Creative Brief

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a benefit plan that allows employees to own shares of their company. When the company succeeds, employees enjoy increased stock value. Each year when Lochmueller Group employee-owners get together to learn the new value of their stock shares at an ESOP Stock Reveal celebration, there is great anticipation. To build excitement, the company uses a video to lead up to the moment the new stock price is announced. The video is played simultaneously in the respective offices. The event also includes a gift box, meal, entertainment, the valuation announcement, and games.

In 2023, we put a breakfast twist on the event to go along with the theme “Motivation through Teamwork.” The gift box, which is given to each employee-owner the week of the event, included a custom-made t-shirt, an egg and pancake squish, an ESOP bento box, and celebratory candy. Each office catered breakfast, and the entertainment was a morning newscast titled “Sunny Side Up.” The newscast was scripted, filmed, and edited fully in-house in less than three weeks with a $0 budget. The goal of the video was, of course, to entertain, but also to explain the benefit of an ESOP as a wealth-building tool and encourage an owner mentality.

Since starting the ESOP Stock Reveal event four years ago, the ESOP Communications Committee has looked for clever ways to present key educational themes. From all accounts, this was the best one yet.