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Worldwide Holidays or Events for May 2012

1st May
Labour Day: Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen, Zaire, Zambia.
May Day: Bangladesh, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ghana, Gibraltar, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom.
Women's Day:  Cuba, Tanzania.
Workers' Day: Burma, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Romania.
2nd May
King's Birthday: Lesotho.
Still Labour Day in Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Romania.
3rd May
Constitution Day: Japan, Poland.
Vesak Day: South Korea.
5th May
Children's Day: South Korea.
South Korea's day for children and youth. Children have picnics and celebrate with their parents. For working parents this national holiday gives them the chance to have fun with their family in the open air.
Cinco de Mayo: Mexico.
Coronation Day: Thailand.
Liberation Day: The Netherlands.
6th May
Corregidor Day: Philippines.
Martyr's Day: Lebanon, Syria.
Samuel K. Doe's Birthday: Liberia.
8th May
Parent's Day: South Korea.
Three days after Children's Day in South Korea, it's the turn for the young to show their respect for the love received from their parents. Most Koreans buy their parents carnations and many children make paper carnations at school for their fathers and mothers.
VE Day: France.
9th May
Liberation Day: Czech Republic, Slovakia.
10th May
Independence Day: Israel.
Matsu (Goddess of the Sea): Taiwan.
Independence Day: Micronesia.
Vesak Day: Malaysia, Singapore.
13th May
St. Mary's Day: Colombia.
14th May
Flag Day: Paraguay.
Kamuzu Day: Malawi.
National Unification Day: Liberia.
15th May
Independence Day: Paraguay.
Teacher's Day: South Korea.
Teacher's Day is the last official South Korean celebration in May. Students express their appreciation towards their teachers through letters or flowers.
17th May
Constitution Day: Nigeria, Norway.
Discovery Day: Cayman Islands.
18th May
Battle of Las Piedras Day: Uruguay.
Flag Day: Haiti.
19th May
Ataturk Youth Day: Turkey.
Flag Day: Finland.
20th May
National Day: Cameroon.
Party Day: Zaire.
21st May
Victoria Day: Canada.
Buddha's Day: South Korea.
Navy Day: Chile.
22nd May
Heroes' Day: Sri Lanka.
Sovereign Day: Haiti.
Labour Day: Jamaica.
24th May
Bermuda Day: Bermuda.
Culture Day: Bulgaria.
Independence Battle Day: Ecuador.
25th May
Africa Day: Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Independence Day: Eritrea, Jordan.
Liberation of African Continent Day: Gabon.
National Day: Argentina.
Revolution Day: Sudan.
26th May
Constitution Day: Denmark.
Holy Spirit Day: Greece.
Independence Day: Guyana.
27th May
Kataklysmos: Cyprus.
28th May
Memorial Day: United States.
Waisak Day: Indonesia.
31st May
Regiment Day: Brunei.
Republic Day: South Africa.

We try to keep the dates as accurate as possible. Please let us know if there is an omission or incorrect date. Click Here

