Everyone wants to come to your party, unless of course, you’re having a party to simply announce a new logo and tagline….

Events are an excellent opportunity to showcase your company and your brand in a fun way that stakeholders remember.  But that doesn’t mean your event should be all about you. In fact, put your customers and stakeholders first and you are well on your way to throwing a party that will live on in guests’ memories long after the wine has been drunk and the balloons have lost their air!

Arctic Transportation Services is one of Alaska’s largest and oldest continuously operating Bush air carriers in Alaska. For the past 10 years, the company has operated as Arctic Transportation Services, but for more than four decades it ran the business under its family name Ryan Air. The company decided to honor its heritage by renaming itself Ryan Air.

Wil Ryan - President of Ryan Air, greets guests

The challenge: No one is going to come to a party that simply announces a company name change. How do we create an event so compelling, so exciting, that people will fly in from the Bush to attend?

By assembling a team of strategic, creative and public relation experts, we developed a concept for the event: The Alaska Bash: Celebrating the Toughest People on Earth.

This Alaska Bash concept echoed Ryan Air’s mission to improve the quality of life in Bush Alaska by celebrating the people of Bush Alaska—the bold, the brave, the trailblazers of the Last Frontier—those who set out to make a difference when everyone else said it couldn’t be done.

Hardy Foster - honored among "The Toughest People on Earth."

The launch served as a platform for Ryan Air to take a step back and pay tribute to their customers as well as the event honorees. And culminated in the announcement of ATS’ new name, Ryan Air.

Some of the elements that made the Alaska Bash a success include:

• A well-integrated public relations plan, including working with honoree families in the build up to the event and comprehensive media reach and engagement.
• An invitation to the Alaska Bash designed with a strong Alaskan heritage feel
• A smart venue that reflected strength and determination with large-scale vintage photographs and stories of the honorees around the room. Wooden air cargo crates filled with greenery (representing toughness) and three red roses (the tribute element) served as centerpieces.
• An entertaining program.
• An all-Alaskan fish and meat buffet and prizes that reflected the theme, including tough Ryan Air-branded outdoor apparel and an Alaska Airlines voucher to help put some luxury into tough living.

The event combined elements of a great party in a way that wasn’t self-serving to Ryan Air, it was all about the attendees. It provided a clever way for the company to reveal its new, “old” name, and a night to remember for the more than 200 guests who attended.