Stephen Curry Employee Interview Campaign | Rakuten

Encourage employees to learn about latest brand ambassador in fun engaging campaign, and working with multiple teams and remotely to make it happen.

BACKGROUND

Rakuten had been investing a significant amount of money to increase its brand by partnering with different sports teams such as the Golden State Warriors and FC Barcelona. In the latest partnership announcement, it had announced it would be partnering specifically with Stephen Curry, point guard of Golden State Warriors. With different sports teams, Rakuten employees were able to reap the benefits of getting jerseys, discounted tickets, as well as seeing the brand name on TV more frequently, enhancing the employee engagement brand partnership experience. However, with an individual sports athlete partnership, it was not easy to understand how the partnership would benefit the company or how this person aligned with the company. This was particularly true with the majority of employees who were from Japan where basketball and Stephen Curry was less popular.

OBJECTIVE

To drive a fun employee engagement project with Rakuten’s Japan-based employees, I proposed to our Brand Team to engage Stephen Curry in an employee engagement piece while he was visiting Japan for a Rakuten-sponsored basketball camp for kids. I knew that the Brand Team was engaging with him already for another video content and leveraging that opportunity I asked for an additional 10 minutes of his time to answer questions directly from employees via video. His answers would then be edited into a video for all employees to view, with exclusive acknowledgement of employees who were selected.

EXECUTION BREAKDOWN

Sent out a survey to all employees based in Japan asking their time and interview questions in advance
Random selection of employees were made with questions vetted by Senior Director of Sports Partnership management for the Stephen Curry partnership
Employees were given one day to work on and prepare for their interviews for the camera and were arranged within one day turnaround. I handled all interactions remotely, arranging for my direct report to work on the ground to direct filming and camerawork.
During Stephen Curry’s tour in Tokyo for his basketball camp for underrated youths titled “Underrated Tour sponsored by Rakuten,” 10 minutes of his time was set aside to view the employee questions on a computer and then offer him a chance to respond to the questions on camera specifically addressing the employee was filmed.
Video footage was sent back to my team for editing for clarity and trimming.

CHALLENGE

There were a number of challenges. Schedule-wise, we could not be confident if we would have 10 minutes of Stephen’s time for this opportunity due to the unpredictability of the schedule. Therefore, we had to manage expectations of employees who participated. Additionally, from our own employees’ perspective, we had two days turnaround to gather interest, film the employees’ asking questions, and put together the short video clips. In terms of logistics, since I was not on site, I also had to give granular directions to all parties from my own team to the Brand Team who would film Stephen viewing the employee question videos as well as answering them.

OPPORTUNITY

The opportunity to have a big basketball star address individual Rakuten employees was something very important. Not only did it show a perspective of this star that couldn’t be seen through his gameplay, his actions and his answers to employees were able to tell the story itself on how his work ethics and personality aligned with the company.

RESULT

This simple but empowering project brought the partnership of a superstar closer to the 18,000+ employees at Rakuten when often partnerships with celebrities are external facing and for marketing purposes only. It helped put a human face to the partnership and give a different look at what often is seen as big marketing dollars spent to sign a celebrity on as an ambassador. Aside from the roughly 8-minute employee-only video content that actively showed Stephen listening and answering four lucky employees’ questions being a great success, being able to work together with the Brand Team and share resources was a great achievement and helped break down silos. Because we did not have to request additional time or an extra crew to work on the project, we saved over $10,000 on personnel and even more for getting the time from Stephen Curry. Employees who participated were delighted to see the response and thanked me personally for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Never in a million years would I expect such a famous player to watch a video from me and address me in person!
Rakuten Employee response