If you don’t know how old your brand is, you should! You may be missing a major marketing and public relations opportunity. Tracking your brand’s age will allow you to start planning your anniversary campaign about a year in advance and gain the support of all the key players in your organization. You’ll be able to brainstorm what benefits you want to get from your anniversary and strategize ways to hit those goals.
Whether you choose to celebrate for a day, month or all year, here’s a few ways celebrating your anniversary can benefit your bottom line:
Boost employee morale.
An anniversary provides a perfect opening to thank and celebrate your employees for their contributions over the years. You can host a fancy gala, gift swag with the company logo or offer a free jeans week or vacation day. The important part is that the employees feel recognized and seen. After all, your brand wouldn’t be where it is today without them.
Build trust.
Trust is key. The slimy used car salesman is a clique for a reason. A recent Financial Brand study found that trust is one of the top three reasons why consumers choose a financial institution. This is just as true for other industries. Your anniversary is the perfect reason to remind your target market of the principles you were founded on.
Tell your brand story.
Your brand has plenty of stories to tell. Maybe it’s an interesting origin story. Maybe it’s a way your corporate giving or foundation grants are changing lives. Maybe it’s a past success or innovative product that changed the way an industry operated. Or maybe it’s a long-time employee with an interesting life story. All of these provide fodder for targeted media pitches and your brand’s social media. Research and prepare to celebrate your past successes.
Your anniversary provides a news hook for your brand story. About a month before your anniversary celebrations are scheduled, reach out to the media. Make sure to include media outlets where your brand was founded, even if that’s no longer the headquarters location. If you want to take this a step further, target a pitch to each city where you have a major center of operations. To show your pitch’s relevance to their specific audience, share your brand’s history in that location in addition to your overall history, including ways your organization has given back to the local community.
Engage customers.
Create a social media timeline for anniversary content and consider sharing the posts with an anniversary hashtag. For their 60th anniversary, Quiktrip, a convenience store and gas station chain, capitalized on their customers’ nostalgia for the brand. Via social media, they shared throwback photos of discontinued products and former eras, which prompted some people to share their own personal memories. Your anniversary can provide the perfect opportunity for people who already love your brand to become unofficial brand ambassadors.
Play to your brand strengths. For its 50th anniversary, Daktronics, the digital signage and scoreboard company, used interviews with their founders and cool graphics to share its story through video. Quiktrip launched a limited-edition collector’s cup at their convenience stores. Think about what makes sense for your brand.
Provide a reason for customers to visit your physical location – and drive sales. Whether it’s a giveaway, a contest or an open house, utilize your anniversary to bring customers in the door and let your sales team take it from there.
Refresh your brand.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, an anniversary can be the perfect time to modernize your brand. Several major brands have taken advantage of anniversary publicity to rebrand. Recently, as part of their 40th anniversary, Mastercard dropped the brand name from their logo. Instead, their branding will rely on the recognizability of the interlocking circles symbol. Back in 2011, Starbucks modernized their logo as part of their 40th anniversary celebration, moving to a more simplistic design. Both brands kept crucial elements of their old identities, including their color palette, but refreshed it for a modern audience. Who knows, perhaps your anniversary is the perfect time to give your brand a refresh?
So use your anniversary as a way to boost your brand’s performance, and don’t forget to celebrate! After all, a milestone anniversary only comes around once every five years.