Welcome to this month’s “Looking Ahead” feature. Here we’ll review events, occasions, holidays and anniversaries that you can use to build your event-driven marketing calendar August 2015.
The calendar is pretty empty this month of major holidays. In the northern hemisphere it’s the dog days of summer. In the south it’s the last blast of winter. These “seasonal” themes are available to you if there’s nothing else that’s suitable.
August is also a “Back To School” month for many northern hemisphere countries…
…and remember major sporting events such as the US PGA Championship (13-16 August), the US Open Tennis (starts 31 August) and the start of the football (soccer) season in the UK (Premier League starts the weekend of August 8).
It’s also “Elvis Week”, August 8-16. Elvis Presley moved on to the “great gig in the sky” on 16 August, 1977.
Other events…
August 1 – World Wide Web Day
August 2 – Psychic Day
August 4 – Friendship Day
August 7 – International Beer Day (first Friday in August)
August 8 – Infinity Day
August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
August 9 – International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People
August 10 – St Lawrence’s Day (patron saint of cooks and the poor)
August 12 – International Youth Day
August 13 – International Left Hander’s Day
August 15 – Assumption Day
August 16 – Rollercoaster Day
August 17 – Davy Crockett Day (anniversary of the birth of the American frontier legend in 1786)
August 18 – Mail Order Catalog Day
August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
August 20 – Lemonade Day (the classic beverage invented in Paris in 1620)
August 21 – Poet’s Day
August 23 – International Day For The Remembrance Of The Slave Trade And its Abolition
August 24 – Vesuvius Day (eruption of the volcano in 79 A.D. that destroyed Pompeii)
August 28 – Radio Commercials Day (first broadcast on this day in 1922)
August 29 – Individual Rights Day (anniversary of the birth of John Locke in 1632)
Taking a look at some country-specific events…
In the USA…
August 1 – Colorado Day (Colorado)
August 7 – Purple Heart Day
August 10 – Victory Day (Rhode Island),
August 16 – Bennington Battle Day (Vermont) (observed August 17)
August 19 – National Aviation Day
August 21 – Statehood Day in Hawaii (Hawaii)
August 21 – National Senior Citizens Day
August 26 – Women’s Equality Day (women in the USA get the vote in 1920)
August 27 – Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (Texas)
In the world of sports, there is the PGA and the start of the US Open in tennis.
Canada…
August 3 – local holidays in most provinces (e.g. British Columbia Day, New Brunswick Day, Alberta Heritage Day)
August 5 – The Royal St John’s Regatta (St John’s) (Newfoundland and Labrador),
August 17 – Discovery Day (Yukon)
August 21 – Gold Cup Parade (Prince Edward Island)
U.K.
August 1 – Yorkshire Day
August 3 – Summer Bank Holiday (Scotland)
August 31 – Summer Bank Holiday (UK except Scotland)
The soccer season restarts this month with the EPL “kicking off” on August 8.
Australia…
Down under…it’s a pretty thin month for events.
There’s a Bank Holiday in NSW on August 3 (also Picnic Day in the Northern Territory)…
…and the Royal Queensland Show in Brisbane (August 12).
(Show dates may vary across Queensland, so check the details for your local area.)
We’re coming to the end of winter in Australia so if you’re planning a spring-related promotion this is a good time to prepare.
To end this month…
…a number of noteworthy anniversaries.
100 years ago, the First World War was in its second year.
75 years ago, the Second World War was about to start in Europe (and 70 years ago, that conflict was at its height).
On 14 August 1765, colonists in Boston, Massachusetts staged their first challenge to British rule, a protest against the Stamp Act. The elm tree where they met became a rallying point and became known as the Liberty Tree.
10 August 1840 – American Society of Dental Surgeons founded
12 August 1865 – British surgeon Joseph Lister becomes the first person to use an antiseptic dressing to treat a wound
5 August 1915 – Galveston Hurricane hits the USA
14 August 1935 – President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law
21 August 1940 – Assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico
6 August 1945 – atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
14 August 1945 – VJ Day, as Japan surrenders unconditionally (the war officially ends on September 2 with the signing of the surrender document)
27 August 1955 – the first edition of the Guinness Book Of Records is published
15 August 1965 – The Beatles play Shea Stadium in New York to an audience of over 55,000
1 August 1995 – the first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is held at the Plaza Hotel, New York
24 August 1995 – Microsoft releases Windows 95 to great fanfare
That’s it for this month. Every success with your promotions and event-driven marketing calendar August 2015!
UPDATE (27 August 2015):
More a reminder for next year, August 27 is “National Burger Day”. While I had noted this, I confess I didn’t realise how noteworthy this is. I’ve come across several articles about it, mainly about “best” burgers, gourmet burgers and unusual variations.