Market Core · Content Calendar · Module
Seasonal moments
The fixed points in the year worth planning around, identified from the audience’s calendar rather than from the organisation’s.
The idea
How it works
The audience’s year and the organisation’s year are different. Budget cycles, regulatory deadlines, academic terms and industry events structure when demand becomes live, and none of them appear on an internal planning calendar.
Everyone plans the obvious moments at the same time, which means the well-executed version is the one that started earliest. The advantage is entirely in the lead time.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Build the audience’s calendar
Their deadlines, cycles and events, not yours. It is usually discoverable by asking five customers.
- 02
Start the obvious moments early
Everyone competes at the same time. The differentiator is preparation, not budget.
- 03
Find the unclaimed moments
Points where demand is live and nobody is present are worth more than a crowded peak.
- 04
Record what happened
Whether a moment performed, so next year is planned from evidence rather than from tradition.
One level in
The components of seasonal moments
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Everyone plans the obvious moments at the same time. The advantage is entirely in starting earlier.
The other modules in content calendar
The cadence
How often the organisation publishes, per channel and per format, set at a level it can hold through a difficult quarter rather than at its best month.
LearnThe plan
What is scheduled, when, and by whom — far enough ahead that production has time, close enough that it can respond to what is happening.
LearnCapacity
How much the organisation can actually produce, approve and publish — with the buffer that lets the schedule survive an ordinary disruption.
Learn