Time to look ahead at the month of March 2014 at events anniversaries and holidays that we can use to build a marketing campaign, product launch or promotion around.
The main event of general relevance is St Patrick’s Day on March 17.
Plenty of scope for ideas based around luck, good fortune and finding that elusive “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow.
Also, there is the change of season with the Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere and the Autumn Equinox in the south.
Moving on to the wider world…
March 3 – Anniversary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell in 1847
March 8 – International Women’s Day
March 10 – Money Day! (anniversary of the first printing of paper money in USA in 1862)
March 10 – Commonwealth Day (UK and Commonwealth countries)
March 14 – World Sleep Day
March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
March 20 – International Day Of Happiness
March 20 – Spring Equinox (northern hemisphere – occurs at 16.57 UT)
March 23 – World Meteorological Day
March 24 – Houdini Day
March 27 – World Theatre Day
More anniversaries and holidays to be found at www.BlueMountain.com.
In the UK…
March 1 – St David’s Day (patron saint of Wales)
March 4 – Shrove Tuesday (“Pancake Day”)
March 5 – Ash Wednesday
March 30 – Mother’s Day
In Australia…
March 1- First day of autumn (already!)
March 1 – Mardi Gras parade (Sydney)
The Mardi Gras festival runs from Feb 7- Mar 23, but the centrepiece parade is on March 1.
March 3 – Labour Day (WA)
March 10 – Commonwealth Day, Labour Day (VIC), Canberra Day (ACT), Adelaide Cup (SA), Eight Hours Day (TAS)
March 19 – Anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932
March 21 – Autumn Equinox
The Australian Grand Prix takes place over 13-16 March in Melbourne.
Finally for this month…
…on 29 March 1886, John Pemberton began advertising his “esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage”…
…known to you and I as Coca-Cola. It was originally devised as a headache and hangover remedy. That’s presumably why Pemberton approached Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta to sell the beverage on a trial basis.
It was there that carbonated water was added to the syrup to produce what we now know as Coca-Cola. However, it wasn’t initially a great success and Pemberton ended up selling two-thirds of his rights to Coca-Cola for the sum of $1,200.
The rest, as they say, is history!
Wishing you every success with event-driven marketing promotions in March 2014.
UPDATE (3 March 2014):
Just come to my attention that in the UK, “World Book Day” is observed on the first Thursday in March…
…which this year is on the 6th March. As the name suggests, World Book Day is an event to promote reading publishing and copyright.