NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY – DECEMBER 17

Maple Syrup Day ranks as one of the easiest national day to hook onto to promote your small business. And it comes along at the perfect time of year both the weather and the holidays (for those who celebrate the Dec dates) are rolling forward together. There is a brisk and festive air surrounding most cities and towns in North and South America.

I suggest holding a Sugar on Snow luncheon for all your customers (RSVP Required) and their friends.

Luncheon Hosting: Host the luncheon with that is built around an atmosphere for kids and kids at heart, make it fun. Encouraging your customers to bring their children is a win for you and a win for the parents. And how may sugar on snow events will parents get to take their children to while they are young? Answer: Very Few
Connect with a local museum or library (great idea) that has a good size hall and offer to pay them for it’s use but also include them in the planning and execution of the event. They can offer volunteers to help out and save you from spending lots of cash hiring a catering hall. Besides it good to get kids interested in Libraries and Museums.

Sugar On Snow is easily made and served with just a bit of planning ahead. The great folks at Cabot Cheese in New England have created a nice informative recipe page for creating Sugar On Snow for your customers, friends and family. Check It Out. And of course it includes Vermont products but any good syrup will be fine for the Maple Syrup Day celebration.

Here is a video about a sugar on snow celebration at the University of Vermont along with information about maple research happening in Vt. I’m biased about Vermont Maple Syrup since I’m from there, but any real maple syrup will make your customer event for Maple Syrup Day a sure hit.

28th Annual Sugar on Snow Celebration

World AIDS Day —

December

Uniting people across the world to to fight HIV, to understand those living with HIV and to remember those who have died from illnesses related to AIDS. World AIDS Day is a moment to stop, reflect and act.

It’s estimated that more than 35 million people across the globe are living with HIV – AIDS today and that over 36 million people have died from illness related to HIV – AIDS. It’s a sobering thought and one that calls out to be remembered and kept in the light.

World AIDS Day is also an opportunity for business owners to show their support for the continuing fight around the world and quite possibly in your town and city to educate your customers about treatment, research and the rights of those with HIV – AIDS.

Join with other business owners during the week before, and the week after World AIDS Day. Offer your customers information and a chance to donate to national and international organizations. And while we all need to act with a measure of dignity when promoting World AIDS Day it’s ok to be upbeat and express gratitude to all those who have contributed to this day for over 30 years and to those who will follow in their compassionate footsteps.

Make sure you have sensibly vetted any organizations you are connected with before recommending to any friends or customers that they donate time or money. It’s unfortunate but at this time of year many creeps come out of the woodwork with scams.

World AIDS Day 2018 — December 1

Check out the documentary on HBO titled Mapplethorpe Look At Pictures for more about Robert Mapplethorpe. NOTE: some may find the content provocative.

Winter Solstice Day – Between December 20 and 23

December

The Winter Solstice to those who pay attention, is a day of celebration and marks the shortest period of daylight each year. The Winter solstice also officially marks the first day of winter.

For small businesses the winter solstice is an opportunity to create an event that does not require connecting to a religious or political holiday. The first day of winter can be seen as a day of promise that heralds a new season for everyone around the globe. In the U.S. it is also the last celebration that occurs before Christmas and the hectic week before the New Year. It’s a time of lights and fires to lift everyone’s spirit and to celebrate living in a world of changing seasons.

A small business may advertise in the local papers, on the local radio stations or maybe on television to get the word out and invite everyone to stop by for some warm cider or hot chocolate along with some treats. Making the celebration low keyed and without a hard sell to it will give everyone a chance to put aside the frantic pace of buy, buy, buy.

There is not a lot of room to relax and chill out during the Christmas holidays and this is also true for those who don’t celebrate this holiday season. The season can be overwhelming for everyone. For a a forward thinking small business creating a peaceful setting that eschews the hammer of having to spend, spend and spend may open an oasis of clam and serenity for new and old customers alike.

In 2018 the Winter Solstice happens at the same time everywhere on the earth, some places on the globe will experience it on Dec 21st 2018 and some places will experience it on Dec 22nd 2018. The difference in the day is because depending where you are on the earth may be a different day than other place because of the rotation of the earth. Here are a few times around the globe when it will occur in 2018. Boston Friday 5:23 pm, Paris Friday 11:23 pm, Tokyo Sat 7:23 am, Sydney Sat. 9:23 am, Anchorage Friday 1:23 pm, Seattle Fri 2:23 pm, and here is a huge list of times around the globe for the winter solstice.

For more information on this subject check out the Wikipedia page.

The vast majority of winter solstice will occur on either Dec 21st or the 22nd, but in 2080 it will occur on Dec 20th and in 2303 it will occur on Dec 23rd.

Expecting Technology To Fill the Gap

December

Expecting Technology to fill the gap is a bit like repeatedly smashing your skull into a door to get to the other side. The door may be an illusion and the pain we feel with each bang a creation of our mind, but the provisional reality tells us this action will certainly cause brain injury if we continue.

