Marketing – Page 29

Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar October 2016

Here’s the look ahead at the month of October 2016 and some of the events, anniversaries and occasions that savvy marketers can use as the basis and reason for an event-driven promotion…

…to create your own marketing calendar October 2016.

Of course, the stand out occasion, beloved by many marketers, is “Halloween” on October 31.

The origins of Halloween seem to be a mixture of pagan festivals marking the end of summer…

…combined with the idea that at this time of the year the spirit-world comes close to our world…

…adopted by the Christian religion as the eve of “All Souls Day”.

Whatever, it’s the traditional occasion to acknowledge the after-life and the supernatural.

So, an opportunity to use themes in your promotions like…

“It’s Scary What You Are Missing!”

“Now a spooktacular, very limited time, opportunity”

“Terrifyingly scary profits coming your way…”

…and so on.

The theme of FEAR (of loss, for example) can also be used…

…but don’t get too scary about it!

Apart from Halloween October has plenty of different events and occasions… [Read more…]

Brexit, Donald Trump and What It All Means For Marketers…

There seems to be a disturbance in “The Force”! Strange events are occurring. For example, in a referendum on June 23, the people of the UK voted to leave the European Union, despite the government, most of the mainstream media and the vast majority of the “Establishment” strongly supporting remaining. In the USA, Donald is the Republican candidate for the Presidency despite being written off as a complete no-hoper by pretty much the entire punditocracy as recently as early this year.

So what’s happening? Basically a collapse in trust in government and so-called elites. According to Pew Research, only about 20% of Americans “Always or Mostly Trust the US Government”. That’s down from around 80% in the mid-60s and 50% in the early 2000s.

Here’s something else… [Read more…]

Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar September 2016

A warm welcome to the “Looking Ahead” feature where we consider the coming month…

…and the events, occasions, anniversaries and holidays that smart direct response marketers can use as the foundation for event-driven marketing promotions in a marketing calendar September 2016.

After the lull of the last month or so…

…it’s a time of a change of seasons. The September Equinox falls on September 22 at 14.21 UTC.

It’s Autumn in the north and Spring in the south…

…and these can be used as broad themes for a promotion.

Tied in with these, in the northern hemisphere it’s “Back to School” or “Back to Work” and the start of the run-in to the end of the year.

In the southern hemisphere, “Spring Time” or “Spring Cleaning” can be used as a theme.

Looking at some specific occasions… [Read more…]

Why Smart (Info) Marketers Should (Mostly) Avoid The Pokemon Go Craze…

If you’re on any kind of marketing (especially internet marketing) lists…then this week you’ve most likely been bombarded with emails carrying subject lines like…

“How To Instantly Cash In On The Pokemon Go Craze”

…and often starting out with something along the lines of…

“Unless you have been living under a rock you are probably aware that the biggest marketing craze of the decade is taking place right now. Pokemon Go is taking the world by storm, and smart marketers can already take advantage of this incredible opportunity”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Pokemon Go, according to Wikipedia…

“Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic. It was released in July 2016 for iOS and Android devices.

The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on device screens as though in the real world. It makes use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices. The game is free-to-play, although it supports in-app purchases of additional gameplay items. An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon Go Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when Pokémon are nearby.”

From that, it looks like further insanity is in store for us down the line a little.

Now, if you’re not already on board with this, here are a number of reasons to ignore the whole thing and carry on with what you were doing… [Read more…]

Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar August 2016

Welcome to this month’s “Looking Ahead” feature. Here we’ll review events, occasions, holidays and anniversaries that you can use to build your event-driven marketing calendar August 2016.

The standout event this month has to be the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, taking place in Rio, Brazil from August 5-21.

There are no major holidays this month. In the northern hemisphere it’s the dog days of summer. In the south it’s the last blast of winter. These “seasonal” themes are available to you if there’s nothing else that’s suitable.

August is also a “Back To School” month for many northern hemisphere countries…

…and remember major sporting events such as the US Open Tennis (starts 29 August) and the start of the football (soccer) season in the UK (Premier League starts the weekend of August 13-14).

It’s also “Elvis Week”, August 10-16. Elvis Presley moved on to the “great gig in the sky” on 16 August, 1977.

Other events… [Read more…]

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