To build a better working world.

For 20 years, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ (EoY) has been globally regarded as one of the premier annual events for business leaders. The finals are a highlight of the business calendar.

The winners were announced at a large, sit-down, prize-giving ceremony. Importantly, the event drove engagement, leads, relationships and helped build EY as an innovative brand. Clearly, in 2021, we had a major problem. How do you drive engagement around an event, when there is no event?

We tapped into the context of the global pandemic in the previous year, which caused huge societal changes, putting social justice front and centre. We chose to celebrate the more human elements of entrepreneurs.

COVID-19 forced the world to shift in a way never seen before. It was a pressure test for entrepreneurs. Short-term focused big talkers were replaced by true change-makers who were innovating for their community with purpose at heart.

Our content mission was to shine a light on Oceania’s new entrepreneurial spirit, evolving EoY from a series of awards events into a content platform that would celebrate the heart of the entrepreneur and then invite the audience to an exclusive live streamed event.

We created over 60 films as both long-form and cut-down short-form films to tell heartfelt stories of both the iconic judges and also the six state winners who would vie for the title of EoY.

The awards took a twist with a judging panel of high-profile game changers from different industries selecting the finalists. The event would be a mix of culture, arts and entrepreneurialism including exclusive performances by Missy Higgins and for the first time a People’s Choice award.

Our strategy took a similar approach to global TV shows such as The Voice, where the judges are central to the content format. We produced premium films highlighting the judges’ achievements. We asked them to each share five emotionally powerful stories of what they believed to be at the heart of the entrepreneur.

We then introduced our finalists from each state with videos released fortnightly. To help build an emotional connection with our audience, we interviewed someone close to them to share what they believed lay at the heart of each entrepreneur, and then we met our finalist in the same film.

All this content drove awareness for a live-streamed event on April 7 2022. The event was produced with broadcast quality production values and featured our judges and all finalists around the country.

80+ films, blogs and social assets across 6 months
1 national live streamed event
3.3 M+ impressions
515,065 Total Video Views
138% increase in positive sentiment on social platforms
4,831 unique visits to the EoY landing page