How we ran The Okties employee advocacy competition at Oktopost

Can you believe our Financial Controller won our employee advocacy competition? That’s the beauty of advocacy: it brings out champions you’d never expect.

He claimed the No. 1 spot on his leaderboard AND took home an Oktie award. Shout out Kfir Rotbart 😉

So here’s how it all started. As the new year began and Q1 got underway, we found ourselves facing a familiar challenge: how can we re-energize our advocates after the holiday slowdown?

Our answer: Kickstart the year with a spirited competition that brought our advocates together and reignited their advocacy energy. With everyone returning to work, shaking off the holiday mindset, and easing back into routines, it was the perfect moment to spark fresh momentum.

Here’s how The Okties took shape, how it drove meaningful engagement in Q1, and how you can bring the same enthusiasm to your own advocacy program.

Step 1: Effective planning

Every great initiative starts with a solid plan, and our competition was no different. Here’s how we laid the groundwork:

1. Setting goals and objectives

Our primary goal was to increase both reach and engagement across our advocacy program.

To achieve this, we decided to test out a six-week-long competition, kicking off at the end of February, giving our advocates plenty of time to ease back into work and participate.

2. Choosing a theme

Surprise, surprise. We love a theme at Oktopost. This time, we tied the competition to The Oscars, which took place in March 2025, and rebranded it to The Okties – yes, real trophies were awarded. More on that soon.

3. Securing a budget

Not every competition needs a budget and if your team can’t allocate one, that’s absolutely okay. Creative, no-cost rewards like social media shoutouts, company swag, learning opportunities, or recognition during town halls can be just as powerful when it comes to motivating your team.

For The Okties, we secured a small budget for prizes, which added an extra layer of excitement. But while a budget can help amplify engagement, it’s the recognition, friendly competition, and shared sense of fun that truly make an advocacy initiative successful.

Step 2: Structuring the employee advocacy competition

1. Picking the teams

We kept things familiar by sticking with our usual team setup, dividing advocates into four groups based on their departments:

• Team Sales
• Team Customer Success
• Team Product and Operations
• Leadership Team

Each team competed for a place in the top three on their respective leaderboards, tracked using Oktopost’s built-in point system. To keep the competition meaningful and engagement steady, we set a threshold of 1,500 points to qualify for prizes, encouraging advocates to stay active throughout the challenge.

2. Adding a bonus round

Of course, no Oktopost competition would be complete without a signature twist, and The Okties were no exception.

This time, we introduced seven prestigious Okties awards, each crafted to spotlight and reinforce the key behaviors we wanted our advocates to build and sustain. Every category was designed with intention, aligning recognition with the strategic goals of our program.

Here’s the full awards lineup:

• Best Engagement for the advocate who generated the most engagement on a post
• Best Supporting Advocate awarded to our LinkedIn account’s number one fan
• Box Office Hit for driving the highest number of clicks to our website
• Best Original Screenplay recognizing a standout, champion post
• Rising Star given to the advocate who showed the most growth during the competition
• Best Editor for the advocate with the highest post edit ratio
• Best Suggestions for submitting the most relevant content ideas to the board

These categories added structure, purpose, and a little extra fun, motivating advocates to participate in ways that also helped us move the needle on core advocacy metrics.

3. Selecting prizes

For the main competition, we rewarded our top-performing advocates with gift cards. For the bonus round, our winners received an Oktie trophy to display proudly on their desk.

Step 3: Setting it all up in Oktopost

We used Oktopost’s Advocacy Board to manage the competition seamlessly:

Team assignments

Each advocate was assigned to their respective team, enabling them to see their standings in real time via the leaderboard.

Point system

We built our point system to reward meaningful engagement.

Advocates earned more points for editing posts than simply sharing them, nudging them to personalize content, something we know performs better on social media. We also gave extra credit for suggesting new content ideas, turning advocates into co-creators and strengthening their connection to the program.

But what really made this competition stand out were the tailored awards. The Best Supporting Advocate award, for example, sparked a surge of engagement on our corporate LinkedIn page. Edit ratios hit a new high as advocates aimed for Best Editor. And Rising Star gave our quieter voices the confidence to participate, proving that with the right incentives, everyone has a chance to shine.

Step 4: Launching the competition

We launched The Okties with a high-energy, 15-minute company-wide kickoff that set the tone for the competition.

During the session, we unveiled the rules, walked through the point system, and rolled out the virtual red carpet to generate excitement. A clear, visually engaging deck outlined everything advocates needed to know: how to earn points, what awards were up for grabs, and how to get involved.

Most importantly, we made it fun and inclusive: everyone was automatically nominated for all seven award categories. It was up to each advocate to decide how far they’d go to claim their spotlight.

Step 5: Celebrating our winners

No competition is complete without a proper celebration. Recognizing your winners is a must.

Taking the time to spotlight advocates’ efforts not only shows appreciation but also fuels motivation for the next challenge. It reinforces that their contributions matter and keeps the momentum going.

Here’s how we brought The Okties to a close:

1. Announcing the winners

As soon as the competition wrapped up, we revealed the winners the very next day through:

• A company-wide email sharing the results of our competition and highlighted the achievements of the winning advocates and their contributions to the competition’s success.
• Social media shout-outs celebrated their contributions, boosting morale and encouraging future participation.

2. Gathering feedback

To keep improving, we also asked for feedback. We sent out a quick survey to all advocates, inviting them to share their thoughts on the competition and the advocacy program as a whole.

Lessons from our competition

Like any good competition, The Okties came with a few surprises, and a few learning moments along the way.

One thing we noticed? Our advocates weren’t as active in submitting content suggestions this time around. Maybe it was because they genuinely liked what was already on the board, who’s to say?

In the end, we decided not to award the Best Suggestions Oktie. We shared this transparently with our team, sharing that it’s a category we’re warming up to again.

It was a great opportunity to set expectations for the future while reinforcing that there’s always room to grow. Even though this wasn’t what we expected, especially since content suggestions are usually one of our strongest areas, it reminded us of something all advocacy program leaders know: advocacy has its ebbs and flows.

If you’re noticing similar patterns in your own program, you’re not alone.

A night at The Okties

The Okties wasn’t just fun; it delivered impressive results, and we made this known throughout our entire organization:

• 140% increase in advocate posts
• 106% increase in reach, hitting 2.51 million
• 167% increase in engagements, with a whopping 4.3K engagements from advocates alone

We hope The Okties inspires your next advocacy initiative. Happy advocating!