When it comes to promotional products working for your clients, it’s hard to beat the return on investment that calendars, planners and diaries can provide. Most of these items are viewed 365 days a year, several times a day. And while it is true that digital time trackers have seen significant growth, paper versions remain as popular as ever.
Anita Jalbert at SunGraphix notes that there is plenty of room for both paper and electronic calendars. "More and more people are coming back to paper planners as a companion to or replacement for electronic [versions]," she says. "Our planners have quite a loyal following with orders that return year-after-year."
Warwick Publishing's Phil Martin is in total agreement. "The traditional printed calendar will not be ignored, nor will it be replaced by a tablet or smartphone," he states. "It's easier to refer to the printed calendar that is on your desk or wall than opening your phone to check available dates and scheduling. Desk calendars occupy the most valuable ad space you can find – your customer’s desk or office. Demand is actually up in the past few years as people realize printed calendars are a better alternative to electronic calendars, are inexpensive and have a tremendous ROI for advertising."
Don Guthrie at Payne Publishers agrees that after a downturn several years ago, calendar/planner business of late has been up. "Customers like paper planning products and use them," he says.
Customization and personalization are also emerging trends and Amberlea Barnes of Drum-Line points out that the company has been closely following the personalization trend. "People love to see their name in print," she emphasizes. "We are tapping into this trend with our new line of personalized image calendars and planners, which make a great thank-you gift for clients or employees. Each calendar is individually personalized with the person’s name creatively embedded in each photograph."
Jerome Hoxton of Tru Art Calendars believes full customization is a consistently and rapidly growing segment of the calendar business. "The driving force behind this is the absolute need businesses have for making sure their message is unique and clear," he explains. "Custom calendars address this need by combining images and copy content that specifically define what the customer does and the benefit to customers and potential customers."
This is also the case at Payne Publishers. Guthrie notes increased business with customization features, like adding informational pages to planners. "This is a great way for the distributors' clients to have a great looking product, tell their corporate story, and give other necessary information needed to their customers," he says. "We are also doing many more planners with full-color custom covers."
Emphasize on color is also prevalent at SunGraphix. "Both the promotional and retail markets clearly understand the need and desire of their customer, and have stepped outside the box with creativity and increased value," Jalbert comments. "The color assortment varies greatly between promotional and retail. Promotional customers prefer a much more traditional color palette, where retail customers react to a wider array of colors. What is interesting to note, on this point, is most people will wait and not buy a calendar if they are expecting to receive one as a gift."
Unique, interactive products are popular at BIC Graphic. Margit Fawbush states that shaped calendars, special inks and coatings used to create a "wow factor" are trends to look for, along with customizable options, as well as using technology in conjunction with a printed piece.
Along those lines, Fran Ford at Castelli North America adds that his company is seeing a resurgence in dated products. "In academia, the educators have discovered that cursive writing has gotten so poor that the private and parochial schools are now shifting back to teaching 'freehand writing,'" she notes. "This, along with teaching proper note taking, has led to an increased use of academic calendars." Ford believes this trend will shift to the corporate world.
An additional trend is providing the advertiser with complete and easy direct mail distribution services, according to Hoxton of Tru Art Calendars. "Direct mail ensures that the advertiser's calendar reaches every key customer, plus allows the advertiser to be sure they reach customers – but then expand their market reach to known prospects or to new geographic areas," he states. "The service is value-added providing packaging, addressing and applying the best methods of delivery at lowest cost. Today, mailboxes are far less cluttered than email inboxes."
Shelly Fischer at Beacon Promotions notes trending topics include scenic, automobile, and inspirational subjects. "Buyers choose titles that appeal to their wide variety of recipients," she affirms.
There also are a number of new and exciting products in this category. New from Warwick Publishing are full four-color printed desk calendars and four-color printed Daily Date Calendars. Martin notes the company’s ever-popular Value Stick™ stick-on calendar continues to be a top seller. "Digital printing has added a whole new dimension to Warwick calendars as we can offer full-color printing on many of our products with small minimum quantities of just 50 pieces and still keep prices low," he points out.
New calendar designs are also being rolled out at Tru Art Calendars. Hoxton explains that the Active Kids 12-month appointment calendar was developed in response to the recent trends toward targeting healthy, active and energetic youngsters. "It is a subject important to families and the businesses that serve them," he affirms. "The calendar presents indoor and outdoor activities for learning and fun!" Another 12-month appointment calendar from the company celebrates the '60s. "This will resonate with the boomer generation and that's important to businesses because boomers have money to spend,” Hoxton explains. "Remember tail fins? VW bugs? Soda fountains? It's what makes the calendar special!' A custom fundraiser appointment-style calendar rounds out Tru Art's new offerings. The user can insert quarters into the (48) die-cut slots throughout the year, which creates a donation of $1 per month and is a great way to help, especially youngsters, become involved in worthy goals, Hoxton points out. "At year-end the cover is ready to be returned to the charity sponsor and the donor receives next year’s calendar," he adds.
Personalized image calendars and planners are new from Drum-Line. "We recently introduced this line of 16 styles that feature a client’s name creatively embedded in each photo," Barnes details. "We are also offering new Italian-made book bound planners that are perfect for executive gifts." The company has also expanded its line of calendar desk pads to include 14 different layouts, more corner color choices, and an option to imprint the corners. "This traditional product continues to be a best seller," she comments. "Custom photo calendars that include 12 unique photos or graphics submitted by the end buyer continue to be very popular. We have the ability to customize date blocks with notable events on as few as 100 calendars." Drum-Line's best sellers in the non-dated category are Impression Journals with a logo on every sheet of paper on as few as 200 pieces.
