8 Lucky Saint Patrick’s Day Marketing Ideas + Design Tips
St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated on March 17th, celebrates a patron saint of Ireland. Despite its origins in Ireland, it’s become an occasion marked around the world.
And for many brands, it’s become a chance to use Saint Patrick’s Day marketing ideas to connect with their customers.
Are you ready to design a Saint Patrick’s Day campaign that will make your competitors go green-eyed? Wondering where to start or how to make your Saint Patrick’s Day campaign stand out? We have some great ideas lined up for you.
A Bit of History Before We Begin
After all, knowing how it all started will help you respect the celebration a little more and thus plan a thoughtful campaign around it.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated as a tribute to Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick, who is known to have built a number of schools and churches in the country. Green is perhaps the one color that comes to your mind when you think of this festival, right? But did you know that the original color of the Saint Patrick’s Day celebration was blue?
Though we do see a lot of St. Patrick’s depictions in green, one of the oldest paintings of him showed the saint in a blue cassock. Today, the tradition of wearing green has evolved from the color of the Irish flag. And some say that if you wear green, leprechauns cannot see you. So, you wear green to keep the leprechauns from pinching you.
Either way, green has now become the signature color to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. So giving your brand’s marketing campaigns a green makeover will be one of the easiest ways to embrace the occasion.
KIMP Tip: When using seasonal colors, like green in this case, ensure that your brand’s identity is not lost in the process. For this, incorporate your brand’s font, visual style, your logo, and other elements signature to your brand. This helps preserve your brand identity while also balancing seasonal flair.
Wondering how to incorporate green in your marketing? Check out our blog post on that.
So, why should marketers create campaigns for St. Patrick’s Day?
Based on a survey of 8,415 U.S. adults, conducted by the National Retail Federation, it was found that about 61% of them were planning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with an estimated total spend of $6.85 billion.
Based on their survey, the most popular celebration plans included wearing green, hosting a special dinner, decorating the home and office, and more.
Furthermore, all these patterns indicate a possible increase in spending on several things like:
- Green-colored fashion essentials and accessories to dress up
- Home decor
- Food/beverages
People typically either host a party or dinner or attend one of the two. As you can see, there are quite a few industries that can benefit from this event. Provided the products and services are marketed well, of course. It is all about showing how your brand is ready for St. Patrick’s Day. And how it can help people get ready for it too.
Be Mindful of Traditions in Your Promotions: A Note on Respectful Marketing
As with any holiday marketing, it’s important to be respectful when you’re getting in on the fun. Be mindful of offensive stereotypes and make sure that everything from the imagery and elements to your copy in your Saint Patrick’s Day marketing is engaging without unintentionally getting into negative ideas.
This includes steering clear of ideas around getting drunk or hungover. Sure drinks are had during celebrations, but drinking to excess isn’t what it’s all about. While this might seem obvious, even big brands have made these blunders.
Take Urban Outfitters for example. They sold t-shirts with sayings like “Kiss Me, I’m Drunk,” and even rolled out hats with the outline of someone appearing to be bent over, vomiting. The catchphrase for this one? “Irish Yoga: Downward Facing Upchuck.”
Remember, the goal is to celebrate Irish culture alongside your audience. So look for ways to do this without reducing it to being all about drinking.
Nike’s Black and Tan controversy is another example. The black and tan shoes released by the brand around Saint Patrick’s Day were meant to evoke the memory of stout and ale. But for the Irish, this is a color of the paramilitary groups that once terrorized the citizens.
This is an example of how cultural perception of colors can have a huge impact on branding. Speaking of which, if you’d like to learn more about this topic check out our blog post on color perceptions around the world.
KIMP Tip: Colors affect the way your customers perceive your message. Be mindful of the palettes you choose for your designs, be they ads or even your logo and landing pages. During holidays and in holiday marketing, the strength in colors becomes even more prominent.
Finding it difficult to come up with the right colors for your holiday marketing campaigns? Book a call with the KIMP team to find out how our unlimited design subscriptions can help.
Saint Patrick’s Day Marketing Ideas
So let’s get into it. Here are some Saint Patrick’s Day marketing ideas your brand can try out, along with pointers and tips to keep in mind.
1. An exclusive product
Limited edition products create a buzz. So, one of the best St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas is to create an exclusive product for the occasion. This could be a combo pack featuring all the festive-ready products in your catalog. Or better yet, an exclusive limited-edition product that accurately captures the spirit of the festival.
Take McDonald’s for example. Taking cues from the signature color of the holiday, the brand introduces its green-colored Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry for a limited time around St. Patrick’s Day each year. With the holiday just around the corner, they have already added these to the menu for this year’s celebration.
The limited availability of holiday exclusives like this one creates a sense of urgency and thus helps boost sales.
KIMP Tip: Use social media to announce the arrival of these festival specials. Stunning product shots and festive-themed graphics help deliver the message impactfully.
Need help designing your social media graphics for holiday marketing? Get a KIMP Graphics subscription!
2. Take the celebrations up a notch with celebrity/brand partnerships
Celebrity partnerships are an evergreen idea when it comes to holiday marketing. Therefore, it is one of the best St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas as well. We’ll now look at a brand that’s leveraging this idea creatively this year.
For their 2024 St. Patrick’s Day campaign, popular whiskey brand, Jameson, has partnered with Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost and Michael Che.
Given that 2024 is a Leap Year, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday meaning that there aren’t any Saturday night festivities. Jameson capitalized on this by playfully creating a new “holiday” – St. Patrick’s Eve – hosted by Jost and Che, extending the celebration.
