Booz Allen Hamilton
Uncovering an Advanced Technology Company’s Brand Heritage
Booz Allen approached its 110th anniversary with a renewed focus on educating its employee base and external stakeholders on noteworthy moments from its past. The milestone was an opportunity for Booz Allen to leverage its rich history to reinforce where the company has been, how it has evolved and where it is headed.
History Factory engaged with the Booz Allen team through a series of interviews that facilitated narrative development, highlighting key moments of the company’s past while also determining the project’s core objectives. Together, we established the following objectives:
- Educating employees about Booz Allen’s rich history, including innovation, impact, people and evolving as a business
- Demonstrating to employees how Booz Allen’s legacy connects to its purpose and values, its story today and its direction in the future
- Increasing external awareness of Booz Allen’s legacy and vision for the future
- Preserving Booz Allen’s 110-year history and enabling easy access for future generations
Learning From the People Behind the Legacy
Booz Allen’s rich heritage was largely unknown not just to a sizable percentage of employees who have been with the company for five years or less but also to long-standing employees. The 110th presented a perfect opportunity to build pride in Booz Allen’s heritage by educating them about how the company has embraced change and its significance as a partner to the U.S. government and others.
To better understand how to best capture 110 years of Booz Allen, our team conducted more than 40 hours of interviews with members of the C-suite and long-tenured employees. These conversations laid the groundwork for additional activations, including a heritage website, an interactive timeline, 30 minutes of video content, more than 50 short stories and a hardcover book on Booz Allen’s history.
Bringing Pivotal Moments in History to Life
Booz Allen’s anniversary theme was guided by the idea of being “110 years young,” an idea coined by its CEO Horacio Rozanski. This concept was key to positioning Booz Allen as a company that remained vibrant, transformative and highly relevant in its second century. It was also central to the publication we developed for its anniversary.
“110 Years Young: The Booz Allen Story” captured the company’s history of impact spanning from its founding in 1914 to the present day, including content from its 90th anniversary in 2004 and its centennial in 2014—as well as the transformative years since. The book covered historic moments including supporting the U.S. Navy in the lead-up to World War II, aiding NASA with key missions including the moon landing, empowering clients during COVID-19 and embracing AI. We framed it as a historical thriller, drawing readers from one chapter to the next with cliffhangers connecting eras in Booz Allen’s history. Putting these stories in a book helped ensure that current and future generations will have a reference point for the company’s history and a physical reminder of its legacy.
Learn more about the publication in our creative portfolio.
Educating Employees Through Video Storytelling
History Factory also produced a suite of videos for Booz Allen to use across communications channels to reach various stakeholders. Each of these deliverables had a unique tone and style to reflect the different facets of Booz Allen’s history. These videos were an opportunity to share a comprehensive story tying together its legacy and anchored around the idea of what it means to be 110 years young, as well as Booz Allen’s longstanding ties to global events.
Preserving a Legacy For the Digital World
Our team built external heritage-focused landing pages to further codify Booz Allen’s past. These multichannel digital experiences were a repository for the company’s legacy and included:
- A timeline of key moments in Booz Allen’s history
- Written content full of employee testimonials
- Video content, including a hero video, a video highlighting Booz Allen’s purpose and values, a four-part docuseries, a video of Booz Allen ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and a video for an internal contest using remote capture footage of employees
Although these pages were created to honor the 110th milestone, the site was intended to be organic and serve as an ongoing resource for anyone looking to learn more about Booz Allen’s history.
Results From Our Collaboration on Booz Allen’s 110th
Though a 110th anniversary may not be a typical milestone year, Booz Allen made it an eventful one. Our team worked hand in hand with the office of Booz Allen’s CEO to execute these anniversary projects on an often-expedited timetable.
“You should know that your work has been exceptionally well received—Horacio hands out the book to everyone! We are drawing on it heavily as we work to rebrand Booz Allen as the advanced technology company that we have become.”
— A member of Booz Allen’s C-suite
Booz Allen’s dedication to its anniversary resulted in a top-performing campaign, with an estimated 90% of employees viewing the videos we produced. Our final deliverables included:
- Oral histories made up of in-depth filmed interviews with senior and significant individuals throughout the company, resulting in more than 40 hours of invaluable footage that we repurposed for other activations
- An anniversary microsite with an interactive timeline of Booz Allen’s history
- 50 short stories showcasing significant moments in its history
- A hardcover book codifying Booz Allen’s 110-year history
- A four-episode docuseries aligned with the book and focused on pivot points throughout Booz Allen’s history, including when the company recognized imminent paradigm shifts and helped its clients prepare for them
Interested in producing memorable content for your organization’s anniversary? Get in touch.