There is nothing wrong with brands celebrating holidays, but when you are celebrating holidays simply because they exist, it’s time to re-consider your marketing strategy.

Father’s Day has just gone by, and obviously your social media manager was scrambling around to find a cheesy image of a father and a son walking on the beach. Your brand makes knitting needles, so it went something like “Fathers are what make a close knit family”. Cute. But how many consumers see that on their feed and want to go out and buy your knitting needles?

Lets take this further, you are a consumer and for whatever reason you enjoy crocheting (that’s a kind of knitting right?) so you see this post and what do you think? Im guessing you are just bored by the 2861763162316 father’s day posts you have already seen on your feed, or if you do engage with it, it just feels kind of flat. That indifference is because you know intrinsically that it is being done, just because. It means nothing. It stands for nothing. All it means is you have less data now.

SEE SOME CAUTIONARY TALES HERE

http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-top-social-media-fails-2015.html

So how do you create the kind of content that capitalises on public holidays without all that cheese?

Stand for something, be authentic.

Like the famous David Ogilvy quote: “The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife”. The average person consumes enough media, they can tell the difference between a gimmick and a clever brand push – they don’t mind smart marketing, they mind bad marketing. So do it well.

Choose the holidays that make sense for your brand

You don’t have to have presence at every opportunity, only the ones that matter. Consumers remember clever, quality content not the fact that you have put out a tweet on every major holiday.

Just take a step back

It’s so easy to think so much about your brand that you forget that you are also a consumer. Always try to think of situations as though you are the the target market. Would you like to see that content on your social media? Would you care about the message? Is the message appropriate?

SEE SOME BRANDS THAT GOT IT RIGHT

http://www.linkdex.com/en-us/inked/fathers-day-marketing-2015/

Lastly, time and place

Sometimes your brand has a really cool concept, but the delivery just doesn’t land. Ask the right questions, Is this something that is mostly visual (Instagram) or do I want this content to start a conversation (twitter)? Which is the best place to reach my target market? Am I using the correct words?

When in doubt, just think about whether its worth the data we have to spend to view it.

brands fathers day public holiday