Why calendars are still the best advertising value out there

By Terry Powers

Are wall and desk calendars still useful in this technology crazed world we live in?  With more and more people owning smart phones, it might make you wonder.  But if you spent any time at the mall or strolling into your favorite bookstore this holiday season, you’ll find tons of different calendar choices from babies and recipes to sports and antique cars.  And probably everything in between.

In the promotional products industry, calendars were for many years the largest commodity segment and while they have slipped a bit recently, they remain the best advertising value out there.  Think about it for a moment.  You can buy 500 very nice wall calendars with your logo or message on it for under $3.00 a piece.  That translates to 24 cents per day for your true cost.  And most people will put a nice calendar in their kitchen or office and look at it numerous times a day, which puts your logo or message in front of your audience as many as 10 to 20 times a day.  Broken down further, you are talking pennies per impression.  An amazing performance for a promotional product, to be sure.

If you want to take it up a notch, you can print custom date blocks, add coupons, include special messages from the company president or add other inserts.  The sky really is the limit.

The bottom line is that while technology is the real driving force behind everything we seem to be doing these days, there is still room for the old tried and true calendar.  And now is the time for ordering the 2013 version.  Our calendar suppliers have some great incentives available for getting your orders in early.  Plus they will hold your order in their warehouse and ship when you need them.  If you have the space to store them yourself, we can have them shipped when they are ready and you’ll see an additional savings.

So keep calendars in mind for a cost effective advertising tool.  Maybe we can slow down the technology revolution a little bit.