Q-LEEP: EVENTS, PROMOTIONS & HOLIDAYS
July 2012
Created by Laura Dawn Lewis
Smashwords Edition
By Laura Dawn Lewis
Copyright © 2012 Laura Dawn Lewis
Published by Couples Company LLC
All Rights Reserved
ISBN-13: 9781463503994; Print
ISBN-10: 1463503997; Print
This publication is designed to provide competent and reliable information regarding the subject matter covered. However, it is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, financial, or other professional advice. Laws and practices vary from state to state and if legal or other expert assistance is required, the services of a professional should be sought. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any liability that is incurred from the use or application of the contents of this book.
The information herein is based upon information available prior to November 22, 2011. Cover Design by Laura Dawn Lewis
www.CouplesCompany.com www.PRPlanningCalendar.com
Twitter: @promoCalendar
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF ALL EVENTS
CHRONOLOGICAL LISTINGS
LISTINGS BY LENGTH
Annual – Monthly – Weekly - Daily
EVENTS BY SUBJECT / CATEGORY LISTINGS
Animals, Insects and other living creatures
Annual holidays, events and anniversaries
Science, Mathematics & Technology
INTRODUCTION
This is an abbreviated version of the 2012 LEEP Calendar and covers JULY of 2012. The 2012 LEEP is available in paperback and digital formats.
As a former media sales person and a current writer, journalist and publisher, I’ve spent hours trying to find this information, praying it might dwell within a single credible location. During my years of media sales I used a crude version of this book, predominantly for vendor marketing, gaining access to new accounts or persuading agencies to pony up a few thousand dollars extra to coincide with a national promotion. When I became a publisher, I found that I needed to know when many of these events were occurring to draw traffic to our website CouplesCompany.com. How this works is key word searches for many of these events skyrocket during the promotions. Essentially, we needed content people would be looking for with the heightened awareness surrounding a given event.
THE GOOGLE FACTOR
We began updating this calendar again for 2012 in October based upon feedback from our fans, unaware of a pending change in Google. They had updated their algorithm in March/April 2011 and we saw a 50% drop in traffic overnight. That change penalized sites for outbound links. As we used over 1000 affiliate programs on Couples Company, we got hit hard. Fortunately, I had merged the company with two others in January 2011 and we were rebuilding the site and company on the backend and had decided to eliminate nearly all affiliate programs within the redesigned the site. We took the hit knowing when the new site launched in August we'd be able to regain what we lost with the new changes. We also figured that we were safe from another Google change as these usually came every 18-24 months. We were wrong to assume Google was done making big changes.
In November 2011, ten days before Thanksgiving, Google made changes again to their algorithm, giving priority to new content over existing articles on the internet. This proved very costly and a nasty surprise for us and tens of thousands of content websites with decades or more of information focusing on specialized fields without a need for breaking news. The change to Google's algorithm, whether intended or not, gives priority to the multi-national media conglomerates whilst penalizing the smaller boutique and specialized websites like ours. We saw a 30% dip in traffic, again overnight. Several of our exclusive articles and series suddenly stopped drawing. Our shopping mall, set up for the holidays fell from top positions. We were heading into the 4 most critical weeks of the year and Google changed the game plan…AGAIN!
The articles that fell off the rankings were heavily researched and dealt with subjects that don't need updating often such as Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), dating how-to, the elements behind grief and such. Even our shopping mall, using a ten-year proven formula pairing gifts to the amount of time couples have been together took a hit; the basic criteria doesn't change. What's appropriate to give a girl you've been dating for three months is the same now as it was 20 years ago. Human nature is a constant. Google algorithms are not.
One thing was clear. We needed a strategy and we needed it yesterday. Our little LEEP suddenly moved from useful to critical in generating a steady stream of new content that is timely to compete with the major media companies and re-establish our presence, most notably on Google.
USING THE LEEP TO COMPETE
By using the LEEP calendar, we are able to assign timely stories to our columnists and provide our product development, marketing and retail divisions with a calendar outlining the most opportune time for product releases and sales promotions. We're able to stimulate story ideas that will be in demand, target key words, add elements that make the articles germane to that day, week or month and work within the parameters of the new Google algorithm without sacrificing content, quality or focus. On the marketing end, we're able to integrate key words and promotional events into our social media strategy, marketing and PR, whilst positioning products to play upon various upcoming events that see an uptick in search relevance during the leading weeks. The international nature of the LEEP, specifically with its comprehensive guide to religious holidays helps significantly with our second and third largest markets, India and Europe.
Regaining what is lost in a Google revise does take time, but it can be done and this calendar is proving its merit in reversing the harm. We've started adding additional content featuring various events and the traffic is climbing once again. Our hope is you find the LEEP useful in your work as well.
ABOUT THE LEEP
Whether editorial or marketing, you probably have a dictionary and thesaurus sitting on your desk. The LEEP rounds out the must-have, often-referenced tools of writers and marketers. The 2012 LEEP the second calendar in the series. The 2013 version will be released in Q2 2012.
The LEEP deals with dynamic information and thousands of different sources and each date is therefore ‘subject to change without notice.’ Sources include the US and other nations' governments, the United Nations, various professional organizations, non-profits and NGOs, news stories, public and private institutions, websites and cultural customs. Due to the dynamic nature of calendars, it is advised that before you commit resources to a specific day or event, make sure the date has not changed since this book was updated in November 2011.
We've also included several historical events and major events from 2011 in the 2012 calendar. These dates include the major uprisings in the Arab Spring, major disasters and Occupy Wall Street movement. Our hope is these dates will be quite useful for journalists, bloggers and teachers.
