Leveraging Brand Anniversaries for Public Relations
One of the oldest tricks in the proverbial PR handbook is to leverage a brand’s anniversary. The timely news hook of an anniversary makes this strategy effective and the campaign put in place surrounding it (such as a brand fan event, partnership, or limited edition product release) is what completes the “story.”
We’ve worked with a number of clients on anniversary campaigns. Bear with me as I geek out for a minute…. One year ago today we helped Turbine launch the award-winning massively multiplayer online game (MMO) The Lord of the Rings Online. To celebrate, Turbine has released tons of new game content, new pricing options and in-game events.
In 2006, our client Wizards of the Coast released a hardcover coffee table book surrounding the 30th anniversary of the traditional pen-and-paper game Dungeons & Dragons. We arranged a press reception in NYC with Indi rocker and D&D fan Ben Kweller to kick off the book release. We also launched the first annual Worldwide D&D Gameday that year as well. Both events led to great press coverage.
I poked around online to find some other recent examples of celebratory goings-ons surrounding brand anniversaries. A few that stood out…
- LEGO 50th Anniversary - The 2008 celebration included the re-design of Google’s homepage logo into LEGO blocks. It sounds like this was all Google’s doing, however, and not a paid ad.
- Ben & Jerry’s 30th Anniversary - To celebrate they are hosting their annual “Free Cone Day” next Tuesday, April 29th…mmm!
- Cabbage Patch Kids 25th Anniversary - A “Premiere Edition Cabbage Patch Kids Celebration Baby” was released on QVC in December 2007. The doll featured a Carvel branded ice cream cone, which I’m not sure I see the direct connection with, but I bet a lot of QVC shoppers went gaga over it.
- Burger King 50th Anniversary - Instead of touting their anniversary, they launched the “Whopper Freakout” campaign (if you haven’t seen the ads, check them out on www.WhopperFreakout.com). They tell consumers that the Whopper has been “discontinued” and a hidden camera captures their over-the-top reactions.
- USA Today 25th Anniversary - Last fall, USA Today celebrated its 25th birthday by publishing weekly “Top 25″ lists over the course of 25 weeks including “Top 25 Music Milestones”, for example.
There’s also a handful of media outlets celebrating birthdays in 2008. National Geographic is 120 (wow!). Newsweek is 75 and American Baby is 70. Country Living, Working Mother, and Food & Wine all turn 30 this year. A few of my favorites - PC World is 25, PC Gamer is 20 and Wired Magazine is 15.
Happy b-day to all!
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