One of the biggest payoff activities in marketing is to prepare a marketing calendar. And it’s never too early to map out a calendar for the coming year.
So here’s a selection of events, holidays and anniversaries you can use to prepare a core marketing calendar for your business.
First, a list of the major events coming up in 2012…
Feb 6 – Diamond Jubilee (60 years) of Queen Elizabeth II (UK)
May 12 – World Expo 2012 opens in Yeosu, South Korea (runs to Aug 12)
May 20 – Annual Solar Eclipse
Jul 27 – Opening Ceremony Of 2012 London Summer Olympics
Dec 21 – Completion of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar
Concerning major anniversaries…
Feb 7 – 200th anniversary of the birth of writer Charles Dickens
Jun 23 – 100th anniversary of the birth of mathematician and computer expert Alan Turing
Next a core calendar that can be used pretty much anywhere for the coming year 2012.
January – New Year
February – Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day
March – St Patrick’s Day
April – Easter
June – Mid Year (mid-summer northern hemisphere, mid-winter southern hemisphere)
October – Halloween
December – Christmas
To fill out the schedule
Two fairly universal events are…
Mother’s Day – March 18 (UK), May 13 (USA, Canada, Australia)
Father’s Day – June 17 (UK, Canada, USA), September 2 (Australia)
In the USA…
July – Independence Day
September – “Back to School”
November – Thanksgiving
In Canada…
July – Canada Day
August – August Civic Holiday
October – Thanksgiving
In Australia…
January – Australia Day
April – ANZAC Day
June – End Of Financial Year
November – Melbourne Cup
That should be enough to get started on a sales-boosting, profit-pulling marketing calendar. I’m writing this while on the road and I’ll update and add events when ‘m back in the office with access to my full marketing library.
UPDATE (30 December 2011):
Here’s an interesting article from the UK “Daily Telegraph” with more events and anniversaries…
“2012: All this and a diamond jubilee too”