Is your business or product about to reach an important anniversary?

Over the past few months several of our clients have been talking with us about celebrating major anniversaries. Together we talked about options to mark the occasions. It reminded us that a couple of years ago we’d jotted down some general ideas. We thought they might be worth sharing again.

If, like our clients, you are nearing a significant anniversary, congratulations! Experience is a valuable business asset. Businesses that stand the test of time foster trust and confidence.

When your business or product reaches a milestone anniversary, let your clients and colleagues know about it. Whether you decide to create a celebratory badge for your website header and a single press release, or plan to celebrate with several activities culminating in an event, let’s call your anniversary activities a “program.”

No matter the details, whatever you do will and should serve as a marketing communications opportunity. If at all possible up front, determine the length of time you’d like to dedicate to your anniversary program, determine a budget for the program, create a timeline for program events and activities, and assign responsibilities for each project or task. At the risk of sounding crass, like other communications programs, an anniversary program easily falls under the category of business building in all its forms and departmental labels: business development, public relations, marketing, lead generation, corporate communications, sales and promotion, etc.

As upbeat and celebratory as some of the events to mark them may be, make no mistake, anniversaries mean serious business. Whatever you plan to do, try to focus on and involve your clients, employees, community and any other groups that influence your company. This will also help you determine the anniversary themes and events that will resonate most.

We’ve put together a list of ideas for helping to mark the occasion, and perhaps create a little buzz and good will with your clients, employees, and other business colleagues. The list begins with the most practical and least expensive. It’s certainly not all-inclusive, but it should help to get your creative wheels turning.

Do a bit of digging.

Browse through your company archives and scrapbooks with the aim of rediscovering your company, recording a company history timeline, and collecting photos and news items that may help tell your anniversary story. This research may also help set the tone for your anniversary and spark ideas to commemorate it. For example, you might use the material to create a reception-area display or a web page of your company’s history. Be sure to get your team involved in the digging. Encourage employees to send in photos from their time with the company, too.

Establish a theme.

An anniversary theme could include a special logo and tagline – Clients first for fifty years, Celebrating a million widgets, etc. – or full-on strategically minded concepts integrated into your marketing campaign.

Tell your story.

Write a press release that isn’t simply an announcement of your anniversary, but shows how relevant your anniversary is in 2021. Talk about the economic climate changes your business has weathered. Mention other events that parallel your history. Showcase employees that have been with the company over its history. Has your business contributed to forming – or has it responded to – historical events? Allow readers to see some of what so many years of successful experience looks like. Perhaps provide helpful information about your area of business expertise. Be sure to tailor your news release to each particular media outlet you contact. Submit content or press releases to appropriate trade and business journals and other outlets. Don’t forget to post anniversary content on your blog and social media accounts.

Let people see (and hear) your success. Include your anniversary logo and tagline on all communications materials. Teach employees how to use the logo in email signatures. Provide your employees with document headers or anniversary watermarks to use on electronic proposals and invoices or integrate the anniversary logo into specially printed letterhead, invitations, and other materials. Make sure all of your trade dress includes reference to your anniversary (employee recruitment postings, billboards, print and online advertisements, brochures, etc.).

If you’re doing business in person, you may want to create a few posters to use internally – a thank you to your clients in the reception area and thank-yous to employees in common areas. Consider adding an anniversary or thank-you message to the recorded greeting on your company’s phone answering system and/or integrate it into reception greetings and phone answering.

Show you care.

You and your team are likely already engaged in lots of good will projects. The possibilities are endless. Here are a few ideas that don’t have to be exorbitantly expensive in order to be effective, worthwhile, and appreciated:

Sponsor a fundraising team for a cause that’s meaningful to you and your staff. Provide T-shirts or incentive prizes.

Offer clients an anniversary package deal. Are there a few services you might bundle together at ‘anniversary’ pricing?

Plan and sponsor a community event. Contact the town in which you operate your business to see if there are opportunities for you to plant a tree or a garden in one of its parks – or donate a piece of sculpture or playground equipment. Provide a free professional services workshop in concert with one of the area colleges. Institute a scholarship. Create a time capsule. Invite the media to the event by sending out a news release prior and contacting editors personally (especially the community news). Tie the event into your company mission.

Throw a party.

