As marketers, we know that using contests, sweepstakes and other competitions generate the most engagement and effort from consumers on behalf of your brand. But what you may not have thought about is how this is also applicable to your own internal marketing team. To amplify creativity within the walls of your office, try hosting a friendly inner-office competition to kick it up a notch with your team. Here’s how we did it and what we learned:

The DMA Instagram Competition

Dan’l recently hosted a DMA team challenge taking our Instagram content to the next level. We split into 4 teams of 2 and worked together to present Dan’l and her selected panel of judges with 10 creative photo ideas for 5 clients for a chance to win cash prizes. The internal contest revitalized our creative-thinking skills and lead us to a bigger learning experience relative to our Instagram approach. Here’s what we learned and gained:

• Recipe shots aren’t the only types of photos that support your brand. While we LOVE a good recipe shot, some of the most creative photography that came out of this contest involved lifestyle imagery or engaging “picture games” that communicated the brand’s values in a unique way. When you’re using Instagram, consider the things your company stands for and what types of activities your target audience enjoys and use real-life scenarios to inspire.

• Competition breeds new thoughts and approaches. As we mentioned above, adding an incentive like a prize has this funny (or not-so-funny) way of sparking an effort that otherwise would not have been there.

• Working with someone new or tenured fosters new ideas. Our teams were divided in a way that paired us up with folks with different personalities and experience. This gave each team “a-ha! I never would have thought of that…” moments. If you’re a marketer, you could try getting the opinion of someone on the sales team for your next brainstorm and see what happens!

• Competition showcases talent in a new way. This contest brought to light how competitive each of the individuals are here at DMA, and it also elevated the folks that we know we want to have in the trenches when it comes to crunch time.

• Strategic thinking takes the cake. The two teams that scored the highest in our contest did so because they had the most strategic approaches. Our top two teams WOW’ed the judges with their 360 degree planning, which included identifying their unique target audience, following a set theme based on their target audience’s preferences, and executing a promotion based on their planning.

• We gained a library of creative and engaging Instagram shots! Between the photoshoots each of the 4 teams did, we not only gained valuable and enjoyable experience, but we have now added dozens of high-quality shots to each of our clients’ Instagram arsenals!

So, why don’t you consider having your own internal competition to allow people to get creative and bring out their competitive spirit? It doesn’t have to be a social media contest or even marketing related. Try splitting your whole company into groups from different departments and set them on a course for a challenge! You will learn a great deal about how you work together as a team, and mixing it up is all it takes to get your creative juices flowing.