April 7, 2025
National Days and Awareness Months and How to Manage in 2025
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That Solo Life, Episode 294: National Days and Awareness Months and How to Manage in 2025
Summary:
This podcast episode discusses the abundance of "national days" and how PR professionals and marketers should approach aligning their client initiatives with these events. The key points are:
- There is an overwhelming number of these "national days" which can become diluted and ignored by the public.
- These days can be divided into two categories: awareness/educational campaigns vs. marketing-driven events.
- For awareness months/days related to important causes, it can make sense to align content and messaging if it's relevant to the client's business. However, marketers should be cautious about aligning with more frivolous "national days" just for the sake of participation.
- The most important factor is whether the client's news, announcement, or content is truly newsworthy and valuable, regardless of whether it aligns with a designated national day or month. Forcing an announcement to fit a particular calendar event is not advised.
- PR professionals should set clear expectations with clients about which national days/months are worth aligning with versus when it may be better to simply focus on the strength of the news itself.
In This Episode
Are you overwhelmed by the never-ending list of national days, weeks, and months? From National Hot Dog Day to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it feels like every moment in the calendar is claimed by something. But does your brand have to jump on every single one?
In today’s episode, co-hosts Karen Swim, APR (Solo PR Pro) and Michelle Kane (Voice Matters) discuss how to strategically decide which awareness and marketing campaigns to align with (and when to pass). They share practical advice for PR pros, marketers, and business owners on how to cut through the clutter while staying authentic to your brand.
What We Discuss in This Episode:- The evolution of National Days and how their popularity has changed over time.
- The difference between awareness campaigns that educate (e.g., Autism Awareness Month) versus marketing-driven moments (e.g., National Ice Cream Day).
- Why staying true to your brand’s mission is key when deciding whether to participate.
- Evaluating client expectations and helping them decide if their campaigns align with specific days or months.
- How doing something outside of a marketing or awareness month can sometimes help your message stand out.
- Tips for advising clients on when their big news deserves attention at the right time.
- Not every campaign is necessary. Assess whether a national day or awareness month is relevant and meaningful to your brand or clients before joining in.
- Awareness vs. gimmicks: Distinguish between educational campaigns that offer real value and marketing "fun" that may not add much.
- Timing is everything. Great news is great news, no matter what day you share it. Don’t feel tied to these campaigns if they don’t serve your goals.
We’re not throwing shade at National Donut Day (a very worthwhile occasion, honestly!), but don’t feel obligated to latch on to every trendy day in the calendar. Use these moments as tools—but only when they make sense for your brand!
Mentioned in This Episode:- How to align content with National Days effectively without overwhelming your brand strategy.
- Examples of when leveraging awareness months like Domestic Violence Awareness Month can reinforce your brand’s values.
If you found value in today’s conversation, we’d love for you to share this episode with your network! Whether via audio or on YouTube (yes, you can see our fabulous faces there too!), your support helps us bring more tips to PR and marketing pros like you. And don’t forget to leave us a rating or review—we can handle it 😉
Thanks for listening to this episode of That Solo Life! Until next time!
Follow Us:
- Michelle Kane | Voice Matters
- Karen Swim | Solo PR Pro
- Podcast Website | That Solo Life
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That Solo Life, Episode 294: National Days and Awareness Months and How to Manage in 2025
Michelle Kane (00:12):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hey, Karen, here we are in April. Can you believe it?
Karen Swim, APR (00:27):
Hello, Michelle? No, I cannot because I feel like every month, except for February has just dragged on and on and on.
Michelle Kane (00:38):
Yeah, every month has been its own year in many ways, but I guess it's good that we've made it. We've made it to month four of the year. Yeah. So cheers to that. Coffee Cups up. But what we want to talk about today is kind of timely. We're inundated, and I don't know about you, but I've done this research for clients just looking for topics to align with, but we're inundated with, this is such and such month, this is such and such week. This is national such and such day. I can't tell you how many National dog days, national Puppy Days, national Love Your Dog days that I have to remember to do content for a client of mine that aligns itself with loving your pets. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, where's all this coming from? So we want to dig in a little bit today and just say, when is enough enough? What, if any, do you have to worry about for your clients? Or when is it wise to say, okay, we're going to align with national whatever month because it serves our purpose, and just dish a little bit about how we don't have to chase all of these because that's just a little bit nuts to do that. So yeah, I dunno, what's your take?
