Clarksons – 25th Anniversary – Case Study

The Problem

For the last 25 years, Clarksons, a family-run New Zealand business, has been providing electrical, property, fuels, and technology services to Kiwis up and down the country – a worthy cause for celebration.

After partnering with Attain to bring a corporate birthday event to life, the question was how might we throw a memorable party that marks a quarter century in Clarksons journey and paves the way for another 25 years of growth and success.

With complete creative freedom, the event needed to be big and bold – like Clarksons – and align with their history and values.

Our Solution

Attain was able to provide an end-to-end event service to the client. From the planning stages through to execution, our team managed the event from start to finish, enabling the Clarksons team to turn up on the day fully present to reflect on their last 25 years of hard work and success with friends, family, and colleagues.  

The all-important task of choosing a venue was first up on the list of to-dos. Our team chose the All Blacks Experience at SkyCity as it reflected Clarksons’ values and excellent team culture. It also offered an interactive tour for guests to break up the night – a unique element of the event. 

Managing Director of Clarksons, David Clarkson, appreciated the thoughtful approach to the venue selection. 

“The All Blacks Experience was a great venue. It tied high performance business to high performance sport, showed synergies between them, and the importance of building a great team.” 

The event was emceed by popular sports journalist, James McOnie, and had ex All Black, Josh Kronfeld, as a guest speaker – on brand and in alignment with the event venue. Our team took care of booking the speakers and liaising with them in the weeks leading up to the event, keeping them updated on the run sheet for the night.  

Our team also designed the visual elements of the night – most notably a history book, which was a written recount of the milestones of the company across the last 25 years, along with carefully selected photos from the archives.  

We overcame a challenge a week before the event when the printing company we were working with had a nationwide issue with stock. With some quick research, we were able to find another high-quality printer at short notice. 

Our photography/videography department was on hand to capture content throughout the night. Afterwards, we created an event highlights video from this footage, along with a photo album – memories to go into the next history book. 

On the night, after months of planning and coordinating, 110 guests arrived outside SkyCity. As they entered the venue, they passed by a retro Clarksons van from the early days, a proud reminder of how far the company had come.  

Once inside, the guests enjoyed nibbles and live music before going through the immersive All Blacks experience. Dinner and speeches followed, and live music and dancing concluded the night. 

The Outcome

As a result of Attain’s involvement in the event, Clarksons cemented themselves as a market leader in their field after throwing a birthday bash that reminisced on everything that has gone before them, their strong culture and family-based values, and used it as a springboard for all that is to come for the company in the future.

“The Attain team took ownership of our event and came up with great ideas. I particularly liked the history book. It strongly cemented our 25-year history, which is invaluable”, says David.

“Attain checked in regularly to ensure we were happy with the direction, listened to what we wanted, and went above and beyond to deliver it.

“The event was well put together, came across as very professional, and the team didn’t take any shortcuts.

“Terry – Clarksons’ Founder – was pleased, the guests were pleased, and the staff couldn’t believe how great the event was.

“I would heavily recommend Attain to organise your event. They made the process easy, and the delivered what we wanted, bang on. They nailed it, and I was really pleased.”

Overview

Overall, the Clarksons 25th Birthday was a great example of a company utilising live, in-person events to celebrate a significant milestone, reinforce a vision, showcase and enhance culture, and connect with internal and external stakeholders.