National Days in the Hands of PR Professionals

Observance: the action of watching or noticing something.

People like to comment about national day observances. They say things like, “There’s a national day for everything. They’re just marketing toys.” This is more or less true. There are national, even international, days for many things and even multiple topics on the same day. There are national weeks and national months. While some are important, solemn observances to honor people or events, such as Memorial Day, many are marketing ploys, and they work. This is why we use them.

What Are National Days?

Before delving into the uses of national days for PR and marketing, a definition of a national day should be established. According to this article by Always the Holidays, a national day is a day of the year which is celebrated by nations and countries around the world in a special way. It further explains that the national days were traditionally used to celebrate countries becoming independent but is now often used for trending and popular topics. There is also a distinction between official and unofficial days, with official days, such as the 4th of July in the United States and Christmas, being sanctioned by a government while the latter are not. Regardless of whether these days are official, both serve as opportunities for marketing and public relations (PR) professionals.

How to Use National Days

Although national days used to be isolated to the US, they have since become popular all over the world. As this article by Talented Ladies Club explains, popular examples include International Women’s Day, World Book Day, and National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. However, because so many days and weeks have been used to raise awareness or as marketing campaign opportunities, using them has become more about activities to mark the day or week.

While that same article goes into greater detail on planning these days, using social media to its fullest potential, and investing in a national awareness day calendar, the gist for using them as a professional is to intertwine the day or week with an aspect that is unique to your brand. An example provided in the Talented Ladies Club article includes a company that sells eco-friendly products tweaking Black Friday to “Green Friday,” where they might have special sales for their products on a day that is known for massive amounts of shopping.

This example might not be feasible for smaller companies, but the principle can still be applied. For instance, an article by ThePRCoach lists 52 quirky and creative national days. Among the many opportunities in this list is “Be Bald and Free Day” on October 14th. To apply the mentioned principle to this day, a company that sells grooming products could have a sale, however significant, and use social media to advertise for the sale in the month and weeks leading up to the day. With a little creativity, planning, and execution, a small company can gain more exposure and grow its revenues as a result.

Conclusion

While it is true that national days have become a way to sell products or services, the reason for this is that it works. Whether they be official or unofficial, marketing and PR professionals can take advantage of national days to drum up business and gain more exposure.

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