A brilliant approach to incentives.

Ensuring top performers feel valued, even when they’re working from home.

This is (yet another) story of how Ryan Reynolds saves the day.

Like many organizations, this Canadian banking leader was faced with determining how to meaningfully recognize its top performers in a COVID-19 pandemic environment.

In past years, programs featured five-star, white-glove travel, something that simply wasn’t possible during lockdown and travel restrictions. With the world embracing digital meeting environments, there was a need to re-imagine the incentive.

Fast forward to pitch day. It’s been weeks of strategic thinking, ideation, production development and budgeting. The E.L. Productions team sits in a Teams call, waiting for the arrival of the client, ready to share what a meaningful approach to re-imagined incentives looks like.

“They’re here…” and the pulse starts racing. This is a big idea.

The early slides fly by, describing how corporate leaders are adapting incentives in the digital space. The team sets a strategic course for the program. Rather than a single incentive, it’s multiple waves…a massive incentive experience. It’s a constantly refreshing approach, in both senses of the word.

In every great presentation, there’s a showstopper moment. This one is no exception. The team imagines branding the program as “Brilliance” and showcasing an escalating set of communications, a custom-built box featuring hand selected gifts from Canadian companies and a set of micro events that bring everyone together, the team unveils…the Broadcast.

And everyone lights up.

The goal is to create a custom, super exclusive, interactive, live, 90-minute television-style program as the crown jewel of Brilliance. Among the thank you videos, and network-level production is a set of interviews where bank executives ask top A-list talent and leaders to share their best practices with the audience.

Enter Ryan Reynolds.

To connect with the elite, the most elite A-list talent have been invited to join. There’s Catherine O’Hara, fresh off her Golden Globe for Schitt’s Creek. There’s Super Bowl Champion Laurent Duverney-Tardif, who gave up football for a season to put his medical degree to use in his COVID-ravaged community. NBA Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri is on hand to talk family. And Ryan Reynolds stars as Ryan Reynolds to create gasps in the curated chat room.

All of this is revealed in the pitch and executed. The mammoth undertaking rewrites what is possible with virtual incentives, ensuring the audience of over 1500 colleagues feel extraordinary.