Save the Date for Your Plate

How National Food Days can be used as a fun marketing technique for your brand

Happy National Chicken Wing Day!

National Chicken Wing Day is celebrated annually on July 29th and was established in 1977 by Buffalo NY mayor Stan Makowski. This year, wing-enthusiasts can score deals at 7-Eleven, Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Fridays, and more. 

The origin stories for these “holidays” vary between being the result of an elaborate marketing scheme, a food enthusiasts passion-project, and, in the cases that feel most worth-celebrating, a commemoration with historical significance. This month’s National Ice Cream Day (the third Sunday in July) was a thought-child of the International Dairy Foods Association, eventually picked up by Congress and ratified by President Reagan in 1984, but the success of these days isn’t reserved for those with political backing. 

How to Pick a Day

It isn’t an absolute necessity for the National Day to occur in a month that is normally associated with that food. Instead of finding a day where the association is natural, there is the option to do the completely opposite approach, driving foot traffic on a day that wouldn’t otherwise be seeing much traction; February 22nd for National Margarita Day is the perfect example, and it has been recognized with promotions from national chains, local bars, and tequila labels alike. 

In addition to these arbitrarily-chosen days, there are a few national food holidays that pair exciting promotions with legitimate historical significance. National Beer Day is celebrated on April 7th, marking the anniversary of a congressional act that permitted the drinking of beer in prohibition-era America. Linking a national day to a this-day-in-history event can help create a story around the event and be a useful tool in marketing materials, but it’s not 100% necessary: there’s something undeniably silly about the niche and arbitrary National Food Days, but that is just the kind of silliness that customers often resonate with and give a brand a sense of personality.  

But how can a brand truly use National Food Days to their advantage?

Tapping In

Remember that partaking in this marketing tactic doesn’t always mean adding a completely new holiday to the calendar. Many brands will find success leveraging a day that already exists, positioning their product as one that’s a natural pairing for a food or dish being celebrated on a given day: dips for Chicken Wing Day, creamers for National Coffee Day, or hot-sauces for National Taco Day, as a few examples. Tapping into a food day that already exists and is being promoted on social media can be an effective way to take advantage of a search-engine optimization on social media platforms: the algorithm can work in your favor by pushing your post to users who have already engaged with posts sharing the hashtags attached to yours. 

Piggybacking On

While National Hangover Day is officially observed on the first of January, Carl’s Jr. has recently promoted their own version, giving out free burgers the day after Superbowl Sunday. The burger chain understood that there was no better way for their unofficial holiday to gain quick recognition than a multi-million dollar ad slot during the big game. Indeed, piggybacking a national food day on top of something that’s already on the calendar of American consumers—like Superbowl Sunday—can jumpstart the success of a campaign. After all, many years of cognitive research has shown the success of habit-stacking as a successful way to implement a new routine, and why shouldn’t that apply to a clever product-holiday association?

Creating It Yourself

All that being said, for brands that are feeling fatigue towards the same campaigns highlighting their products, building hype around a National Day can feel like something new and newsworthy to share, so creating your own can still be a fun way to market your product. They can give customers something they can get excited to participate in and tell their

What kinds of things can a brand do to celebrate a National Food Day?

On top of helping out with some creative social media and marketing messaging, National Food Days are a great time for brands to give first time customers the final push to try their product through discounts and freebies. 

Brands can create community around their product by encouraging customers to share their recipes or photos using the product, and resharing them online. 

Giving out freebies can coincide with a push for customers to sign up for a loyalty program, by making the giveaway conditional on downloading an app or signing up for a notifications list. 

Our Forklift Take is that with the right social media campaigns, clever messaging, and strategic giveaways, National Food Holidays could be a great way for your brand to show some personality and engage customers. However you engage, remember that the point of these holidays is to have fun and give people something to celebrate.