Coordinating a global PR strategy can sometimes seem like a Sisyphean struggle. When cornerstone ideas of your company's (or client's) brand don't cross international borders, there's a temptation to either limit your reach or cook up completely different strategies for each territory. However, there is recent precedent for commercial ideas circling the globe, bringing rich new PR opportunities with them—for evidence, simply look at the Retailers Mentioned in conjunction Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday started as a simple concept, namely that it is the day after Thanksgiving and the first shopping day of the winter holiday season. Brands would naturally want such a buying frenzy to go global in an age of cross-border commerce, but there's a hitch—Thanksgiving is an American holiday. What to do? Companies have remained tenacious and, as the examples below show, the shopping holiday has found its feet in markets that don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

Black Friday Crosses the Pacific

The words "Black Friday" have become divorced from Thanksgiving, and are now being used to sell goods around the world. Last year, Kotaku culture reporter Brian Ashcraft highlighted the expansion of a three-day Black Friday sales period running through the post-Thanksgiving weekend in Japan. While the unofficial holiday doesn't yet prompt the kind of hysteria it promises in America, the Black Friday name is omnipresent.

Ashcraft noted that the attempt to drive shopping in Japan is in its early stages, which makes Japan an interesting case to watch from a PR perspective. Some retailers, obviously reacting to buyer confusion about what the sales represent, have taken an informative approach to their promotional campaigns.

The question now facing Japanese retailers is whether they can establish Black Friday in the country's lineup of important retail dates. Ashcraft explained that the New Year is currently the king of sales in the country, with its own unique traditions. Retailers have ample incentive to continue pushing Black Friday via informational campaigns, hype and whatever other means they can come up with—it would make a great addition to their fall financial statements.

UK Shoppers Join the Black Friday Throngs

Fortune's 2016 overview of Black Friday in the United Kingdom revealed a country that has internalized the retail holiday so deeply that it is already evolving dramatically. Retailers are shifting from in-person sales to enabling online and mobile shopping. The source explained that 2014 represented a breaking point. Bad weather and fights between shoppers painted Black Friday as an unpleasant experience. But it didn't disappear, it went online.

Now, Fortune reported that companies were preparing for a wave of purchases made from smartphones. The concept of time-sensitive discounts remains, but the manner of sales has increased. There is a PR lesson in this change, too: Companies shouldn't be afraid to let the nature of an event change, provided they still stand to benefit from it.

In a few short years, Black Friday has gone from an imported retail scrum to a chance for companies to boost their online sales revenues before the winter holidays. This is an especially impressive pivot considering the original impetus for Black Friday—Thanksgiving—is absent from the UK calendar.

This trend is spreading to other countries as well. Shoppers in Germany and France have joined the bargain-hunting fray. Our neighbor to the north has embraced Black Friday, in part because Canadian retailers want to keep shoppers from crossing the border for great deals. And NPR’s Weekend Edition showcased on-the-ground reporting  at Black Friday events in Bogota, Colombia. Retailers in Australia, Brazil and Denmark have also begun offering Black Friday discounts.

Data Visualizations Highlight Coverage & Reach of Black Friday

Okay, yes, Black Friday started in the U.S., but where does it stand today? What about the rise of Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday? Looking at the media coverage over time, Black Friday still garners most of the media attention, but Cyber Monday has its own day to shine. Compared to last year, Coverage Over Time increased for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Small Business Saturday coverage fared the worst, earning less coverage than another recent addition—Giving Tuesday.

Cyber Monday grabbed 19% of the share of voice with more than 276,000 articles, and the two newbies—Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday—captured over 3.1% and 2.4% share of voice respectively.

While Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday coverage may be small, the media article count for these two purchasing holidays has grown by over 10,000 articles since our tracking in 2015. Here in the U.S., businesses may get lost in the shuffle with a Black Friday campaign, so adept PR professionals may look to the lesser known shopping days to get some brand coverage. Giving Tuesday may be just the opportunity to connect the fun and excitement of Black Friday with corporate social responsibility campaigns. Will Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday become the next global exports? Well, Giving Tuesday has already made it to 68 countries across the globe. Where will it go next?

Keep Your Eyes Open for PR Opportunities

As a PR professional, your job is to always stay aware of potential opportunities, no matter where those chances appear. Whether you're leading the charge into a new territory or taking advantage of changing conditions, media monitoring with a global reach is an essential element of your expansion. If the global Black Friday spread proves one thing, it's that you should never assume that a promotional tactic won't work in a specific territory. Where there's a will, there's a way.

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