They all mark special ”celebrations” on the calendar. For instance September 13th is National Grandparent’s Day – acknowledge your favorite grandparents with flowers or volunteer for or create an adopt-a-grandparent association.  Honor those who honor children (of all ages) in a special way.  Have a grandparent’s day sale or special offering.  Visit a nursing home or assisted living facility and read to or just talk to some of the residents.

September 13th is also Bald is Beautiful Day – if you are a barber you could host a “bald is beautiful contest” and have prizes for the roundest head, the shiniest head, the most interesting head … – In May 2001 Harrisburg Senators partnered with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for a special fundraiser at Commerce Bank Park.   The Senators raised money for the ACS Hope Lodge in Hershey, a place where cancer patients and their families can stay free of charge while patients are receiving treatment at Hershey Medical Center. Bald is Beautiful Day consisted of players and employees offering to shave their heads if their fundraising goal is met.

September 13th is also Fortune Cookie Day – Give everyone a fortune cookie today – you can buy them at a Chinese restaurant or you can special order them online and include your own messages – go to http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com/ or www.goodfortunes.com to create yours or make your own with this recipe at http://www.redheadmarketingblog.com/fortune-cookie-recipe-for-business-success/. 

September 13th is also International Chocolate Day – another great day to do a chocolate promotion – carry around gold chocolate coins wherever you go and hand them out with your business card (I use those glue dots to attach the chocolate to my business card and use this as another way to spread the word about my company in a delectable way.  A chocolatiere in Florida makes chocolate coins and gives them to prospects wherever he goes, a great way to allow others to offer a sample and promote his business.   

For more Weird Holiday Marketing Ideas check out Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany & Non-traditional Holidays! 

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July 13-17 is World Who’s Who Week – Want to gain local media attention, exposure for your business and to become the Go-to person in networking? Do what the late Pamela M. Hutchinson of Davie Florida,  the creator of Who’s Who in Black South Florida – a directory of black professionals.  On several occasion, the local newspapers featured her directory and when she died wrote a glowing tribute to her and the service to the community her directory provided.

It was the impetus for my team creating the Who’s Who Among Women in Ecommerce Directory to promote women who do business on the web. You can check it out here: http://www.wecai.org/whoswho.htm  What kind of  Who’s Who Directory could you create featuring of a specific group of people or organizations in your community?  (BTW, I created this holiday because I could not find one that focused on this topic).

July 13th  is Embrace Your Geekness Day – “The future of advertising,” says Charlie Jones, chief marketing officer of RedPeg, an Alexandria, Virginia–based agency, “will be about creating unexpected connections to memorable, real-world experiences in ways that bring brands to life.” So how about electrical outlets in airport terminals? Bradley and Montgomery’s new campaign for Chase Commercial Banking includes ads just above 90 outlets around Indianapolis International Airport. When you plug in your laptop, you see the ad.

Source Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Zany & Non-traditional Holidays!

And Funny Sells! Just ask Sarah Lefton!  Her quirky sense of humor and her Jewish pride were the impetus for a successful home based business. As the marketing director for a Jewish summer camp at Yosemite National Park, Lefton discovered that by changing the emphasis of the word Yosemite she created “Yo Semite”.  She silk screened the term on a few T-shirts for herself and wore the Yo Semite T-shirts around the streets of San Francisco. People started coming up to her and asking her where they could buy one.  Two days later, she had taken orders for 36 shirts and her Internet based business, Jewish Fashion Conspiracy was born. 

 Her Yo Semite shirts took off and Lefton has now added additional designs to her product line. They include Chanukah panties, and a “Jews for Jeter” shirt to honor the New York Yankee’s star Derek Jeter. She created her designs as a way to celebrate being Jewish and have fun at the same time. Her ingenuity and humor has received media attention from a variety of Jewish publications as well as Time Magazine.

