After the December holiday buzz, and the constant marketing that comes with it, we often take January and February to refocus and get back to business. February can be a good opportunity to reach audiences without being crowded out by competing marketing and encourage change and growth with a fresh start to the year. In Canada, we celebrate two festive occasions each February—Valentine’s Day and Family Day. Learn how we brought holiday cheer into our February Winter Commute Month campaign and how you can leverage holiday themes to increase engagement.
Incorporate Holiday Themes into Campaign Tag Lines and Slogans
Try using seasonal holiday themes in your campaign slogans. Avoid cheesy or confusing language and stick to festive messages that catch audience attention. Slogans we used during Winter Commute Month played off the weather, such as “Warm up your commute” and Valentines Day, such as “Find your perfect carpooling match”.
Finding a few ways to incorporate holiday themes into campaigns will allow your message to come through in a festive way without confusing audiences. Additionally, you can create content that is specific to the holiday, like our How to Love Your Carpool Experience handout, or hold an event that leverages holiday themes, like our Carpool Mix & Mingles held on Valentines Day.
Partner with Organizations to Increase Reach and Appeal
Reach out to organizations that offer products or services that pertain to the specific holiday. For Family Day, try partners that promote family time together, support parents or build child development. Specific partners to consider include the YMCA, Mountain Equipment Company (MEC), Evergreen Brickworks, the Toronto Public Library and the Royal Ontario Museum. Partners can work together on social media campaigns or exchange prize goods or experiences to award to their respective campaign audiences. Be sure to reach out to organizations early, as most have partnership application periods and their own busy campaign seasons.
Use Holiday Hashtags on Social Media
Hashtags have become commonplace for almost every social engagement, from political campaigns to weddings. You can create your own hashtag and encourage others to use the hashtag when posting their own content or incorporate popular hashtags into your social media posts to make them more searchable. When creating your own hashtag, the more clever or catchy the better, as hashtags can stick in people’s memories and gain traction online.
For Winter Commute Month, we used the hashtag #LoveYourCommute to play off Valentines Day, #WinterCommuteMonth to create a baseline hashtag, and #MyWinterCommute to provide a shareable hashtag for contests.
Keep the Campaign Rolling
Don’t limit your campaign to a specific holiday date, you can build momentum towards the holiday and take advantage of the post-holiday buzz. Get messaging out in the weeks leading up to the holiday and share moments and experiences in the weeks after. Having a countdown on social media and posting early reminds your audience to stay tuned for contests or keep their calendars open for holiday events. To generate interest and attendance at an outreach event at York University on Valentines Day, we posted in the weeks leading up on various internal and external social channels to tell them to look out for Valentine’s goodies and come ready with questions. Comparing our previous February visit, we received significantly higher visits and were able to share more resources for sustainable commuting in winter and answer common questions about commuting in the cold.
Instead of showcasing an opportunity before the Family Day long weekend, we decided to post in our social channels during the following week back. To highlight the importance and challenges of working parents, we shared a series of things that employers can do to better support families. We paired these tips with the opportunity for employers to gain recognition for employee commuting benefits through the Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) certification. Putting BWC certification in the context of Family Day and supporting working families increased interest in the posts from specific audiences and let them reflect on the opportunity once they were back and settled in the office.
Final Note
February can be a great time for organizations to reach out to current and new audiences. With less competition for attention than December and more online presence than summer, February is an opportunity to reconnect with individuals to help them bring a new element to their near year routine. Valentine’s Day and Family Day are holidays that connect with almost everyone, so take advantage of this time and incorporate festive themes into your campaigns.
