Wanting to avoid the boredom of 'chalk and talk' lecture-style training programmes, Distell hooked up with Learn to Lead, which has an experiential approach to leadership, team-building and business skills development. The creative team there, Fiona Ross, Kate Blaine and Tumi Seatle, put their heads together and came up with the concept of the brand ambassador game that would engage and involve employees to the point that they simply couldn't resist playing.
Says Blaine, "We were inspired by popular games like '30 seconds', where players have to explain brands without referring to them by name, and 'Pictionary', where players have to draw the brand. We combined these with new ideas, like 'Name Them' - where players have to recall as many brands as they know starting with the letter ..., 'Spot the Mistake' - where players analyse brand symbols and identify what's incorrect and 'Brand Legends' - where players share stories about the brand history - to create a truly original game."
Fred Roberts, Distell's GM Africa-South West, agrees. He says the brand ambassador game, which is both functional and fun, has had a marked difference on his staff.
"The game makes sure this information comes alive, and gets into the heads of all our employees so the next time they're sitting at a bar with friends, they can recommend the right choice of drink, or share an interesting brand story," he says.
The illustration for the colourful brand ambassador game was drawn by local artist Patrick Latimer and was inspired by the theme 'escape from an island'. It is tactile and eye-catching, and the Distell brands pepper the board in the form of location names such as 'Mainstay Island', 'Amarula Gauntlet', 'Crackling Prison' and 'Gordon's Going Down-Down Whirlpools'.
"It should be an adventure, something people sense in a multi-dimensional way so that it leaves an indelible memory" says Ross "And having employees inspired and fired up by training so that they can't wait to get back to try out what they have learned is obviously better for business!"
But it isn't all just fun and games. Many hours were spent researching, collating and checking all the information for the question cards, and Roberts was closely involved in the process from start to finish. As a result there are two versions of the game: an all-staff game, and a sales and marketing game.
"More and more companies are waking up to the fact that you can have the best marketing plan in the world but if your people are sending the wrong messages then you are dead in the water," says Ross, "Creating brand ambassadors by getting staff to engage with the brand in a fun learning environment is surely one path to making sure this doesn't happen."
