Today is National Broccoli Day!

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

There is a calendar for every day, and what we are supposed to celebrate. National Hot Dog Day, National French Fry Day, National Red Wine Day. You name it and there is a “Designated” day for it. I’m not sure who came up with it, but I suspect the greeting card people had something to do with it. Occasionally we have a customer call or email us to ask, what we are doing for National for example, Chardonnay Day. (I am known for liking buttery, Oaky Chardonnay) I am always surprised by the fact that so many people actually know about these crazy days and what we are supposed to be “Celebrating”. It all seems a little silly, BUT it makes for a great marketing possibility.

When we had our Pirate Themed Bar, we used this Calendar to our advantage. We celebrated National Rum Day, National “Talk like a Pirate” day. We celebrated Black Tot Day and National French Fry Day. Plus, we got creative and made special events out of the date of Black Beard's last battle, The Death of British War Hero Admiral Horatio Nelson. We called that “Tapping the Admiral Night”. ( The story had to do with the hero being taken back to England in a barrel of rum for burial and the sailors on board not knowing about it). A little Macabre, but it was a ton of fun. More on another day.

At any rate, we just looked for a chance to celebrate something that matched our product and gave us a chance to create a fun event. We brewed our own beer and threw a party where we had a “crew” of pirates bring the keg in on their shoulders in full pirate dress chanting “Beer, Beer, glorious beer”. Everyone who came to the party got a free 12 ounce beer and we celebrated by giving out some swag and prizes. IT was a great beer and a lot of our regulars fell in love with our brand new IPA and became fans and ordered it all of the time. And we had a full house that night. We had a Pirate Christmas Night and had other famous Pirate related celebrations.

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we celebrated Anne Bonny as a famous female pirate and coupled with the Breast Cancer folks to get lots of pink swag that we gave away. Our customers loved getting all of the pink swag and we built an event around it. We celebrated St. Pirates' Day on March 17th ( St. Patrick’s Day) and partnered with Guinness Beer to have free Guinness glasses for everyone who bought a draft beer. So, we weren’t’ an Irish Bar, but we made it relevant to folks who wanted to go out and celebrate on a National Holiday!

The point is, these goofy celebrations allow you to build an event on a day when you have nothing special going on. What you do, and how you build the event and market it, are up to you. But don’t discount it. Get that goofy calendar and go through it so you know what lies ahead of you. Pick the ones that you can build around and then start to announce the events. Your guests will love it and you’ll build traffic and dollars. And the best part; you can do it year after year. Our Tapping the Admiral Party was a sell out every year! Taker a look and make a plan. And be creative and stretch a little. OK, so we weren’t know for our French Fries, but on that day, we ordered bags of five different Fries and did a French Fry menu of Waffle, Steakhouse, Shoestring, regular and Tater tots and featured three goofy sauces, A French Fry Flight cost $20 bucks and sold like crazy.

You get the idea. Lean into all f these celebrations and make them your own. Do things that your competition isn’t doing and have fun. I assure you that the money will follow.

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