Only around 10% of the US population claims Irish ancestry, according to the United States Census Bureau. But that doesn't stop people of all backgrounds from celebrating St. Patrick's Day every March.
Green beer. Green pizza. Shamrock earrings. Leprechaun merch. These are some of the typical themes you might see in email campaigns around St. Patrick’s Day.
The thing is, we know you can do better with some creativity, segmentation, and a little inspiration.
If you’re not sure where to start, it’s your lucky day. Check out these 5 St. Patrick’s Day marketing examples as a starting point:
1. Give VIPs early access to your St. Patrick’s Day sales
One way to hop on the St. Paddy’s Day train is to treat the holiday as an exclusive moment for your most valuable customers.
When you segment your audience by VIP status, you can give them first dibs on holiday promotions and strengthen your relationship with your most loyal customers. Determine your VIPs by grouping:
- Big spenders: people who spend more than average with your brand
- Frequent purchasers: people who buy from your brand more frequently than average
- Engaged shoppers: people who regularly click the links inside marketing messages
St. Patrick’s Day marketing example: Happy Wax rewards members with exclusive green scents
In this St. Patrick’s Day marketing example, flame-free home fragrance brand Happy Wax uses St. Patrick’s Day to engage their rewards members with a special treat: early access to 20% off all green scents.
Happy Wax also invites their VIPs to join a live event on social media where they can access giveaways and flash sales. Then, they remind members that the sale opens to the public tomorrow, meaning they’re getting exclusivity in return for their loyalty.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing tip: Turn a single-channel marketing campaign into an omnichannel campaign by pairing early access emails with follow-up reminders via shoppable RCS or WhatsApp messages.
2. Make customers feel lucky with a fleeting deal
St. Patrick’s Day is a single-day holiday, which makes it perfect for creating buzz around limited-time promotions. Pairing a sitewide discount with a free gift creates an even stronger motivation to purchase.
The discount gets customers interested, but the “while supplies last” element of a free gift pushes them to buy now rather than later. This combination works especially well for higher-value purchases where customers might otherwise take time to think it over.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing example: Manly Bands creates a sense of urgency and shares a free gift
In this St. Patrick’s Day marketing example, hand-crafted jewelry brand Manly Bands drives sales with a limited-time offer for 30% off sitewide and a free gift of cufflinks if customers spend over $150. They use gold-themed language in the email while encouraging customers to jump on the free item deal with a “while supplies last” reminder.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing tip: To make sure everyone sees your discount before it’s gone, use AI-powered channel affinity to send messages where each customer is most likely to engage. Send last-minute reminders, for example, to those who prefer text messages or push notifications.
3. Personalize the St. Patrick's Day shopping experience with AI
Holiday promotions are bound to bring a surge of traffic to your website, but they also bring a surge of questions.
Customers want to know if you have a specific product in green, whether an item will ship before the holiday, or what they should pair with their purchase—and they want answers immediately.
An AI customer agent can handle these conversations at scale during potentially high-traffic moments like St. Patrick's Day. They can also drive revenue by turning service conversations into purchase opportunities, especially when they’re drawing on customer data to personalize the interaction.
For example, to prevent a customer from abandoning their cart because they can't find what they need, an AI agent might give sizing guidance, shipping information, or answers about a promo code. And if the interaction calls for it, that kind of help can lead to a timely, relevant product suggestion based on customer preference data.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing example: BEARPAW promotes a handpicked selection of goodies
Footwear and accessories brand BEARPAW is known for their cozy boots, slippers, and outdoor gear. For St. Patrick’s Day, they shared a 15% off sitewide sale with a trackable promo code. They also included an edited selection of items they think their customers will like.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing tip: Offer AI-powered product recommendations via email, in your self-serve customer portal, or within AI customer agent conversations to create a fully personalized holiday shopping experience. Automated product recommendations surface relevant items based on browsing behavior, past purchases, and cart activity rather than overwhelming customers with every green item you sell.
4. Feature your bestsellers with a creative seasonal angle
St. Patrick's Day doesn't have to be about leprechauns and shamrocks. If you sell products that happen to be green, or products that fit luck, growth, or wellness themes, you can tap into the holiday buzz without forcing it.
Try promoting products that already perform well for your brand, then add a seasonal spin to your messaging. Rather than creating entirely new holiday collections or gambling on untested products, lean on what you know sells and frame it through a St. Patrick's Day lens.
To move quickly on campaigns, use an AI marketing agent to generate seasonal messages by prompting it to adapt past minor holiday campaigns. If you’re seeing a pattern of success across other campaigns, ask your AI agent to recreate versions of the campaign with a St. Patrick’s Day theme on top.
You can also use an AI photo editor to transform existing product photos into holiday-themed images. That can mean something as simple as swapping out a background color for shamrock green or changing the setting of a lifestyle image to something a bit more festive.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing example: The Collagen Co. promotes their bestselling bundle of greens
Here, wellness brand The Collagen Co. uses St. Patrick's Day to highlight their super beauty greens products, adding a 15% discount and positioning their green bundle as a holiday deal.
Rather than drumming up new products for the holiday, they’re taking an existing bestseller (their greens), packaging it into a bundle, and timing the promotion for when customers are already shopping. The seasonal angle creates urgency without the need for gimmicky creative or products that don't fit their brand.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing tip: Use product analysis to identify which products customers often buy together, and create bundles based on actual purchase behavior instead of guesswork. These insights become especially valuable during short promotional windows like St. Patrick's Day, when you need every product recommendation to count.
5. Lean on UGC to show, not tell
Good user-generated content (UGC) builds trust in ways that polished product photos can’t compete with. When shoppers see and hear from real customers, they’re more likely to convert because those customers can answer their questions before they even ask them.
Great seasonal campaigns can combine UGC with tutorials, styling tips, and product recommendations to give customers everything they need to make a purchase decision.
Collect UGC throughout the year by triggering automated review requests after purchases. You can specifically target customers who've submitted reviews before to help get the ball rolling, especially for new products.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing example: Fenty Beauty shows off a unique product with tutorials and customer photos
In this St. Patrick’s Day marketing example, Fenty Beauty, Rihanna’s makeup brand, uses the holiday to highlight their green lipstick shade: midnight wasabi. But this email doesn’t just advertise the shade. It also shows you how to create an entire look around it with a video tutorial and related product recommendations.
And to show makeup enthusiasts just how great the shade looks on people IRL, Fenty also includes UGC submitted by customers with the hashtag #MidnightWasabi at the bottom of the email.
St. Patrick’s Day marketing tip: Once customers grant your brand permission to use their UGC, save it to a content library where AI can classify posts by product, sentiment, or campaign. Then, rather than sorting through hundreds of UGC examples to find high-performing ones that can fit your St. Patrick’s Day campaign, you can quickly surface what you need.
Scale up your holiday marketing with Klaviyo
Holidays are a whirlwind for marketers. Goals don’t slow down in March, when you’re racing to close out your best Q1 yet.
Klaviyo can help you find the pot of gold at the end of Q1 with campaigns powered by:
- K:AI (Klaviyo AI) Marketing Agent: Create on-brand sign-up forms, flows, and ongoing nurture campaigns in minutes. Get new recommendations every week, complete with ready-to-launch copy, subject lines, and audience targeting.
- Klaviyo Analytics: Stay on top of marketing performance with intuitive reporting and pre-built dashboards.
- Omnichannel marketing: Design multi-segment, omnichannel seasonal campaigns across email, text messaging, push, and WhatsApp, all from one place.
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