The following is a brief rundown of the various sections that are prone to dates moving.
SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Google ‘World Cup’ and you’ll receive links to dozens of World Cups, for kids, for women for young men, for men. Augment that with FIFA and you still get half a dozen different events throughout the year. The same can be said for terms like World Series, America’s Cup and Championships (pick a sport). Ergo, sports are an issue in the calendar. Often the exact date is not set at the time of this compilation so the dates on the calendar are estimated based upon previous year’s patterns. Multiple factors can change these dates: strikes, extended playoffs, natural disasters etc. Many championships occur at two or four year intervals. This may be the reason your favorite event is not on the calendar.
A similar scenario exists with Entertainment events such as The Academy Awards, Grammy Awards and Webby Awards.
RELIGION
If you ever get bored and seek a Rubik’s Cube size headache, try integrating the Hindu calendar into the Gregorian calendar, (which was developed about 600 years ago). The first uses the sun, moon and positions of planets and stars to designate which days are which and when. The Hindu year is longer. Even the months have different names and half the time you look it up, it gives you the date with the star charts and Hindi names with no reference to internationally recognized dates. Then you have to figure out what your longitude and latitude is at the exact time for that holiday to start…and most of these celebrations go on for days. These dates should be seen as estimates and points of interest rather than exact. If you are going to be covering them or planning an event around them, contact your local Hindu temple and get the exact dates and times for your location. These will vary from city to city.
Buddhism, Judaism and Islam also rely on the moon, sun, planets and/or a combination for their calendars as well. In Islam the observance doesn't begin until the local clergy proclaim it has begun. This means the actual event for these faiths may start a day later or earlier depending upon where you are on this planet or when the moon can be seen. The Christian dates follow the Gregorian Calendar and do not have these issues.
NATIONAL, WORLD & INTERNATIONAL
Several events and dates have national days and international, world and/or universal days. Others occur in the spring and again in the fall or in the Southern Hemisphere than the Northern Hemisphere. This is why they will appear more than once in the calendar. Typically national dates are within the country (usually the US) and were either proclaimed by congress, the President, mark an anniversary or originate from an industrial collective, special interest group, non-profit or professional association. World events typically originate with the United Nations and international events generally derive from an anniversary or come from an industrial collective, special interest group, non-profit or professional association. Other dates, especially the silly dates simply developed through custom.
Even these are often in conflict with each other.
One example is 'Brother's Day'. There are three and all have been proclaimed as official. All have received mainstream media coverage. They're all included because we were unable to determine which is the official Brother's Day.
Different organizations will proclaim the same day at different times of the year. In these cases I’ve looked for the most established organization backing the day and have chosen their designation as official.
Consider Sadie Hawkins Day. One source states it is always the first Saturday in November. Another says it is only on February 29. Yet another states that as of 1937 the date was established after a segment ran in the Lil’ Abner comic strip in mid-November and in the 1950s it was established as a pseudo-holiday falling on the first Saturday following the 9th of November. The last explanation proved the most credible and is the one used in this calendar. However, the tradition of women proposing to men on Leap Day goes back hundreds of years and this has been called Sadie Hawkins Day. Because of this I altered the Leap Day designation of Sadie Hawkins slightly to Sadie Hawkins Proposal Day. In reality, Sadie Hawkins is in November. Culturally it is also on Leap Day. I made and executive decision and split the difference.
REGIONAL AND WEEKLY CELEBRATIONS
Some dates will be different depending upon which region of the country you are in. Weeks dealing with natural disasters and weather, harvest related weeks and sometimes sports will differ. I’ve chosen the weeks, days and celebrations with the greatest consistency nationally.
Another issue that comes up is timing. Many of the promoters of these events will state that it occurs during the ‘First week of X’ or ‘the third week of X’. This is very vague. Do they mean the first full week? Do they mean the week with the first of the month? Do they mean the first seven days? Often there is no explanation and 80% of the time email queries and phone calls to verify are not returned or the information is unknown.
In these cases I’ve compared past year’s weeks to discern a pattern; sometimes this works; sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, I’ve estimated the date based upon information available.
Dates change due to circumstances, postponements, breaking news, conflicts, extended playoffs, strikes, natural disasters and typos. It is advised to google any event in this calendar for your region prior to planning an event or promotion around it.
Depending upon where you are coming from, Marketing or Editorial, this calendar will have a different use. The point is this calendar is useful for both sides of the divide.
NOOK, SONY, PALM, KINDLE, IPAD & OTHER DIGITAL FORMS OF THIS BOOK
We've made attempts to work with the graphic limitations on the e-readers and make the ebook version as simple to navigate as possible. However, due to the file size limitations on the graphics for digital reading devices, the pictorial versions of this calendar do not reproduce well because of their text. If your reader can navigate PDFs and you've purchased a version for one of the popular ebook readers, simply contact us at public@prplanningcalendar.com with your receipt number and we will provide you with a free interactive PDF version of this calendar that displays beautifully on tablets and allows you to print out a low resolution version on standard paper.
EVENT PLANNING:
If your community has a large population of one or more ethnic group you don’t want to plan a promotion, event, fundraiser or activity if a large portion of your community is marking a day or week with religious or cultural observances. For example, in Los Angeles, because we have a large Jewish population, you don’t want to plan important events, fundraisers or promotions during Passover or the Jewish Holy Week because a lot of people, even if they’re not practicing do observe these weeks with family.
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HOW TO USE THIS CALENDAR
IF YOU ARE A JOURNALIST, BLOGGER, EDITOR OR PUBLISHER:
a) Use this calendar to plan features around topics that fit your market;
b) Use it to discover traditions you may not know exist;