Building a 12-month retail media calendar

Open a blank spreadsheet with 12 columns, one for each month. By the end of this exercise, it'll hold your brand's retail media calendar: a year of in-store campaigns mapped against the moments that matter to your products, the lead times each campaign needs and the points where you'll review and adjust. A calendar turns a series of one-off campaigns into a plan.

It doesn't need to be complicated. It needs to be realistic and revisited.

What anchor dates belong on the calendar?

Start with the dates you can't move. Product launches, seasonal peaks for your categories, major holidays, back-to-school periods and big sporting events. These are the moments when shoppers are most likely to be buying what you sell.

Add your business dates. Distributor promotions, resets, trade programs and sales meetings. Retail media works best when it lines up with these, so the shelf and the screen tell the same story.

Add dates that matter to your partners. Distributors and retailers have their own calendars, and campaigns that fit those rhythms are easier for them to support.

Add local moments where relevant. Some markets have events or observances that affect shopping. If your products fit, note them for those markets.

Mark each anchor with its market scope. Some are national, others local. NRS Digital Media campaigns can be activated by geography down to the zip code, which lets a calendar include market-specific campaigns alongside national ones.

How should the year be structured?

By quarter, with campaigns placed within each. A simple structure might look like this.

First quarter: post-holiday reset, new-year launches and early spring seasonal items.

Second quarter: spring and early summer categories, plus preparation for summer peaks.

Third quarter: summer peak, back-to-school and planning for the fall.

Fourth quarter: fall and holiday seasons, plus year-end reviews.

Within each quarter, place campaigns against anchors. Leave some gaps. A calendar with every week filled has no room to respond to opportunities or problems.

What lead times should you plan for?

Work backward from each campaign's start date. Creative development, review and approval often take several weeks. Bilingual or market-specific versions add time. Legal review for offers or claims adds more.

Confirm distribution before each campaign. Build in time to check with sales and distributors that products are stocked where ads will run.

Plan creative refreshes. For long flights or year-round presence, schedule refresh points so creative stays current. Check the creative specs page for requirements when planning production.

The general structure of an advertising campaign, with phases for planning, production, launch and review, applies to each entry on the calendar.

Where do reviews fit?

After each campaign. A short wrap report, using a consistent structure, captures what was learned.

At each quarter's end. Review the quarter's campaigns together, compare results with objectives and adjust the next quarter's plan.

At midyear. A broader review of the year so far, with any changes to budget or priorities.

Keep reviews short and focused. The same agenda each time makes them quick to run and easy to compare across the year.

Put these reviews on the calendar as firmly as the campaigns. They're what keep the plan useful.

How do you keep the calendar flexible?

Hold some budget in reserve for opportunities, such as a distribution win or a competitor's gap on the shelf.

Update monthly. Mark what ran, what changed and what's next. A calendar that's months out of date isn't a plan.

Record the reasons for changes. When a campaign moves or drops off the calendar, a short note on why helps the team learn and avoid repeating the same issue next year.

And share it. Brand, sales, shopper and agency teams should all see the same calendar. To build a calendar with in-store media, contact the NRS Digital Media team.