February 27, 2020
Getting the Jump on Leap Day Marketing
What comes around every four years (or almost every four years) and causes marketers to collectively lose their minds? Leap day, that extra 24 hours tacked onto the end of short February, is more than just a way to correct the calendar. It’s also become an opportunity for giveaways and gimmicks, from wedding promos to free doughnuts.
Miller Lite is giving drinkers a free case of beer, if they buy it on Feb. 29.
To spread the word about its new doughnut delivery service, Krispy Kreme is giving away five dozen glazed doughnut to parents of leap day babies and the staff at the hospitals where they were born.
Nutella is encouraging pancake eaters to ditch the syrup and switch to their hazelnut spread by opening its “NYC Syrup Swap Shop” pop-up on Feb. 29. Breakfast lovers are encouraged to bring in “opened or unopened” bottles of syrup in exchange for pancakes topped with Nutella, as well as a free 13-ounce jar of Nutella.
Another diabolically clever promotion comes straight out of Hell – a little town near Ann Arbor, MI. Hell is hosting a mass wedding for 29 couples on Feb. 29. “When you get married in Hell, there’s nowhere for your marriage to go but up,” the Rev. Yvonne Williams, who will be officiating the ceremony, told the Detroit Free Press. Weddings are apparently big business in the Midwestern town; hundreds of couples have tied the knot in its Chapel of Love, according to Hell’s official website.
As a side note, the devilish destination also has a robust merch presence, and its online shop is packed with T-shirts, playing cards, shot glasses and other souvenirs, including this “Cool as Hell” cooling towel being sold for, you guessed it, $6.66.
This “Cool as Hell” cooling towel is being sold on the official Hell, MI, website.
T-shirt sites, like Teespring and Spreadshirt, are stocked with novelty prints, celebrating the uniqueness of having a birthday that comes only once every few years. Graphics proclaim slogans like “52 is the new 13” or “Born to be young forever” and “Born between Feb. 28-March 1.” Thanks to digital printing and robust ecommerce fulfillment technology, this kind of hyper-specific moment merch is a nearly risk-free way to perhaps capture a few date-related sales.
T-shirt available on Teespring.
Is it worth it for promotional products professionals to leap onto this trend? It’s hard to say, but at least it’s a risk you’d only have to take once every four years.