‘Tis the Season to Plan Your Calendar-Driven Promotions
Great ideas for seasonal promotions can be found almost anywhere
As the year winds down, now is a good time to look at the calendar and think about how major events can positively affect your media pitches and promotions in the coming year. Many organizations do this, but I find that the exercise tends to be too inward, looking at upcoming product launches and trade shows instead of what’s going on in the markets served.
If you want to see a great example of calendar-driven promotion, look at healthcare. Every month has a theme: heart month (February), breast cancer awareness month (October), even colon health month (March). And many healthcare practitioners use this calendar approach to successfully target their promotions and media pitches.
One of the best examples comes from a healthcare supplies and services company that developed a video that went viral a few years ago, featuring a pink glove dance for breast cancer awareness. They have turned this into an annual campaign and have hospitals all over the country making videos featuring their product.
My personal favorite calendar-driven promotion is also from healthcare, but these marketers took a more creative look at the calendar of events in the lives of potential patients. The Oregon Institute of Urology came up with a clever plan to pair March Madness with vasectomies, arguing that the two-to-four days needed for recovery could offer a great excuse to park on the couch for some basketball.
But great ideas for seasonal promotions aren’t limited to healthcare. I once pitched a B2B story at Halloween about a code graveyard on company property. The fact that it featured actual headstones, pieces of equipment and code buried in the landscaping made this story irresistible.
So as you think about creative ways to tie your promotions and pitches into the 2013 calendar, keep in mind these tips:
- Think outside the calendar. “Back to school” wasn’t always a season. When are your customers interacting with and thinking about your products the most?
- Don’t be afraid to try this in B2B. Odds are, your trade editors and daily newspaper business editors don’t get seasonal pitches as often as their counterparts at consumer magazines or the metro section. You may warm their hearts in any season with a compelling photo and a great caption. Remember to work WAY ahead to ensure you don’t miss their window to publish a time-sensitive story.
- Seek out lesser holidays. Christmas and New Years are crowded with marketing messages. Look for holidays with less “noise” around them and think about creating your own “season.”
- Use common sense. Tying your product to a national disaster or crisis can look opportunistic and tacky, rather than clever.
Most importantly, keep business objectives in mind. Compelling stories and seasonal tie-ins can be fun, but they also need to help customers better understand your business and move toward a purchase decision. Don’t let messaging get lost in the excitement.
