The Ark MorronZoo, a digital breakfast meeting

Format: Digital event
Target group: Employees
Event type: Conferences and meetings
Project manager: Ulla Lindström

Background

Arken Zoo tried for the longest time to pause its store manager meetings during the pandemic, but with the great pressure they experienced on their operations, it eventually became impossible to refrain from meeting in person. Contrast was tasked with rescheduling the original meeting to become a digital meeting.

Challenge

Arken Zoo is Sweden’s largest chain for ”everything for your pet”, with over 100 stores around the country. Twice a year, all store managers meet, as part of the continuous development of the business. The meetings were put on hold during the pandemic, but eventually the need to meet became too great, not least because stores sold like never before as many chose to get pets. Arken Zoo asked Contrast to reschedule the original meeting and create Arkens Zoo’s first digital meeting.

Solution

A studio broadcast can take place virtually anywhere, and often it’s the best and most vivid way to broadcast directly from the center of everyday life. We chose to build a studio in one of the Arken Zoo stores, with the dog grooming room as the backdrop and the dogs in the studio. We started a two-hour broadcast before the store opened and invited all the staff, not just the store managers, to breakfast – with Arken MorronZoo!

A major advantage of digital broadcasts is precisely the ability to reach a larger audience, both live and later on. This, in turn, means that everyone has the opportunity to be reached with exactly the same message. Furthermore, the entire staff can get to know the management team – and vice versa.

Thanks to the digital broadcast, Arken Zoo was able to put the idea of engaging all store staff in the marketing efforts in their social channels into action. Frida Boysen gave a presentation about the possibilities of social media, and reminded Arken Zoo of their golden opportunity; they hold the most engaging content on the internet every day, i.e., lots of cute animals!

During the digital broadcast, the participants were able to ask questions and provide feedback through our meeting app, which was captured by the studio production team, where representatives from the management team were present. Other engaging content we worked on were competitions and interesting videos from some of the stores that we prepared for the digital meeting.

Results

“This has to be done again!” was the general feeling after the breakfast broadcast from both management and staff. Although one might initially perceive a digital broadcast as something that creates distance between people, Arken MorronZoo proved that it is possible to create a meeting that – on the contrary – creates closeness, increased knowledge, and strengthened relationships.