Why a calendar beats good intentions
Most shops know the big moments are coming. The trouble is that content gets made the week before, in a rush, and nobody remembers to take it down afterwards. A Valentine's offer still on screen in March tells customers nobody's looking after the place.
A content calendar fixes both problems. You see the year at a glance, prepare ahead, and give every campaign an end date before it goes up.
The moments in a Turkish retail year
Every shop has its own, but these are the dates most retailers in Türkiye plan around:
- New Year: gifts, decorations and the January sales that follow.
- Valentine's Day, 14 February: gifts, jewellery, flowers, cosmetics.
- Ramadan and Ramazan Bayramı: iftar and sahur times change the rhythm of the day, and the bayram brings gifts and new clothes.
- Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, and Father's Day, the third Sunday in June.
- Kurban Bayramı: a long holiday when many people travel; shops in holiday towns get busier while city centres get quieter.
- Summer: holidays, sun, travel and the summer sales.
- Back to school in September: stationery, bags, clothes and shoes.
- The big November sales days and the run-up to New Year.
Add your own moments too: the shop's anniversary, local festivals, a football match day in your town, the start of the tourist season.
Seasons, not just days
Between the big dates, the seasons set the mood. Swap the core visuals four times a year, even if the products barely change: autumn colours in October, light and bright in spring. It tells regulars something is new without a single price changing.
Seasonal content works best when it replaces rather than adds. If the loop keeps getting longer, take something out each time something goes in.
The weekly rhythm
Inside each week, the shop has its own pattern. Quiet weekday mornings suit new arrivals and loyalty offers for regulars. Weekday evenings bring after-work shoppers in a hurry: show what's quick to buy. Weekends bring families and people browsing; that's the time for bigger stories and bundles.
Plan the week once and let it repeat. Seasonal and holiday campaigns then sit on top of it for their dates and step aside when they end.
How far ahead to prepare
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Six to eight weeks before
Decide what the campaign is, what it replaces on screen and which branches it runs in. Order photos or brief your designer.
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Two to three weeks before
Finish the visuals and texts, check prices and dates, and put the campaign on the schedule with its start and end dates.
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The week before
Preview it on a real screen, in portrait and landscape if you use both. Tell branch staff what's coming so they can answer questions.
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The day after it ends
Check it has gone from every screen, and note what worked for next year.
Keep old campaigns from lingering
Stale content is the most common problem with shop screens, and the easiest to prevent.
- Give every campaign an end date when you schedule it, not when you remember.
- Prefer a schedule that switches campaigns on and off by itself over swapping files by hand.
- Keep the everyday content ready underneath, so when a campaign ends the screen falls back to something sensible rather than going blank.
- Name files and playlists with their dates, such as "Valentine's 2027", so it's obvious what's out of date.
A monthly review in fifteen minutes
Once a month, look at your calendar and your screens together:
- Is anything still showing that has ended?
- Is next month's main campaign ready, or at least briefed?
- Have any official dates been announced that change the plan?
- What did branch staff hear from customers about the screens?
- Is the everyday loop still fresh, or is it time for a seasonal swap?
That's all it takes to keep a shop's screens current all year. With Jonza, campaigns go on the same weekly schedule as everything else with their dates, reach every branch at once and end on their own. If you'd like to see how your year would look, we'll happily walk through it with you.