Bango takes gold for office Olympics

By Mickey Alam Khan

September 18, 2008

The genteel game of bin basketball

Happy hour is fine, but what else can mobile marketers do to engage their employees and keep them happy? How about the Bango Olympics?

Coinciding with the Olympic Games last month in Beijing, mobile analytics company Bango decided to hold its own office Olympics. The events: paper-plane throwing, bin basketball and Post-It Note fencing.

“We chose activities which required some skill but everyone could participate in,” said Sarah Keefe, vice president of marketing at Bango, Cambridge, England.

In paper-plane throwing, athletes designed their own plane and used their knowledge of aerodynamics to send their plane to the farthest point in the office.

Bin basketball involved concentration and precision to get the paper ball into the waste-paper basket at a 10-foot distance.

Bango CEO Ray Anderson throws a paper plane

The fastest of the three, Post-It Note fencing required each athlete to pin a Post-It Note on the other without getting hit themselves.

“There was random drug-testing amongst all athletes,” Ms. Keefe said.

Bango human resources manager Liz Speake, herself a keen sportswoman, conceived the idea.

Stick it to 'em with a Post-It Note

All Bango employees in the British office participated in the Bango Olympics.

The effort was held in late August as the Beijing Olympic Games were drawing to a close.

Just as in the real thing, the Bango games offered gold, silver and bronze prizes.

The competition was hard-fought. But only three walked away with the top prizes.

So, Bango CEO Ray Anderson won gold for bin basketball. Glenn Walker, head of content provider products, took gold for paper-plane throwing. Lewis Hamlett, technical support advisor, couldn’t be touched, winning gold for Post-It Note fencing.

The actual prizes were cakes and sweets enjoyed on the day.

“[It’s] good to spend time with your colleagues doing something different,” Ms. Keefe said.

“It was a light-hearted break away from the keyboard,” she said.