Humor is a commonly used emotion when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day. The brand tapped into this by partnering with the duo known for their witty banter and sharp humor. The series of videos they launched so far feature the duo taking a dig at each other when discussing their outfit for St. Patrick’s Day Eve and some do’s and don’ts for the occasion.
KIMP Tip: A strong theme, a great partnership, and a relevant story to bind them all make this idea a great one for the occasion! Similarly, when working on your brand partnerships and celebrity partnerships for holiday marketing, pay attention to the story you craft.
3. Host a giveaway so customers can try their luck
Like the color green, the shamrock (a three-leaf clover) and the lucky four-leaf clover are things that cannot be forgotten while talking about St. Patrick’s Day. While we often refer to the four-leaf clover as being lucky, shamrocks symbolize good luck as well. The three-leaf clover was associated with the Holy Trinity by St. Patrick. Hence the connection.
So, people wear shamrock-themed jewelry or you will find this symbolism being used in greeting cards and more for St. Patrick’s Day. For all these reasons, the relationship between the cloverleaf and luck can be great to tap into for your Saint Patrick’s Day marketing.
Popular holiday decorations company, Mr. Christmas posted about their St. Patrick’s Day giveaway for 2024 in the below post.
The rewards include Shamrock-tree decor elements that can be used in St. Patrick’s Day decorations.
Giveaways like this one are great to get your customers into the festive spirit. And by strategically planning the giveaway rules you increase your follower count on social media. You’ll also get to boost your engagement rates and reach when you ask people to tag their friends.
KIMP Tip: Giveaways are some of the most common St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas. So, to stand out you need catchy social media graphics like the simple animated video used by Mr. Christmas.
4. A post that boosts awareness never fails
One of the most powerful ways for a brand to engage with its audience during holidays is to actually talk about the holiday itself. Get into the history, the traditions, or some facts about how it all began. This will make your post informative. And customers love to know more about events that are important to them.
This can be in the form of a straightforward post or even a trivia quiz on your Instagram Stories, or polls on LinkedIn. There are so many ways you can incorporate this idea into your Saint Patrick’s Day marketing.
It can be a detailed blog that helps with your website’s SEO accompanied by a social media post to drive traffic. Like this one from the renowned Irish news website, Irish Central:
Or it can be an informative carousel like the one shared by popular tutoring platform Camblyin this post:
KIMP Tip: Whether it is a carousel or a static cover image for your blog link on social media, use custom graphics to stand out of the social media clutter during the holiday season. Stock images don’t work when the stakes are high!
Does keeping up with the fast pace of the social media world feel daunting? With a KIMP Graphics subscription, your dedicated design team will get all of those designs off your to-do list.
5. Create content that connects your brand to the theme
Creating valuable content that connects your brand to St. Patrick’s Day is a winning strategy. This content can come in various formats, such as informative videos, engaging carousels, or detailed blog posts.
Gift guides, posts that give people ideas on how to celebrate the occasion, tips to bake last-minute treats, and hacks to avoid last-minute panic when preparing for the St. Patrick’s Day dinner are just a few, to begin with.
Take the below post featuring a brunching guide from Guinness for example:
Or it could be a last-minute baking idea like the one shared by Pillsbury. Notice how the brand subtly plugs their products into the video for an even bigger impact.
6. Focus on a bigger cause
Holidays like St. Patrick’s Day present a unique opportunity to combine festive cheer with positive social impact. Which means that choosing a relevant cause aligned with your brand and audience is one of the best St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas.
A few ways you can do this are:
- Sharing how you’re making Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations special for a less fortunate community
- Taking time to thank the people behind your products/brand with a Saint Patrick’s Day-themed celebration
- Talking about the difference your brand makes to the lives of people around the world – just look for a tie-in to St. Patrick’s Day
Shamrock Love’s 3 Legged Charity Race sponsored by Guinness is a good example. This decades-old tradition raises funds for children’s charity.
Similarly, you can tie up with local non-profits to make the occasion even more special and memorable to your audience.
7. Special promotions to boost sales
Festivals are happier when joy is shared. Seasonal discounts are great ways to share your joy with your customers and help them celebrate their day better.
The email below, from Rugs.com, promotes their St. Patrick’s Day sale. Exclusive discounts and timely updates like this one delivered to your customers’ inboxes can be a brilliant way to cut through the noise and add some sales this holiday season!
Need help designing your St. Patrick’s Day emails? Get KIMP!
8. Everybody loves a touch of humor
Even if your brand’s personality is generally more so on the serious side, holiday marketing is a great time to add some levity with clever ad copy and designs.
But how do you do this without falling into the trap of using tired old stereotypes? Well, check out the “Holding Out For A ZERO” ad from Guinness for example.
The subtle humor in this ad won hearts. And there’s one other noteworthy element in this ad. Instead of promoting their alcoholic drinks like always, they chose to promote their non-alcoholic beer, Guinness 0.0 with this one. Swaying away from the stereotypical connection between alcohol and St. Patrick’s Day was a good move!
Bring Your St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Ideas to Life With KIMP
With Saint Patrick’s Day just around the corner, you might be wondering whether you can still get in on the fun with a few Saint Patrick’s Day marketing ideas. And the answer is yes! Your Saint Patrick’s Day marketing can be as simple or complex as you’d like. But if it’s a holiday that resonates with your target audience be sure to think about at least adding some related content to your social feeds, and pulling together some promotions. It could be a great opportunity to connect with, and delight, your customers.
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