In the digital age we live in, personal information is in abundant supply and often withholding information about yourself can be quite a challenge. One byte of information that is sought more than others is your birth date. This has become of particular significance for all NHS computer based systems which are now driven by the relative uniqueness of the individual’s date of birth, so much so, that some NHS IT departments have been renamed the department of birthdays!
Gaining access to this type of information is a marketers dream, since it enables a myriad of communications and touches to be created and delivered on a day when you are likely to be in a good mood, provided of course you have received the requisite number of presents! On my birthday last year I received over 50 birthday wishes from my combined Linkedin and Facebook contacts and felt that this was on the whole a pleasant and non-intrusive experience, albeit perhaps a tad unnecessary.
A recent article has taken the birthday concept up a few gears by identifying 50 ways a marketer can celebrate a birthday! Everything from making a charitable donation on behalf of the birthday boy or girl through to e- mailing a customer a coupon, gift card, or even a cake? Indeed I wonder how the course of history would have been changed if Marie Antoinette had said “let them all eat digital cake?”
In this article the creative boundaries have certainly been stretched to their elastic limit but there is certainly a few ideas here worth exploring. After all, that warmish glow you feel on your special day, can be readily transformed into warm thoughts about the company sending you the heartfelt congratulations and presents.
We cannot leave the subject of birthdays without a mention of the birthday song. The combination of melody and lyrics derived from a song called “good morning to you” first appeared in print in 1912 with no copyright or credit notices. The Summy Company registered the song for copyright in 1935 and in 1988 Warner/Chapel purchased the company owning the copyright for $25 million. At this time the value of “Happy Birthday” was estimated at $5 million. Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that the United States copyright will not expire until 2030, and that unauthorised public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to Warner! Worth remembering the next time you attend a birthday party!