Karen Swim, APR (02:02):
I noticed a National Pi Day was in March, and there was a time that just created a lot of fun and a lot of excitement and it was nice to have these days where National Pancake Day, where you celebrated something that was a little bit frivolous and not so serious. I noticed this year though, that National Pi Day didn't get a lot of publicity and I didn't hear a lot of talk about it because I feel that maybe when these first days were created, it was kind of a fun thing and a fun way to draw attention. But you're right, when you look at the day of month of calendars, there's just so much that I think it's become completely overwhelming and diluted some of many of those days. So I think a lot gets ignored.
Michelle Kane (03:05):
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think it's rather than cutting through the clutter of the normal news or information, I think it's kind of become the clutter. And I wonder too, if just current events don't play a part, you're not really in the mood to giggle about Pie Day when you're worried about how much your car's going to cost in a month. That certainly comes into play. And I think it also aligns with the evolution of social media. When social media first came out, oh, we were so excited. Oh look, there's a pie day. Oh, isn't that fun? Let's all have pie. And you'd encourage your restaurant clients to develop a special pie deal. And I'm not saying that that's not still worthy. It certainly can be for your brand, but it just feels like a lot of the luster has fallen off of it of late and could just very well be the natural progression of things. So how do we deal with that now? I think just like we always say, stay true to who you are and your brand. And if it matters to your brand, if it makes sense for your brand, then heck yeah, go all in. I mean, if there's a domestic violence Awareness month, which I think there is,
(04:32):
Let's say you're a law firm that helps clients navigate this or you have a business that helps people navigate these situations, absolutely use that as a great platform to shine a light on ways to be helpful. I think in those cases, go for it. But I don't think we have to feel beholden to almost everything.
Karen Swim, APR (04:56):
And I think you just made an important distinction. We have the National Awareness months and awareness implies that it's supposed to be educational and this shine a spotlight on something that is important like Autism Awareness Month. And as you just mentioned, choking awareness. There are these awareness months that were developed to help educate the public and educate your audiences about a particular subject that is really important. So when you separate those out from the marketing driven things like National Hotdog Day and there's National Ice Cream Day, or even National Love Your Dog Day, which all of these are marketing tools, I think it becomes a little bit easier to decide the marketing tool. Sure, if you sell hot dogs and there's National Hot Dog Day, of course you're going to utilize that. The awareness months, obviously it has to align with a topic that you are already talking about all the time that you're involved in, that you're making an impact in that area of awareness. So use that month to double down on educating your audience and creating content around that because these are things that are helpful when you talk about heart disease and breast cancer awareness. These are all campaigns that have been a period of time where you have a sustained focus on a topic that really has educated consumers and helped to save lives. And so I don't think we want to lose the awareness months. I think that we want to separate awareness and education from marketing.
Michelle Kane (06:47):
Agree, agree. And I think it all comes down to just being mindful of what you're using as a tool to represent your brand, what you're using to help educate or just drum up some attention. That's not to say, like I said, national Hot Dog Day or something. Hey, if you want to just draw some awareness to your brick and mortar or something like that, or if you want to dig into the nutritive value or lack thereof of hot dog, if let's say you're a nutritionist, that's fine, that's fine. But I think you're right. In the big scheme of things some of these days, which certainly were developed by as marketing tools, it can definitely become overwhelming and you just think, do I really have to pay attention to all of this? And the beauty of it is the answer is no. No, you do not. So you can rest on that one.
Karen Swim, APR (07:46):
I think the hard part for public relations professionals is educating clients about when to be a part of these awareness months and when not to,
(08:00):
And there's being a part of it just with your own content, but raise your hand if you've ever had a client want to make an announcement during some awareness month and they want media for it because those months are pretty crowded and they're pretty noisy. And then I see this question a lot, and listen, I'm there right now with a client where people say, is it too noisy? Should I even try? And I think the answer is the same as it is every day. Is what you're announcing is it worthy of attention? Take the month aside. But is it something that is different, unique, that really is of such value that it makes sense to announce during this particular awareness month? Because I don't know why people that if you are launching a new typewriter that the announcement has to go during National Typewriter Awareness month, and I made that up because I don't want to pick on any real thing, but it doesn't make your announcement better. And you would think that more attention is on that. Yes. If there are reporters that are writing on that and you really have something unique, different something to add, then by all means go for it. But if you don't just wait, it'll still be relevant after or before.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Yeah. I mean, a couple of thoughts on that. First of all, Tom Hanks is an avid collector of typewriters. So right away, my PR mind is going for this fictional client for this fictional thing is we got to get Tom Hanks, but also consider this whatever it is, you might stick out in a better way if you don't do it during the month, what a concept. Sometimes your news is your news and your thing is your thing, and it doesn't necessarily have to align in any particular way. The bottom line is do what's best for you and your client and their offering and their message. I mean, that's the bottom line. And if it works to align it with an awareness month or a goofy marketing day, fine, bring it in. But don't make the success of it. Ride on that.