BIC Graphic is also embracing an image theme. "The Moments In Motion Triumph® by BIC Graphic product combines technology with a beautiful printed calendar," Fawbush explains. "Download Pixaction – our custom augmented reality app – from your app store, scan the monthly images and watch the pictures come to life with fun videos and sound. This generates a lot of interest from organizations wanting to share a lot of content within the calendar format – full custom options are available." The company’s best sellers are its spiral wall calendars, with top themes including scenic America, wildlife and automobiles.
At Castelli North America, Ford notes there are many new materials for 2016. The company is excited about a new trendy book, the Ivory Pocket Daily Q83, which is designed as a dual note book and daily diary. "We are also seeing growth in a new product that we introduced in 2013: our Weekly/notes Q79," he states. "The book features a calendar on the left page and on the right an area for one to keep notes." The company’s largest selling combo book is a Dual format Daily/Weekly #023, which has a patented system for keeping track of daily appointments but also split-paged section for weekly review and notes.
Jalbert at SunGraphix points out that planner sizes have shifted from the larger three-ring binder varieties to sleeker pocket-sized books. New from SunGraphix is a Filofax 360 Swivel Tablet Holder. Best sellers are the compact planner, professional planner and portable planner manager.
Thornton of Finn Graphics reports that the company has been using alternative materials in calendars such as chrome and flexible plastic. "As always, we specialize in customizing our products to fit the customers' advertising needs which always offers inventive and exciting new ways to use and produce our advertising vehicles," Thornton comments. Finn's best sellers include strip and padded calendars.
Top sellers at Payne Publishers include non-dated personal information journals in the personal medical, fitness, pet, online organizer, golf, wine, beer and travel categories. Beacon Promotions lists its new American scenic, muscle cars, motivations, inspirations, and American illustrator as tops sellers. Finally, at SunGraphix, the Filofax 360 swivel tablet holder is new; and best sellers include the compact planner, professional planner, portable planner and manager.
Fawbush of BIC Graphics adds, "Some of the key talking points for selling calendars include the high repeat order rates, low cost per impression as well as the fact that a calendar is a product that is used all year long – 365 days a year!"
Drum-Line’s Barnes recommends including a calendar or planner in all of your presentations for fourth quarter promotions. "People keep and use calendars and request them year after year, which equal great repeat orders for distributors," she states. "Add the person’s name to a calendar, and you are guaranteed that the recipient will display it proudly.
"However, holiday season is not the only time to sell calendars, because you don’t have to start with January," she continues. "A company can give a calendar that begins with its fiscal year to all employees, or a summer camp might begin a calendar in May when the season begins." Barnes adds to also include calendars, planners and diaries for employees. Businesses can include training information, a company mission statement, or important dates on the calendar for a year-long reminder.
In conclusion, Jalbert of SunGraphix emphasizes that since planners/calendars are used daily for 365 days, it can be said they work harder than most products. "It is never too early to start planting a seed for the following year, especially when it comes to planners," he comments. "We advise distributors to do a little homework and be ready to offer custom options to their clients – a win-win really. Dated sales generally renew yearly with the proper care and require minimal maintenance after the first year. Clients are quick to realize that planners/calendars offer an incredibly low cost per impression and the planners/calendars they give become a sought-after item year after year!"
Case Studies
Dan Guthrie, Payne Publishers: We do an ongoing project every year on our WB-1 series weekly pocket planner of a distributor who has many credit union clients. We do a generic flyer for him on the weekly pocket planner and he emails them to many different credit unions. The form has the colors available, space for imprint desired, and quantity needed. The flyer has a set date to send back. The distributor then sends us the artwork and quantities required for each order. This product has been running for over 12 years and is set to repeat again this year.
Margit Fawbush, BIC Graphic North America: Our custom calendars get great results. An assisted living community used a custom calendar to raise money for the Magic City Kiwanis Organization’s Ester Ryan Shoe Fund. The money raised allows kids to have shoes and boots for the upcoming school year. Residents of the community posed for "girlie" calendar photos – one for each month. To date, they have sold out of their calendars and ordered more. They have received a lot of community support and have been interviewed by TV stations and have even made the AP Twitter News.
Phil Martin, Warwick Publishing: A Breast Cancer Awareness non-profit was able to accomplish three things with one low cost promotion. They had over 1,700 people participate in a Breast Cancer Awareness bike ride in October to raise money and awareness. They wanted to thank all of the over 2,500 people who participated and/or donated to the event. They started with a custom, full-color, digitally printed Holiday Greeting card from Warwick that showed a photo of the start of the ride and simply said, "Thanks & Happy Holidays" on the front. Printed on the inside the card was a custom message thanking them for their support, and a Warwick #633 Value Stick Ribbon self-adhering calendar for 2015 was inserted as a gift, plus an appeal for additional donations. The custom four-color digitally printed Holiday Card was priced at $1.49 (A) for 3,000 pieces and included free mailing envelopes, the #633 Value Stick Calendar was priced at $.64 (C) for 3,000 pieces and the first-class postage was $.49 each. The total was less than $3 per piece complete. The organization was able to thank participants, give a gift that would be a reminder all year long, and they raised just over $16,000.00 in additional donations from the card/calendar.