Beginning at midnight April 1st, I will be posting April Fools quotes, trivia, humor and history.  If you’d like to join in the fun, follow me at http://twitter.com/heidi

For more great ideas like this, check out my new book Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.

Cracker Jack’s has been an icon in snacking for more than 100 years. Did you know that today in 1912, the first prize was inserted into a Cracker Jack Box?  What a marketing marvel that was!  Every kid who got a box, waited in anticipation (or didn’t wait at all) as they “ripped open” the top of the box to pull out their prize. 

And Cracker Jack has become a symbol for many cultural aspects of our lives such as lyrics in songs, mentioned in movies and even used as a metaphor in books. 

Although Seth Godin’s book  “Free Prize Inside ~ The Next BIG Marketing Idea ” is not about Cracker Jacks, rather about giving something “extra,” he certainly hit on the principles with his examples of cereal boxes with prizes inside.

So what could you “give” extra to add value to your clients today? What’s your Cracker Jack example?  Feel free to share in the comments section ~ be sure to include a link to your website or blog!

Cracker Jack Legend and History:

According to legend, in 1894 a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection that was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts is introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s first World’s Fair.

In 1896 Louis Rueckheim, F.W.’s brother and partner, discover the process for keeping the molasses-covered popcorn morsels from sticking together. Louis gives the treat to a salesman who exclaims, “That’s crackerjack!” “So it is,” says F.W. Rueckheim, who then has the words trademarked.

In 1912 prizes were included in Cracker Jack boxes for the first time. Since then, the toy prizes have been replaced with paper prizes displaying riddles and jokes.

In 1955  Cracker Jack begins advertising on television with the appearance of Cracker Jack on CBS-TV’s “On Your Account” which is televised to 130 stations nationally.

Source: Cracker Jack and Wikipedia 

For more ideas like these, check out my new book: Quirky Marketing~ 365 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.

It seems that I forgot what the creative process was like and that to create a really great greeting card takes time. After talking with the judges we have agreed to extend the deadline to February 28th.

That is the absolute, drop-dead deadline because we want to announce the WINNERS in early March during Quirky Marketing Month.

The rules are simple.

Create a greeting card using a little known holiday (or a new twist to a well-known holiday) and send your entry to:

Redhead Marketing Inc.
Attention: Quirky Contest
P.O. Box 550856
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33355-0856

Read previous posts for more details on what the contest entails.

http://www.redheadmarketingblog.com/quirky-greeting-card-challenge-extended/ and http://www.redheadmarketingblog.com/quirky-marketing-greeting-card-contest-launches/.

Remember, all decisions of the judges are final.

Looking forward to your entries!

Regards,

Heidi

That’s right! February 18th is Play Doh Day ~ created in 1956 by Joe McVicker from modeling clay out of wallpaper paste for his sister’s pre-school students. Rainbow Crafts in Cincinnati, Ohio distributed the off white modeling compound known as Play-Doh to department stores and schools.

Kenner later aquired Play Doh, made it into a rainbow of colors. In 1991 Hasbro toys acquired the rights. Play Doh comes in a variety of products and is sold worldwide!

Have you heard of Play Doh Marketing? According to Doug Hall, Author of “How to Jump-start Your Brain” getting the creative juices flowing can be as simple as opening a can of play doh and what else? Playing with it!  Remember when you were a kid and played with this crazy clay and came up with all sorts of shapes. If you were like me you probably even invented a few new “animals” like the the corse (a combination cat and horse) or the allimonkey (an alligator with long arms that swings from trees and eats people AND bananas.

My brother and I would spend hours with our play doh coming up with goofy shapes!  Fast forward today. If you had a can of play doh in front of you right now, what would you create?  And what would it remind you of?

If you are having trouble coming up with “fresh ideas” in business, take a drive over to Toys R Us or Target or let your fingers do the walking online and buy some play doh!  Heck, have a play doh party at work and see what happens!

Feel free to share your play doh memories below. I’d love to read about them.