Karen Swim, APR (10:41):
Yes, thank you. We got that. And that is the struggle for all of us, right? Setting those client expectations over and over and over again because you do it before you contract with them, you do it per the contract, you do it in the kickoff, you do it over and over. It's constantly helping to frame things for them and to be a diligent counselor and giving them hard truths and guiding them in the right ways to go. And you're right, great news is always going to be great news. Regardless of the time of the year, there are things that are, the timing works out to be optimal. So if you have a new healthcare offering, clearly an open enrollment is coming up, then that season makes sense to make that announcement because you're inserting something of value in a time when people really are thinking about it. But some of the things that we rest on are just silly and it's artificial and it's really okay if you miss it and do it at another time. And sometimes it can, like you said, it can be even more beneficial.
Michelle Kane (11:56):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. So we hope you've gotten something out of this today, and we don't mean any disrespect to National Hotdog Day or National Donut Day. Those are all good days to treat yourself. But at the same time, when it comes to aligning these days with your client initiatives, don't feel like you have to. We know all our listeners are smarties out there. We know, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves, right? You just get into those sucked into the whirlwind and you need a reminder. So we hope you got value out of this today. If you did, please share this podcast around. We would so appreciate it. Whether it's the audio or the video that's on YouTube, oh, if you want to see our fabulous faces, please do share that around. Give us some ratings too, we can take it. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.
Michelle Kane (00:12):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hey, Karen, here we are in April. Can you believe it?
Karen Swim, APR (00:27):
Hello, Michelle? No, I cannot because I feel like every month, except for February has just dragged on and on and on.
Michelle Kane (00:38):
Yeah, every month has been its own year in many ways, but I guess it's good that we've made it. We've made it to month four of the year. Yeah. So cheers to that. Coffee Cups up. But what we want to talk about today is kind of timely. We're inundated, and I don't know about you, but I've done this research for clients just looking for topics to align with, but we're inundated with, this is such and such month, this is such and such week. This is national such and such day. I can't tell you how many National dog days, national Puppy Days, national Love Your Dog days that I have to remember to do content for a client of mine that aligns itself with loving your pets. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, where's all this coming from? So we want to dig in a little bit today and just say, when is enough enough? What, if any, do you have to worry about for your clients? Or when is it wise to say, okay, we're going to align with national whatever month because it serves our purpose, and just dish a little bit about how we don't have to chase all of these because that's just a little bit nuts to do that. So yeah, I dunno, what's your take?
Karen Swim, APR (02:02):
I noticed a National Pi Day was in March, and there was a time that just created a lot of fun and a lot of excitement and it was nice to have these days where National Pancake Day, where you celebrated something that was a little bit frivolous and not so serious. I noticed this year though, that National Pi Day didn't get a lot of publicity and I didn't hear a lot of talk about it because I feel that maybe when these first days were created, it was kind of a fun thing and a fun way to draw attention. But you're right, when you look at the day of month of calendars, there's just so much that I think it's become completely overwhelming and diluted some of many of those days. So I think a lot gets ignored.
Michelle Kane (03:05):
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think it's rather than cutting through the clutter of the normal news or information, I think it's kind of become the clutter. And I wonder too, if just current events don't play a part, you're not really in the mood to giggle about Pie Day when you're worried about how much your car's going to cost in a month. That certainly comes into play. And I think it also aligns with the evolution of social media. When social media first came out, oh, we were so excited. Oh look, there's a pie day. Oh, isn't that fun? Let's all have pie. And you'd encourage your restaurant clients to develop a special pie deal. And I'm not saying that that's not still worthy. It certainly can be for your brand, but it just feels like a lot of the luster has fallen off of it of late and could just very well be the natural progression of things. So how do we deal with that now? I think just like we always say, stay true to who you are and your brand. And if it matters to your brand, if it makes sense for your brand, then heck yeah, go all in. I mean, if there's a domestic violence Awareness month, which I think there is,
(04:32):
Let's say you're a law firm that helps clients navigate this or you have a business that helps people navigate these situations, absolutely use that as a great platform to shine a light on ways to be helpful. I think in those cases, go for it. But I don't think we have to feel beholden to almost everything.
