If there’s one thing we can all agree on, surviving this year and moving on to 2021 is one of our top priorities. While the uncertainties of the pandemic have upended just about everything, looking at the new year just around the corner is a fresh opportunity for new beginnings.

A time-tested way to ring in the new year is with a custom-designed calendar – something unique that speaks to your individual strengths as a company or organization and positions you as top-of-mind to your customers throughout the year.

While calendar promotions certainly aren’t new, 2021 might be the year you decide to create something special that will leave a lasting impression on your clients and prospects. And if a custom calendar is something you’re interested in discussing, fall is the perfect time to get started so that you’ll have everything ready to roll out by the end of the year.

We’ve always been big fans of custom calendars and have had a lot of fun creating yearlong promotions for both our clients and MCG. Here’s a quick look at a few of our favorite projects:

12 Months of Creativity

In 2016, we rolled out a 12-month series of custom-designed digital desktops. Each month featured a theme centered around one of our core services at MCG and was designed with a fresh color palette and lively graphics. We included facts and figures about each of our service offerings such as social media, branding, website design, and mobile apps. And to tie it all together, each desktop featured our mascot, Charlotte the Pig, having a little seasonal fun.

We used these digital desktops in our monthly email marketing and invited folks to use them to keep track of the date, learn a little more about what we do at MCG, and to have something different and unique to look at every month on their computer monitors or laptops.

Kraft Foods: A Healthful Year of Sandwiches

Prior to opening MCG, Kris was honored to work on a project for Kraft Foods that promoted “A Healthful Year of Sandwiches: Great Tasting Sandwiches, Each Under 400 Calendars.” This was a health-conscious, co-branded project between Kraft and Oscar Mayer that promoted select ingredients to create a variety of delicious sandwiches.

Several calendar concepts were presented to the client and the chosen project was a 15-month desktop calendar in a CD-style jewel case (remember those?). Each month featured a full-color photo of the sandwich and an individual recipe for recipients to make at home. The package was housed in a custom-designed press kit that included a press release on the campaign, nutritional information on Kraft and Oscar Mayer’s products, Kraft Kitchens Tips, and interesting information on the history of the sandwich.

American Spirit               

“American Spirit” was a year-round celebration of inspirational quotes accompanied by an animated video. The idea to do an inspirational calendar was to share some of the positive quotes that have inspired us over the years. We selected quotes by notable Americans in business, the arts, and entertainment about courage, perseverance, creativity, and hard work.

The design featured flat 2D graphics in a muted red, white, and blue color palette and was paired with a small wooden easel that tied nicely into the concept. The theme of American Spirit was carried through in the animated video with, “The heart of America is built on hard work. Tireless innovation and the grit to get up and go just can’t be taught.” The video closed with inviting viewers to, “Grow something extraordinary.”

Design Can Take You Places

In 2008 we concepted and designed a fun desktop travel calendar with the theme of “Design Can Take You Places” that we mailed to clients and prospects as a year-end gift. The calendar asked, “Tired of ending up at the same old destination?” and featured an airport arrivals board with all of our service offerings in place of travel destinations. Every month featured a different location and incorporated passport stamps as a graphic element.

Each calendar page was designed to creatively showcase variable data printing, which was a new technology at the time. The calendar was designed with fun, engaging images of different travel destinations that were personalized for each calendar recipient. The result was that people enjoyed finding their names lighting up a billboard in Times Square, as the name of a sidewalk café in Paris, on a gift tag on a Chinese New Year lantern, and hidden in several other unexpected locations.

Whether you’re looking for a creative way to thank your clients or a clever vehicle to keep your products or services top-of-mind throughout the year, we’d love to help. Contact us at 630-945-3390 or Kris@martinezcreativegroup.com to discuss.