As you may know, I’m a fan of capitalizing on observances to generate publicity. The trick is to find and capitalize on the ones that fit your product or service. By tying your product or service into something bigger, you increase your chance for publicity and attention.
It is important to think ahead and plan such tie-ins. We all know that July has Independence Day. But there are a lot of other lesser-known (and more targeted) observances. For example, did you know that July is Cell Phone Courtesy Month?
What could you do with that? Well, if you have any connection with cell phones (e.g., a retailer or a cell phone service provider) or with business, you could consider generating publicity by:
- Holding a contest asking people to write in their cell phone pet peeves
- Writing up tips on good cell phone etiquette
- Developing your own “top 10” list of pet peeves
- And…
Get the idea? Here are some other potential observances for the month of July:
- Cell phone courtesy month (www.etiquetteexpert.com/cellphone.html)
- National Make a Difference to Children Month (www.kimratz.com/madtc.html)
- Smart Irrigation Month (www.smartirrigationmonth.org )
- National Ice Cream Month
Here are some individual days celebrated in July:
- July 1, 1862: Bureau of Internal Revenue Established (a good excuse for accountants to get into the news again)
- July 1, 1847: First U.S. Postage Stamps Issued
- July 1, 1968: Medicare Went into Effect
- July 1: Second Half of the New Year Day (A midyear checkpoint)
- July 2, 2002: First Solo Round-the-world Balloon Flight
- July 2: Made in the USA Day (www.madeusafdn.org)
- July 4: Independence Day (Of course)
- July 7: Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day (great for family counselors, teachers, personal trainers)
- July 20: Toss Away the “Could Haves” and “Should Haves” Day www.jirehpublishers.com
- July 27: Walk on Stilts Day (www.stiltwalker.com) (A discussion about “stretching yourself”?)
- July 28: Anniversary of the Start of World War I
You can learn more about these and other observances through Chase’s Calendar of Events, which is available at Amazon and at other leading book stores.
