According to nationaltoday.com, today (1st October) is:
- International Coffee Day
- World Vegetarian Day
- National Homemade Cookies Day
- International Day of Older Persons
- National Black Dog Day
- National Hair Day, and
- National Fire Pups Day
None of these are made up! And whilst some will be completely irrelevant to your business, you can make use of certain ‘national days’ for promotions, social media content, and publicity. For example, National Hair Day may be of interest to hairdressers, National Black Dog Day to pet shops, and International Coffee Day to the huge promotion Costa Coffee are running today for free coffee from their Express machines throughout the UK.
If every one of their 8,500 machines in the UK gives out 100 free coffees (and I would guess that is a low estimate for many of the machines), costing an average of £1.99 per coffee, Costa stands to spend £1,691,500 on coffees. However, the stunt has been featured everywhere… in every local and national newspaper; on social media via influencers, news outlets and entertainment sites; and on TV and radio via both advertising and conversation. It has been almost impossible to ignore, and the cost of such advertising far exceeds the £1.5m+ Costa will spend on coffee today, meaning a huge win for Costa in terms of bold positioning as the leaders in coffee supply for consumers throughout the UK.
It also shows how small businesses can utilise national days for promotions which position their businesses as leaders in their fields. They give a promotion a reason to exist and an angle for PR, and shouldn’t be underestimated, whether they’re international coffee days or days for fire pups.
