To maintain longstanding, fruitful relationships with consumers, advertisers and stakeholders during an acquisition, Citigate Cunningham's executive vice president Melissa Sheridan offers these best practices on how to keep your brand relevant:
-
Continue speaking to the media: It's crucial to act as if business is operating as usual. "Have execs hold briefings with editors-in-chief and editorial influencers so that they can be seen as still on scene--still relevant and contributing value to the industry."
-
Map out a significant news calendar: Make sure you have a "steady drumbeat of news" to announce to the media. When Sheridan worked on the campaign with SurfControl, she and her colleagues were always reviewing what SurfControl had in the news pipeline in terms of customer wins and partnership announcements.
-
Package the brand for industry honors: This is key to generating further attention for the brand. "We submitted a lot of industry awards," says Sheridan. "SurfControl's products were always well-regarded. We wanted to make sure that they would remain the same within the same timeframe."