The Promotional Idea Showcase - Summer 2002 - Updated Quarterly

Promotional Planning Calendar

November

2: Sadie Hawkins Day. A day for women to take the aggressive tack and ask out guys they’d like to date. 6: Halfway Point of Autumn. At 4:35 EST, winter gets that much closer. Oddball pick for a cold-weather promo.  7: Men Make Dinner Day. Time for the guys to give the females of the house a break and get into the kitchen. Probably not a bad advertising opportunity for restaurants. 18: Christopher Pinchbeck: Death Anniversary. Who? Well, he was an English clockmaker and jeweler, but he’s best known for inventing pinchbeck (wonder how he thought up the name?) a copper-zinc alloy that resembled gold, but was actually very cheap – sort of an imitation brass. Very left-field promo-op to use something of true brass with a “real thing” theme.  30: Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift: Birthdays. Talk about a freak literary coincidence. Both writers were extremely popular and known for their humor, which, as they got older, became more sardonic and cynical. A promo field day for the right campaign.

1: National Authors’ Day. Celebrating authors everywhere. A natural for libraries, bookstores, publishers, schools, literacy programs, more.  3: Sandwich Day. Held, of course, on the Earl of Sandwich’s birthday. Offices can hold sandwich contests at lunch to see who’s the most inventive.  10: Area Codes Anniversary. Ten-digit phone numbers – and direct-dial long distance – became a reality today, 1951, and my, how it’s grown. Offbeat idea for any phone company/related campaign, or even a way to introduce a new number. 20: Name Your PC Day. We liked this so much we had to repeat it. Folks name their houses, boats and cars, so what the hey. Neat fun idea for anything even remotely computer related. Just try to keep it clean!  24-30: National Game & Puzzle Week. All you and your counselor need to develop is the tie-in; the competition or challenge factor is already built-in. And logoed versions of many are available.