Oh sure, most of the what we see when we look at the door is space, yet for some reason smashing our head repeatedly against it never seems to pass between those pesky atoms. When we look at technology we see a promise of getting to the other shore with less effort than before. The door is composed of atoms that stop us and technology is comprised of clever promises composed by marketers.

To Show Up Or Not To Show Up – That’s The Question

December

A few decades ago I came across a book titled Do It! (let’s get off our buts) written by Peter McWilliams. Right from the beginning I loved the book and bought a few extra copies, copies which I gave to a few friends I thought might find them useful (they didn’t).

Each of us has to find their our own place where we can push off our boat and raise the sails to propel our journey, no one can tell us to Do It. But there is a piece of advice I think we can all use no matter which mindset we’re working with at the moment. The advice, Show Up!

Show Up? What does Show Up have to do with marketing and your business? If you’re still reading I’ll share with you what Show Up has to do with marketing and your business. And it has little to do with the demand to Do It.

At the base of all successful marketing campaigns is the knowledge about not only your business but knowledge of who your customers are and what it is that they want. A Marketing agency that doesn’t know your business or your customers will spend your marketing budget using a generic set of assumptions, generic assumptions that likely won’t perceptively improve your bottom line.

The key to serious success in a marketing campaign is integrating the decades of knowledge you possess about your business and the knowledge about who your customers are and what their needs are. In a successful marketing campaign generic assumptions and generic data won’t cut it.

Who Should Show Up?

Someone in your organization (doesn’t have to be you) needs to Show Up and be directly involved with your marketing campaigns. Someone needs to know your business and know your customers well. This direct involvement puts your marketing campaign miles ahead of competitors who rely on generic assumptions when rolling out their campaigns.

When you hear a generic assumption being made, stand up and say “Wait, those aren’t my customers that’s not what they think.” or maybe “Hold on, my business is not the image you’re painting it.”

If someone in your small business is not guarding the gate I can guarantee the agency will follow their assumptions about your business and it’s customers. You don’t need to be an expert in marketing to closely monitor the direction of your marketing campaigns, after all it’s your dime paying for it. Always Show Up!

And beyond working with a Marketing Agency SMB owners can up their visibility many other ways. Here’s a good post to give you some ideas. Getting Involved In Your Community Check it out.

National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

December

Chocolate
Is The Answer
Who Cares What
The Question Is

I’m sure there isn’t a business that can’t connect to National Chocolate Covered Anything Day, and easily create a robust ROI. In fact it’s such an easy connection to make that if you can’t you should think of quitting what you’re doing. Think about it, what business can’t connect to Chocolate Covered?

Lawyers, Doctors and surely Candlestick Makers can tie their marketing into a day like this, imagination not needed. Mechanics, Fashion Designers, Accountants, Veterinarians and Gallery Owners could easily go chocolate covered bananas over the myriad of sweet opportunities presenting themselves. Welders, Plumbers, Bakers and Bathtub Makers should be falling all over themselves with ideas on how to dip their products and services together with chocolate.

I’ve found quite a few examples of Chocolate Covered ideas online and will over the next week share a few of them in video and text that I hope will help you see how being open to curious thinking can create new and exciting avenues for you and your marketing team to travel down.

Sagres Preta Chocolate from diografic on Vimeo.

Sagres is Portugal’s leading beer brand. This year, Sagres brewed a new product: Sagres Preta Chocolate, a chocolate flavored stout beer.

Without a TV campaign and very few print materials, Sagres challenged their digital agency to create an online activation for their new product. Using the website as the main promotional tool, Sagres needed to generate a lot of buzz with a new approach.

Given this challenge, the agency’s creative team believed that if Sagres made a chocolate beer, the perfect way to launch it was also to create a website made of chocolate.

This said, the first step was to find and hire the best Maître Chocolatier in Portugal. Mr. Victor Nunes, artistic director of Óbidos International Chocolate Festival, started sculpting the website live at this year’s venue. Later on, his artisan sculptor team finished it at their chocolate factory. The artists sculpted the entire website in chocolate pieces, moulding it according to the design provided by the agency.

Afterwards, at the agency’s studio, the chocolate frame and all the website components were shot in the different positions and stages.

These images became the raw materials for the website.

To invite consumers to try the new product, Sagres offered a piece of the chocolate website and a 6Pack of Sagres Preta Chocolate. Every day, during a specific hour, users can ask for a bite of the website.

Unfortunately the finished website is no longer available but you can visit the corporate website from the link below.
http://www.sagres.pt/

Credits to:
Agency. Grand Union Portugal
Creative Direction – Alexandre Rodrigues
Art Direction / Design / 3D – Diografic
Video Production – Manuel Garcia
Copy / Creative – Rui Costa
Flash Development – Francisco Contel Martins
Marketing Consultant – Maria Midões

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