I want to energize Japan's SMEs with company songs!

Aoge ba~ to toshi wa ga shi no on~. Well, graduation ceremonies are over now, right? Everyone, did you sing songs and make lasting memories? Huh, it's strangely moving, isn't it? Even just hearing it pass by makes you overlay your own memories. The power of song is immense.

Right, this time we're talking about using the power of "song" to strengthen companies. In other words, "Company songs are great, right!" So let's introduce a recent trend. Check it out!

Is the world entering the fourth company anthem boom?

You probably encounter songs tied to organizations in your daily life too—national anthems, school songs, or even private team theme songs. Younger folks might not know this, but there was a time when companies having their own songs was totally normal. They'd sing them during morning assemblies (oh, maybe morning assemblies themselves feel unfamiliar now?).

Similar to national and school anthems, they were used to unite spirits and reinforce corporate identity by repeatedly voicing the company's vision. True to this intent, companies reportedly rushed to create company anthems during recessions, believing they would help employees pull together and persevere. It's said there were three booms, from the period facing the pre-war Great Depression through the bubble era. Company songs always became popular at times when economic stagnation was gradually becoming palpable. Perhaps the desire of executives and employees to foster corporate unity and ride out tough times together on a light rhythm found expression in the form of the "company song."

From global anthems to those composed by famous musicians, they were incredibly diverse.

One might wonder if company songs seem unapproachable to younger generations? While us older folks (I'm almost at the age of "knowing one's destiny" myself...) might think singing company songs together is lame, surprisingly, some younger people today apparently think, "Having a company song is so cool!" Seriously! No kidding, there are actually quite a few company songs composed by incredibly famous musicians. When you collect and listen to them, you can really feel, "Ah, yeah, that's definitely their style♪." And thinking, "Wow! They made this just for our company!" is definitely something to be proud of.

Another interesting thing is company anthems written and composed by the employees themselves. These come in all styles—rock, rap—and everyone, young and old, gets into the groove singing along. How could it not get everyone hyped up?! Some companies even add animations, making it feel like an anime theme song. Honestly, listening to them, some are so good you'd want to download them—the quality is insane. Then there's this company that took words collected from all its employees, fed them into their proprietary language analysis engine, and spun out lyrics. That's amazing. They're integrating their own tech and using it to promote themselves externally. You do see companies deliberately uploading their company songs to YouTube, so it's clearly become PR content now. And beyond that, a few companies have even emerged offering "company song production services" as a related industry. The company song market is something else!

Amidst this, the " Small and Medium Enterprise Company Song Contest" was held by HANJO HANJO, a site supporting Japanese SMEs. It seems the idea was "Let's draw attention to vibrant SMEs by introducing their company songs!" and in its first year, about 30 company songs were submitted. What's more, video submissions were required. Hey, hey, take a look—everyone's making fun videos without a hint of embarrassment (no offense)! Well now, as I mentioned earlier, it seems everyone genuinely enjoys their company songs these days, not seeing them as forced. That's great, really great. Actually, according to last year's SME White Paper, SMEs' operating profits reached record highs. On the other hand, labor shortages persist. Perhaps what's crucial for SMEs' employment strategies isn't just company songs, but fostering an environment where employees genuinely enjoy belonging to their company.

Internal activities like sports days and Guinness challenges are becoming more active

Alongside this, there's also a noticeable trend of companies increasing their internal activities. While there used to be a tendency to avoid non-work interactions between employees, now company sports days, employee trips, and training camps for various internal club activities are reportedly on the rise. Even Guinness World Records, known for collecting those globally entertaining records, is reportedly increasing its cooperation with events that boost internal cohesion, like "Employees challenge world records using their company's products or services!" It's not exactly a long rope skipping competition, but events like that definitely unite employees. And whether they succeed or fail, it becomes a memorable experience either way. It would be interesting if companies challenged those records every 5 or 10 years, or even annually, as part of their anniversary celebrations.

This time, we discussed how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are successfully boosting employee morale and fostering unity through the use of company songs. However, such initiatives aimed at revitalizing the workplace will likely become essential not only for SMEs but also for large corporations in the future. PR isn't solely about external appeal. In fact, our affiliated organization, the Corporate PR Strategy Institute, conducted its second Corporate PR Capability Survey in 2016. Regarding the question "Who are the most important stakeholders for a company?", the response "Employees and their families" saw a sharp increase of 14.1 percentage points compared to the 2014 survey. This places it nearly on par with the second group—"business partners" and "media"—which follows the top two categories of "customers" and "shareholders/investors."

Furthermore, when corporate PR officers were asked about future PR themes requiring focus, "internal revitalization" also showed a sharp increase.

We must never forget that a company's greatest ally is its employees. What do you think? I tried to wrap things up seriously this time—after all, I'm approaching the age of understanding my destiny (laugh).