National Pancake Day, National Walk to Work Day, National Poetry Month — it feels like almost every day in the calendar year is dedicated to celebrating unusual holidays! We spoke to seven small business experts on the ways they bring these quirky events to the workplace and how these lesser-known events allow them to engage with their team.
1. “We have a small office with 12 employees so it’s important to boost morale. We often take advantage of quirky holidays. We let our staff pick a quirky holiday once a month to celebrate. Our staff will draw a pool and we pick one card and read out loud and that’s the holiday we go with for the month. For instance, for Star Wars Day we are running a best costume contest! The winner will take home the grand prize.” — Trinity Manning, CEO, OnceLogix
2. “As a small, woman-owned business in the tech industry, Hummingbird Networks utilizes unusual holidays to showcase the personality and people that make our brand. Most of our celebrating has been through our social media platforms, where we highlight employees or run contests that correspond with wacky holidays. For example, much of our content during the month of April will follow the theme of Stress Awareness Month. This will involve publishing helpful tips and on April 16, National Stress Awareness Day, we will hold a contest for stress relief balls, which display our logo. We have seen an increase in engagement since we began featuring unusual holiday content. When it comes to the office, our internal marketing, we adorn our common area with holiday-appropriate decorations and sayings. This adds to the festiveness of our work space and gives us a common interest, especially since many of these holidays are so unusual.” — Amanda Bigley, Marketing Associate, Hummingbird Networks
3. “Sportkilt.com, a site I launched years ago, sells kilts for men and women. In Ireland, kilts are worn with pride to display family heritage. As such, Sport Kilt holds a photo contest each year for customers to submit photos of them out-and-about wearing their kilts on St. Patrick ‘s Day! Some contests get hundreds of submissions. Likewise, they also have fun with a Movember contest. Geared to raise awareness of men’s health issues (in November), anyone (including women) can submit a photo with a mustache or beard. Each contest has prizes, with the top prize being a $250 gift certificate sent to the winner. SportKIlt.com sees an increase in site visits, social shares, and sales based upon the lead up to and after the holiday.” — Louis Camassa, SaaS Architect and Marketing Technologist, LC7.com
4. “The most recent oddball holiday we’ve acknowledged was National Oreo Cookie Day on March 6. Each employee received a small bag of Mini Oreos with a note recognizing the unusual observance. National Margarita Day on Feb. 22 took a little more planning. A table was set up in our employee café with all the ingredients needed for a make-your-own margarita!” — Shelley Grieshop, Creative Writer, Totally Promotional
5. “I love Googling different days to find unusual holidays. When I do, I share a quick post on social media about it or I send some interesting facts related to the holiday to my email list. I use it as an excuse to stay in front of my prospects. I also use it to make things fun for my employees. For example, March 19th was National Poultry Day, so I brought tons of chicken to work for my employees. Sometimes I will use it as a way to tie a coupon code for one of my products. If I wanted to, I could’ve sent my email list the coupon code POULTRY to get a discount on my products.” — James Pollard, Founder, The Advisor Coach
6. “The key to a successful unusual holiday promotion is to ensure that the festivities align with your customer’s interests. For example, my company sells western wear and ranch equipment, so while National Pancake Day could be a lot of fun, our customers aren’t particularly interested in pancakes. We recently celebrated National Buy Your Girlfriend a Goat Month. We advertised on social media and ran discounts on goat-related products throughout the month of March. Not only did our meme advertising the event get over 25,000 shares on social media, but we also had a huge increase in sales of goat accessories.” — Wendy Bode, Founder, Lazy B General Store
7. “Star Wars Day. May 4th is our Star Wars day when we get a projector, popcorn and coke and watch… yes, Star Wars. That’s how it all started. Now we are taking it to the next level and get Star Wars themed snacks, dress up and even have a pop quiz.” — Tom Hartel, CEO, Valley Fire Protection Systems, LLC
8. “We have sought out national months that our bblüv baby/kids essentials would be great for, specifically National Snack Month and National Children’s Dental Health Month. For National Snack Month, we wrote and distributed a press release to the media that highlighted how the bblüv Döse Multipurpose Stackable Containers are a must-have snacking essential for families. For National Children’s Dental Health Month, we wrote and distributed a press release featuring tips for good oral health care for babies and toddlers, which also mentioned our bblüv Sönik battery powered 2-stage toothbrush. Pitching our products as must-haves for celebrating these months has been great in securing media coverage and expanding awareness of our company and products.” — Geneuviève Thibault, Co-Founder, bblüv
Get in on the quirky fun by starting your own business? Give us a call at 1-877-692-6772, or visit us at mycorporation.com.