Happy play doh day!

For more on Play Doh products, go to http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/default.cfm?page=products

For more ideas like this, check out my new Quirky Marketing Calendar at www.QuirkyOffer.com.  More than $2,000 worth of bonuses when you get your copy.

Fortune cookies are a great way to promote your business.  And if you have ambition to make them yourself, you can customize the message to suit the occasion or project you are promoting.  Here’s your fortune cookie recipe for business success:

You will need:
• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a cookie sheet. Write your fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Generously grease 2 cookie sheets.

2. Mix egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white and vanilla mixture.

3. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Because the cookies have to be really hot to form them into the crescent shape, do not make too many at one time.  Once they cool it is too late. Start with 3 or 4 to a sheet and see how many the pan (and you) can manage.

4. Bake for 5 minutes or until cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. Get a second batch ready to pop in the oven while the first one is baking.
 
5. Remove cookies from oven and using a wide spatula quickly moving cookie, place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton until firm.

This idea and others can be found in Quirky Marketing – 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.

Okay, you are probably wondering what the *Quirky Marketing Greeting Card Contest is, right?

Glad you asked!

In celebration of the launch of my new book Quirky Marketing Calendar – 365 Ways to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business  we are hosting a contest.

And there are lots of prizes.

Here’s the rules:

Create a fun, quirky, unusual card message as a promotion for your company, product or service and tell me what you did.

The message should be creative and promote something you want to spread the word about. It can be a product, a new product launch, an event, a celebration, a strategic alliance, does not matter. As long as the message can be expressed on a greeting card or postcard.

And you can even test out the card using the place I use to send out cards and that is, you guessed it… SendOutCards.com.  When you click on SendOutCards.com it takes you to my SOC website and you can have a FREE card on me just to try it out!

Send your entry to:

Redhead Marketing Inc.
Attention: Quirky Contest
P.O. Box 550856
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33355-0856

Cards will be judged by a  panel of marketing experts from the Florida Direct Marketing Association.

Contest ends February 28th so you have to hurry! Winners will be announced during Quirky Marketing Month in early March in honor of the launch of Quirky Marketing!

Oh, and the prizes…

Grand Prize winner will receive a two page article interview in the Spring Issue of WE Magazine, a copy of your choice of one of the books listed below AND a $25 gift certificate from SendOutCards (choice of Visa Gift Card, Candy, Brownies and more).

The Prizes:

2-  $25 gift certificates from SOC for brownies, truffles and more!

A dozen Roses delivered anywhere in the US

Several books including:

Power and Wisdom, the New Path for Women by Dr. Priscilla Marotta

Rose Marketing on a Daisy Budget by Heidi Richards

Full page ad in WE Magazine for Women

Half page ad in WE Magazine for Women

A one-year Charter Membership in the Women’s eCommerce Association

and more!

1st, 2nd, 3rd place and Honorable Mention Winners will also receive a frameable Certificate customized with their names and date of the Quirky Marketing Contest as well as a mention in the accompanying media release announcing the Winners!

 Be sure and go to SendOutCards.com/Heidi and sign up for a free account.

And send me your cards!

FYI: Heidi Caswell and I will be hosting a live demonstration of the SendOutCards system on Thursday January 29th at 9 PM EST. You are welcome to join us and see what all the excitement is about and learn how to use Send Out Cards to grow your business.  Call the teleconference bridge line ~ 1-641-715-3840 participant access code is 361467#

Note: Greeting cards or post cards are acceptable entries. And you do not have to use the SOC site, but we hope you do! Multiple entries are also acceptable. All entries must be postmarked by February 5th in order to qualify.

The fine print: If we receive less than 7 entries, contest may be cancelled or postponed due to lack of sufficient samples to “judge.”  In addition, if judges don’t feel entries warrant a first, second or third place honor, no prize will be awarded in those categories.

(*void where prohibited by law).