciting, fun, and relevant.
3. Securing a budget
Not every competition needs a budget, and if your team can’t allocate one, that’s completely fine! Creative, no-cost rewards like social media shoutouts, company swag, learning and development opportunities, or recognition during town halls and all-hands meetings can be just as effective in motivating your team.
For this competition, as we wrapped up the year, we chose to secure a budget to fund prizes and add an extra layer of motivation. While a budget can boost engagement, it’s the recognition and sense of fun that truly make these initiatives a success.
Step 2: Structuring the competition
1. Picking the teams
We split our advocates into four teams based on departments, ensuring a mix of camaraderie and friendly competition:
- Team Sales
- Team Customer Success
- Team Product and Operations
- Leadership Team
Each team competed for the top three spots on their leaderboards, tracked using Oktopost’s built-in point system. Advocates needed a minimum of 1,500 points to qualify for prizes, ensuring consistent engagement throughout the challenge.
2. Adding a bonus round
No Oktopost competition would be complete without a twist!
In true holiday spirit, we added a raffle bonus. The top five advocates from each team were entered into the raffle, and four winners were randomly selected to receive cash donations for the charity of their choice. We noticed this inspired and motivated our advocates, as they knew their efforts could contribute to a meaningful cause.
3. Selecting prizes
For the main competition, we rewarded our top-performing advocates with gift cards. For the bonus round, our winners received the charity donations we mentioned above.
Step 3: Setting it all up in Oktopost
We used Oktopost’s Advocacy Board to manage the competition seamlessly:
Team assignments
Each advocate was assigned to their respective team, enabling them to see their standings in real-time via the leaderboard.
Point system
We designed our point system strategically to encourage quality engagement.
For example, more points were awarded for editing their posts than for simply sharing them. This approach incentivized advocates to personalize their content, which aligns with best practices for social media. Similarly, we awarded extra points for suggesting content to our team. This not only helped us generate ready-to-share posts more efficiently but also made advocates feel deeply involved in the program, reinforcing that their contributions are valued.
Step 4: Launching the competition
We kicked off the competition with a lively 15-minute company-wide meeting to officially launch it. During this session, we explained the rules, detailed the point system, and rallied everyone to deck their feeds with holiday cheer.
We presented a festive and concise deck that outlined everything advocates needed to know—rules, rewards, and how to participate. Visuals and clear instructions helped build excitement.
Step 5: Celebrating our winners
No competition is complete without a celebration! Taking the time to recognize advocates efforts not only shows your appreciation but also builds excitement for future challenges. Here’s how we wrapped up our Holiday Advocate Challenge:
1. Announcing the winners
As soon as the competition wrapped up, we revealed the winners the very next day through:
- A company-wide email that highlighted the achievements of the winning advocates and their contributions to the competition’s success.
- Social media shout-outs celebrated their contributions, boosting morale and encouraging future participation.
2. Gathering feedback
To keep improving, we also asked for feedback. We sent out a quick survey to all advocates, inviting them to share their thoughts on the competition and the advocacy program as a whole. Their input helps us fine-tune future initiatives and ensure that every challenge is more engaging and impactful than the last.
By celebrating their hard work and listening to their feedback, we closed the competition on a high note, leaving our advocates motivated and ready to keep advocating!
Holiday cheer all around
The Holiday Advocate Challenge wasn’t just fun—it delivered impressive results:
- 129% increase in advocate posts
- 77% increase in reach, hitting 1.49 million
- 29% increase in engagements, with a staggering 2.4K engagements from advocates alone
The holiday season can be challenging for maintaining engagement, but with creativity, thoughtful planning, and the right tools, employee advocacy can thrive—even as employees wind down and prepare to step away for the holidays.
Our challenge proved that a little friendly competition paired with a meaningful cause can deliver both measurable results and a morale boost for your team.
We hope our story inspires your next advocacy initiative. Happy advocating!
