Planning An Advent Calendar for 2023
Planning an advent calendar for 2023?
Here are our top tips and FAQ’s to ensure your advent calendar is produced on-time, on-budget and on-brand.
Current multi-brand sell-throughs appear to be around £80-£120 RRP (own brand from £250+)
Advent calendars can be 12, 24 or 25 doors; a 25 day means flexibility to reduce to 24 days if a larger product becomes available later on.
Advent or Christmas? A seasonal “calendar” embraces many different occasions over the winter season
Allow export; discuss contents with your mailing house on how to coordinate product and dispatches across borders
Start prototyping early (e.g before mid Jan) to get production started no later than 31/5 (this might mean not all the contents are fully decided at the start of the white structure sample but a modular approach to a 25-day will allow last minute changes though at a revised product cost)
Maintain flexibility for last minute changes of e.g contents and product communications. Consider a modular internal drawer structure for easier swapping over products if necessary.
Plan collateral information at the start; e. g the leaflet or sleeve should be incorporated at the initial sample planning stage; final content updates can be applied at the last moment. A QR code works well for updating last minute/ marketing messages around content sponsors.
Keep materials mono material for easier recycling (and remind customers to how to recycle by printing on the box)…. Use 3rd party certified materials and processes for transparent and credible claiming
Reduce budget and eco impact by planning early; can it be smaller box? Can it be re-used? Is the shipping carton multi-purpose? (inbound transit, pack-in-shipper, outbound to clients). Reduce the need for additional labour and taping materials by using a peel and seal perf closure
Press / Influencer samples to be available for seeding by 10/7 (so production needs to be complete by this date to pull off e.g 20 production file copies)
Leave enough time for transit testing with the mailing house to check mailout charges and internal content movement.
Consult the packing house early to keep packing frustrations to a minimum (e.g too much shredded tissue, stiff drawers/ contents, leave out ancillaries that may cause last minute delays).
Use less carbon in transport and less storage space; can the mailing warehouse accept in to pallets packed to 1.8m high instead of 1.25m high (which is becoming increasingly common)
Collect contents early in the year as they become available; allow resources for a management fee around storage, reporting and monitoring of stock counting ready for the fulfilment. Keep packaging of inbound items to a minimum; to be delivered on pallets that are good quality to be reused for outgoing stock.
Fulfilment of around 300 - 500 a day means that careful planning is required for no interruption of additional or missing items, or last-minute changes
Advent is theatre; a smaller complex structure or a larger simpler structure compare favourably on price whilst carrying an engaging creative and tactile materials.
ABOVE - Example timeline for pack-off in August 2023