As we emerge from tight safety restrictions, is it time to plan an online or outdoor party? Consider inviting clients and employees to something more celebratory in a special location. Consider recognizing anniversaries within your anniversary; recognize employee and client loyalty with awards. Show a slide show of your scrapbook. Schedule the party to coincide with your actual anniversary date. Be sure to photograph the event and share the photos (website, newsletter, press releases, etc.).

Give a few gifts.

Giving a small, quality token of appreciation can go a long way. Depending on the ‘theme’ for your anniversary, select gifts that will bear your logo and tagline. Match the item with your mission and the theme of the anniversary. Personally, I would choose and recommend recycled, repurposed, and green giveaways over cheap and mass-produced plastic bits. ‘Honor’ charitable contributions, a healthy plant, flowers, good food, and well-made chocolates top my list – all green and all customizable. Gift cards and recognition awards can be quite meaningful, especially for your staff.

Tap into your creative team.

If you’re at a loss for where to begin, or simply don’t have enough time to get things started, why not use your trusty creative resources to help develop your anniversary concept and bring it all together? Like your favorite writer or designer? (That’s my shameless promotional plug.)

No matter how you celebrate and share your story, happy anniversary!

All my best,

Deanne

© Stone’s Throw, Inc. All rights reserved.

This year Stone’s Throw Creative Communications will be celebrating 30 years in business. Headquartered in Historic Cranbury, NJ, we’ve experienced so much. From the current pandemic to 9/11 to Superstorm Sandy, we all persevere with a lot of help from each other.

Heritage Park

The engraved stone pictured above can be found in Heritage Park. The park features a fountain with granite pavers commemorating Cranbury’s tercentennial anniversary – yes, that’s 300 years! Dedicated in 1997, the fountain is laid with pavers sponsored by area businesses and families who contributed to the fountain’s construction through a ‘buy a brick’ fundraising campaign. Literally etched in stone, Stone’s Throw is proud to be a small part of the community’s history.

Photography copyright © Deanne Napurano. All rights reserved.

Whether creating a single promotional piece or an integrated marketing campaign, all marketing communications efforts benefit from planning.  Of course that planning might take place in a very compressed time period (“You need that by tomorrow?”), but experienced marketers consider brand, positioning, communications objectives and audiences (among other factors) before they ever put pencil to paper or cursor to blank screen.

The plan is never written in stone (pardon the pun); it lives and breathes, allowing for changes when new data comes in or new opportunities arise. Mapping it out ahead of time simply sets our primary direction, but it goes a long way toward reducing the intimidation factor.

For some clients, we have the privilege of planning full multidimensional campaigns that build over time on the successes of key components.  We often begin with the marketing activities that help create a presence for the company or product – perhaps brand identity (logo, tagline, positioning statement), key brand messaging and language, capabilities materials, website, print and online advertising, and press releases. The second phase may include activities that soften the market for business development or sales efforts – always leveraging relevant content development – email marketing, direct mail, seminars or community programs and social media.  Finally, we explore activities and materials that will be used to fulfill the inquiries generated by the new marketing efforts – maybe product- or market-specific sell sheets or product information, packaging, newsletters, blog posts and white papers.

For others, we’re tasked with creating one special element of their marketing or promotional material.  Even in that case, we ensure our work dovetails into the overall plan and the communications strategy. It often takes only a few moments to confirm that we’re on track, and that can make all the difference.

For a select number, Stone’s Throw provides virtual CMO support, functioning as the business’s marketing department.  As a Chief Marketing Officer would, we initiate and guide marketing plan recommendations and develop communications strategies that align with the company’s overall growth objectives.  As a marketing manager and department would, we also provide the creative services, design and copywriting, art direction, production and programming that bring the company’s marketing plan to life. From broad goal setting, to day-to-day marketing tasks, we work side-by-side with you to build forward momentum. It all starts with a plan, even if that means determining a few loose parameters now, and establishing more focused guidelines later.

Over the course of 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with many fine businesses and organizations.  Those most successful at engaging their target audiences —  and manifesting brand language that resonates with customers — have one important characteristic in common; they understand the power of planning.

