What are the different types of promotional calendars? On The Ball Promotions

Want to buy promotional calendars? As a small business who sells promotional calendars, we think that’s a great idea (though we’re little biased on this one).

You know promotional calendars are a practical branded giveaway and can really help promote your business or service.

But how do you pick the right one?

Let’s start by looking at all the different types of promotional calendars. In doing so, we hope to help you choose the right logo calendar for your business.

And if we make your head spin from presenting so many calendar design ideas, we are truly sorry. What can we say? We get a little excited about calendars.

Ok, here we go.

Desk Calendars

This one is simple: it’s a calendar that sits on a desk.

Desk calendars are often large enough to jot down small notes, but small enough to not eat up too much of your valuable desk space.

There are a few different styles of desk calendars. We offer small cardboard desk calendars with easel backs that pop out. This calendar style has a small footprint, making it an ideal desk or counter calendar.

However, when many people hear “desk calendar,” they think of something like this:

This large, over-sized desk calendar pad is popular for businesses; it gives you a lot of space to write down appointments, meetings, and other notes.

The downside? These things take up quite a lot of desk real estate.

Another type of desk calendar that is used more in public spaces are table tent calendars. Similar in design to counter cards, table tent calendars are used in many different places, including:

Sports Centers & Athletic Arenas (the calendar often incorporates the team’s schedule)
Libraries
College & Universities

Reference Calendars

The thing about reference calendars is that they come in any size or shape. They can be a daily, monthly, or yearly calendar.

However, there is one that reigns supreme: the humble desk calendar.

Designed to fit perfectly on a reception counter or by the phone on your desk, branded desk calendars are highly practical because you can view an entire month at once, and the next month is just a page flip away.

Branded reference desk calendar | On The Ball Promotions — This small reference desk calendar has a memo pad large enough to jot down appointments. Great for customer service or inside sales to keep next to their phone. Shown: 991 Charter Desk Calendar

Who uses reference calendars?

Dentists and Orthodontists
Doctor’s offices
Optometrists
Village Halls & City Buildings
Library reference desks
College and University admissions offices
Banks & Credit Unions
Insurance Agents
Inside & Outside Sales
Receptionists, Secretaries, & Check-in Personnel

Reference calendar for dentist office — A reference calendar on a dentist reception counter helps patients look ahead to plan their next visit.

Mini Sticky Calendars

Our most economical calendar also happens to be the most popular in our product line.

Mini sticky calendars are small-sized calendars with an adhesive back that adheres to any surface. We don’t recommend sticking them on wooden surfaces, though.

The calendar pad has tear-off months that are stapled to the top. The calendars from On The Ball Promotions come with 13 month calendar pads, starting with December.

HVAC stick-on calendar | On The Ball Promotions — Mini adhesive calendars are popular with HVAC pros because they stick them on the furnace. That way, customers know who to call if something goes wrong.

If you’ve never seen these calendars before, you might be wondering who uses these… and how they use them.

Here are how some businesses use stick-up calendars

Logistics companies: Calendars are given to truck drivers so they have contact information for the right people within their company. Calendars are also given to customers to stick in their vehicles or on shelves or cabinets.
Pilot car businesses: truck drivers stick the calendar on their dashboard for convenient reference of both the calendar pad and contact information for the pilot car company.
Automotive & Motorcycle businesses: Car, truck, and van owners might attach this stick-up calendar to the dashboard, or even inside the glove box. Motorcycle owners might stick them to a shelf or tool box in the garage or shop.
Manufacturing: Since adhesive calendars stick to anything, this calendar is a safe bet when your customers or clients have different work environments. Even if they don’t want to stick this calendar on anything in their workspace, they could even use a pushpin on a corkboard.
Garden Centers & Wholesale Nurseries: Stick-up calendars can survive the great outdoors, as long as they aren’t exposed to rain, snow, sleet, or any other type of precipitation that mother nature throws your way. These can be stuck on any type of garden shelving, including metal or plastic.
HVAC Pros: When completing a service call, put the stick-up calendar on the heater or nearby ductwork. That way, customers know who to call if there are any problems. The benefit of a calendar versus a magnet is that you mail calendars each year, keeping your business fresh in mind. With a magnet, you give it once, and they only see your business info if they check their heater. (Psssst… read some more HVAC marketing tips)

Mini stick-up calendars are often put in the garage or workshop, as this one for a local barber is. Shown: #602 Traditional Value Stick Calendar

But here’s the question we know you’re dying to ask:

Do mini sticky calendars leave any adhesive after being stuck there for a year?

