This calendar resembles no other in the country. Some of the dates that count here exist nowhere else, and imported calendars ignore them all.
The 1 July moving day
That is the most singular date in the local calendar, and the most commercial.
A large share of leases end on the same day, which concentrates into a few weeks what elsewhere spreads over the year.
The categories concerned are more numerous than people think: transport, packing, furniture, appliances, cleaning, DIY, decoration, installation services, insurance, telecoms, storage.
The content that works is practical: how to pack, how to measure a door, how to dismantle, in what order to load, what to do with the things that do not fit.
The maple season
It is a short seasonal moment, in early spring, and it opens the first commercial window of the year after winter.
It concerns food, the family outing, transport, and part of local tourism.
It is prepared in February, lived in March, and filmed only once: the images serve again the following year, since nothing in them dates.
The Carnival and winter embraced
That is what most distinguishes local content from imported content.
Winter is not an obstacle there, it is a season of outings, clothing, equipment and activities.
So film in January and February, when the light and the snow are real. Those images feed the following year, and they cannot be reconstructed.
The national holiday of 24 June
It is a date apart, cultural before being commercial.
Brands can take part, provided they accompany rather than appropriate: products for gatherings, food, outings, music, outdoors.
One rule of tone: no aggressive promotion, no appropriation of symbols, and a discreet place for the brand.
Thanksgiving in October
It falls six weeks before the neighbour's, and a single North American calendar misses it systematically.
It is more modest here than elsewhere in the country, but it opens the autumn season: meals, home, hosting, travel.
What the standard calendar misses
Three things, and they cost dearly.
The 1 July date, absent from every imported calendar, and yet the densest of the year.
The autumn offset, which shifts all production by six weeks.
And the February lull, which most brands treat as a dead month when it is the best time to shoot winter and prepare spring.
The moments that count, and their production lead
| Period | What brands push | Shoot to plan |
|---|---|---|
| Late summer | Back to school and organising | Two months ahead |
| Autumn | Meals and the home | Six weeks ahead |
| Year end | Gifts and deliveries | Three months ahead |
| Late winter | Taxes and tidying | One month ahead |
What is shot out of season
Any video showing no dated set, no weather and no price. Those shots are stockpiled and fill the weeks when nothing is ready.
What is checked before each seasonal release
The order cut-off, the stock and the real delivery time. A video selling an unavailable product loses more than it earns.
How to use it
Three practical rules.
Shoot seasonal images one season ahead, and keep them. Snow, the sugar shack and moving boxes cannot be reconstructed.
Write the year's calendar on one page, with for each date the production period and the publication period, which never overlap.
And plan a separate version rather than a translation: those dates do not exist elsewhere, so no translated national campaign can cover them.
