When most of us think about Valentine’s Day, our brains automatically go to hearts, pink and red, balloons, roses, and heart shaped boxes of chocolates. Then there are the group of people who dread the heart filled day; this group usually consists of singles and public relations professionals.

            As an outsider looking in, most people would think that Valentine’s Day would be a PR or marketers dream holiday, 4media group says no. 4media group is a global integrated communications and marketing company. People who are responsible for promoting this day just see it as “a single day crammed full of commercial opportunities, bursting at the seams with options for slick ads appealing to emotion and begging couples to spend money on one another.” It is hard to walk into any store and not be overwhelmed by the amount of pink, hearts, and stuffed animals.

            Public relations professionals at 4media group have gathered a few tips to remember when it comes to V-Day.

1. Remember that Valentine’s Day is not only the 14^th of February. Almost every holiday had a lead up to the special day and can be seen being promoted weeks before. Valentine’s Day promos and marketing can be seen as early as New Years Day. Although all major holidays happen on the same day every year and do not change, getting your content out early is essential to try and beat the rush of everyone else.
2. As I said before, we all have the stereotypes that we all automatically think about when talking about Valentine’s Day. It can be hard to think of a campaign idea that has not been done before. Most campaigns focus on people falling into a deep love, heart-shaped jewelry, and huge bouquets of roses. For many people, this isn’t the version of Valentine’s Day that they experience. People may be single, might live across the country from their partner and not see them on V-Day, or may not have the money to spend on Valentine’s Day. Public relations professionals need to focus on that. When thinking about a potential campaign, try and make it actually be relatable for people!
3. Like #2 said, many people just simply aren’t in love! For these people, Valentine’s Day can be a dreaded day that they can’t seem to escape. The last thing we want to do is alienate those people. PR professionals need to make a point to really sell the alternatives for these people; ‘Galentine’s Day’ or ‘Singles Awareness Day.’
4. And lastly, really think…does Valentine’s Day work with my brand? There are some brands that make sense to focus on Valentine’s Day and others that do not. The ones that do, run with it and put out that V-Day campaign. But before you do that, really think if it makes sense for you.

Although there is a lot of negative talk surrounding the love filled day, it can be a great opportunity for public relations professionals in the world.

Questioning Origins of St. Patrick’s Day Themes

Leprechauns, rainbows, parades, and beer are now some key factors in the modern St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. As much as we spend every March 17 blindly celebrating the holiday with these themes, have you ever stopped to think where all of these St. Patrick’s day themes came from? By looking back at the holiday’s history, one can ultimately find that public relations are the culprit for turning the originally Irish-Catholic holiday into the drunk green parades we now know and love.

Looking Back at the creation of St Patrick’s Day 

St. Patrick’s day was first recognized by the Vatican in 1631 as those in Ireland had celebrated the “religious feast day that commemorates the death of St. Patrick,” the nation’s patron saint credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, who died in the fifth century (Arizona State University Knowledge Enterprise). “For most Irish people at home, the day remained primarily religious into the 20th century,” and did not even become “a public holiday in Ireland until 1904”.  

However, it was during this time in the 1900s that the holiday began to transform. During the 1920s – 1950s, the religious holiday was more somber with morning mass, a military parade, and closed bars. In the 1960s, the holiday began to become more exciting when celebratory parades began to replace the traditional military parades leading to the beginning of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Festival in 1966. The festival in Dublin, Ireland is more familiar to what we know now, including a “four-day event of music, treasure hunts, performances, and of course, on the day itself, a two-hour parade” that draws up to half a million people.

St. Patrick’s Day Traveling to the United States

Immigrants in the United States wanted to find a way to celebrate their pride “The first recorded celebrations of March 17 [in the United States] took place in Boston in 1737,” but it was not until 1766 when “the tradition of parading began amongst Irish Catholic members of the British Army in New York”. At the end of the civil war as more Irish immigrants came to the United States, and as the St. Patrick’s Day Festival began to surge in popularity in Ireland during the late 1960’s, Irish immigrants began to carry over their celebrations to the United States. This celebration was not only a tradition they carried from Ireland, but also a way to celebrate their culture as they were often stereotyped while in the United States. 

Public Relations Using Holiday for Profit

In the 20th century, marketing and public relations firms began to take advantage of the annual festival taking place in the United States. Companies’ event planners could plan out promotional events surrounding the annual festival. Some examples of this you might see today are parades, bar crawls, concerts, and game nights. Public relations workers took it even further and began to create season product lines involving anything that was the color green. Seasonal clothing, foods, drinks, and alcohol are all some of the ways that marketers began to use the holiday to their advantage for promotional purposes. The main marketing actions that solidify the event as a national holiday rather than a yearly festival are the greeting cards that began to become mass produced throughout the nation during March. Ultimately, the timing, unique colors, and entertaining events associated with Saint Patrick’s day on March 17 all tied perfectly together to create a joyous, cultural celebration just as the weather begins to become nicer out leading up to spring. 

The Strength of the Holiday

With the help of marketers and public relations professionals, St. Patrick’s day was able to stand the test of time on a national level. Beginning in the 1600s and a quiet religious holiday, festivals and marketers have transformed the holiday into the entertaining and joyous holiday we all know today. Although the original intent of public relations professionals may have been to profit off of the festivals, their actions lead to the continuous celebration of Ireland’s culture on a national level centuries after its origin in the 1600s.

All historical facts and statistics are outsourced from the “TIME” article “How America Invented St. Patrick’s Day” written by Zócalo Public Square on March 15, 2015. Zócalo Public Square is a magazine of ideas from Arizona State University Knowledge Enterprise.

Source link: https://time.com/3744055/america-invented-st-patricks-day/