Imagine creating your own holiday celebration for whatever reason you wish…kind of like that episode on Seinfield where the fake holiday “Festivus” was created as an alternative to celebrating Christmas. In the episode, Festivus was celebrated with a few traditional practices of its own beginning with the “Airing of Grievances” followed by the Festivus dinner and concluding with the “Feats of Strength.”
As comedic as it may sound, the “fake” holiday has transpired into the real world with many restaurants, venues, and businesses taking advantage of the Festivus media buzz and using it as an added publicity opportunity to attract customers. In all actuality, what better way to connect with customers and give them additional reasons to patronize your business than to find fun celebrations related to the nature of your business. Besides it being a great conversation piece and a good opportunity to generate some PR, these types of celebrations provide more opportunities to maintain top of mind awareness and increase visibility.
For example, Krispy Kreme or any other donut or baked goods shop for that matter could celebrate “National Cream-Filled Donut Day” on September 14th and offer donut specials on that particular day. The makers of Snuggie could celebrate “National Cuddle Day” on January 6th to launch a new line of Snuggies. The same could be done for the New Era Cap Company on “National Hat Day” on January 15th to create a PR buzz for the launch of a new hat line.
As you can imagine there’s a daily celebration for any and everything imaginable. The learning lesson here is that in order to remain competitive and maintain top of mind awareness, find creative ways for your brand or company to become a conversation piece. You won’t always have “hard” news to attract the media’s attention. So, create your own media-ready news whenever you can.
So in the spirit of Festivus, we thought we’d partake in the fun and list some celebrations that would be perfect for a few brands to celebrate. As for us here at Blueprint Creative Group, our day would be “Freedom of Information Day” on March 16th in light of Wikileaks being the biggest media story of 2010 (at least in our opinion).
***Disclaimer: This is all in fun and part of a greater PR lesson.
- “Lame Duck Day” on February 6th celebrated by the Republicans who will be waving bye bye to the Democrats
- “National Tortilla Chip Day” on February 24th celebrated by Lime Fresh Mexican Grill who would use the opportunity to create PR for a new menu item.
- “National Hamburger Month” in May celebrated by Burger & a Beer Joint in Miami. B&B could borrow from KFC’s Double Down PR stunt playbook and offer its own burger version. Imagine the foot traffic to the restaurant.
- “National Tourism Day” on May 7 celebrated by the Miami Beach Convention & Visitor’s Bureau or any other tourism bureau to promote their area or region.
- “National Cheesecake Day” on July 30th celebrated by the Cheesecake Factory to promote a new flavor of cheesecakes.
Got an interesting or bizarre holiday celebration that could be matched to a company or brand? Speak your mind in the comment section below.
