Food and beverage companies have some great advantages when it comes to marketing. First of all, who doesn’t love to eat and drink? Not only that, tradition dictates that we eat every day, even up to three times each day. The only question is what you’re going to eat!
Despite this marketing head start, it can be hard to cut through the clutter, especially online. Your competitors are also eager to win eyes and dollars.
Fortunately, there’s another benefit you have as a food company: there are dozens and dozens of food holidays to take advantage of to boost your brand and catch the eye of your leads.
How do you take advantage of food holidays? Here are some tips.
Using Food Holidays to Boost Your Brand
Food holidays give you an awesome opportunity to be creative with your marketing. You should, of course, focus the most strongly on the food holidays in 2020 that relate most directly to your products and services. But don’t skip other dates that will appeal to a large number of leads.
For instance, if you sell Italian food, you’ll want to highlight National Spaghetti Day on January 4, but don’t overlook National Chocolate Ice Cream Day on June 7. Everyone loves chocolate ice cream, and you don’t have to be a dairy to take advantage!
How do you capitalize on a food holiday?
There are many ways. One is to have a social media photo contest, in which followers post pictures of themselves enjoying the day’s food. They can tag your company in each one, and your company can post a group of favorites/winners in the next few days.
This helps your business extend your reach well beyond your normal followers. Everyone who participates will be raising awareness for your business throughout their network of followers. It’s a huge win!
Another idea is to have people share a holiday-focused post that you create in order to enter a contest. The winner is randomly chosen, but your company’s content is shared around the world.
List of Food Holidays for Marketing
There are hundreds of food holidays you can take advantage of. Here are a few for each quarter of the year.
First Quarter:
- Jan 4: National Spaghetti Day
- Jan 23: National Pie Day
- Feb 9: National Pizza Day
- Feb 20: National Muffin Day
- Feb 22: National Margarita Day
- Feb 28: National Chili Day
- March 6: National Frozen Food Day
- March 12: National Pancake Day
- March 25: International Waffle Day
Second Quarter:
- April 4: National Burrito Day
- April 7: National Beer Day
- May 10: National Shrimp Day
- May 25: National Wine Day
- June 3: National Egg Day
- June 11: National Corn on the Cob Day
Third Quarter:
- July 6: National Fried Chicken Day
- July 17: National Hot Dog Day
- July 29: National Chicken Wing Day
- Aug 2: National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
- Aug 20: National Lemonade Day
- Sept 18: National Cheeseburger Day
- Sept 22: National Ice Cream Cone Day
Fourth Quarter:
- Oct 1: National Coffee Day
- Oct 4: National Taco Day
- Oct 21: National Apple Day
- Nov 3: National Sandwich Day
- Nov 26: National Cake Day
- Dec 4: National Cookie Day
- Dec 15: National Cupcake Day
The variety of food holidays to celebrate each year is almost endless. Select a few that are popular with your demographic and a few more that are related to your offerings, and start having fun!
Food Brands that Rock Food Holidays
What are some brands already using food holidays in a really fun, creative way? Here are some examples that will spur great ideas for your own outreach.
Free Pie for Banana Cream Pie Day
A restaurant as famous as Emeril Lagasse’s cashes in on a famous pie holiday by offering diners free slices of their well-known banana cream pie. You have to buy an entrée to qualify, and Emeril’s also works with Lagasse’s foundation to donate bananas to a school nutrition program for each slice served.
This promotion brings a lot of diners into the restaurant, and they feel great knowing that not only are they getting a freebie, they are helping children in need as well.
Deals on Coffee
Millions of Americans love coffee, so on National Coffee Day on September 29 they are ready to celebrate. A lot of local businesses are ready to help, as well.
Brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, and even McDonald’s offer specials on coffee for National Coffee Day. Not only that, the day gives an avenue for consumers to debate truly important questions, such as what Millennials’ favorite coffee brand is (Starbucks won in a landslide).
Tasty and Their Food Videos
The food brand Tasty is nailing social media by celebrating holidays and capturing a lot of attention. Their key strategy is to create food videos that are sharable and gain a lot of followers for the brand.
Tasty presents cooking tutorials that take into account both food holidays and national holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July, and more. If sharing information and recipes isn’t part of your marketing approach yet, Tasty is a good source for ideas.
Need Content for Food Holidays?
With the hundreds of food holidays available, you might wonder how you can keep up with all the content. Don’t assume you have to put out low-quality videos or posts, or that you have to skip fun opportunities to engage your audience.
Instead, work with a company that can help you create the content you need. Over Easy Studio is a group of photographers, videographers, designers, and food influencers that create high-quality posts and videos. Use this content to engage with your audience and build your business.
Interested in finding out more about what we can do for you? We’re here to help. Contact us today for more information!
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