Branded Calendars are a Smart Choice for Continuous Brand Recognition

In a world of digital ads, smartphone apps, and social media feeds, it’s more important than ever to understand why calendars are smart for your brand. As much as people have adapted to today’s fast-paced electronic world, recent neuroscience studies show that the human brain more easily processes and remembers physical marketing mediums, like print and direct mail.

“Physical materials produce more brain responses connected with internal feelings, suggesting greater internalization of ads.” – Millward Brown Global Research Study

When approaching the fourth quarter of any given year, most businesses want a marketing solution that shows gratitude, can be useful, and makes a lasting impression with their prospects and customers. If you want to go beyond traditional postcards and greeting cards to thank customers, consider mailing a beautifully designed and quality printed calendar.

Business Calendars for Clients

The advantages of using printed calendars are many. Not only does a physical calendar make it possible for your brand to stay top-of-mind year-round, but it also offers a great opportunity to promote your products or services within each calendar month. Remember to take into account your industry’s busy and slow seasons and incorporate promotions to coincide with the ebb and flow of your business needs throughout the year. Once you have your offer strategy in place, a printed calendar is an excellent way to keep revenue rolling in throughout the year!

If you think about all the offices and conference rooms that have business advertising calendars hanging on the walls or displayed on top of people’s desks, you can easily see the benefit of having your company’s name in all those places as a daily reminder of your brand. Even if it’s just to check what day it is, we all need calendars in our lives. In fact, studies conducted by PPAI & The Calendar Advertising Council show that 78% of consumers still use a printed calendar at home or work. The bottom line is that useful corporate gifts, such as branded business calendars, are exciting to receive and worthwhile to keep.

If your company is committed to being an environmentally friendly brand that uses paper from responsibly managed, sustainable forests – like Modern Postcard does – make that clear in the calendar! People everywhere are more and more aware of their environmental impact. Especially younger generations like Generation Z and Generation Alpha are acutely aware of how their choices impact the world around them. Your calendar pages are an excellent way to tout your forward and earth-friendly thinking!

The Benefits of Using a Calendar

Other than brand awareness and a place to advertise your company’s promotions, using a calendar as a good marketing gift makes sense when you’re looking to promote loyalty with existing customers. At Modern Postcard, we conducted a survey to gauge customer’s excitement about receiving our annual calendar, and 82% answered that they look forward to it. Furthermore, when we asked if they prefer a calendar with space to write on versus a purely aesthetically pleasing calendar, the majority (78%) said they prefer a practical calendar they can write on and keep notes in. This is very insightful information to have on hand when you think about what kind of calendar you’d like to create for your own customers. We’re here to help you get started if you need someone to bounce ideas off of, and if you think that calendars might seem expensive to gift, you’d be surprised to learn how affordable they can be to print (and mail!). For pricing and more information, give us a call at 800.959.8365 to speak with one of our marketing specialists.

Let’s also not forget about the ROI potential of calendars. Depending on your promo strategy, the constant reminder that the calendar actually is just by hanging on the wall and by being used daily, offers plenty of reminders to customers to take advantage of the discounts or other added value benefits of doing business with you versus someone else.

Are Calendars Still Popular?

Statistics from the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), show that 52% of promotional calendars are kept one year or more; 62% of consumers own promotional calendars; and 37% of women consult their promotional calendars daily. In addition, our own survey also revealed that consumers have specific preferences as to what kind of calendars they like to use. 70% said they prefer traditional calendars, while 26% would opt for desk calendars. They also had very opinionated views on a calendar’s theme, with 34% preferring a nature/animal theme, followed by art (16%), abstract (16%), and cityscapes (10%). As far as orientations goes, the views are more evenly divided with horizontal/landscape as the winner at 54%, vertical/portrait at 26%, and 20% said they do not have a preference.

What Should Your Marketing Calendars Include?

This is a question that is entirely up to you. That’s the beauty of calendars – you can get very creative and have fun with a project like this. After all, you want it to be memorable with your end user! At Modern Postcard, when we work with customers in helping them design their calendars, we tend to advise them to include at least the following:

• Use imagery relevant to your company, but also enjoyable to view
• Add your company’s logo and contact information on each page
• Subtly feature any products or services, perhaps on sidebars or footers
• Provide helpful advice, relevant tips, or product and service information
• Include exclusive offers (monthly, quarterly, etc.) as a reason for clients to keep coming back
• Make sure you leave room, i.e. a note section, for those who like to write on their calendars

Modern Postcard’s Calendar Formats

Traditional Calendar – This 8.5″ x 11″ format (17″ x 11″ when flat), provides a large monthly overview to keep track of important dates while also having enough room to include a marketing message or promotion.

Deluxe Calendar – A bit more compact than our traditional calendar, the Deluxe size comes in at 6″ x 8.5″ (12″ x 8.5″ when flat), and provides great space to mark important dates while still being able to include stunning and eye-catching imagery. Perfect for a standard-sized cube or home office.

8 x 8 Calendar – Our popular square crop calendar shows off a bit of flair with its unusual shape compared to the more traditional, rectangular calendar formats. As the name suggests, this calendar is an 8” x 8” (8” x 16” when flat).

6 x 6 Calendar – This 6” x 6” (6” x 12” when flat) calendar is quirky in size but printed on elegant, gloss paper that really makes it stand out. If you want the attention without the real estate, this square will shine!

Pano Deluxe Quarterly Calendar – An 8.5″ x 6″ (17″ x 6″ when flat) calendar that is budget friendly with an image at the top, followed by three calendar months below. This format delivers quarterly overviews for those who like to see the big picture.

Calendar Cards (Full Year) – To see the year in one single glance makes it easy to plan week by week, month by month, and quarter by quarter. This format is also an excellent tool for those in the advertising world, who often work weeks ahead to plan and place media. This calendar size is a comfortable 6″ x 11″ (11″ x 17″ when flat), and for those who are looking to create a broadcast calendar, this design can be customized to have the weeks start on a Monday (instead of the traditional Sunday as the first day of the week).

Mini Calendar – The mini calendar is not only cute but very functional despite its small size. It measures 5″ x 7″ (10″ x 7″ when flat) and makes a perfect giveaway at trade shows and other networking events. Our expert tip is to use the top half to boldly promote your products or services, and exclusive offers.

For more information on calendar formats, custom finishing options and holiday marketing ideas, give us a call today!

Amplify your business with Modern Postcard!
Call a Direct Marketing Specialist at 800.959.8365