Top team building ideas for your marketing agency

• August 30, 2019

Top 8 team building activity ideas for your marketing agency

Team building. We know, we know – just the mention of those two words can make even the most enthusiastic of team members let out a sigh. But love it or loathe it, team building is actually really important for the productivity and morale of your team. It builds trust, encourages communication and increases collaboration – all of which means you’ll benefit from more engaged employees.

In fact, according to Forbes, despite its bad reputation team building can be one of the most significant workplace investments you’ll make – and just 10 minutes of team building activities once a quarter will do wonders when it comes to boosting your company culture. Not convinced? Read on for our top five creative team building ideas that your employees won’t roll their eyes at (promise!)…

1. Learn a new skill

What better way to generate good vibes among your team than to try something new altogether? A team-building activity that’s new and perhaps slightly outside of people’s comfort zones is one of the best ways to build trust and boost communication. For example, kayaking and canoeing are great activities that are fun and encourage your team to communicate with each other (weather permitting of course!) whilst an activity-filled day at Go Ape with everything from zip wires to off-road Segways is a firm favourite for groups. And if you want to encourage a little friendly competition, how about go-karting? There’s nothing like a bit of adrenaline-pumping competition to bond a group and encourage your staff to interact in a fun and new way. Just make sure everyone pays attention during the safety briefing!

2. Room escape games

This is a bit of a new one, but room escape games are becoming hugely popular around the world – and they’re a great team-building activity too! If you’re looking for a fun creative team building idea that promotes leadership skills, encourages teamwork, and needs logic and patience – well, this is it! It basically works by ‘locking’ a team of people in a room for an hour. During that time they have to answer clues, solve puzzles and find hidden objects to answer questions that will help them find the key to set them free. It’s great fun, but harder than it sounds – in fact, only 20% of players actually make it out before the hour is up. Got a big team? Why not split your employees up into different groups to encourage a bit of friendly agency competition!

3. Scavenger hunt

This is a great option if you want to offer a fun team-building activity outside of the office but without breaking the bank. It’s a classic team building activity that encourages teamwork and creative thinking, and it’s so easy to do: just divide everyone into groups of two or more, and make a list of tasks for them to complete as a group – it’s that simple! Your scavenger hunt can include things such as taking a selfie with a stranger, snapping a picture of a particular building or collecting various different items, and the first team to complete all the tasks and collect all the items wins. For an extra bit of problem-solving, why not set the tasks in riddles or ask them to solve clues to determine what’s next on the hunt? Finally,  make sure everyone takes pictures on the way to look at together afterwards!

4. The egg drop

If you don’t have the time or budget for an off-site activity, don’t worry – there are still plenty of fun and effective creative team building ideas that you won’t even need to leave your office for. For example, the egg drop. It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it’s also one of our favourite quick tasks to boost morale, encourage problem-solving and bond your team. Split everyone into groups of two or more and give them each an uncooked egg and a pile of office supplies such as sellotape, pencils, rubber bands, newspapers and even straws. Each team then has 30 minutes to design and build a contraption around the egg that will prevent it from breaking when dropped. Once everyone is ready, drop each of the egg contraptions from the second or third floor of your office and see which one survives. Just make sure you have an extra supply of eggs in case of any breakages during the construction process!

5. Five-minute pitch

This is a quick and simple team-building activity that’s great for marketing and creative agencies. Divide your staff into teams of three or more, and get each team to choose a random item from around the office; it could be a photo frame, a pen, or even a tube of hand cream that someone has on their desk. Each team is a company, each item is their product – and you guessed it, they’ve each got five minutes to pitch their product and convince everyone else they need it. Give each team a chance to brainstorm and brand their product by creating a name, logo and tagline, before delivering a short presentation on their product as if they were selling it. Not only does this activity stimulate the creativity that’s absolutely essential for a strong marketing team, but it also encourages teamwork and problem solving, teaches staff how to deal with deadlines and helps them hone their sales and presentation skills too. Not bad for five minutes!

6. Two Truths and a Lie

This quick activity is a great little ice breaker, especially for new joiners. For this exercise, get every team member to write down two truths about themselves and one lie but make sure they don’t reveal them yet. Once every person has finished, each team member should tell everyone the three facts. The team then have to guess which one is a lie. The idea behind this activity is to get the team to share interesting facts about themselves and to encourage team bonding.

7. Office Trivia 

Office trivia is a quick and fun game that can be played both in-person and virtually, for those who work remotely. All you need to do is come up with 20-30 questions that are specific to your workplace. It’s a good way to test your employee's knowledge and is also great for team bonding.

8. Body of Words

This is a fun and simple game that’ll get the whole team involved. The aim is to get the team to create letters and words using their bodies. It’s a great way to encourage communication and planning, as each team will need to work together. The team that creates each word the quickest wins. Adding the competitive element also helps with team bonding. 

In conclusion, team-building activities are a great way to have a bit of fun and build a strong team – and it also helps your employees connect with clients too. Whether you go out for the day, take some time off during lunch or just have a quick 30 minutes at your desk, hopefully, these creative team building ideas have given you a bit of inspiration on how to engage your staff and improve productivity.

However, it’s important to remember team building shouldn’t be just a one-off activity – in order to really get the most out of team building, you need to keep the momentum going and schedule regular chances for your team to bond outside of work throughout the year. Want to find out more about how to build a motivated and engaged team? Contact Stonor Recruitment today.