Start where it matters most: inside

Your team already knows your company matters. An anniversary gives them the chance to feel a part of its impact.

At Hyde, I saw this happen firsthand. The company opened its doors to employees, families, vendors, and the community for tours of its manufacturing plant. While people were waiting for their tours to start, they had an opportunity to walk through some conference rooms arranged as informal museum exhibits. In a room dedicated to the evolution of the company’s brand and marketing, I watched a young Hyde employee show her dad a replica of a race car hood from a sponsorship back in the 1980s. “This isn’t the real hood. Someone on the shop floor actually made this replica.” She was bursting with pride as she explained it to him, and he, obviously a motor sports enthusiast, was impressed. It was a moment of connection between them that would have been impossible to create almost any other way.

When you give people a way to connect with your history, they also connect with each other.

The most popular room at that celebration was probably the least curated. It was simply filled with old photos of people who’d worked there over the decades. Attendees spent time finding themselves, their relatives, and people they knew. One of the family members told me later that this room had the longest lines and the most engagement. People loved it.

It was a really simple idea, but for the people in that community, it was both a wonderful trip down memory lane and a chance to connect themselves and their families with the story that was all around them.

So pull out those artifacts you’ve been storing—the equipment, the photos, the old catalogs. Organize them. Let people see where they fit. Let them feel proud of what they’re part of.

Let others celebrate you

Family business owners tend to be humble. You don’t like the spotlight. I get it.

But when you let people celebrate you, you aren’t bragging. You’re actually doing them a service.

Your community wants to feel connected to you. Our clients are often the largest employers in their respective towns and have developed customer and vendor relationships that have endured for decades. All of those stakeholders want a way to say “this matters to us.”

Receiving that gratitude graciously and giving them opportunities to participate helps them feel connected and important.

Hyde Tools took this a step further by hosting a community barbecue and fireworks display that the entire town could enjoy. In many family businesses, a public celebration idea, such as a fireworks show, could have been immediately dismissed as self-promotion. Still, the Clemence family realized that it was a gift to the community, especially in the working-class town where Hyde’s headquarters is located. Who wouldn’t love an extra night of fireworks, music, and food in the summer to enjoy with their families and friends?

Don’t keep it small and internal because you’re uncomfortable being celebrated or you assume it’s not important to others.

Use the moment to look forward, not just back

This is where most companies stop too soon. They tell the heritage story, and that’s it.

But anniversaries give you permission to talk about the future in a way people will actually listen. They’re already tuned in emotionally. They’re ready to hear what comes next.

Hyde Tools understood this when they created a 150th anniversary video that celebrated more than their longevity. It connected the company’s founding story of craftsmanship and reliability to the innovation that now drives them, supporting both professional tradespeople and passionate DIYers. By tying their deep heritage to a forward-looking vision, Hyde reminded everyone—from employees to distributors to end-users—why the brand still matters, and how it continues to build on that legacy.

When you share where your company is headed, your customers, team members, and community begin to see themselves in your future, not just your past.

Look forward with your customers

Don’t talk about the future in a vacuum. Talk about it with your customers.

For B2B companies, that means discussing how your strategy aligns with where your customers are going. What’s their next chapter? What’s yours? How do you complement each other and grow together?

For consumer brands, it’s about connecting what you’re building to what matters in people’s everyday lives. How are you evolving as their lives change? How can you show you’re tuned into what matters most to them right now?

That’s what strong generational brands do. They make the connection between heritage and direction tangible. When Hyde Tools celebrated 150 years, their message was unmistakable: building on a legacy of craftsmanship to empower and solve problems for the next generation of tradespeople and DIYers.

An anniversary is the perfect platform for that clarity. When people are already paying attention to your story, they’re primed to believe in your future. Use that moment to align your team and your customers around where you’re headed. When everyone’s speaking the same language about your direction, your brand power compounds.