World Bee Day or World Bidet? The power of a (good) Awareness Day PR strategy
Today we’re celebrating World Bee Day.’ ‘Did you just say World Bidet?’
If I had a penny for every time someone made this joke during our World Bee Day campaign for Bottle client Rowse Honey this year… While you might find the idea of dedicating a whole day to this throwback bathroom appliance ludicrous, it’s actually not that far from the truth.
On the 19 November 2021, people around the world will observe what is known as ‘World Toilet Day’. Yes, that’s right: there really is an awareness day for everything. Don’t be fooled, though: behind the seemingly irreverent name is an important call to action. Originated by the United Nations, World Toilet Day serves to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis and the 4.2 billion people who live without access to clean toilets.
In total, there are over 1,500 awareness days recognised across the globe, according to AwarenessDays.com. These range from renowned heavyweights like Pride Month and Mental Health Week, to the more light-hearted like Gorgeous Grandma Day and British Sandwich Week.
For brands and brand building tactics, these present the perfect media hook to elevate a key message or align themselves with a particular topic. But in such a crowded arena, finding the right ones can be a time-consuming minefield. And even when you think you’ve got the perfect fit, there’s still a media mountain to climb, with no guarantee that a journo will cover your story.
However, that’s not to say it’s not worth it. On the contrary, putting in the time to get it right can wield HUGE results.
Creating awareness day buzz for your brand
For our client Rowse Honey, World Bee Day is obviously a key date of the year… so we start sweating around the end of April.
Our objective is two-fold: showcase the heroic honey bee and the integral part they play in the preservation of our global ecosystem and raise awareness of their loyal custodians – the bee farmers.
After lots of brainstorming, we landed on the idea of creating a four-season planting calendar for pollinator-friendly plants. What better way than to reach the national that through their love of gardening and the great outdoors? According to the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), almost 3 million people took up gardening as a new hobby in 2020 – so we knew we’d be talking the right language.
With Rowse’s gardening expert Michael Perry (AKA Mr Plant Geek) onboard, a little wrangling with PA Media and a bit of magic dust from our design team, we were ready to go! All that was left to do was wait…
…ah relief. The coverage rolled in! This included a hit national newspaper, a syndication across over 40 regional titles, both online and in print, and a feature on BBC Radio Tees.
Sometimes, even a Hollywood actress can’t get in your way
While we knew we’d be competing with other brands on the day, we could never have anticipated that we’d be fighting cinema icon and environmental activist Angelina Jolie for column inches. Angelina’s shot of her covered in honey bees was everywhere. And rightfully so – it was stunning and the message behind it was powerful.
Thankfully, the time and effort we’d put into Rowse’s own content allowed us to deliver a truly unique story to journalists - so there wasn’t any crossover. But the lesson was loud and clear: nailing a media story on a global awareness day takes serious graft.
And we didn’t stop there for Rowse
To highlight the unique profession of bee farming, and the need to get more young people involved, we arranged for a reporter at BBC Radio Northampton to visit Rowse apprenticeship graduate Amanda John at a local apiary for an exclusive interview. With over 87k weekly listeners, this was a significant platform for us.
Being on the ground also provided the perfect opportunity for us to get some of our own shots for social media, including some IG reel footage, which we posted throughout the day. These were a huge hit, with our first ‘Day in the Life of’ reel bringing in over 1,500 views in the first half hour.
All of our hard work for Rowse paid off in the end, and we achieved some bee-rilliant (pun totally intended) results:
2 national hits
1 top-tier lifestyle hit
42 regional hits
2 BBC radio features (including 1 live and 1 pre-recorded interview)
173k estimated views of our online coverage
56 average DA
Over 30k video views on Rowse’s Facebook and Instagram
It’s all about the story
When it comes to Awareness Days, the simple mantra to keep repeating to yourself is ‘do I have something new and exciting to offer?’. Too many brands simply jump on the bandwagon with lukewarm content that’s pre-destined to get lost in the noise. Content creation needs to have a purpose, as well as a good story.
Remember, an awareness day is not a story in itself. Therefore, if you want a journalist to cover your content, you need to have something worth covering. This could be new research, the launch of a campaign, or simply doing something out of the ordinary.
In the case of Rowse, we didn’t have any obvious new announcements, so we decided to use our imagination to create the story ourselves. And we promise you that none of the ideas that didn’t make the final cut involved a bidet…