Top o’ the morning to you from Chief Marketer! St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon, and brands are tying campaigns to the most Irish holiday of the year. Here’s a rundown of how marketers are leveraging the upcoming holiday, from corned beef and cabbage specials and green sports gear to corporate sponsorships and green cheese:
- When you think of St. Patrick’s Day, one of the first brands that comes to mind is
Guinness, and CNN reports that the most famous Irish beer is resuming its sponsorship of New York City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade after opting out last year due to protests from the lesbian and gay communities over their right to march. LGBT affinity group Out@NBC-Universal will be allowed to march in the parade under its own banner, so Guinness is back in for 2015. - Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants will be offering Irish-themed food an gifts leading up to the celebration on the 17th, according to MarketWatch. Corned beef and cabbage will be on the menu at all locations March 9 through March 17, and green candles and body wash will be among the green-themed gifts in its shops.
- Major League Baseball teams are gearing up for the 2015 season in spring training in Florida and Arizona, but team stores are gearing fans up with green merchandise for St. Patrick’s Day. Many teams that don’t feature green in their official color schemes wear green uniforms for their spring training games on the 17th.
- Wishpond’s blog has some ideas about content marketing and leveraging social media outlets for St. Patrick’s Day. Try using these hashtags to get on the St. Patrick’s social train: #shamrock, #leprechaun, #green, #Ireland, #Irish, #clover, #parade, #stpattys, #stpatricksparade and #stpats.
- Finally, Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese Inc. of Luxemburg, WI. is offering “Lucky” green cheese curds to customers to tie into St. Patrick’s Day, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. To create some local excitement, a few “Lucky” packages sold each day in its Luxemburg store through the 17th will have a hidden gold curd that will entitle the buyer to pick a prize from a “Pot of Gold” in the store, earning prizes that include cheese (surprise, surprise!) and discount coupons.
Network
