Culture Counts: Fun and Inventive WFH Events Spice Up Quarantine at AdPurp

Week 9 million in quarantine is going pretty well! It’s late August, so I’m just sweating in my apartment trying to convince my dog that I didn’t get fired and that he eventually will see his office mates (dog and human alike) one day again soon. Maybe?

And what a glorious day that will be.

Not sure what we’ll cook up but one thing I’m pretty sure about is that there will be alcohol and maybe even hugging involved. I know, h*gging is basically a curse word but what can I say? We really love each other and I know that the first gathering post-COVID will feel good.

Because at Advertise Purple, besides being a profitable growing business, as winners of the Inc. Magazine Best Places to Work award for the second straight year (2019 and then followed up in 2020), we like to think we know how to work hard and play even harder.

The problem is, I’d argue that the element that makes this place so great is the people. And COVID-19 is not exactly making things easy for us when it comes to getting those people together in the same space as we stay at home in our apartments riding this thing out.

So, of course, like AdPurp always does, we improvise.

Here are a few quotes from some managers on how we’ve managed to keep our teams connected, not just professionally and through work, but with exciting and genuinely innovative ideas that will put your office happy hour to shame.

So, without further ado, here are a few cool ways we managed to virtually get together, without just staring at each other drinking sad beers and making awkward jokes about the poor Zoom connection. We actually got pretty innovative.

Like, for example…

Eidan S: “I’m hosting a casino night tomorrow [8/26] with my team and Emily’s. I’ll have a blackjack table, poker, roulette, and baccarat, with 1st 2nd and 3rd prize winners.”

As someone who is genuinely hurt that Vegas is no longer a safe option this gets me pretty hyped. A photo from the event is below:

Sydney P: “We held a murder mystery event for the analyst floor! Everyone got assigned a character at random and then broke out into zoom breakout rooms to try and find out who was guilty! Super fun and interactive, and some people even dressed up.”

Honestly, I already feel like I know who the murderer is. My guess is Will and there’s no way you are going to tell me it was anyone other than him! I’m sorry.

Marissa: “We hired a magician to entertain us during a happy hour with the entire team. It was such a hit — so fun and interactive. Made our happy hour that much more special and exciting.”

Yes, magic tricks are still effective over Zoom. Especially when your volunteers are two or three Old Fashioneds deep!

Manny S: “I do jackbox tv and wine every outing. my team likes alcohol a little too much, but then again, they do have me as their manager.”

You don’t have to know who Manny is to find this funny, but if you DO know who Manny is this is hysterical.

RJ K: “I stole this one from Manny’s team, but we used a program called ‘Jackbox.tv’. Essentially, it’s a collection of online trivia/board games. We all ordered dinner & drinks from the same place, put on a video chat through Zoom, and played different games online with each other for a few hours. Sounds lame, but it was actually a blast.”

The touch of ordering drinks and dinner from the same place got me on this one. Trying our absolute best to get on the same page. I see you RJ!

Connor G: “Did that exact same thing with my team and then also did the classic virtual happy hour with my team a few times where we were able to disconnect from work for a bit and have a genuine conversation/catch up with each other.”

Okay, I threw all the bros who just copied each other back-to-back here. But I’m sure all three of their events were way different. Nothing quite like casual drinking games and shooting the breeze.

Caroline F: “Yes! Zoom escape room! Basically, it’s set in a normal escape room, but an employee holds a camera and your team tells the employee where to look in the room, solves the puzzles through them, etc.”

This one takes the cake, I’m sorry. Truly innovative and I heard amazing things about the execution on this one.

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Nothing quite like some quarantine virtual activities to keep teams engaged. Stay tuned for more updates. I’m feeling the competition sort of heating up a bit between the managers. Regular happy hours were cool week 2 but now that we’re in week 9 million, you gotta change the game up a bit. 

Looking forward to seeing more ideation and innovation from these guys!