Corporate anniversaries or birthdays offer significant PR potential but this potential can only be optimised if the anniversary adds value to a company’s stakeholders. Over the past thirty years the team at SRF has planned and managed several corporate milestones for organisations as diverse as a London black cab firm, a legal publisher, a hovercraft operation and most recently an air conditioning company. These ranged from the traditional 25th, 30th and 50th up to a very impressive 200th celebration.
Planning Corporate Anniversaries
Each of the above corporate anniversaries succeeded because it shared the celebration with staff, customers, shareholders, regulators, local communities and even competitors. Some of the activity is easier to manage; a party for staff for example is an excellent way to say thank you. Sharing your corporate birthday wishes with customers and local communities requires more finesse and should be developed well in advance.
Planning the anniversary is essential and provides the opportunity not just to prepare but to also look at spreading the activity over a year to maximise the impact of the milestone. As a campaign tool, a corporate anniversary can be used to carry key messages about track record and past achievements.
Corporate Anniversary Messages
As the activity occurs throughout the year, the messages can evolve from a celebration of the past to a look towards the future, again a subject of significant interest to all stakeholders. Sometimes major change can be tied into anniversaries, using the celebration as a platform to pivot the message, announce a change of senior personnel or launch new products and services.
PR Potential of Corporate Anniversaries
As we continue to plan our new client, Cool Projects’ 20th anniversary celebrations, we know that their story is interesting for staff, as well as existing and future customers. Our role, as professional communicators, is to guide how they tell their story and to ensure this opportunity achieves its maximum PR potential.