SCA Innovation Program, The Lab, received more than 400 entries into its company-wide Lab Contest 2021 to develop innovative ideas for its digital audio platform LiSTNR.
The competition saw a response from all staff with 424 submissions from 40 offices nationwide over a six-week period. All submissions were evaluated by the innovation team and subject matter experts. After a rigorous evaluation process, 10 finalists were selected to pitch their ideas to the Leadership Group at the ‘Lab Contest Pitch Day’.
The contest culminated in three joint winners in the areas of Best Idea – Product, Best Idea – Content and Best Idea – Localism. The winning ideas will be developed and set up for testing before implementation in the coming months. In addition to the winning ideas, there were multiple high-quality submissions that will be developed for trial and implementation.
Launched in 2019, The Lab’s mission is to create a sustainable culture of innovation at SCA and to generate and nurture innovative ideas that add value to the business. SCA has a network of innovation champions who have been trained to support and mentor colleagues to bring the mission of The Lab to life.
SCA CEO, Grant Blackley, said: “At SCA we are committed to making innovation part of our DNA and are extremely proud of the way our people have leaned into the initiatives of the innovation program so far. The Lab is a fundamental part of our innovation pipeline and I’d like to congratulate both our finalists and winners in this year’s Lab Contest. We are excited to bring their ideas to life on LiSTNR as it continues to grow and establish itself as Australia’s audio destination.”
Earlier this year, SCA announced 10 new DAB+ music stations on LiSTNR, taking the number of music stations to 25.
The 10 new stations have been created to cater to a variety of moods and genres, that not only complement SCA’s existing radio stations across FM and DAB+ but also provide a varied music offering that music fans can find and explore within the LiSTNR app.