Key dates and national and international days can be considered as great opportunities for communication actions, being the necessary link for the success of the campaign or action. These are moments in which different specific themes of each day increase their importance and get a place in the general media, making it possible to reach a much wider audience. An example of this can be the International Albinism Awareness Day. During the year, albinism may not be the most talked-about topic, but on this day it gains importance and gets a place in the big headlines of the most relevant media. For this reason, these commemorations become important for content generators such as the media, influencers, agencies and communication, advertising and marketing departments.
The media guide the publication of their content based on the design of editorial calendars, configured by the most relevant dates according to the sector they are targeting. This selection helps to focus efforts on these marked days and not waste them in constant searches or miss opportunities. The use of editorial calendars is also of great help to communication agencies, which can use them to guide and organize their content and communication campaigns throughout the year.
What is a communication campaign?
Communication campaigns can be defined as the different strategies and actions that are organized and carried out to promote and manage the relationship with the company’s target audience. In many occasions, communication campaigns are developed and executed by an external agency specialized in marketing and communication. For the campaign to be successful, prevention and prior preparation is vital, both in terms of the dates on which it will be carried out and the content and channels that will be used.
The importance of selecting key dates
When selecting key dates for your campaign, keep in mind that national and international days are too numerous to take advantage of them all. Not only that, not all dates will be of interest to you.
The search and analysis of what is celebrated on each of these dates will facilitate decision-making to compose the calendar, as well as the organization that promotes them, with special relevance to those promoted by the United Nations. For example, if I manage the communication of a company related to the textile sector, the different Fashion Weeks held throughout the year will be important for the creation of content, but it will not be important for the communication of a company in the gastronomic sector, which will see the International Tortilla Day as more important.
Generic dates
Although the selection is important, there are some dates throughout the year that are more generic, such as those considered key for B2C businesses, such as e-commerce. Some of them are:
- January Sales
- Valentine’s Day
- Father’s Day
- Mother’s Day
- Summer sales
- Back to school
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Christmas
Mainly, on these dates, what is promoted in terms of communication are exclusive offers, bazaars designed with specific products or contents such as press releases according to the moment. The media will be looking for remarkable content and faithfully related to the theme of the date, it is our time to stand out and draw their attention with original ideas.
How do you create a communication campaign with key dates?
As we have been saying, the first step is to select the dates based on the objective of our campaign. Once this first calendar has been created, it can serve as a basis for the following years, since the important dates do not usually change year after year, but it is always advisable to review it.
For the process to run smoothly, this process also requires planning based on the audience we are targeting, the channels we want to use and the nature of the company’s products.
Once we have defined the objective, the process and the channels to be used, we only have to use our imagination and originality to stand out in the great tide of content that will fight for a space in the media.
If the steps are followed correctly and the content is attractive, your communication campaign based on key dates will achieve optimal results in these days of high demand and the consequent impact of visibility and profitability that this entails.
Marta Ramil
PR Account Executive
