You didn’t think you’d get away without a Royal Wedding post, did you?
Anyone who’s spent any part of the last couple of weeks awake, here in the UK, is well aware that a young couple are getting married today.
It is rare that an event is of such significance that the entire country is aware of it, whether enthusiastic about it or not. So it’s not surprising that media channels are making the most of it, whether or not the wedding will provide a boost to our economy – and retail companies, at least, are hoping that it might provide them with a short-term boost…
No doubt you’ll have communicated with your employees about the wedding, and possibly also with customers.
But should you take any notice of this kind of event on the corporate website? If there’s no apparent relevance to your company, then it might well seem inappropriate – even opportunistic. Though making over a home page for the day in celebration can be a nice touch; it’ll be interesting to see if anyone has done this.
There are examples of corporate websites making reference to national events, and doing it well:
- Regular readers may remember that I commented on BAE Systems highlighting National Apprentice Week on its home page recently. While this event didn’t generate as much national enthusiasm as “The Wedding”, it was nevertheless directly relevant to BAE Systems and their recruitment activities.
- Another example is that of Rio Tinto, who have a link from their home page to a section about the 2012 Olympics (which will be hosted here in the UK). Relevant? Yes: Rio Tinto are providing the metal to produce the 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals.
- Rio Tinto aren’t the only supplier to the London 2012 Games: G4S also discuss their role in providing security for the Games on their corporate website (and I expect that several of the other official suppliers do something similar).
These examples are directly relevant to the activity of the company, and – in terms of site content – are similar to case studies or testimonials. It’s just that they are quite high profile ones.
There are of course many examples of sponsorship by companies of various different events, individuals or activities, often because of a perceived alignment with the corporate brand (Catlin and the Arctic Survey; Investec and the Derby; Volvo and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra….). This type of site content is also promotional, though often companies aim to associate it with their social responsibility activities.
Both these kinds of promotion have their place on the corporate site.
Royal wedding? Perhaps not so obviously relevant to a corporate site unless you are providing a product or service… in which case you’re probably sworn to secrecy until the weekend anyway.
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye