June 2019 PR Calendar Cheat Sheet – Father’s Day, World Environment Day, World Ocean Day and International Yoga Day

June is an important milestone in a year where many of us will take stock of our year so far. It is also a good time for PR professionals to review their communications campaigns and make the appropriate adjustments. Without further ado, let us take a look at June’s PR Calendar. To recap, this monthly calendar feature seeks to help businesses plan ahead to launch the right campaigns at the right time when the media is looking out for certain types of stories.

June’s Key Festivals and Exhibitions

• 1：International Children’s Day
• 5：Hari Raya Aidilfitri, World Environment Day
• 6：World Ocean Day, Memorial Day (South Korea)
• 7：Dragon Boat Festival
• 14：World Blood Donor Day
• 16：Father’s Day
• 21：International Yoga Day
• 23：Olympic Day
• 26：International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
• 30：World Festival of Youth and Students

Recommended (ranked in order of relevancy)

Father’s Day（16th June）（⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐）
Father’s Day is a day to celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the role of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June. To mark this occasion, there is major spending that goes on. Therefore, it is worth the effort to market and position your brand or product as a unique Father’s Day gift.
Our team looked at the insights our Cision Communications Cloud offered about “Father’s Day” global media coverage within the past 90 days (28th Feb – 29th May 2019). It turns out that since the middle of May, there was a sharp spike in media coverage for this keyword, particularly from online consumer and consumer blog sites.

Such a seasonal spike was often seen in previous years as well. With strong online interest, there is no surprise that many media outlets offer content that involves lists of gifts to get for dad. But if we step back and think a little bit deeper, brands that take the extra step to promote their product that create a stronger emotional bond between consumers are more likely to be remembered. Here are a few of our favorite Father’s Day campaigns:

(1) Organize a contest to curate memorable user-generated content (UGC): Haggar Clothing Company, a U.S-based apparel brand, tapped on a press release in March 2019 to kickstart its “Hall of Fame” dad contest, and promoted it on social media channels for over a month to call on wives and children to nominate the great dads and father figures in their lives by sharing their stories, videos and photos.
UGC is a great choice for brands as when consumers see brand fans featured in the content, they’re 28% more likely to engage with that content. In addition, Haggar was able to curate the best UGC (see Facebook post below) and shared it with their brand fans after the contest ended at the end of April. The combination of authentic images and heart-warming stories, e.g. a father who spent 40 straight days in a hospital as his son fought multiple life-threatening lung complications, also won earned media coverage as these were great human-interest features. This is a fantastic example of how earned and social media can work in tandem for optimal effect over the course of a longer campaign.

Source: Haggar Clothing Co Facebook

(2) Limited-offer giveaways that promote time with dad: Jim Beam Black Bourbon launched The Bonding Over Bourbon Experience campaign through a press release to offer fans of legal drinking age to treat their fathers to a weekend away in the birthplace of bourbon, Kentucky. Though such offers are limited in number, Jim Beam successfully linked its product to bonding with fathers and subtly positioned its product as a gift idea.

Source: Jim Beam press release

World Environment Day and World Ocean Day（5th & 6th June respectively）（⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐）
World Environment Day aims to inspire people to act to prevent the growing strain on planet Earth’s natural ecosystems from reaching a breaking point. World Ocean Day seeks to educate more people about the oceans and realize the importance of ocean conservation.
Both occasions are good opportunities for CSR. In our earlier article on Winning Partnerships: Positioning Your Company Behind the Right CSR Causes, we shared that brands that have succeeded in CSR, tend to invest long-term in focus areas based on their own product characteristics and community needs. If you have missed this article earlier, you may wish to read it to learn how companies such as Dilmah, Honeywell and GAC have successfully leveraged on the right CSR causes to burnish their brands.

International Yoga Day（21th June）（⭐⭐⭐）
The first International Day of Yoga was observed around the world on 21st June 2015, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mr. Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India, made this proposal to the U.N during a 2014 speech.
As International Yoga Day is relatively young, this occasion is now observed in many Asian countries such as China, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. For many hospitality businesses, it is an opportune time to unveil rejuvenating yoga packages. In South Korea, yoga fans prefer to participate at home with the help of various videos, and the sales of yoga mats have boomed.
At PR Newswire, we have also observed that many hospitality destinations’ press releases are promoting yoga classes as part of their list of guest experiences as they seek to appeal to a health-conscious and discerning segment.

There are more than 200 festivals and important exhibitions in 2019. If you want to find out additional details, please click on the picture to view our public relations calendar for 2019.