As the last ounces of residual egg nog dissipate from our bodies, and the sugarplums clear from our heads, we can begin the annual postmortem of the holiday season.  What did we learn? Well, from a personal perspective, I can say I’ve learned that LED lights give me a headache that rivals the hangover that follows New Year’s Eve. From a professional perspective, I’ve learned (again) that the holidays can be a stressful time crunch involving last-minute approvals, late contracts, and unusually picky creatives all arguing over how to spell Hanukkah.

Besides the swiss-cheese-availability that is everyone’s Outlook calendar, there’s the high volume of rapid creative changeouts that happen between October and January. If you’re a company running any sort of ad campaign during that time period, you better be ready with no fewer than seven variations of your creative, with equally complex trafficking instructions that look something like this:

10/5-10/31: Halloween

11/1-11/10: Branding

11/11-11/27: Thanksgiving

11/28 Only: Black Friday

11/29-12/25: Christmas

12/26-12/31: Gift Card Spot

1/1-1/5: New Year’s Sale

Any other time of the year, this is a single piece of polished, no-rush creative. But during the holidays, you’re looking at an onslaught of creative changes so your brand can be on the bleeding edge of the consumer’s shopping list. And, really, this is great! Our medium is perfect for these sort of complex campaigns. Unfortunately, it seems to slip people’s mind until the 48 hour window prior to everyone’s simultaneous trip back home.

Creating a comprehensive traffic and creative schedule can help alleviate these last-minute issues. Our network allows us to schedule creative changes to take place ahead of time. This helps ensure that the content is downloaded and ready-to-play when the time comes. It also allows your creative agency to enjoy a well-earned vacation around the holidays.

So here’s to a happy & healthy new year, with no last-minute deadlines!

Right?