You were creative in your efforts. You wowed the masses and have exceeded all measures of ROI. But before you shut down the office to pop champagne all week why not open the party to the public? Okay, so you’re not going to invite everyone to your house (even BYOB would remain a stretch), but there’s still a way to leverage your celebration as a means to push your cause for celebration even further. I give you: One Billion Plus You
This site commemorates a powerful achievement for Mozilla Firefox Web Browser–hitting 1 Billion Downloads on July 31, 2009. It also exemplifies how to make your celebration work harder for you.
How does this new site get celebration right?
It stays humble. There isn’t a bunch of pomp and circumstance or shouting “We’re the Best!” The first words you read in their message are “We’re awed and amazed…”
It stays simple. There aren’t a lot of crazy elements on the page. They link to what’s important: Mozilla’s Mission, Download/Upgrade for the product, and the means to join the celebration. Clean and brief.
It looks to the future while reflecting on the past. “As we all start towards the second billion, let’s take a moment to reflect on the wonders of the Web that you’ve helped nurture and grow.”
It remembers that you are actually us. As a brand prided on open-source, Mozilla maintains perspective on their achievement: “But it’s not just about Firefox. We are the world. We are the billions. We are the ones who make the Web a better place to be.”
It creates a fun and easy means for people to share in their excitement. With a click of a link I can post an interesting fact related to the number “one billion” on my twitter feed. The options are interesting enough to provide you with worthwhile social currency: One billion seconds is roughly 31.7 years? Cool! And information like this is likely to be re-tweeted for its Snapple Fact quality. Regardless of your affinity for FireFox, you still feel compelled to share that fact because it is interesting. Finally, in true form to their trust of the audience, they leave it up to you to make your own message if you want.
The lesson we learn from Mozilla is that planning pays. You’ve already put in all the effort to get you to this major point of celebration, what’s a little more so you won’t miss this opportunity to engage the fan base that has gotten you this far? The end result is worth it. Their celebration acted as a means to generate greater awareness through direct word-of-mouth and push downloads of their product further and faster past the 1 billion marker than it would have by celebrating alone.
Do you have any other examples of brands, big or small, that make celebration work for them? Moreover are there things worth celebrating besides big numbers? What possible celebration opportunities are brands missing that they could be announcing? Hit me in the comments, anywhere else is too painful.
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