Actionable Marketing Guide – 🎭Mardi Gras Can Fatten Your Business 🎷

Published: Mon, 03/04/19

Dear ,

This week marks Mardi Gras, a holiday celebrated with masks and costumes in many countries.

In the US, New Orleans remains home to Mardi Gras. To attend, expect to pay peak prices for hotels costing an average of $300 per night this year.

According to NOLA.com in 2017:

148,000 passengers left via New Orleans’s Armstrong Airport from February 24, 2017 through Friday, March 3, 2017.
54,150 police hours logged during the 12-day period.
29,561 vehicles received parking tickets on parade days.
650 portable toilets installed along parade routes.
600 workers picked up parade remains each day.

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Before examining how you can tap into the fun and magic of this holiday, let’s look at its history.

Around 133–31 B.C., Mardi Gras started as Saturnalia, a Roman holiday for spring and fertility. Before sowing winter crops in mid-December, Romans honored Saturn, the god of agriculture. Known for revelry and immorality, Romans celebrated this holiday with feasts and masquerades.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII put Mardi Gras on his calendar the day before Ash Wednesday.

French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville held the first US Mardi Gras celebration in 1699 after settling on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

In 1703, French settlers celebrated Mardi Gras at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the first settlement in Mobile, Alabama, the capital of the French controlled Louisiana Territory.

The first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans took place in 1837. Twenty years later, Mobile’s Cowbellian de Rakin Society visited New Orleans. While there, the society established the Krewe of Comus. As a result, they enabled New Orleans to have floats in the parade.

Krewe organizations continue to host Mardi Gras parades and/or balls. Further, to be in a Krewe requires money for membership fees, beads, costumes, security, clean-up crews, and Mardi Gras balls.

In 1872, a group of businessmen created a Carnival King and named him Rex. Following an English Renaissance tradition, Rex tossed sugar coated almonds into the crowds.

When Krewes started tossing glass beads into the Mardi Gras crowds, they were an instant success. By 1892, the beaded necklace colors became an established tradition. They are: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.

Other Mardi Gras gifts include:

Doubloons. These coins feature the mystic society's emblem on one side and the event theme on the other.
Moon Pies. These chocolate-covered marshmallow treats are a Mobile Mardi Gras favorite despite originally being from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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So what does Mardi Gras history mean for an astute marketer like you?

Mardi Gras provides an excuse to have fun. As a result, people spend money to create memorable experiences. Smart New Orleans businesses recognized this as far back as 1872!

Actionable Holiday Marketing Tip:

Create a Mardi Gras experience at your location. Tap into the holiday spirit with holiday purple, green and gold decorations. Alternatively, create a fun get together with branded holiday masks.
Get into the Mardi Gras spirit. Offer Moon Pies or beads. Alternatively host a fun give-away like guess how many beads are in a jar.
Throw a Mardi Gras Sale. Select products associated with the holiday. For example, if I ran a yarn store, I’d put all bright colored yarn on sale for one day. (To help you visualize how I would do this, here’s a photo from Loop London.)

Further, location matters for many of the world’s most well known celebrations, namely Rio (Brazil) and New Orleans (US). In Brazil, Carnival accounts for 70% of the country's tourism!

Actionable Holiday Marketing Tip:

Create a fun photo area that begs for user-generated content. Design Mardi Gras accessories. As I’ve said before, I love this approach and always stop for at least one photo! (Here's a photo of me at Irregular Choice, a shoe store in London.)

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Even if Mardi Gras isn’t on your marketing radar, March is chock full of fun holidays! Your choices include International Women’s Day (March 8), Pi Day (March 14) and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17).

With Spring approaching later this month, it’s also a good time to clean out your office and organize and backup your devices. (BTW, March 31st is International Backup Day.)

Have a great week.

Heidi Cohen,
Actionable Marketing Guide

Happy Marketing,
Heidi

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Mardi Gras Photo Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/assorted-color-mask-1144283/

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