What are you going to do with your extra 1440 minutes this year? As homeowners, we might see one more day to pay that mortgage; while parents might see 3 more meals that need to be prepared: and employees could see 24 potential hours of procrastination for monthly reports-but in the promo world, we see Leap Year as 1440 minutes of marketing opportunity!
The good
In addition to an extra day of earning, Leap Year also provides us with one more reason for a sale or celebration. This has promotional products written all over it! Here are some ideas to get your customers jumpin’!
- Offer a special Leap Year benefit for customers for purchases made on February 29.
- Give a quantity deal for customers who agree to purchase 29 products/days of service/sessions, etc…
- Create a unique “Leap Year” product that’s only available once every four years. For example, a special “Leap Year Pizza” or a “Leap Year Bouquet.”
- Host an employee and/or customer celebration event (every four years) in honor of Lear Year complete with your favorite logoed products! Leap It Forward!
The bad
One more day of operating costs is the obvious negative effect of a Leap Year-which hopefully can be offset by the extra day of earning potential, but what do we do about the salaried employees?
This will not impact hourly workers because they are paid for hours worked. Salaried employees are paid monthly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly or weekly. If an extra pay period occurs, it will impact salaried employees who are paid weekly or bi-weekly (every other week) and result in one more payday than normal. Employers have two options: either recalculate the annual salary in the year of an additional payroll period-or don’t!
The promo
If you’re just now thinking about celebrating leap year, it’s probably a bit late for Getting Your Brand On promotional products. But there’s no better time to learn about what’s leaping off the shelves this year!
Sustainable: products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health and environment over their whole life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal
Perfect promo: reusable shopping bags, customized reusable straws, custom cutlery sets, branded water bottles, personalized travel mugs
High quality: superior in quality and/or name-brand products
CLICK HERE to Get Your Brand on name-brand.
Earthy: resembling or suggestive of earth or soil
Looking to get your logo on something Earthy? Think personalized bamboo products like custom cutting boards, custom coasters, and even personalized bamboo sunglasses!
Multi-material: Consisting of more than one material
Two-toned trends like glass and bamboo drinkware and leather and canvas bags make the perfect giveaway gifts!
What in the world?
We’re falling back, springing forward, and adding extra days to the calendar? What in the world is this Leap Year all about anyway?
Leap days keep our modern-day [Gregorian] calendar in alignment with Earth’s revolutions around the Sun. It takes Earth approximately 365.242189 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds, to circle once around the Sun. This is called a tropical year, which begins on the March equinox. However, the modern-day calendar has only 365 days in a year. If we didn’t add a leap day in February almost every four years, each calendar year would begin about 6 hours before the Earth completes its revolution around the Sun.
Without the occasional Leap Year, we would slowly drift apart from the tropical year and get increasingly out of sync with the seasons. With a variation of approximately 6 hours per year, the seasons would shift by about 24 calendar days within 100 years. Leap days fix that error by giving Earth the additional time it needs to complete a full circle around the Sun so Christmas stays in winter where it belongs! Happy Leap Year!