You might so excited about your company’s anniversary that you’re ready to shoot off fireworks. But don’t expect anybody else to join you.
Unless, of course, you offer an interesting timeline of the most newsworthy events in your industry, or your company, during that time you were in business.
I came up with that idea yesterday during a consulting call with a member of my mentor program. She wanted ideas for press releases when there was no big news to share. We discussed some of these 13 press release topics when there’s nothing newsworthy. And then I asked her if she was celebrating her company’s anniversary soon. She said yes.
Let’s say your company sells mobile phones. You can use a timeline to show how phones have evolved over more than three decades, starting from when the first call was made in 1973 from a big clunky phone that looked more like a shore, to today, when the latest iPhone or Android is on the market. These historical timelines are interesting.
Other Ways to Generate Publicity
Here are other ways to piggyback onto your company anniversary for publicity:
- Be willing to talk about knotty business problems you’ve experienced over the years, and how you’ve solved them. Have you abandoned old product lines in favor of newer high-tech products? Have you relied more on outsourcing?
- Offer old photos of your assembly line, your employees, company events and products. If you work for a nonprofit, do you have old photos of various causes and issues you promoted many years ago? Turn them into a slideshow and share on Slideshare.
- Suggest story ideas about an employee who has been with your company longer than anyone else, like this one about the 91-year-old newspaper carrier who shows no signs of stopping.
- Create a contest that ties into your anniversary. A men’s clothing store can have an Ugly Tie Contest, put the entries on display and ask customers to vote for the ugliest tie. When I worked at The Sheboygan Press in Sheboygan, Wis., we sponsored an Ugly Tie Contest leading up to Father’s Day. The entries were a hoot, including a necktie with feathers! We displayed them in our lobby and lots of people in the community stopped by to look.
- Sponsor a free class. Own a wine shop? Have a free dessert-and-wine pairing class.
Let’s hear your ideas in the Comments section below.
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