I’m not sure how it happened, but all of a sudden the holiday season is upon us. I swear we were just celebrating Halloween last week. I’ve barely tucked my kids’ costumes away —and there’s still some Halloween loot left to enjoy, but all of a sudden carols are on the radio and decorations are up at the mall. So while I have no idea where November went, December is upon us and that means two things:
1. I need to get my Christmas list together, and
2. It’s planning season here at Pipitone Group
Just as the holidays come back around every year, at Pipitone Group, we set aside time every fourth quarter to review the past year’s marketing plans, client work, advertising campaigns and project budgets— and then begin the process of strategic marketing planning for the year ahead.You might call it a tradition (though some might have other words for it).
When the leaves begin to turn, we pull out all our budget trackers, website tracking reports, campaign analytics and project status reports. We crunch all the numbers and analyze all the data to see which projects, programs and campaigns worked well, which ones may not have met goals, and which ones performed above and beyond our expectations (we like those kind of surprises).
As Halloween approaches, we meet with our clients to discuss their goals (and budgets) for the coming year, and then we begin the process of strategizing on how to take those dollars and maximize their impact. This is where art and science meet— we’re thinking about creative ways to keep our clients’ momentum going by building their brands, raising awareness of their services, driving traffic to their websites and generating sales of their products—all while keeping the marketing plan and the numbers in mind
And while it can be stressful working all this in to an already jam-packed fourth quarter when clients are trying to push projects through and spend their last few budget dollars before the New Year, it’s also rejuvenating. There’s nothing quite like looking back on a big pile of great work and seeing a host of successful stats to raise your spirits and make you feel like the past 11 months were really worth it.
It also makes you grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to work with some really big brands, on some really cool projects, and with lots of great people. I guess the timing is right, after all.