Whether you’ve re-engineered your workforce to meet the changing demands of working during the COVID-19 pandemic or find yourself needing new or different communications than you did pre-coronavirus, where do you begin to determine if it makes greater financial sense to tackle marketing communications projects internally or to tap the services of an outside consultant? Evaluating the cost of a product may be straightforward – adding up the expenses of research, development, raw materials, manufacture, and packaging, for example. Evaluating the cost of services takes a more roundabout route requiring qualitative, rather than quantitative, assessment. If you’re considering hiring creative support from outside your organization, the following ideas may help you determine whether the move will represent true value.

Contract with specialists.

As marketing options simultaneously expand with today’s technological advances and narrow with new safety concerns, it’s challenging for all but the largest organizations to employ a full team of talented specialists in design, copywriting, photography, programming, illustration, and animation. One approach to curbing costs while keeping your competitive edge is through utilizing staff managers who are free to engage supplemental outside creative or contract marketing consultants who pull in team members as needed. In that way, your organization can leverage high-quality resources while staying lean and nimble.

Consider the actual money spent.

Contracting with outside creative talent can actually be less expensive than handling the same work internally when considering the actual cost of internal labor. According to Creative Business: “Most commonly, internal department cross-charges only accommodate actual payroll expenses with a small factor thrown in for overhead expenses. When all costs—salaries, benefits, and overhead—are included, studies have shown that charges for outside creative vendors actually average about 5% less than the same work done internally.” What’s more, creative fees often account for only a fraction of total costs of any marketing effort. Consider, for example, the cost of copywriting and design for an advertising campaign compared with the costs of the media space buy (paying for placement in online and print publications).

Do you have the in-house talent?

Some marketing communications projects require special know-how, some don’t. When it’s important to your business, the scales may tip in favor of engaging an outside resource. Many can attest to the experience of using available, well-meaning internal staff that winds up being an expensive choice in terms of failing to meet marketing objectives and missing opportunities. It also deflects internal staff from the jobs they’ve been hired to perform. “When effectiveness is critically important, hiring an outside specialist is always the least expensive and most productive alternative,” according to Creative Business.

Can in-house staff perform well under the extra strain?

Consider disruption, deflection, and squirrel chasing. When staff is already working at or near capacity, even a small assignment can clog the machine. We’ve seen situations in which the overworked employee simply gives the project her least attention and effort; she resents the imposition. We’ve also seen more enthusiastic responses in which the overworked employee drops her routine duties in favor of the special project, gumming up the works of the department. Unless your staff has excess capacity, think about bringing in an outside resource.

Do you want to retain more control?

Years of reports from many clients reveal that it’s just tougher to control marketing projects internally because management faces obstacles assigning tough deadlines or giving critical feedback to team members who have taken on special projects outside of their usual duties – forget navigating through office politics and disagreement around ultimate responsibility. “When you absolutely, positively have to have it done, your way, and on schedule, hire an outside vendor.”

Do you need a little objectivity?

If you’re looking for someone to stroll into the middle of your challenges and throw open the window to let in the sunshine, it may be hard to find that kind of perspective within your team. Working very closely with a product or organization over time may create blinders that you and your team no longer sense. An outside creative partner can help bring much-needed objectivity to your marketing communications and create fresh brand language that resonates with your target audiences.

These questions may help you collect and organize the information necessary to write a compelling two-page service sheet that can be used to support sales conversations with prospective customers:

Matter for the front:

What is the brand or marketing name of this service or service package? Be consistent across all mentions. Make it easy for customers to identify it.

What is the primary (or overview) benefit to the customer?

What are the individual features to the service offerings? When describing each, lead with each feature’s benefit(s) to the customer. This is not a technical spec sheet. Talk briefly about why these features matter to the customer.

What are the challenges faced by the type of customer who would benefit from this service? Provide a few sentences about why this service package assists the customer in overcoming those challenges.

Provide something extra. Briefly describe an emotional benefit to the service package, a key insight unique to the customer’s industry, or a snippet from a customer testimonial.

Matter for the back:

Why is your company uniquely positioned to understand the challenges your customers face? Here is the place to review the benefits described on the front in a broader context or pull in your company’s history with this particular service or the customer’s industry.

Cross sell. List other services your company provides and the industries that benefit from them.

Provide an invitation to discuss how this service package may help the customer.

Be sure to include your branding identity/logo, company tagline, call to action, contact information, company descriptive, and trademark and copyright notices as appropriate.