How to make your company anniversary newsworthy

It’s time to put the public back into public relations. Public relations is much more than media relations. It’s also social and web media. One of the more notable ways – especially in the eyes of the executive team, founders, and even employees – to share your company is celebrating your company’s anniversary milestone.

We aren’t talking about your third anniversary or 27th anniversary. Many companies make it to an initial milestone anniversary, and if you celebrate it, then you must find different ways to highlight you, your executive team, and your company and its accomplishments. Take it one step further and find ways to uniquely include the media, community, etc. When celebrating your company’s anniversary, don’t forget about employees, the community, vendors, suppliers, strategic partners, deserving nonprofit organizations that are strategically aligned with your industry, or products and services. 

Earned Media

• Make an impact

  Combine other company news and moves with the anniversary to make the celebration a more newsworthy event. Consider making a donation or donations (## years = $##K or $## millions in donations or ## years = ## donations) in honor of the anniversary. 

• Local outlets
  Figure out how to include the community and local outlets as well as influencers and non-traditional media. 

• Inform industry outlets
  Depending on your industry, your company’s anniversary could be great content for industry outlets. Similar to local media outlets, be sure to share this news with industry publications.

Shared Media 

• Create a fun video Make a video of the team jamming-out to a playlist, and post it on YouTube or on a specific social media channel. Consider dancing to various songs from each decade your company has been in existence. Another option could be to change the words of a song to create a fun video just for your company. For example, the words “Call me 120” to the tune of the song “Call Me Maybe.”

• Professional video
  Produce a company history video that includes lots of still photos of real people: previous and current employees, their families, and generations of employees. 

• Social media campaign
  Create a whole social media campaign surrounding your anniversary. Consumers truly like to know your team and your company. They want to know you are real people. Consider highlighting photos of now and then to showcase where the company was and where it is now. 

• Create a hashtag

  People love a good hashtag. Have your team participate in an ideation session to come up with one or two catchy hashtags for your company and your customers to utilize to show their support. 

Owned Media

• Add to your website

  In addition to your social media and other inbound efforts, be sure to add the recognition to your website. This includes adding a badge to your website. Consider updating your website’s hero image or creating a temporary home page to promote the anniversary that links to a blog post. 

• Update your logo

  Create a special logo with an anniversary lockup to illustrate your anniversary. Use this opportunity to refresh your social media profile pictures to highlight the anniversary year too.

• Use email marketing
  Alert your pipeline and customers by including your anniversary in your upcoming email marketing campaign. Add the anniversary to your team’s email signatures. 

Fun

• Create a playlist 

  This is definitely a fun way to get your team involved. Depending on where you rank, create a playlist with that number of celebratory songs. Share the playlist on your blog and on social media. Consider having employees write a sentence about the song they picked and why. It adds a personal touch. 

• Display on company vehicles

  Appreciate
  Show appreciation to your employees with gifts, parties, and other items throughout the year. Consider giving company apparel, pens, and more. 

  Giveaway
  Find some sort of giveaway or a way to get your customers involved in celebrating your anniversary. 

• Appreciate
  Show appreciation to your employees with gifts, parties, and other items throughout the year. Consider giving company apparel, pens, and more. 

• Giveaway
  Find some sort of giveaway or a way to get your customers involved in celebrating your anniversary. 

• Write

  Send thank you notes to customers, partners, and staff for helping your organization achieve a significant milestone.

Other companies 

We highlighted what some other notable companies are doing and previously did to offer even more real-world insight and ideas. 

• Rayonier hired our PR agency to help it develop a 50th anniversary publication for its employees and community. Rayonier inserted it as a special section within the community newspaper where that papermill was located.

• Ring Power, one of the world’s largest Caterpillar dealers, produced a company history book filled with photos of its company’s founders, long-term employees, current and past leadership, generations of employees, community, community involvement, and elected and appointed officials who all played a critical role in the company’s success.

• Carnival Cruise Line turns 50 in 2022 and is already planning its 50th anniversary “Sailabration.” One way it’s celebrating is cruise ship meet-ups where ships on different voyages sailing around the same area will get together at sea for one giant celebration.

• A private school highlighted its 135th anniversary with legacy marketing materials, including showcasing old yearbooks, creating a video walking tour of where the nuns lived when they came to the city, and recognizing families with four generations in the school. 

• Grammarly shared insight from various people who joined its team each year of the company’s history. The company spoke about its memories and impressions, including who the company was and where Grammarly is going in the future. This allowed employees to focus on the oldest to the newest team member and all those in between. 

Hire a public relations firm 

Hire a PR firm to promote your products or services, growth, other accomplishments, and even help you utilize your company’s anniversary to highlight your company’s stability, credibility, and legacy. Whether you’re celebrating 20 years, 25 years, 50 years, or even 100 years, these anniversary opportunities only come around every once in a while.

In our experience, some companies wait until two months ahead of time to start planning for this event while others may start planning as far as two years ahead of time. Either way, time is of the essence. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by!

Axia Public Relations offers an e-book, Maximizing Your Public Relations Investment, which provides more ways to optimize the media coverage you receive. Download it for free today!

Clients love Marjorie’s work ethic, speed and diligence. She has worked with Axia Public Relations since October 2011. Marjorie graduated from Rockhurst University with a Bachelor of Arts in communication and loves to cheer for her hometown Kansas City Royals. Learn more about Marjorie.