Company Anniversaries

A company anniversary is testament to a firm’s staying power: it has followed the right strategy and successfully steered the business through good times and bad for a number of years. It is a public relations opportunity that, used wisely, can enhance and bolster the company’s image. The firm has a unique success story which can be used as a tool to positively shape its future.

Taking stock

A company anniversary is the perfect moment to assess the situation of your enterprise and to refocus your business strategy. First, a decision needs to be made on whether to give center stage to the accomplishments of the past – the company’s success story – or whether to focus on the future, the vision and the outlook of the company.

It is important to deliver a clear, powerful message, one that is repeated in all internal and external communications about the anniversary. This message should be short and concise, and it should align with the corporate brand. This overall communication strategy should be broken down and tailored to the desired target groups, so that each is addressed appropriately. That means one experience journey for every stakeholder. Used correctly, your anniversary story is an effective marketing tool that not only serves as a thank you, but that can also be used across many outlets via internal and external communication channels.

Internal & external communication

A further step should be to determine what is to be achieved with the entire anniversary campaign. Are customer loyalty and image management the priority or should the anniversary also be used to boost employee motivation and engagement and to strengthen relationships with partners?

It is important to precisely analyze the expectations of the various target groups and to work out how to fulfil them. The winning formula for the company anniversary should therefore draw from the vision and mission statement, as well as from the existing marketing and communication mix.

Why an anniversary event?

An anniversary is an opportunity to reach out to several target groups at once or, depending on the focus, to address the desired target groups intensively at several smaller events. If you want to hit all the right notes and strike a chord with the target group, a celebration – a live experience – is generally the way to go. We all know this from private celebrations, when guests speak about a successful party for weeks, if not years, afterwards. And that is precisely the key to ensuring that the stakeholders continue to feel positive about the company: getting them to connect personally with the company’s culture and values, thus strengthening their loyalty and confidence.

VMP regularly realizes company anniversaries. Starting with the overarching idea for the anniversary year itself, through the creation of the communication concept as well as the implementation of every single action point. In doing so, we provide holistic consulting as well as goal oriented and target group focused content and design and, last but not least, we execute on time and budget.