Not Just Turkey and Santa

Cut through the glut of typical holiday messages by promoting these offbeat holidays in November and December

’Tis the holiday season again—and I don’t just mean the major ones like Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like focusing on the more obscure holidays, like National Rad Tech Week, Sandwich Day and National Tie Month.

These are some of the special months, weeks and days that business organizations or Congress have designated to promote various causes. Depending on your business, you might be able to turn these offbeat holidays into a new ad campaign and ring up some extra cash. Below are some examples:

In November for example, booksellers have a number of offbeat days to choose from, including Indian American Heritage Month, National Young Reader’s Week (Nov. 9 – 15), National Bible Week (Nov. 22 – 29), National Game and Puzzle Week (Nov. 22 – 28), National Author’s Day (Nov. 1) and National Young Readers Day (Nov. 10).

Food and desert retailers have plenty of marketing choices in November, as well. These include: American Diabetes Month, National Georgia Pecan Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pomegranate Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month, Vegan Month, Sandwich Day (Nov. 3), National Men Make Dinner Day (Nov. 5), National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (Nov. 7), World Diabetes Day (Nov. 14), Homemade Bread Day (Nov. 17) and Turkey-Free Thanksgiving (Nov. 26).

Here are a sampling of other specially designated dates in November and December that, with a little creativity, you might be able to organize a search marketing campaign around:

November:
National Adoption Month
National AIDS Awareness Month
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week (Nov. 1 – 7)
Intimate Apparel Market Week (Nov. 2 – 6)
World Toilet Day (Nov. 19)

December:
World AIDS Month
Spiritual Literacy Month
Cookie Cutter Week (Dec. 1 – 7)
National Hand Washing Awareness Week (Dec. 6 -12)
World AIDS Day (Dec. 1)
National Dice Day (Dec. 4)
Poinsettia Day (Dec. 12)

Best of luck with your campaigns, and happy holidays!

— Colin Kingston, Listings Editor