Karen Swim, APR (04:56):
And I think you just made an important distinction. We have the National Awareness months and awareness implies that it's supposed to be educational and this shine a spotlight on something that is important like Autism Awareness Month. And as you just mentioned, choking awareness. There are these awareness months that were developed to help educate the public and educate your audiences about a particular subject that is really important. So when you separate those out from the marketing driven things like National Hotdog Day and there's National Ice Cream Day, or even National Love Your Dog Day, which all of these are marketing tools, I think it becomes a little bit easier to decide the marketing tool. Sure, if you sell hot dogs and there's National Hot Dog Day, of course you're going to utilize that. The awareness months, obviously it has to align with a topic that you are already talking about all the time that you're involved in, that you're making an impact in that area of awareness. So use that month to double down on educating your audience and creating content around that because these are things that are helpful when you talk about heart disease and breast cancer awareness. These are all campaigns that have been a period of time where you have a sustained focus on a topic that really has educated consumers and helped to save lives. And so I don't think we want to lose the awareness months. I think that we want to separate awareness and education from marketing.
Michelle Kane (06:47):
Agree, agree. And I think it all comes down to just being mindful of what you're using as a tool to represent your brand, what you're using to help educate or just drum up some attention. That's not to say, like I said, national Hot Dog Day or something. Hey, if you want to just draw some awareness to your brick and mortar or something like that, or if you want to dig into the nutritive value or lack thereof of hot dog, if let's say you're a nutritionist, that's fine, that's fine. But I think you're right. In the big scheme of things some of these days, which certainly were developed by as marketing tools, it can definitely become overwhelming and you just think, do I really have to pay attention to all of this? And the beauty of it is the answer is no. No, you do not. So you can rest on that one.
Karen Swim, APR (07:46):
I think the hard part for public relations professionals is educating clients about when to be a part of these awareness months and when not to,
(08:00):
And there's being a part of it just with your own content, but raise your hand if you've ever had a client want to make an announcement during some awareness month and they want media for it because those months are pretty crowded and they're pretty noisy. And then I see this question a lot, and listen, I'm there right now with a client where people say, is it too noisy? Should I even try? And I think the answer is the same as it is every day. Is what you're announcing is it worthy of attention? Take the month aside. But is it something that is different, unique, that really is of such value that it makes sense to announce during this particular awareness month? Because I don't know why people that if you are launching a new typewriter that the announcement has to go during National Typewriter Awareness month, and I made that up because I don't want to pick on any real thing, but it doesn't make your announcement better. And you would think that more attention is on that. Yes. If there are reporters that are writing on that and you really have something unique, different something to add, then by all means go for it. But if you don't just wait, it'll still be relevant after or before.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Yeah. I mean, a couple of thoughts on that. First of all, Tom Hanks is an avid collector of typewriters. So right away, my PR mind is going for this fictional client for this fictional thing is we got to get Tom Hanks, but also consider this whatever it is, you might stick out in a better way if you don't do it during the month, what a concept. Sometimes your news is your news and your thing is your thing, and it doesn't necessarily have to align in any particular way. The bottom line is do what's best for you and your client and their offering and their message. I mean, that's the bottom line. And if it works to align it with an awareness month or a goofy marketing day, fine, bring it in. But don't make the success of it. Ride on that.
Karen Swim, APR (10:41):
Yes, thank you. We got that. And that is the struggle for all of us, right? Setting those client expectations over and over and over again because you do it before you contract with them, you do it per the contract, you do it in the kickoff, you do it over and over. It's constantly helping to frame things for them and to be a diligent counselor and giving them hard truths and guiding them in the right ways to go. And you're right, great news is always going to be great news. Regardless of the time of the year, there are things that are, the timing works out to be optimal. So if you have a new healthcare offering, clearly an open enrollment is coming up, then that season makes sense to make that announcement because you're inserting something of value in a time when people really are thinking about it. But some of the things that we rest on are just silly and it's artificial and it's really okay if you miss it and do it at another time. And sometimes it can, like you said, it can be even more beneficial.
Michelle Kane (11:56):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. So we hope you've gotten something out of this today, and we don't mean any disrespect to National Hotdog Day or National Donut Day. Those are all good days to treat yourself. But at the same time, when it comes to aligning these days with your client initiatives, don't feel like you have to. We know all our listeners are smarties out there. We know, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves, right? You just get into those sucked into the whirlwind and you need a reminder. So we hope you got value out of this today. If you did, please share this podcast around. We would so appreciate it. Whether it's the audio or the video that's on YouTube, oh, if you want to see our fabulous faces, please do share that around. Give us some ratings too, we can take it. And until next time, thank you for listening to That Solo Life.