It’s time to spring into action, or at least planning. We’ve curated three months of marketing holidays in Spring, pairing them with plenty of contest ideas to give your plans a hand.

We focused on holidays and celebrations that are inspiring, fun, and engaging for your brand and your fans. Read below to get your marketing ideas and plans kick-started.

April Holidays & Ideas

National Humor Month

• 1) User-Generated Content (UGC) Contest: Entrants can submit a video or image that tells a joke, or riffs on a popular joke.
• 2) Poll: “Who’s your favorite iconic or current Stand-Up Comedian?”

#HumorMonthContest #TellUsAJokeContest

Keep America Beautiful Month

• 3) Coupon: Offer a discount on any reusable item, like a coffee cup.
• 4) Pick a Winner from a Post: Have users on Instagram or Facebook comment what they do to help keep America Beautiful.

#AmericaTheBeautifulSweeps

Poetry Month

• 5) UGC: Create a text-only contest and have users submit poetry.
  • Add a creative angle to your idea by asking for purposefully bad poetry or in-character poetry from favorite books, TV & movies.
    
• 6) Pick a Winner from a Post: Have users comment the title of their favorite poem.
  • You could even turn the results into a trivia quiz, asking users to match some of the poems to their authors.
    

#PoetryMonth2019Sweeps #Myoriginalpoem2019

Library Week April 7th-13th

• 7) Sweepstakes: Visit your local library and get a password. Enter that password into a Sweepstakes to enter to win a gift card or set of books.
• 8) Poll: Favorite Local Librarian

#citynameLibraryContest #FavoriteLibrarianSweeps

Karaoke Week April 14th-20th

• 9) UGC: Video Karaoke Contest
  • Creative Idea: Instead of people doing karaoke, you could ask users to dub their vocals over a
    
• 10) Sweepstakes: Win a night out on the town, including Karaoke gift cards.
• 11) Pick a Winner from a Post: Simple, just comment on the post to win a karaoke machine.

April 1st April Fools Day 

• 12) Pick a Winner: Comment with the best prank you’ve ever pulled

#BestAprilFoolsPrank #BestPrankEver #TopMyPrank

April 2nd Children’s Book Day

• 13) Sweepstakes: Win a basket of popular Children’s books

#ReadingAndWinning

April 3rd World Party Day

• 14) UGC: Videos or photos of your “best party”

#WorldPartyParty #MyBestParty

April 7th National Beer Day

• 15) Poll: Best Local Craft Beer

#citynameBeerDayContest #DrinkingBeerToWin

April 10th National Siblings Day

• 16) UGC: Upload a photo of your sibling

#brandnameNationalSiblingsDay2019

April 12th Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

• 17) UGC: Best Grilled Cheese Recipe Contest

#MeltyYummyCheeseRecipe #MyGrilledCheeseIsTheBest

April 12th Walk on your Wild Side Day

• 18) Pick a Winner: Comment what you plan to do today to “Walk on your Wild Side”

#TodayImWild #WalkingOnMyWildSide

April 20th Husband Appreciation Day

• 19) UGC: Share a photo of your husband and why you appreciate him so much.

#AppreciatingMyHusbandEveryDay #IAppreciateMyHusbandBecause

April 20th Husband Appreciation Day

• 20) UGC: Share a photo of your husband and why you appreciate him so much.

#AppreciatingMyHusbandEveryDay #IAppreciateMyHusbandBecause

April 22nd Earth Day (US)

• 21) Poll: Take a Pledge.
  • Create poll options of different pledges for users to choose from, like “I pledge to stop using plastic straws” or, “I pledge to recycle more”.

#PledgeOnEarthDay #EarthDayPledgeVote

May Holidays & Ideas

National Barbecue Month

• 22) Sweepstakes: Win a grill, BBQ supplies, or a gift card to a local BBQ restaurant.
• 23) Poll: “What’s the Best BBQ Sauce?”
  • Alternatively, you can ask for the best styles of grills, meats, veggies, or even BBQ dry rubs.
    
• 24) Coupon: Discount on a meal, outdoor eating or BBQ related product.