Any adhesive product worth its salt is going to leave a little adhesive goo behind. But we guarantee it will be infinitely easier to remove that tiny bit of adhesive than trying to remove all the goo when taking a label off a peanut butter jar.

Other types of adhesive calendars

Though not as popular as they once were, computer calendars were once kind of a thing. These long, strip-like calendars fit on a PC or Mac monitor.

However, since desktop computer monitors are smaller than they used to be, this calendar design has quickly become a thing of the past.

Dashboard Calendars

A dashboard calendar is simply a small calendar that adheres to a dashboard in a truck or van (typically used in service vehicles or delivery trucks)

Our popular Value Stick Calendars and Easy Stick Calendars are often used as dashboard calendars because they are small and have strong, adhesive backs.

Once the truck or van driver sticks the calendar on the dashboard, it’s going to stay where they stick it. We’ve even tested these calendars at colder temperatures—and they stay put.

One thing to note: dashboard calendars stick better on clean, dry surfaces, so if you haven’t used an interior cleaner on your dashboard lately, now might be a good time.

Here’s an extra tip: giving these mini dashboard calendars to your drivers, vendors, or clients? If your budget allows, give them a can of cleaner with the calendar. It’s a small touch that won’t go unnoticed.

Wall Calendars

This is one of the most popular calendar styles for home and office use. Why?

The average wall calendar comes with a different picture each month, and has plenty of space to jot down appointment times, meetings, practices, rehearsals, outings, vacations… you get the idea.

It’s not just aesthetically pleasing, but it also highly practical.

That being said, we don’t sell wall calendars. At least not the typical wall calendar.

Yes, there is more than one kind of wall calendars.

You might have seen three-month calendars or even full-year wall calendars before. For our wall calendars, we went the other way: we offer daily wall calendars.

What are daily wall calendars?

Daily date wall calendars have a page you tear off every day. These types of calendars are ideal in places where people simply need to reference the date of that day, like when signing forms at a medical office or putting a date on contracts.

Wall calendar with daily pages you tear off — This wall calendar has pages you tear off daily, making this an excellent reference calendar at reception areas and appointment desks. Shown: Daily Date Calendar

Greeting Card Calendars

It’s a holiday card and full year calendar in one convenient design. An example of a greeting card calendar is our trifold calendars.

Trifold calendars—or z-fold calendars—have the greeting card portion on the top section, with the calendar on the bottom two panels, and the ad imprint on the very bottom.

Promotional z-fold calendar cards | On The Ball Promotions — Trifold calendar cards are one of our most popular promo calendars because you can add your logo and branding in full color. Shown: Custom tri-fold calendar

Magnetic Calendars

Similar to stick-up calendars in size and design, magnetic calendars just have a magnetic back so they can stick to magnetic surfaces like metal file cabinets, shelving, or some refrigerators.

On The Ball Promotions does not offer magnetic calendars. Here’s why we don’t offer magnetic calendars: adhesive calendars are the same size and shape of small magnetic calendars, but sticky calendars can go just about anywhere.

Planners

Designed for busy moms, sales people, or anyone who just needs a little help keeping their schedule organized, planners are organized by month, and often extend to 13 or even 18 months.

Promotional planners are either foil stamped on the front cover, or are printed in full color. Some even come with a protective plastic cover to keep your schedule a little bit safer (at least from the weather and the contents of your pocket or purse).

On The Ball Promotions does not currently offer promotional planners.

Wallet Card Calendars

Wallet card calendars are a business card on one side, full-year calendar on the other. Typically the same size as a business card, these mini promo calendars are probably the most economical calendar design you can find.

The problem is, they are also the least visible, as they will be put in a wallet and only taken out when the consumer thinks to look at it. Unlike desk or wall calendars, this wallet card calendars don’t provide as much brand visibility for you throughout the year.

Pocket Calendars

These are any type of calendar that fits in your pocket. You will typically see planners and wallet card calendars listed as pocket calendars.

Let’s pick the right calendar for your business.

We’re On The Ball Promotions, and we’re here to help you promote your brand, business, or service. Not sure which of these types of promotional calendars is right for your giveaway? Help is just a phone call away: (800) 475-2255. Or send us an email with your ideas.

Let’s start your promotion.