Shark Tank Video Production Style Amps Competition
Blue Cross NC tasked its IT department with an annual “Tech Olympics” competition which calls for innovative ideas to pitch to their C-level executives during their Tech Summit event. With the high caliber of ideas this program produced, it was time to level-up the Tech Olympics initiative.
Enter: The Tech Tank.
About the Client
Since 1933, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) has offered its customers high quality health insurance at a competitive price and has led the charge toward better health and health care in our state. Blue Cross NC is a fully taxed, not-for-profit North Carolina company with major operations centers in Durham, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, and an office in Charlotte. Blue Cross NC employs more than 4,700 North Carolinians and serves more than 3.89 million customers.
We worked directly with the IT department at Blue Cross NC. While you don’t typically think of a Healthcare company as a tech company, in this case, the IT department is the foundation that enables many of the services and processes Blue Cross NC provides.
Client Objective
Blue Cross NC holds an annual “Tech Olympics” internally to challenge employees to create new ideas and ventures for the company. These innovative group projects were highly technical and took upwards of six months to prepare for a big pitch presentation at the annual Tech Summit. After years of successful Tech Olympics, they were seeking to spark even more excitement.
Our Approach
To generate more excitement and emphasize to Blue Cross NC staff the importance of their innovations, we wanted to make the production of the video feel just as important as the final video cut. That meant big lights, a backdrop and full production that practically felt like Shark Tank. We brought in aspects of the show including the flow from an intro that built anticipation to the pitch and post-pitch interviews.
With this new Tech Tank approach, pitch presentations were broken into small groups and presented live to Blue Cross NC executives, a.k.a. the Sharks. That meant every idea had a captive C-level audience, and a Shark(s) would discuss on the spot their ability to get funds for their projects, igniting immediate action.
Results
The new Tech Tank approach delivered both the excitement and the small group efficiency Blue Cross NC set out to accomplish. From the production to the graphics and narrative of the video, it created buzz among staff and got the right executives in the room. The final video was sent out throughout the company so that peers and additional decision makers could see the key points of each idea.
Most importantly, 80% of the pitches received funding, with actionable next steps put into place, and more employees inquired about getting involved in the next competition.
The video gained so much traction, that Blue Cross NC went on to request another video to promote next year’s program, the 6-month ideation process and pitch day, and examples of ideas pitched. We’re now scheduled to produce an even bigger version of Tech Tank next year, inclusive of a live video strategy for staff to tune into virtually.