#GrillingAndWinning #BBQMonthContest2019

National Photograph Month

• 25) Pick a Winner from A Post: Post a photograph and have users comment with their best caption for a “Caption This Contest”
• 26) Poll: Have users vote on their favorite Photograph, you can choose famous photography to use in your poll options

#FamousPhotographyPoll #CaptionThisBestPhotograph

May 4th Star Wars Day

• 27) UGC: Users submit a video of their Best Star Wars Character Impersonation
• 28) Polls: Best Star Wars Movie

#brandnameStarWarsDay #StarWarsImpersonationContest

May 7th National Teacher’s Day

• 29) Pick a Winner From a Post: Who’s Your Favorite Teacher?
  • “Tell us who your favorite teacher is, and we’ll send them a gift basket of treats.”

#MyTeacherIsTheBestBecause #localcitysBestTeacher

May 12th Mother’s Day

• 30) Pick a Winner: Free Bouquet for Mother’s Day
  
  • “Comment for a chance to win a free flower bouquet delivery to your Mom!”
• 31) Poll: “What’s the best gift to get mom on Mother’s Day?”.

#MothersDay2019Giveaway #MothersDayGiftIdeas2019

May 15th National Chocolate Chip Day

• 32) Poll: What is the best dessert with chocolate chips?
• 33) Sweepstakes: Win a Sweets Cookbook
• 34) UGC: Video tutorial of a recipe involving chocolate chips

#SweetChocolateChipRecipeContest #ChocolateChipCookbookGiveway

May 25th National Wine Day

• 35) UGC: Why I Wine photo contest.
• 36) Pick a Winner from a Post: Comment your favorite wine.
• 37) Coupons: Discount at a local wine company.

#WhyIWine #WhiningAndWineingContest

June Holidays & Ideas

Candy Month

• 38) Poll: Best Candy from the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s ETC (find unique candies for vote choices).
• 39) UGC: DIY Candy Project, have users display photos of a project they made with candy (think: Gingerbread house).

#CraftyCandyDIY #CandyOfThe90s

National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month

• 40) UGC: Not So Boring Fruits and Veggies recipe contest. What’s your most exciting fresh fruits and/or veggies recipe?
  
• 41) Pick a Winner: Ask contestants to comment or a chance to win a gift card to a local produce store or market.
  

#SoHealthyJune #FruitAndVeggiesJuneContest

June 3rd – 9th Garden Week

• 42) UGC: Best Lawn Gnome Photo Contest. Ask contestants to get creative with their garden gnomes.
  
• 43) Pick a Winner: Tell us your Gardening Hack for a chance to win a new lawn mower.

#MyLawnGnome #HardwareGardenSweepstakes

Fishing Week

• 44) Poll: ” What’s the Best Local Fishing Spot?”
• 45) UGC: Favorite recipe you’ve made with a fresh caught fish

#citynamesBestFishingSpot #FreshFishRecipeContest

June 1st Dare Day

• 46) UGC: Request videos of entrants doing a dare created by your team to win a prize.
• 47) Pick a Winner from a Post:

June 7th National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

• 48) Coupon: Discount for an ice cream shop or for a chocolate ice cream tub from a grocery store.
• 49) Sweepstakes: Win ice cream for a year!

#ChocolateIceCreamSweeps #businessnameIceCreamCoupon

June 8th Best Friends Day

• 50) UGC: Have contestants submit photos or videos to show why their best friends are the best.
• 51) Coupon: Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) For Your Bestie.
  

#BestfriendBogo #SquadGoalsPhotoContest

June 16th Fathers Day

• 52) Coupon: Discount at a restaurant — treat your dad!
• 53) Pick a Winner from a Post: Comment with your Father’s Day Plans, win a prize for you and your Father.

#FathersDay2019Plans #EatingAtrestaurantnameWithDad

June 21st National Selfie Day

• 54) UGC: Most Creative Selfie Contest!

#brandnamesCreativeSelfieContest

Wrap-up & Key Takeaways

When it comes to choosing holidays to celebrate or acknowledge, you should consider your brand and your goals.

• Choosing fun celebrations are great for driving high engagement, but perhaps not for immediate sales.

• If you are in need of better engagement on social, in your email open rates, or elsewhere, then certain holidays are bound to have a positive impact.

• Choose your hashtags wisely, and make them unique: add your business name, the year, and maybe the city or locale.
  • Also: associate your hashtags with your public campaign name!

Don’t have the budget to compete on the bigger holidays? Popular holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and National Teachers Day can indeed get your business a lot of buzz — usually for a price. However, plenty of other holidays can still make your business or brand stand out.

For instance, National Wine Day, Walk on Your Wild Side Day, and National Humor Month. Consider the trade-off between riding the wave of big holiday buzz (while competing for attention) with reaching a niche of new leads who’re possibly already warm to your business, product or service.