We’ve all heard about random days, like National Hot Pickle Day. Or Take Your Dachsund to the Theatre Day. Might have made that one up.
But when you create compelling content focused on the right day, then there is the potential to have some real impact. So why do some days just not have any effect?
When I used to put together a food and drink awareness days calendar, I came across some key reasons on why you might have had mixed success. Here’s the ones I think are the biggest reasons why things might not have worked.
We’re not in the USA
This is quite key, as many of the online directories and websites are US based and focused. This is particularly true for food and drink-focused events. For example, one of the big websites says today is Stuffing Day, but there seems to be no evidence that this is a thing.
There’s no organising body for Stuffing Day and no use of the hashtag by anyone other than the same website since 2016.
Now you might hear days like this get mentioned on the radio, for example. You can understand why. A researcher gets asked, “what day is it tomorrow”, bangs the question into Google, and one of these directories will come up with an answer.
And so it gets repeated.
What it’s unlikely to get is much traction. When a day is not linked to broader activity, with someone or a group behind it, then it’s not going to really make any impact. So, first and foremost, I would look for UK awareness days with confirmed support behind them.
It’s not a day now
So, Stuffing Day might have been a big day at some point. But it’s been and gone in terms of support and activity. The only place it lives on is in the many online directories and websites.
It sort of limps on, and never really gets killed off as these directories just seem to roll the dates around one year after the next. That said, I also found that some of the paid services included days like this.
I would suggest that unless you can find a source for the day other than one of the directories then I wouldn’t feature it. If you’re going to put the effort into creating content then you want to be sure there’s going to be some momentum behind it.
Unless you want to reinvent Stuffing Day and get some energy into it, then make sure you’re only creating around days that have some life to them.
The dates are wrong
I’ll be honest; I was a bit surprised to find some of the paid services running the wrong dates for events. Generally, if somewhere suggests an awareness week begins on a Tuesday or Wednesday, then it probably needs double-checking.
What it seemed to mean too often was that the only part of the date that had been changed was the year. Which meant you could end up kicking off activity before or after the official event. Neither of which is good, because you’ll lose the potential for real impact.
I would say check your sources before you plan activity. If in doubt, get in touch with the organiser and check with them.
Awareness days can be a positive thing to anchor you content around, but just check your dates first.
