At SJM, we are celebrating 10 years of amazing partnership with clients who have helped to shape and build SJM into the premier promotional marketing agency we have become today!

Through the years we have achieved our high level of success by keeping promises and meeting deadlines - ideas deeply ingrained in our family business. Our story is one of strong values, creativity, integrity and determination.

As we celebrate our 10 year anniversary we wanted to remind you of ways that you can celebrate your milestones.  Anniversaries – whether they represent years in business or a brand’s long-standing life – are excellent occasions to engage your customers in a positive exchange over an extended period of time.

That’s right: An anniversary can be celebrated over a much longer duration than the actual date on which it occurs. Here’s how to make an anniversary into a campaign.

Launch your celebration at the beginning of the year in which it occurs. For example, if your company has been in business since June 5, 1983, so will therefore be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2008, plan an announcement for January 2008 that alerts clients and media to your special year of festivities. This could include a press packet complete with a custom-imprinted calendar that highlights milestones through historic corporate/brand photos and special commemorative dates that will occur each month.

Throughout the year, motivate your employees to be proud of your company or brand heritage. Give them commemorative lapel pins to wear daily or anniversary-crested uniforms that distinguish the year as something special. Other little touches that make excellent desk and counter reminders of the event are 25th anniversary pens and notepads that both employees and customers can use from January through December of the anniversary year.

Finally, plan a commemorative event on the date of your anniversary. A store, for example, might offer cake and refreshments as well as giving away die-struck anniversary coins that can be used in the following months for product or service discounts. Use balloons to decorate your lobby and to give away to children; weight the string with an anniversary-imprinted magnet so that parents take away a little gift as well that will keep your contact information front and center in the years to come.

Let me know when your next milestone approaches and I promise to make the most of it.  When you work with SJM, you get the best of both worlds.  A small family-owned company experience where you know that your every need will be met combined with the strategic thinking, expertise and know-how of a large agency.  Who said you can't have your cake and eat it too? Have a slice and celebrate with us!

Cassie Omohundro, CAS
and the SJM Team
Extension 7003
cassie@sjmagency.com