THE POWER OF CORPORATE ANNIVERSARIES
How the Past Can Show Us The Future
A CORPORATE ANNIVERSARY IS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
When a company celebrates a milestone anniversary, everyone cares.
Why?
A corporate anniversary is a moment of leverage – a time to galvanize culture and move forward united.
In a single moment, you can positively impact a whole ecosystem – employees, customers, business partners, shareholders, the media and the general public – across geographies, languages, and brands.
It represents a unique opportunity and context in which to tell the company’s story and set forth one vision for the future. Far from an exercise in nostalgia, all eyes turn to the future ahead.
OUR APPROACH TO TELLING YOUR UNIQUE STORY
An anniversary is a time for both emotion and strategy. It celebrates the health of a corporate culture and an organization’s competitive resilience. Our process is inclusive and collaborative. We begin with three fundamental questions:
What is the red thread that sustained and grew the enterprise while so many others failed?
What is the human story that flows from this red thread that everybody can identify with?
How can the strength of that story help to drive the future of the enterprise?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM PAST ANNIVERSARY WORK
We’ve had the great fortune of working with several iconic brands whose persistent truth of the past 100 years paved the road for the next century ahead.
STEELCASE 100
UNLOCKING HUMAN PROMISE
Steelcase is a US-based global company designing work space, furniture, and technology for business, education and healthcare. Insight-led innovation has made it a thought-leader on work collaboration. 2012 marked its 100th anniversary, and CEO Jim Hackett asked us to help position the company for the next century.
We created a company manifesto in the form of a storybook and three-minute animated film, and a multimedia social initiative discussing the future of work. This discussion began with the “dreams” of children from around the world, captured in a documentary film. A web platform for the debate – “100 Dreams, 100 Minds, 100 Years” – went live at the TED conference that March.
“You help CEOs lead, articulate, show a future. You look through the lens of insights. You are unique because you have a combination of business acumen and you pull it together – not like other communications firms.”
Jim Hackett,
CEO Steelcase
CUMMINS 100
CHALLENGE THE IMPOSSIBLE
Cummins Inc., a global power leader, embarked on an ambitious growth strategy, which happened to coincide with the company’s 100th anniversary in 2019.
As Cummins’ anniversary partner, BravoEcho helped leverage this unique moment to position the company in a forward-looking way and to create awareness, support and engagement with employees and key external audiences. Our collaborative process helped to ensure strategic alignment at the start, all the way through implementation and launch.
We developed the anniversary theme, key message framework, identity and creative direction, as well as a communications plan and creative deliverables, including an anniversary film. Cummins 100-year-anniversary kicked off with local and global celebrations, and continued with events throughout the year.
“We chose BravoEcho because of their expertise in planning and executing successful anniversary initiatives. They helped us develop the strategic approach, inspiring messaging and tools to engage all our global stakeholders, including our 50,000 employees around the world. We found a true partner, who brought a tried-and-true, collaborative process which ensured that our internal team was involved from the beginning and could participate fully, empowering them to lead our activities.”
Sally Leyes,
Director - Internal Communications, Cummins Inc
BRADY 100
A SMARTER, SAFER WORLD
100 doesn’t come along for many companies. It’s a special and elite group who have survived 100 years: an exciting feat in this ever-changing world of business. Turning 100 allowed Brady Corp to step back and reflect on the red thread that links their heritage to their future.
We worked with Brady Corp’s CEO and leadership team to envision their future, and built a centenary celebration and a re-positioning vision around this future, from high-performance identification label manufacturer to a company building a smarter, safer world.
The work was first shared with employees around the world, and then launched externally to a global audience.
“I have learned a great deal from your team and your process. You have helped shape my thoughts on vision, inspiration and engaging the spirit of an entire organization.”
Tom Felmer,
CEO Brady Corporation
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