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Creating Your Branding Game Plan By John J Matthews   What is your branding game plan? Not the branding media schedule - that is just part of it - but rather, your overarching strategic decision-making game plan on all of your branding initiatives? Most advertising managers have a page or two media plan that an agency has produced that shows how their advertising dollars will be spent. The game plan I am referring to is the overall philosophy and management tool that keeps every aspect of their branding on track. The game plan acts as a compendium of sorts - a concise, yet comprehensive strategy of how the brand is executed in the marketplace. It covers all touch points of the brand and the "rules" for its implementation. Rather than leave this to chance, your game plan crafts a branding decision-tree that allows the manager to ensure that every branding decision is accretive to the overall brand experience, not detracting. The game plan is a document that should be created to assist in communicating the advertising and media plan. It serves as a guide for the internal teams at the organization including the company managers and franchisees as well as providing crystal-clear direction to the agency. The compendium provides further explanation of the overall process for how the advertising plan is created in addition to how it will be managed. These strategic decisions should be reviewed on an annual basis to determine the entire branding program. Below are the key elements to include in your branding game plan: Market Research & Demographics: Based on the market research conducted at your company, the targeted audience of your brand communications should be reached based on demographics, program selection and scheduling guidelines. Demographics should cut across the following attributes and all brand activities should be vetted against these targets: * Age Range * Male/Female Ratio * Total Annual Income * Employment Ratio * Marital Status * Ethnicity Program selection refers to the review of a programs content to ensure that it's consistent with the advertiser's desired brand image and its demographics. Scheduling guidelines assist on steering the programming placement, frequency and delivery of media. Flights, Weights And Spots: Next, determine the game plan for when and how to communicate your brand. Flighting refers to scheduling periods of activity and inactivity on a TV and/or radio schedule. A period of activity is called a flight and a period of inactivity is called a hiatus. Flighting is typically used to cover a long period of time, such as a year, within a limited advertising budget that does not allow advertising for 52 weeks. TV weight refers to the number of target rating points (TRP's) scheduled in a flight. TRP's are the standard unit of TV measure. Quantitatively, a TRP is equal to one percent of the target universe. Radio is a better medium than TV for building frequency. However, the fragmented nature of the radio market and the consumers' listening patterns limit the cumulative reach that radio can deliver as a medium. Unit length refers to the duration of a commercial spot/radio broadcast.   Adland Digest Sponsor Message TextAlertz Mobile Marketing A fast affordable and easy way to stay in contact with your customers Text Marketing is a powerful new way to increase sales for your business Find out why businesses and organizations of all types are using TextAlertz to enhance their communications. Click here to visit Be a sponsor. Place your ad here. (Spot II)   Day Parts: Based on the demographics of the targeted audience, the brand manager needs to determine the optimal day parts of the messaging. Day parts deliver different audience compositions (e.g. daytime delivers a high percentage of women). There is also a correlation between a spots audience delivery and its relative cost. Primetime delivers a large, broad audience and is, therefore, the most expensive day part. Electronic Media: Now, you need to execute the brand communication and there are numerous options from which to choose. Television delivers the highest reach of any medium. The sight, sound and motion of television allow the advertiser to communicate a message in a highly memorable way and to shape a visual into a recognizable image for their brands. Spot television offers the flexibility to target a specific local market aimed at the desired customer base in a programming environment consistent with the advertiser's brand image. Spot air time for cable television is often much more expensive than broadcasting on a cost-per-thousand basis and does not have as large a reach. Cable television is limited because it only reaches paid subscribers. Spot radio is competitively purchased from local stations and can be easily targeted by market and demographics. Radio commercials are relatively inexpensive to produce which enables brands to change messages more frequently. Since radio has no visual, it is less expensive than TV. Non-Electronic Media: There are other ways besides electronic means to deliver your brand message. Outdoor advertising is commonly referred to as billboards. Outdoor advertising reaches a large percentage of the population, but because it is seen by people "on the go" billboard advertising is appropriate only for brief messages. It's best used as a medium to reinforce an established, well-known brand. Newspapers reach a wide cross-section of the public, which makes them hard to target a specific audience. Other options include solo direct mail and marriage mail. Sponsorships And Promotions: Your brand can be communicated through sponsorships and promotions as well. For instance, the brand may be aptly communicated through the sponsorship of local sports teams. By sponsoring these teams, the brand is allocated spot time during broadcasts, as well as occasional "mentions" of the brand by the game announcers. In addition, the brand may receive postings of signage in the arena and mentions in printed promotional materials. Lastly, aligning the brand with a corporate charity communicates that the brand is an upstanding corporate citizen. These sponsorships and philanthropic involvement help communicate the brand community responsibility. Social Media & Web: An overall brand game plan would not be complete without addressing social media. Setting up a company Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account and YouTube channel - each vertically integrated to your overall brand communications- enhances your brand presence. These social media enable the brand to be extremely nimble with its messaging and if integrated into an overall brand strategy, provide cost-effective touch points to key followers. Your brand communications should work in tandem with one another regardless of the medium that is used to communicate. Each variable within these media - from program selection to day part mix - should be determined not haphazardly, but rather in a cohesive strategic branding compendium. Not only will the efficiency of your strategy be intact, but it will yield greater results. About the Author: John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries. With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at http://www.graycatenterprises.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_J_Matthews    Adland Digest Sponsor Message This is new, this is huge, this is April 2012 launch and this home based opportunity is about to explode!!! You probably know Zeek changed lives and incomes. Heard of Bidify? Well you will very soon, because it's just about to explode as Zeek did; we all know how much those pioneers made! Well now it's your turn. Join today Click here to visit Be a sponsor. Place your ad here. (Spot III)   Don't Let Your Website's Content Kill the Sale By Bruce Kirby  The results are in, content marketing is the king of the marketing hill! According to a High Fire survey of 400 B2B global marketers, content marketing (81%) will surpass search marketing (70%), PR (64%) and Radio & TV(32%) as the online marketing tool of choice this year. Content marketing, which includes social media, website copy, blogs, white papers, webinars, podcasts, in-house publications etc.. is the most powerful form of pull marketing with the objective to drive a customer action. It enhances your credibility with your potential and actual customers. You'll notice that I didn't mention pitching your products to your customers through your content. Most sales guru's espouse the notion that people like to buy but don't like to be sold. Content marketing creates those conditions for potential customers that like to buy. And we all know that dealing with buyer resistance can be a deal breaker. More importantly, content marketing puts the potential customer at ease with your products and or services. The purchasing process or what marketers refer to as AIDA, Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action is complicated. Especially the Action part of the model. The consumer is exposed to many risks when buying a product. There's the monetary risk, which is different for a car vs. a tube of toothpaste. There's also the risk of losing face if the product doesn't work. That car better work, a tube of toothpaste can be thrown out. This might explain why there is so much content on a car manufacturer's website vs. a consumer products website. From content on features and technology to build and price functionality to brochures, videos etc... car manufacturer websites publish a lot of content. Your content has to reduce and eliminate the risk of doing business with you. Content marketing has been used successfully by some of the largest consumer and industrial products companies in the world including Apple and John Deere. By providing your potential clients with content that allows them to make an informed choice, they see you more as a resource and less as a "somebody trying to sell me something" The biggest challenge that marketers have is producing truly engaging content that will build relationships. It all starts by developing content that reflects your company's mission and culture. Much like strong copywriting back in the day of advertising legends David Ogilvy, John Caples and Lester Wunderman, your website copy has to persuade your reader that you offer the best solution to their problem.   About the Author: Bruce Kirby is a Montreal, Canada based consultant specializing in marketing and branding. His firm provides marketing for your brand, helping you standout in the marketplace. Download a free white paper or read more about best practices in marketing at http://www.montrealmarketingconsulting.com/en/our-blog.html Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruce_Kirby
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