Marketing – Page 68

Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar April 2011

Here’s our monthly feature looking ahead to April…

…at events and anniversaries that marketers can use to base promotions around.

April 1 is, of course, the prankster’s delight “April Fool’s Day”. Use carefully, this can backfire on you!

Then Easter is the big event of the month. it’s late this year and falls on April 22-25.

In Australia, this causes a few problems because April 25 is Anzac Day. The result is that April 26 is the public holiday in respect of Anzac Day…

…which makes a super-long holiday weekend!

It’s also the Jewish Passover from April 19-26.

Also in Australia, there is Sydney’s Royal Easter Show (14-27 April)…

…plus comedy festivals in both Melbourne and Sydney.

In the UK, there’s also…

Customer service tends to be low on the priority list for most companies…

…especially large companies, for some reason.

Sure, they all pay lip service to the idea…

…but few actually deliver.

Poor Tom Fishburne clearly had a bad experience with United Airlines…

…and from the video in his post “your call is very important”…

Time for our monthly look at upcoming holidays, events and anniversaries…

…that smart direct response marketers can use to build a campaign or promotion around.

In Australia, there is a lot going on in March.

The Sydney Mardi Gras Festival kicks off on February 19 and concludes with the famous parade and party on March 5.

There is also…

6 March – Clean Up Australia Day

7 March – Labour Day (WA)

14 March – Commonwealth Day, Labour Day (Victoria), Canberra Day (ACT), Adelaide Cup, Eight Hours Day (Tasmania)

21 March – Autumn Equinox

26 March – NSW State Elections

It’s also St. Patrick’s Day on 17 March, which tends to be enthusiastically observed in Australia, even though it’s not an official holiday!

More broadly around the world…

Today (February 2) is “Groundhog Day” which gives me the perfect excuse to post this trailer…

…with an important marketing lesson to follow…

I love this movie and watched it again recently.

If you’re not familiar with the story…

No excuse needed to post a cartoon from the great Tom Fishburne…

…but check out the full post “idea voodoo” for a wonderful example of some very smart marketing…

…you might even say it’s an example of adding some voodoo to the marketing mix!