Creative Marketing Approaches: Using Unusual Holidays
Holidays are tailor-made for great marketing. A lot of the work is already done. Every holiday already has its own history, theme, tone and often color scheme. Valentine’s Day is about romance, and its color is deep red. Halloween is about scary things, and its colors are orange and black. Red and green together practically scream Christmas. The list goes on.
It all sounds great, but what do you do if there isn’t a handy holiday that coincides with your upcoming marketing campaign? Not to worry. There are plenty of holidays. You just have to find them.
Just for example, take a look at the month of April. In addition to Easter, a closer look reveals several other great holidays you can make use of. There’s April Fools’ Day on the 1st. April 15th has become known as Tax Day, and April 22nd is Arbor Day. There are plenty more, too. April 4th is School Librarian’s Day. April 7th is National Beer Day. The website Holiday Insights provides a pretty extensive list, along with links so you can find out more about your target holiday. You’re bound to find a holiday that’s just perfect for your marketing campaign.
By themselves these holidays are no big deal. In fact, most people won’t know there is a National Shrimp Scampi Day (April 29th) unless you tell them. As a marketer, it’s your job to let them know. Make a fuss over it. Make sure it’s something people know about so they can mark their calendars. Have a sale, hold a contest, have a drawing. Make it your own. Pretty soon people will come to associate you with that holiday. You’ll have less competition as well. Everyone else is focusing their attention on the 4th of July or Memorial Day. Meanwhile you’ve cornered the market on National Pretzel Day.
Of course, none of these holidays may suit your needs. That’s okay. If all else fails, make your own holiday. Amazon has recently been trying to do this with National Prime Day. As you probably know, Amazon Prime is a subscription service you can sign up for. Each year on July 15th, those subscribers are able to participate in a big blow out sale that’s only available to members. Is there anything special about July 15th? Nope. It’s just a date Amazon picked. They didn’t have a holiday to use, so they made one.
That’s the beauty of unusual holidays. There is almost always one around and you can use all the holiday marketing techniques you’ve been saving for the big holidays. The only limit to what you can do is your creativity. Get the marketing juices flowing and don’t let another National Nature Photography Day pass you by.