Carolyn McMaster | November 19, 2013KEY BENEFIT: Getting essential but seemingly unexciting professional service businesses the media attention they deserve.
Essential but seemingly unexciting professional services businesses often have trouble getting media attention—especially if they’re regional firms, not industry-dominating behemoths whose actions demand coverage.
To overcome this problem, we turned to drink. Specifically, we created a custom cocktail promotion to help our client, the Silicon Valley finance and accounting consulting firm RoseRyan, get some recognition for its 20th anniversary. It’s an important milestone for the firm, but not exactly something that would catch a journalist’s attention.
We’re happy to report that it worked: the promotion landed CEO Kathy Ryan a feature interview in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Along the way, the cocktails project helped generate excitement among the company’s 50 or so employees. We asked them to suggest names (the Per Diem and 10K-O, for example, made the final cut), and the crew sampled the drinks at regular company meetings. The company produced a booklet of the 20 recipes (10 drinks with alcohol, 10 sans), which can be used as a fun handout far into the future. And we’re using the cocktails to enliven the company blog, rolling out recipes in a Friday Cocktail feature through the end of the year.
Key to the success, we think, was having a client that trusted us to let loose. They not only gave us free rein with the creative, they also let us be serious about the drinks themselves, which we commissioned from our friends at the Bull Valley Roadhouse. The result is a collection that any cocktail connoisseur would love, described with business and accounting humor.
Here’s what we say about the drink Balance Sheets to the Wind: “If you love margaritas, stop what you’re doing right now and mix up a batch of this beautiful berry-colored inhibition loosener. Need to keep your balance? Try the equally lovely nonalcoholic option, with a well-mannered shot of vanilla.”
It just goes to show: coloring outside the lines is not only fun, it also can be good for your business. And drinking a Fiscal Cliff is much more appealing than falling over one.
Check out all the recipes from the RoseRyan 20th Anniversary Cocktail Collection in the online recipe book. We hope you find one you love.
Cheers!
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