Campaign planning and calendars: from plan to schedule

A plan says what communication must achieve, for whom, with which message and through which disciplines. A calendar says when each piece runs, in what order, and who must deliver what by which date. Many integration failures are timing failures: a press story that lands before the product page is live, a burst of advertising with nothing in search to catch the interest, an event announced after the invitations should have gone out.

• Three patterns Media can run continuously, in flights (on, then off) or pulsed (a steady base with peaks). Modelling research shows that the best pattern depends on how advertising response behaves^8, 9.
• Frequency or recency The "three exposures" idea goes back to Herbert Krugman in 1972³ and to Michael Naples's 1979 book for the ANA⁵; Erwin Ephron's recency planning put timing ahead of repetition, and reach across weeks first¹.
• One calendar Always-on activity, seasonal peaks, launches, PR moments and events go on one timeline, so that each supports the others.
• Lead times Every discipline has fixed steps that take time, from TV clearance to platform ad review, and the calendar is built backwards from them^{10, 12, 13}.

The choice is not only a media question. Fred Feinberg noted in Marketing Science in 1992 that managers often advertise in flights or pulses, unlike the even spending many classic response models prescribe, and showed that once response is S-shaped and memory fades, periodic pulsing can be the optimal policy⁸. Earlier, Vijay Mahajan and Eitan Muller had compared pulsed and even spending for building awareness of new products, applying their model to Zielske's data⁹.

The logic the models share is simple. If a little advertising does almost nothing until it passes a threshold, concentrate it; if each exposure works on its own and memories fade, spread it. Your category, budget and history decide which world you are in, and a mix model or a test can tell you (see measuring effectiveness).

Effective frequency. In 1972 Herbert Krugman, then head of research at General Electric, proposed that three exposures may be enough: the first prompts curiosity, the second an assessment of personal relevance, and the third is the first true reminder, after which people may begin to tune out^3, 4. Michael Naples, director of marketing research at Lever Brothers, then reviewed the published studies and case histories on frequency and its effects in Effective Frequency, a 1979 ANA book⁵. For years the result was a planning rule: buy enough weight for the average target to see the ad three times within the purchase cycle.

The rule outlived its evidence. Paul Feldwick, writing in Admap, notes that the "three hits" idea is contested and that there is little real evidence that an ad needs more than one exposure to start working⁴. Krugman was describing how people process an ad, not setting a buying threshold.

Short-term effects. John Philip Jones's When Ads Work (1995) introduced short-term advertising strength (STAS), one of the first systematic analyses of single-source data, which link what a household saw with what it bought⁶.

Recency. Erwin Ephron's recency planning, set out in the Journal of Advertising Research in 1997, treats timing as more decisive than repetition. Because only a few people are in the market at any time, the aim is to reach as many different consumers as possible in as many different weeks as possible. Ephron was clear that recency does not save money, does not eliminate frequency, and targets the purchase rather than the person who makes it¹. WARC described him as one of the most influential media planning consultants of recent decades, best known for popularising recency in the 1990s². Critics replied that spreading weight across weeks leaves each week far lighter than a flight would, a risky trade-off for a brand that needs to be noticed⁷.

What a planner can take from the debate:

• Plan reach first: how many of the category's buyers you reach, and in how many weeks of the year (see reach and frequency).
• Set a minimum weekly presence for the weeks when buyers are most likely to be in the market, rather than a frequency target averaged over a burst.
• Raise frequency where the task needs it: a new message, a complex offer, a launch.
• Treat any frequency rule as an assumption to test, not a law.

Les Binet and Peter Field's work for the IPA describes a tension between short-term response activity and long-term brand building, and argues that a brand needs both¹⁶. The calendar is where that balance becomes visible:

• Always-on is the base: search, the website and owned channels, CRM and loyalty programmes, social and community management, and a continuous brand presence where the budget allows. It makes sure a buyer who is ready this week can find you.
• Seasonal peaks are set by the category, not the brand: retail seasons, travel booking windows, the school year, religious and national holidays in each market. Put them in first.
• Launches need a sequence: pre-briefing, announcement, sustained support, then the first evidence of results. See the objective hub for product launch.
• PR moments include dates you control (results, reports, announcements under embargo) and dates you do not (industry events, cultural moments, the news). Leave room for the second kind.
• Events have the longest tails before and after: invitations, content, follow-up (see events).

Three rules keep the layers integrated. Every burst has a catcher: when paid media creates interest, search, the website, sales and customer service are ready to receive it. No collisions: two big announcements in the same week compete for the same attention and the same journalists. One owner keeps the calendar and settles conflicts (see organising for IMC).

A calendar is built backwards from fixed dates. The fixed steps differ by discipline:

Clearcast, which clears UK TV advertising, sets a target of giving feedback on 85% of pre-production scripts within three working days and on 95% of rough cuts and finished ads within two¹⁰, and advises allowing two to three weeks for the whole process¹¹. Meta's ad review typically finishes within 24 hours but can take longer, and ads may be reviewed again once live¹². Google says most ads are reviewed within one business day, and that edits trigger a new review¹³. Outsmart, the UK out-of-home industry body, publishes each year's dates for the standard two-week poster cycle¹⁴. Google's sender guidelines ask all senders to use SPF or DKIM and bulk senders to use SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which must be set up well before a large send¹⁵ (see email authentication).

Dependencies matter as much as durations. Creative cannot be finished before the message is agreed; media cannot be booked before the budget is approved; the landing page must be live before the first ad runs; sales teams must be briefed before customers are. Write these dependencies into the calendar as links between tasks, not as notes in someone's head.

An illustrative business: a mid-sized home-appliance brand launching a new model in one market, with a seasonal peak at the end of the quarter. Nothing here describes a real company.

Under all of it runs the always-on base: search, the website, CRM programmes and social. The two bursts follow a pulsing pattern; the launch is sequenced so the catcher is ready first; and the measurement plan is agreed in weeks 1–2, so that results in weeks 11–13 can be read against a baseline (see objectives and KPIs).

• Planning by channel, not by week Each team's plan is sound; together they collide.
• Bursts with nothing to catch them Interest rises, then meets an out-of-stock page or an unbriefed call centre.
• Long silences in a year-round category Buyers who enter the market during the gap meet only competitors.
• Forgetting the fixed steps Clearance, platform review, booking cycles and sender authentication cannot be negotiated on launch day.
• No slack A calendar with no room for news, delays or a crisis breaks at the first surprise (see crisis plan).

1. List the fixed dates first: seasonal peaks per market, launches, results, events.
2. Choose a scheduling pattern (continuous, flighting or pulsing) for each objective, and write down why.
3. Plan reach across weeks before frequency, and set a minimum weekly presence for the weeks that matter.
4. Put every discipline on one timeline, with the always-on base drawn underneath.
5. Work backwards from each date using the discipline's lead time, and link the dependencies.
6. Check that every burst has a catcher and that no two big moments collide.
7. Name one owner of the calendar, and review it every week while a campaign runs.

Lay out the quarter with the campaign calendar and sequence a launch with the launch checklist.

• Ephron on recency planning¹ and Krugman on three exposures³, with Feldwick's critique⁴.
• Naples's Effective Frequency⁵ and Jones's STAS⁶.
• Feinberg⁸ and Mahajan and Muller⁹ on pulsing.
• Clearcast's service levels¹⁰, and Meta's¹² and Google's¹³ review guidance.
• On IMC Report: budgeting for IMC, planning frameworks and marketing operations and governance.